I'd like to make an important announcement because hopefully we would have done this earlier.

But today is our city clerk Rose Marie Cole's birthday.

And uh we wish her a very happy birthday and uh promised I would not ask everybody to sing to her.

So I appreciate that.

Happy birthday.

That move item two point one or April Service Awards.

And uh we have four service awards present today.

So uh first one I'd like to call forward for the 20 year employee award.

I'd like to call forward uh Ann Lopez, who I guess is not here.

Uh but um I'd ask the city manager to go ahead and read her write up.

Thanks, presentation.

Okay.

For Ann, who I'm sure is watching from home.

Um we appreciate you.

Anne began her journey with the CRA, I'm sorry, with the city in April of 2006 as the city manager's office assistant.

From day one, she served as the welcoming face of the city manager and city council's offices and helped develop procedures still in use today.

Coming from the private sector, Anne quickly embraced public service and learned how local government impacts residents every day.

She has always invested in her growing skills, supporting payroll, P cards, invoice processing with precision, volunteering for day caring, and paint your heart out clearwater, and coordinating city hall tours for students, teaching them about the roles of the city manager, the mayor, and the city council.

And 2011, and was promoted to the executive assistant to the city manager, getting exposure to citywide initiatives and major projects.

She later joined the community redevelopment agency, which became her career's defining chapter when the CRA became its own department in 2016, and served as executive assistant managing project funding, payroll, purchasing, drafting grant agreements, and coordinating programs funded through the CRA and the Downtown Development Board.

She became the DDB's primary port of contact, guiding trim budget, event funding, board elections, and serving as a staff liaison.

Her leadership and attention to detail earned promotions to CRA senior division manager and interim CRA executive director in 2023, where she led the distribution of the 1.25 million dollars in ARPA funding through the North Greenwood Community Service grants, ensuring meaningful community impact.

Today, as CRA assistant director, Ann advances city strategic priorities, supporting economic and housing opportunities, strengthening community well-being, and helping ensure CRA operates as a high performing organization delivering superior public service.

Anne has also earned the reputation as the CRA historian, understanding the full picture, and always asking, is it in the statute?

Is it in the plan?

And is it in the budget?

She continues to invest in her professional growth, earning a digital marketing, I'm sorry, digital media marketing certification, graduating from the Florida Redevelopment Agency as a Florida Redevelopment Professional in 2023, and joining the city's inaugural executive leadership academy in 2024.

And is also the proud mother to Noah and Skylar, who like to tell their friends that their mom works for the city and helps lead important projects and make a difference in the community.

And has been steady, knowledgeable, and deeply committed to Clearwater success.

If something needs to get done, she's probably already reviewed it, approved it, funded it, and can likely tell you with a budget code from memory.

Thank you, Anne, for your continued commitment to the city in helping make Clearwater thrive, and we hope you feel better.

Playing the role of Anne this afternoon is uh CRA director Jesus Nino.

So if we have something to give to Anne, we can give the Jesus and you'll make sure she gets it.

So Anne is out and her gift is at the office.

It'll be okay.

No, I'm sure she appreciated uh echo everything that the city manager says she is definitely one of our stars, so thank you.

Thank you, Ann, for your 20 years of service to the city.

It's uh greatly appreciated, and we appreciate you.

Next, we'll move to our 30-year employee award.

I'd like to call forward Andrew Blabelt from the Public Utilities Department.

It is with great pride and appreciation that we recognize Andrew on his 30-year anniversary with the City of Clearwater.

Since beginning your career on April 29th of 1996, you have grown from a dedicated technician into a cornerstone of the public utilities team, demonstrating a long commitment to service, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Throughout your three decades of service, you have successfully navigated many flows of city operations, starting in the wastewater collection division, transitioning to a construction inspector role within the public works, and ultimately returning to public utilities as assistant manager over the wastewater collection and reclaimed water divisions.

While the work of Wastewater Services is often behind the scenes, it is critical to public health, environmental stewardship, and quality of life.

You have consistently met those challenges with professionalism, adaptability, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to keep the city running safely and efficiently.

Your career path is a true example of working your way up through the ranks through dedication, experience, and a commitment to learning.

You are widely recognized as the expert, frequently sought after by homeowners, contractors, and colleagues alike for guidance on complex issues and design challenges.

Your ability to provide clear, practical solutions while maintaining a professional and approachable demeanor reflects the city's commitment to superior public service.

In your current role as assistant manager, your impact is felt every day.

You work closely with your team, mentoring and developing staff within the wastewater collection and reclaim water divisions.

By sharing your institutional knowledge and leading by example, you support the city's strategic priorities of a work, force development, operational excellence, and a high-performing government.

Your leadership helps ensure reliable infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and long-term sustainability for the community.

On behalf of the public utilities team and the city manager's office, thank you for 30 years of dedicated service to the City of Clearwater.

Your expertise, leadership, and commitment to excellence embody what it means to deliver superior public service and contribute to a high performing organization.

Thank you.

Appreciate your dedication to the City of Clearwater and to our citizens.

Melody demonstrated outstanding customer service to the public utilities department by managing the recovery of an electric vehicle procurement after the original vehicle was scrapped by the manufacturer.

Recognizing the risk to time-sensitive federal grant funding, she remained persistent in working with the vendor while also evaluating technical alternatives to keep the project on task.

Her work exemplifies the spirit of innovation and responsibility that helps Clearwater thrive, strengthening our community today while building sustainable resilient future.

Thank you.

Okay, for next is the bi-monthly team award for March, April of 2026.

I'd like to call for the public works grant writing team, Melody Yen, Sam Riley, Annabella Hullen, Leanne Skinarasi, Robert Kasmer, Nate Joseph, Cassie Cordova, Sarah DeLorenzo, Jean Henry, Sarah Kessler, and Michael DeContra.

The public works team, along with dedicated staff from other departments, demonstrated exceptional collaboration, preservants, and expertise in developing and submitting grant applications and funding requests following Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

In a very short time frame, this crossed departmental team produced six hazard mitigation grant program applications covering stormwater improvements, property acquisition, seawall upgrades, traffic signal hardening, and roadway elevation, as well as four resilient Florida applications addressing stormwater, traffic signal infrastructure, roadway elevation, and long-term shoreline planning.

In addition to these 10 competitive grant applications, the members of the team are simultaneously advancing three major state and federal funding allocations, including Clearwater Solar Projects, the North Beach Stormwater Improvement Project, and Living Seawalls.

The combined efforts directly support the city's resilience, sustainability, and fiscal responsibility by reducing long-term risks from flooding and storms, improving critical infrastructure and producing renewable energy.

This team's outstanding achievement represents the highest level of public service, collaboration, and commitment to protecting Clearwater residence infrastructure and natural resources.

Their efforts will bring in millions of dollars outside funding, saving taxpayers substantial local dollars that would otherwise be required to complete these critical projects.

Good job, team.

Well done.

Good job, thank you.

Good job.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, thanks.

Good job.

Thank you for your work.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for that.

Thank you very much.

No fall on the love.

Yes.

Yes, that is a positive.

Well, we'll now continue our evening meeting of the city council.

Um to agenda 3.1.

Oh, yeah.

Two two, excuse me.

Two two.

Take it away.

And like to thank Ms.

Crockett for her patience.

She's been here for a long time.

So thank you for coming tonight.

It's been interesting.

Thank you.

Susan Crockett with Ruth Eckert Hall.

And I am going to I don't know what it is about us art people, but we have problems with these.

It's up for us.

There we go.

Thank you so much.

It's a pleasure to be here this evening with you.

And I know that this is the intention of this was to give a quarterly update on the sound, but I do want to share with you a recent economic impact study that we had done that includes all three venues because the city owns all three venues and we're your operator for those pieces.

The study was based on 2025 attendance.

It was done by Johnson Consulting out of Chicago, which is a company that not only does economic impact studies and feasibility studies, but also specialize in arts and entertainment.

So they know our business, which gives them a running start on knowing, you know, what the right questions to ask are.

The data is confined to the show activity.

As you know, we also do rentals of the facilities for weddings and community events.

We also do extensive education programming, but this is confined to people that attend events at the venues.

The touring production crew was also included in here because we have significant groups coming through, numbers of people coming through and staying in the area.

The Johnson Consulting used the Pinellas County tax structure in terms of figuring out the fiscal impact.

They utilize the G USGSA per diem for Pinellas County, and the implant multipliers obviously, you know, this is it's based on a methodology that is widely accepted.

And then I will note that this is just a summary here, and if you are interested in having the full report, I'd be more than happy to forward that on to you.

So the methodology, and this I know you're all familiar with economic impact studies, but for those who are not, for the sake of those that are watching that are not, um, we're looking at the attendance of the people that are coming to the events, whether they're touring, they're performing, or if they're ticket purchasers, and we're looking at where they originate from, um, whether they're overnight attendees, day trip attendees, um, and whether they're touring through the state.

And from there, we're looking at what their average daily spending you would expect.

Again, it doesn't assume that everyone who's traveling here from out of town is actually staying at a hotel, but there's a certain percentage of that they use is what they were those in plan multipliers come into effect.

And so you're looking at what the direct spending they're doing while they're in town, also looking at what the indirect or the induced spending would be in terms of the amount of people that you're employing because of the activity, um, and what they're spending in the environment as well as any indirect spending that such as in this case, Ruth Eckard Hall would be doing spending in the community in order to support our business.

But the main thing I think we're probably interested in is what impact are these events having in terms of our attendance.

So in 2025, we had 148 shows at Ruth Eckert Hall, 114 at the Billheimer Capitol Theater, 65 at the Bay Care Sound, for a total of 327 events that were clear, specifically clear water-based.

We did nine um events off site of the venues.

I would say about half of those were in Pinellas County.

The attendance at the Clearwater-based events reached over 451,000, and Ruth Eckard Hall on the road delivered about another 18,000, of which about 9,000 were in Pinellas County.

If you look at the origin of where our ticket buyers are coming from for all of our stages, there's about 11% that live within a Clearwater, have a clear water uh mailing address.

Another 29% are outside of Clearwater, but within the county.

About half of the people that are attending our venues actually come from Florida outside of the county itself.

Another 11% are from another state, and then we have about one percent that identify as coming from overseas or Canada.

Interesting, I found was that the Baycare Sound pretty much follows very close to the same thing.

About 50% were coming from Pinellas, I mean coming from Florida, but outside of the county.

Um, and then about 11% were coming from the other rest of the states, and then one percent from outside.

I also thought it was interesting to note that a lot of times when an act is performing at the hall, I mean at the sound, but also in Orlando and someone lives halfway between the two, they're coming to Clearwater, which I thought was really interesting.

So I would assume they're coming because maybe they want to stay the weekend, and we're seeing that the people are talking about how they want to make a whole weekend out of it if they're coming.

In terms of the tax base, the fiscal impact is about 7.8 million estimated for all of our activities.

And then one million of that is for the tourist development tax, and then another 167,000 for county discretionary the surtax that's charged from hotels.

And if you look at the sound itself, it's 3.6 million in terms of the additional tax revenue coming from the activities.

You see that they're estimating that there's a total of 252.2 million dollars, which obviously is significantly more since the Bay Care Sound came alive.

And then for the Bay Care Sound itself, they're estimating 110.4 million dollar economic impact.

And I see the mayor is smiling, so that's a good thing.

We got some characters in the gallery.

Obviously, we're very pleased with this.

Um it is a work in progress, as you know.

Three years, we're we're in our third year now, and that for um this kind of a venue is really just the beginning of where it can go.

Um we just we had goose there Friday night to a really lively crowd in um this afternoon.

We got a text from them saying they really want to make this their home stop on their tours going forward.

They really love it here.

They had a night, they took they had their day off on their tour and they decided to spend it in clear water.

So they stayed an extra day and just could not say enough about what a unique opportunity that we give them by coming to this area of the state.

So we're very pleased with that.

We expect that to continue.

Um again, if you're interested in more of the details on this, I'm happy there's a lot of uh lot of equations, a lot of data involved in it, and I'm gonna be very happy.

I don't want to spend too much time with that.

The other thing that I do want to um point out um I know the last time that we gave the report, the mayor asked a question about the sunshade, so I do want to do a follow-up.

We're actually working on two projects right now that will improve the venue.

One is the sunshade, and then we're also doing um looking at doing some electrical work.

We have a lot of power that's dedicated to that building, delivered to that building, but it's not as distributed outside as we would like.

Um, and what that translates to is we end up using anywhere from nine to twenty generators every time we have an event, which for a number of reasons is not ideal.

Um so we've actually working with the city now to look at you know what does it take.

We have a plan, um, we've gone through the bidding process, and now it really is just going through permitting and just some crossing some T's, dotting some I's to be able to improve the electric electrical system within the um the grounds itself to get it out to the various areas out in the park.

And the sunshine, the sunshade is also in permitting right now, and I want to just thank um assistant city manager slaughter has been a tremendous help in helping facilitate that permitting process, getting the engineers together.

So it looks like we're we're green lighting, now it's just getting it inside the venue, and um we're just we're thrilled with that.

And that is I will I'm proud to say is another about a quarter of a million dollar investment that we're making in the venue that will stay with the venue long after all of us are gone.

So I'm very happy about that.

Um, in terms of the shows right now, we've got about we're looking at um 50 shows this year.

It's always dependent on what product is touring.

Um, but it is a it it's it's gonna do well again this year as well.

So I'm happy if you have any questions.

Okay.

Any questions?

Is T Pain one of those 50?

I'm sorry?

Is T-Pane one of those 50?

Is he coming back?

Um he's not scheduled yet.

This is just through December 31st.

And and we're actually, we haven't announced yet where Bobby is working on a we're really interested in doing a few signature.

We've been doing some festivals in in collaboration with radio stations.

Um, some of those are annual festivals that have they've brought it here now to the sound from another location.

But we're actually looking at doing some of our own, and we're in the midst of doing one for in no um, I believe right now it's in November.

So our idea is to do something kind of like what Clearwater Jazz Holiday has, that we're establishing other types of festivals that are unique to Clearwater that bear the Clearwater name.

So Councilmember Manino.

And we think we say it every time you come in, appreciate you and your staff, your entire team.

Uh what a beautiful venue, and a great job you do every event.

I think we go to you can see and you can feel the investments that your group continues to make it a better experience every time uh for our fans and the travelers that are coming in uh for thank you uh for that.

Uh it's funny you said goose.

I'd never really heard of them, and I heard it was Councilmember Albright's favorite band.

Um so we went um and it was packed.

It was an it was an awesome show.

But what amazed me, and my wife will kill me for this, but for three hours of this show, they never made eye contact with the crowd one time or said hello or hi, and all I was kept asking was please just say hi, Clearwater or hello.

And I think it took maybe what three hours?

And we got a Clearwater Florida out of them.

So it was uh that was a win for me.

I would have gone home having a hard time going to sleep with that.

But they they killed it.

Um it was a great show, and it's good to hear they had such a good experience.

They want to call it home base, and I think Councilmember Albretn will welcome them.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I'd just like to say I'd like to see Goose come back when we have the duck at the city.

Thank you for coming.

No, um, you know, thank you for this the charts that you showed.

I think you know, we've we've talked about how uh you you put put these venues together.

Um just it's amazing the attendance of all the venues together, and how you showed the on the visit visitor origin, how it's it's a similar demographic for all the venues.

Ruth Record Hall, Capitol Theater.

Um it's folks from outside of not just Clearwater, but outside Pinellas County.

And uh certainly Ruth Arthur Hall is known for music entertainment.

Uh other things there, comedy shows and uh other things too, but primarily that and uh one of the premier places in the region, uh even among Straz or Mahaffey, there are shows you can see at Ruth Hall that you can't see at those other two venues.

So uh good appreciate all that good work.

And I think it's important for the community to know that's important role that you you all play here as attracting folks from from all over.

I mean, it's 68% or so.

They're coming from outside Pinellas County to see shows, and we're spending money with her here and and uh in addition to providing you know geek entertainment like goose and the others for our citizens to enjoy.

So thank you for the work you did.

I just want to make a comment.

Do you remember when we were talking about planning um you know, putting the sound here, and we were talking about how many events we were gonna have.

We just had fit you're planning 50 events, that's one a week.

And I don't even think we were we were even a tenth of that.

We were like we had no idea.

So uh I commend you for doing that and bringing it up and having that much entertainment here because it's really really made a big difference.

And uh thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you for your thing I'd add too is that I mean it's uh you look at the attendance for the sound and Rether and Hall, which are significant, but um I I think we have we can't ignore you know 51,000 almost 52,000 for the Capitol Theater.

You have shows there.

Oh I forget how many shows you showed on here, but I mean you you have really inspired and made a lot of those restaurants, particularly on Cleveland Street successful.

They really have depended on you to bring in those shows.

So appreciate your attention to helping downtown Clearwater and Cleveland Street.

Thank you.

And we've been talking with the D'Nuncio group as well with the ballot opening up and doing some uh partnerships there.

It's just a wonderful opportunity for it's a great amenity for our guests that are coming from out of town.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

Okay, with that, we will now move to item 3.1 on the agenda.

Approve a term sheet between the city of Clearwater, Pinellas County, and Phillies, Florida LLC for the redevelopment improvements to Bay Hair Ball Park Stadium facility and authorized your private officials expizing.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um I thank everybody for their patience.

Certainly thank um the Phillies for their patience on this item.

Um we are excited to bring forward um the term sheet, the long-awaited term sheet.

Um, as you all are aware, um, the Phillies have been a partner with the city since 1947, and this term sheet is for 20 years, which will bring us to the hundred year anniversary.

I would like to invite up Brian Onks Jr.

to do a presentation regarding um the funding request, and then we'll go through the rest of the item.

Thank you, City Manager Poirier.

Mayor, Council members.

It is a honor to be here representing the Philadelphia Phillies in this term sheet renewal request that you all and our partners in Pinellas County have worked so hard and so diligently for a number of years, going back to your predecessors, going back even to the 2016-2017 timeframe.

And it's such an honor to be able to say that through all that collaboration, through nurturing that relationship, through participating in that relationship, we have arrived here today with a term sheet that we are hopeful that you will be able to support to keep that very special relationship between bright and beautiful Clearwater and the city of Breverly Love going for another 20 years through the 100th anniversary.

The Phillies have been intrinsically intertwined in the fabric of the Clearwater community for 80 years.

And my friend John Timberlake has been here for half of those.

And he will tell you very proudly.

He is a Clearwater resident, and he's not going anywhere, so we better approve this term sheet.

The city, as you know, enjoys the second longest continuous spring training relationship in the history of Major League Baseball at 79 years.

We're only one year behind Lakeland and the Detroit Tigers, which just shows that Clearwater was incredibly forward-thinking in its collaboration and its investment in spring training baseball, and that seed has grown into just an incredibly incredibly beneficial relationship.

And also the fact that that 80-year relationship has really had no bumps in the road.

I mean, there really haven't been any any bumps in the road, no disagreements.

As you know, the Philadelphia Philly organization exudes excellence throughout the entire organization.

It is the longest continuously operating single name single location team in the history of Major League Baseball founded in 1883.

They are the epitome of stability.

They are the epitome of stability.

They exude excellence in everything they do throughout the organization from here in Clearwater to Philadelphia to everywhere in between.

And as you know, their fans are committed to Clearwater.

I never thought they'd get me saying that, but here we are.

It's contagious.

We have the updated statistics from 2026 spring training.

We had 143,352 paid attendees.

We led the Grapefruit League in percentage of capacity of paid attendance at 106% capacity of paid attendance, and we had the highest single attended game in the Grapefruit League this year, which is consistent with what you've seen throughout this 80-year history, and particularly when the city when the city invested in Baycare Ballpark and that facility.

So that's not speculative based on if you build this, this is what it'll produce.

This is based on the data that we have from attendees from hotel room nights from the direct economic impact of that tourism and of that retail sales and services.

And that is about $80 million a year, which means the city at 30 million will double 2.5 times that in the first year of recovery of that.

Whether it's New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Philly, Delaware, Maryland, that group travels, they come to Clearwater, they're committed to Clearwater.

It doesn't matter what's going on in the economy, they're going to be here.

And over those last 80 years, tens of thousands have come every year, and many of them have bought second homes.

Many of them have retired here.

Many of them have relocated their businesses here or started businesses here.

And again, that just shows you how that seed has grown through the nurturing relationship that the city and the Phillies have collaborately developed.

Historically, this was about a 587,500 value.

In 2021, the Phillies contractual obligation to provide the tourism assets ceased, but they continue to do it at cost because it was the right thing to do, and because they're invested in making sure that this stays an incredibly strong leader market for this community.

And the value in recent years has been about 650,000.

Under the terms of this new term sheet with Pinellas County, that value would increase to 850,000, and then there would be a 3% escalator starting in 2032 for a total net present value of just over 21 million dollars.

So the Phillies will be giving 21 million dollars in net present value to marketing assets to continue the Visit St.

Pete Clearwater television commercials through the majority of the games, which are so effective.

And they'll continue that direct collaboration with Pinellas County in developing those assets.

It's no wonder then that Philadelphia is the largest feeder market for hotel revenue in Pinellas County.

This is a chart that was provided to the TDC, I believe, in February or March.

Mayor, you can tell us because you were there.

Philadelphia doubles any other market in the United States other than New York City, with it's still about a quarter more than New York City in terms of hotel revenue generated.

And that is a direct result of that nurturing that relationship and the growth of that of that relationship and the commitment of that Philadelphia community to not being just here in March or February, but they're here year-round.

They're here year round.

This is their second home for the Philadelphia market.

And even though it's only the fourth largest market in the country, it's still by far the largest market for this community, and that is not a coincidence.

So I did want to just make clear a couple of things for the public and the council, you know this well.

Not one dollar that's being contributed by Pinellas County or the City of Clearwater is going to the Phillies.

This is going into a city owned asset.

Bay Care Ballpark is owned by the City of Clearwater.

It is leased by the Philadelphia Phillies.

And so what is happening here is a renovation of an existing Clearwater asset to retain an A plus tenant, the Philadelphia Phillies, for another 20 years through the 100th anniversary of that relationship.

The Phillies are committing a minimum of 75 million dollars and are also responsible for all cost overruns.

The Phillies did purchase the property to the south, that uh shopping center for 22 and a half million dollars in 2022.

The Phillies are not receiving any ownership or the conveyance of any property from the from the city or the county.

The Phillies on their own invested in the property next door to the city's campus because it's part of our long-term plan to activate that key corner, that key US 19 Special Area Plan Activity Center Corner, and the uh fruition of this term sheet will allow for that to proceed over the coming years, and I'm incredibly excited to see what that is going to look like.

This is something you will not be able to read.

It is in your agenda packet.

Uh, this is the aerial uh site plan that shows the key project elements or key project components.

So in the term sheet, we have an exhibit of key project components and key project elements that are broken out between Baker Ballpark and Carpenter's Complex.

We also have a line item budget that addresses each of those key project elements so you can tie the project element to the budget and get the amount of value allocated to that.

I did want to go over some of the key fan amenities.

Some of these have already been installed, uh, others are in progress and will be in progress.

The video board replacement, replacing the field lights, uh larger expanded concourse with uh additional capacity, upgrade the West Plaza fan entrance plaza, expand and enhanced concessions, fan seat replacement, so replacing all of the seats, center field fan deck, which is above the batter's eye, which will expand capacity.

Retail store expansion, as you know, that retail store is incredibly popular, and there are lines around the corner.

So we uh we've taken note of that market analysis.

It's not very hard to see, uh, and we'll make sure we have some extra capacity for that.

Center field restrooms, which will be new uh to service the berm area, uh diamond dugout restrooms upgrade, enclosure of the first base club area and suite hallway, addition of south and west fan servicing elevators, uh refresh suite interiors and home plate concessions, an update ground cruise area wayfinding signage.

So we do have some renderings.

This is the left field uh third baseline area.

This will undergo a dynamic change.

Uh, we're adding some additional concessions where that playground area is now.

We're moving the playground over to this covered area, which is part of an expanded breezeway.

You know, the capacity there gets uh bottlenecked.

There's always people there hanging out.

There's a right now, there's a bunch of fan chillers uh providing some cooling there, but this will now be a covered playground area with expanded capacity for people to move about uh and have ingress egress.

The tiki deck is remaining, the footprint will expand, but the French East Tiki deck, which is incredibly popular, will remain and again with an expanded footprint.

This is the batter's eye, which exists.

That batter's eye is one of the uh major league baseball required elements.

Uh, it certainly uh isn't active right now unless you're trying to hit a fastball.

So we are gonna activate it for everybody else who's not playing, and we're gonna add this fan deck on top, which I'll show you an image from that perspective, and we're also gonna add these restrooms in the rear, which will service that berm area.

And again, there are no restrooms right now out in the outfield area, so that was something that would be important.

This is an image of the expanded capacity above the batter's eye.

We think that's a really uh innovative, dynamic use of right now what is essentially underutilized space for the fan experience.

This is a view from Carpenter's Complex of that uh left field area.

You can see again the playground here.

Uh concessions would be over here on this side, and then here's some offices uh that will be added for administrative purposes.

Uh, this is a view towards the left field area and the existing administrative offices uh with expanded office and player development area, and that concludes our presentation.

I want to thank uh very very sincerely uh city manager Poye, Mayor Rector, Councilmember Menino, Cotton, Teshada, All Britain, City Attorney Kohler, uh, everyone on the city team.

Every city department played a role in this, played a crucial role in this, whether it was uh economic development, whether it was legal, whether it was planning, whether it was obviously Mr.

Ravens and his team.

This was a holistic city project that took many many years to come to fruition.

And I think that the quality of that committed collaboration is why you've got um such a good project here before you, and I think why it's coming in um with a lot of support.

Uh and I I'm very proud of that process, and I'm proud of all of everyone who's contributed to that process.

Also, would like to thank our county partners.

We're gonna be going uh before the county commission tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Uh, hopefully for their approval of their commitment of the TDC funding uh and also their their part of the term sheet.

Uh so definitely like to thank uh administrator Burton, who's been involved with this throughout the process, uh Chairman Eggers and the rest of the county commissioners, and also for all of your advocacy with the commissioners for those TDC dollars, that is greatly appreciated.

That was a significant part in getting this deal completed.

Um so at this time I know you know as much about this project as you probably would ever wanted to know, but if there's any other questions you have, I have Mr.

Timberlake and Mr.

Nicholas here that can answer any questions, and we'd be happy to do that.

Okay, questions?

Vice Mayor.

Yes, I have no questions, just comments.

Um, I have to applaud the team as well, uh, city manager, uh, acting city attorney, um, and the rest of the staff that played an integral part in this, as well as uh you, Brian.

Thank you, Mr.

Nicholas, thank you, Mr.

Timberlake.

Um, you know, it's uh an extraordinary feat to try and get this done between the state, county, and cities.

Um, but I think that we all played well in the sandbox together.

We got the deal done.

Um parties are are happy, and to extend this to the hundred year anniversary is gonna be phenomenal.

So looking forward to the next 20 years of Philly's baseball and clearwater and the future projects uh that entail with that.

So thank you all.

Sincerely appreciate our staff here and uh looking forward to a great future and uh great future relationship partnership, excuse me.

So thank you.

Thanks.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Um, exact same sentiment.

Thank you for all the hard work, heavy lifting.

Took the entire team, obviously, thanks to staff as well.

Um county, um, and obviously to our Philly partners that have become uh much more than just partners but friends.

Uh Brian, I thank you for all the work uh you've done.

Um probably underestimated how many phone calls and emails and the lifting you've done to get this done.

I think we had these conversations back in 2007, maybe.

Um, and we're we're finally getting close.

Uh you said it best that your words were, and I couldn't say it better.

Intrinsically intertwined in the fabric of Clearwater.

Uh, and those are absolutely perfect words, and it is truly meaning, meaningful.

Um, I have memories with my grandfather in elementary school at Jack Russell Stadium in the MLK community going to baseball games, shopping with my father when this stadium was a home depot.

Um, so uh this is intrinsically entwined in my memories as well.

Uh, this is a win, not just for Clearwater for the entire region, state of Florida, and our country.

Phillies do exude excellence, uh, and we believe we do here in Clearwater as well.

And uh, what a match.

I look forward to the many years moving forward, and that hundredth year celebration should be quite a quite a party for the whole year.

So, thank you for believing in Clearwater and putting that Philly's name next to Clearwater for many years to come.

Well, you guys are like family.

I mean, and really, I uh as far back as I can remember, Philly's uh very very close relationship with Clearwater, and I've always been a um a big supporter of you know, a lot of uh beaches in Florida, you know, they tout you know, college uh spring break and all that stuff.

You know, we have Philly's spring training here.

We've got better than that.

We have families that come from Philly, and they they come down and they stay on the beach because they like to watch the sunset, but their whole life is revolved around going to see the game.

And uh they're beautiful people.

Um I've met so many of them over the years, that they just keep coming back, and uh they're like family.

So I'm glad, I'm so glad that now we have a term sheet.

We can move forward to this, and I look forward to our hundred year celebration.

I'm gonna save some time.

I would like to echo everything that's been said before me.

But I do want to add that I came on to the council starting to work on this, so thank you so much for all of you for allowing me to check off this box before I go.

Okay.

I'll go last.

Uh and um just want to um thank everybody involved again.

Thank our staff for uh all they've they've done uh throughout that was pointed out.

Every department has leaned in, city attorney, city manager were heavily involved in uh the discussions.

Um but you know, I I remember uh a morning or two after Hurricane Milton.

I was at Baker Ballpark.

I think Mr.

Nicholas was there too, and Mr.

Timberlake was there, and our parks and rec staff uh do a tremendous amount to support this organization and have four years, and they were out there that morning with eels up the aisle, the batting baseballs floating in the batting cages because uh the water had inundated the stadium and uh the work our parks and rec team does to support the Phillies.

Thank you for all that.

I know you were heavily involved in and sharing information with staff and how the relationship works and all the support that you give the Phillies all year long.

So thank you for that.

Uh and I want to thank the Phillies uh, as was said, you know.

I I have been fortunate to uh to go to some mayors meetings and connect with um lots of mayors from not just Florida, Arizona, who have spring training and have professional baseball in their communities, and I can tell you we have a really good here.

Our relationship with the Phillies is a lot different than a lot of the relationships with cities that host spring training from around the country.

Um it is family, as you said, you've been here for 80 years, and uh you treat this community uh in a tremendous way, and we appreciate not only the last 80 years, but hopefully the next 20 to get us to 100.

We have we are unique in this uh relationship is unique uh because we are able to work with one of the best organizations in all of professional sports.

Professional, they care about our community, and we value our relationship with Phillies.

We also value our relationship with the Delaware Valley and all the Phillies fans.

Uh having lived out on Clearwater Beach for a long time.

Uh I was even out there uh recently uh with a friend having dinner, and uh no fewer than a half dozen folks walked by our table at uh Sucushi on Clearwater Beach wearing Philly's gear, and um some of my friends said uh Well, you know, uh spring training is is that still going on?

I said no.

It ended about three weeks ago, and I can tell you out there you see Philly fans out there all year long, not just when the Eagles come to town and play the Bucks in the fall.

They come here.

We have one of the most loyal residual fan bases in the Delaware Valley.

They come here all year long, not just for baseball, for other reasons, and I'm glad our county commission and those uh others have come to realize that they've seen it too.

Uh, because that's the other special part of our relationship.

We have they have through baseball, they've come to visit here and come to love Clearwater, and they come back for numerous reasons.

So we couldn't be any more uh thankful and grateful for that relationship with the Phillies and the Phillies fans.

The only other two things I want to say is was what Mr.

Ox pointed out was um this is our asset.

This is our facility.

We are investing in a city-owned asset, which we have had for years.

It was over at Jack Russell Stadium, which I pointed out earlier meeting uh earlier today.

We've had a city asset that's been used in professional baseball, going way back to the Brooklyn Dodgers when they played at uh Clearwater Athletic Field 110 years ago.

Um so you know, we have for a century invested in a community asset to support baseball, and so that's all we're doing here.

We're putting money into our asset, and the location of this asset is important because we have talked about as a city even before I became mayor in the importance of driving economic development on the US 19 corridor, and this is an important piece of that, and that intersection of Druu and US 19 has huge potential.

I think even more potential now that the flyovers are being completed north of us that will allow more people from North County and Pasco County to travel down further without you know having to hit stop lights.

So it's an important and and we saw the map of the opportunity that the Phillies have to maybe do some things as property, but that's not it.

There are other properties around there up and down that US 19 corridor that can really benefit by our investment in this this city asset.

So I could go on and on, but I won't because we are into the evening when we didn't expect to be.

But thank you for everyone who's participated in this.

I the term sheet to me is a good result.

And uh thank you to our county partners, the uh the Pinellas County Commission for uh agreeing to participate in this, and a great result for our city and for the citizens of Clearwater.

So uh thank you for coming tonight.

Is there anything further?

Okay, appreciate you and uh and uh thank you for your partnership.

That we'll move to agenda item.

Uh Mayor, can we place it on consent?

Oh, I didn't it wasn't for consent.

Okay.

If there's some consent, for sure.

Yes, okay.

We have consent, yes.

Agenda item 4.1.

Award a construction contract to Southern Road and Bridge LLC of Palm Harbor for slope stabilization.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council.

My name is uh Kelly Petrich.

I'm the engineering division manager here at the City of Clearwater, the public works department.

Um, as you know, the high velocity from Hurricane Helene and Milton destabilized the bank in six locations along Alligator Creek, resulting in large watch out washouts in endangering not only both private but public infrastructure.

These damages were both inspected and submitted for FEMA reimbursement.

Southern Road and Bridge LLC was the lowest responsive and responsible bidder out of the four submitted bids.

This uh contract includes a wide variety of wide variety of um unit price items to address slope stabilization, seawall repairs, pipe replacement, and erosion control as needed.

Uh this um low bid approach actually allows the city to respond quickly and efficiently to both emergency and routine infrastructure repairs without delays associated with special procurements.

Um this contract also will allow will provide flexibility for future emergency response and storm recovery efforts for the citywide as a infrastructure.

Um also that we we see this as being able to provide a more long-term resiliency for future storms as well.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Okay, do we have consent?

Yep.

We have consent on 4.1.

Thank you.

Thank you.

4.2.

Approve a locally funded agreement between the state of Florida Department of Transportation and the City of Clearwater to provide $200,000 for preliminary engineering.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I am Anna Holland Transportation Division Manager for Public Works.

Um requesting approval of a locally funded agreement between City of Clearwater and FDOT for the State Road 60 corridor study.

This study will evaluate traffic operations, multimodal connectivity, and access management to identify data-driven safety improvements while maintaining the corridor's capacity and function.

FDOT will administer the project, including managing a qualified consultant and providing overall project oversight while the city will actively participate in coordination, review, input and input throughout the study.

The city will contribute 200,000 towards the study.

Okay, so I have questions.

So this is a request from us, or who's who requested this study.

I think we originally initiated a conversation with FDOT to have a corridor study performed.

Um and more recently, Councilmember Manino brought up the study was being performed by FDOT, but there wasn't uh sufficient funding to continue to achieve the goals of the study.

Um we had a state um a safe streets for all grant that was put on hold by the administration, and we haven't received the funding from that grant.

Um we were looking to contribute 400,000 from the grant into the study, and since we haven't um received the uh the funding the funding hasn't moved forward, we were approaching uh we're gonna give them 200,000 just to keep the study rolling.

So um I asked that because my conversations with FDOT have been um we've studied it to death.

It's like how much how many more studies are we going to do, how much more their money too, not just our money.

But um the feeling I got was um that they were willing to do it, but they felt like they already had enough information.

They they were ready to fund the work without the study.

So but uh that this may have been coming either from us or forward panellists, the request for another study.

Um and they were willing to participate, but they also didn't feel like they needed another study to to do this kind of work.

So that's why I'm asking if you want to address the question, I'll I'll add it.

Don't let me jump in front of you.

Yeah, thank you.

Umor, that's a good question.

I think what just for history of what happened with this study, um Belcher became the biggest concern in Belcher intersection in Gulf of the Bay.

And what happened with the study originally, um they proposed three three options and our county commission uh rejected all three and didn't like any of them told them to go back to the drawing board and find out other alternatives.

Some of the challenges they were having was additionally that if they did put changes to which is a safety concern, it's been recognized for years, no questions about it, data shows.

If they did make changes to that Belcher Gulf debate intersection, previous studies didn't show what that change would do to subsequent intersections.

So they wanted to make sure that before they spend millions and millions of dollars moving forward that they understand what the full unintended consequences are, as well as give the county an opportunity uh to find some direction to go because they did reject all three options, whether it was a flyover, a no left turn, U-turns only, there was multiple, and um they weren't weren't happy with any of them.

So that's why um Ford Pinellus and F DOT uh did go back to the drawing board uh to restudy, come up with um additional plans and options uh and to to do it fully.

FDOT, to my understanding, was gonna come to a place where the funding would die short of figuring out some of those safety mitigations and continuing the study, and that's where Ford Pinellus asked us if we had the ability to step forward because we already committed, as you said, uh, via a grant of the 400,000 dollars, but it was frozen, we weren't seeing it, so that's why the 200 dollars in its place, 200,000 was requested, so that this study doesn't stop so that FDOT doesn't get to a place of pencils down after all this work, as you said, it has been studied quite extensively.

Um, I I hate you know, I don't what what's our deadline on this?

Do we feel like there's a deadline?

We have to we have to spend this grant money before a certain time before it uh we haven't been awarded the grant.

Um I think the study will eventually run out of money, so they can't fully complete it.

And um, just to compliment what Councilman stated about the um the Belcher intersection, this does not cover specifically belcher intersection, it just covers the entire corridor just to get a more holistic view of how that intersection will impact the entire uh study.

And this is more of a um of a safety-related um study as well.

So I think uh you know that you know it's not just FDOP and my conversation conversations we have in which Alhasse were you know that they they don't like funding studies uh with the state, they like funding project that let's get things done.

And uh it you know, this hey, granted, um told somebody just today um you know the the path from Tampa International to the roundabout clear water beach is one of the most important arteries in all of Tampa Bay.

So um, so yes, we need to update and approve and do all that.

That said, uh we can't keep studying, studying, studying.

We gotta take some action.

Yeah, uh Mr.

Mayor, thank you.

To that point, and forgive me, correction might be needed.

Um it was Pinellas County that ditched three opportunities, but it's our budget that we have to pay to get another study done for them to hopefully like what they see to approve it.

Should the county not fund it?

Am I not correct in saying that for forward Pinellas is a funding partner on this for some reason?

I don't see I did hear forward panels for sure, but I don't see them on this sheet.

Sorry, guys.

So they're contributing also.

Do you remember it was it 40 something thousand, I think that uh forward panels is also trivial.

It was not as large as our force, but they are contributing to the effort.

Yeah, but it's not our intersection, it is the county's intersection.

So the county specifically funding the belcher intersection.

Um they were strictly stated that their funding would only go towards the Belcher intersection.

Listen, I'm of the mayor's uh point of view.

I'm not I don't want to throw good money at bad money if we've already studied the heck out of this thing, but I also need to know you know, is the county gonna approve what they've got.

So I'm hearing one of the major funding part.

Um it's not here tonight to share with us, but when I'm hearing that one of the major funding partners project doesn't think it's necessary.

I just that's why I'm questioning whether or not you know it's the best use of our money to participate as well, and they don't feel like they need it.

So I think we can we can pivot, however, we need to pivot.

So we were gonna shuffle money, right?

We had just made that $400,000 commitment earlier, so we were looking to do some internal shuffle.

But we can pivot however.

If you want, um, we can certainly reach out to FDOT.

Um, we can have our staff reach out and have those questions in terms of you know your conversations with them and see what they recommend on this item prior to Thursday night.

Um, if that's helpful and agreeable to the the council, happy to serve happy to do that.

Yep.

Okay.

I agree a thousand percent because my conversations uh with FDOT have been completely different on from a forward panelist standpoint as well.

So let's make sure we bring clarity to this because this is this is a pretty big deal.

Um I don't believe that the county or we see the belcher intersection as not a big deal.

I don't think the state would.

I mean, data, crash data, death speak much louder than that.

I mean, it is the most dangerous intersection in our entire city uh and community, so it probably deserves that clarity for us to make that decision now, and I respect that.

Yeah, it's the most dangerous intersection in the entire county.

Yeah, right.

That's important to my point.

It has been for a long time, and we just simply study it to death instead of doing something actually.

So that's more on the well, I was just gonna add, and to fix it, it's gonna be the most expensive intersection.

We've been talking about that for years, and coming up with all these different I mean, if you know nobody really wants to have a flyover, they don't want to have that there.

Uh, and then the only other way to fix it is to buy up all the property around it, enlarge it, make it look like gene.

And that's too expensive to do.

There's already you know, development around it.

So I don't know.

I don't know what the I think they need to we need to go ask again what we're doing here.

Okay, so we will we will reach out to FDOT and bring that back on Thursday night for further consideration.

Okay, thank you.

And we'll I'm sorry.

Um, we will circulate that information prior to Thursday, so that you know council has an opportunity to review that and then make a decision on Thursday.

Does council want it off consent then?

I'll consider it.

Yes, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Approve a community forestry capacity grant agreement between the city of Clearwater and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Hi, Mayor, City Council, City Leadership, Cassie Cordova, sustainability division manager and public works.

Uh as Roche just mentioned, this is a grant for $50,000 for a hundred thousand dollar total project.

The grant will fund a citywide tree canopy assessment and development of an urban forestry management plan that'll help us identify canopy gaps, prioritize planting areas, and guide long-term management of our urban forest.

Uh this is especially important.

Uh the timing, we did lose quite a bit of our canopy in the storms.

Um, this will help strengthen our resilience.

Umestry trees are important to help us reduce heat, reduce heat, manage stormwater, and support Claire Rod's quality of life and tourism.

And this is a good opportunity to leverage outside funding to create long-term strategy for strengthening our tree canopy.

So staff recommends award.

Happy to answer any questions.

Any questions on this gender?

Not do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent on 4.3.

Thank you.

Ms.

Renova.

Approved an ordinance of the city of Clearwater, Florida, vacating city right-of-way alley drainage and utility easements as more particularly described in record in Bay View City Subdivision Platte Book 9, page 43, and the abutting Bayview Terror subdivision.

Thank you, Ms.

McCall.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members, City Manager, Mr.

Kohler.

The vacation item before you today is a vacation request from the four city right-of-way alley and easement from the applicant, Automars, Puigeau.

I apologize if I didn't pronounce that correctly.

This request is in support of the redevelopment of the applicants, but owned properties.

The vacated area includes improved and unimproved portions of right-of-way to include Tennessee Ave, blocks three and six, the unimproved adjacent portion of Bay Street, blocks six and seven, the non-named unimproved 16-foot alley in block six, and an improved portion of Carolina Ave, along with a drainage and utility easement.

They're on 3040 Gulf to Bay.

Please also know that the requested improved portions of right-of-way are not constructed to city standards, and the city has not performed or incurred any significant expense to maintain or uh keep these roads uh as they are.

The platted road system of Bayview City Subdivision, which this parcel rests therein was never constructed per the plat.

And the city has previously vacated other right-of-way easements in this area.

The proposed vacation is conditioned upon the applicant conveying easements to cover any and all utilities as necessary when they reconfigure the land.

Public works staff has reviewed the request, recommends approval.

Any questions, please?

So any questions on this agenda item.

Yeah.

Councilman Robert.

Yeah, it's to me I went and looked at this thing about a year ago or last year sometime.

Was it delayed coming to us now?

Or not that I'm aware of.

This is the first that it was presented to us.

That I remember going out there because the one of the the um vacations, there's a roadway that goes into that hotel next door, but um we did Tennessee.

Yeah.

Last year we did uh do vacations for Calvary within the same area.

No, that was further, yeah.

That was Calvary though.

You know, you exhibit A, I mean, where you're showing exhibit A.

That there's not even a road there, it's just that's correct.

It's unimproved right-of-way.

Yeah, there is basically a ditch with water flowing through.

That's good.

All right.

That will be improved as uh again a budding uh owned property.

They would then retain half of the uh the right-of-way.

Uh again, that road will be improved or generated for access around the development.

You know, these are right-of-aways that again are not improved, they're just grass and trees, and they will be developing to roads for access.

Okay.

And I'm sure now.

Oh, I'm sorry, jump the gun.

Jump in the gun.

I have a question.

Go ahead.

Thank you, sir.

Um I'm sure now if anybody's watching and listening, they're probably wondering uh what development this is going for.

So could you just speak to that for a second?

Okay.

Would they intend on putting there the housing?

Uh from what I've been told, they will be putting some housing development or apartments.

I don't really have the full plans.

I was not given that portion of it.

Uh I believe the representative Mr.

Alex was here earlier.

Uh his uh departure for dinner.

Uh so I do not have the full answer to that uh that ultimate design.

No, I appreciate it.

From what I understand it is that there is some um affordable workforce housing type thing that the project that will be going in there.

So if anybody in the public that's watching is wondering what's going there, I believe that's the project.

So thank you, sir.

Again, I'm not really quite sure.

I wasn't really told what their full development plans would be.

Um but I could find out certainly uh before Thursday.

No, I don't mean throwing you on the spot.

I was just wanting some clarity out there, so thank you, Rob.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

Okay.

Any other discussion?

If not, um we need this while I have a reading.

No, it goes it's uh yeah, there's no consent.

It's a public hearing item.

All right, well thank you.

Except drainage easement with addendum indemnification from Emily Little Bowers at 1202 Vistaway.

Good evening, Mark Council members, city manager, Mr.

Kohler again.

Uh the item before you this evening is a consent item to approve uh two easements and one purchase agreement as they pertain to 1202 VISTA way.

This location is part of the Laura Spring Branch bridge replacement project.

This location is right on Douglas Avenue where the wind wall will impact the rear of the parcel property.

Um that being said, the landowner has uh brought forth concerns, and we have addressed them.

Uh the main focus for your approval this evening is to approve the whole harmless and indemnification language found in the drainage easement and the temporary construction usement.

Uh I the agenda item that you have before you uh you know, real estate is rather fluid, documents change rather quickly sometimes.

Well, what you have in front of you I printed out.

You do have the accurate uh language within the drainage as well as the TCE requesting uh indemnification whole harmless.

So you do have in hard copy what you need to approve this uh this evening as well.

You'll have it on the agenda on Thursday as well.

But it's not on consent.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I called I guess this is a consent I've got.

I call for 5.1, but uh I was going off the um I didn't go off.

So this is this is 4.5.

Yes, okay.

It's on consent.

And it's on consent.

Oh, there you go.

Okay, any questions on this uh do we have consent?

Yes, we have consent on 4.5.

5.1 now.

Approve the annexation initial future land use map designation of commercial general and initial zoning atlas designation of commercial C district for 1903 Douglas Avenue.

Very good.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

My name is Marcy Stanmark, long-range planning manager.

Uh, this evening we have uh before you a voluntary annexation request for a.28 acre parcel located on the east side of Douglas Avenue, approximately approximately 107 feet east of Douglas Avenue, together with certain rights of weight with for Douglas Avenue and Sunset Point Road, not currently within the city limits.

The parcel is currently occupied with a vacant commercial building, and the applicant is requesting annexation in order to receive Sanus Harry Sewer and Solid Waste from the city.

Planning and development staff have analyzed and concluded this annexation petition is consistent with the comprehensive plan and the community development code.

I'm here if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Any questions on this agenda?

Customer manito.

Don't have questions.

Um more excitement.

Looking forward to it.

That's the old Cole's guns and ammo location, just to give everybody a heads up.

I know I've been hounding staff for quite a while.

What's going on?

The owner has bought just about every single property uh he can around there trying to fix up the neighborhood.

Um, and I appreciate staff uh helping him make this happen and welcome welcome him into the city of Clearwater.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Can it five point two?

I'll take this one as well.

Um so at your March 2nd work session, a consultant from Fair and Piers presented the connecting clear water active transportation plan and draft resolution.

Um did you I'm sorry, did you wish to I'm sorry, that's the first one.

Oh, I am no, please do not pay any attention to me right now.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I just thought I'd set the table and then I'm sorry, sorry.

Um it was it was rec requested that we edit the draft resolution and that the resolution has been amended and in your backup you have to strike through underlying clean versions and um I'm here right and staff is here if they have any questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

Because I know I was really the only noisemaker to this issue, so thank you very much.

And uh I can get behind this one.

Thank you.

Yeah.

All right.

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Agenda item 5.3.

Provide direction regarding the city's tree preservation ordinance.

What's that?

Okay, perfect.

We can continue this item to next meeting if we're okay with that.

Thank you.

5.3.

Three.

5.3, the trees, yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Agenda item 6.1.

Approved purchase order to gov connection, doing business as connection public sector solutions for software licensing and maintenance.

Um mayor, council members, Dan Mayor, IT director.

Um this purchases for software that manages all our phones and tablets.

It's replacing uh a product that's been retired, and I'll answer any questions you may have specifically.

Okay.

Any questions on this agenda?

No, do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent on 6.1.

Thank you.

Approve a construction contract and purchase order to Kelly Brothers Inc.

for Harper Marina South North Wave Attenuator Attenuator Replacement.

Good evening, Mayor Council, Mike McDonald, Marine and Aviation Director.

This item before you is a construction contract for the replacement of the South Basin Wave Attenuators at Clearwater Harbor Marina.

They were severely damaged during Hurricane End in September of 2022.

Following the storm, our engineer of record completed a failure assessment and determined the structures were beyond repair and require full replacement.

This project will remove the damaged wave attenuators, replace them with new, more resilient concrete wave attenuators supported by upgraded steel piling system.

New gangways and replacement of associated electrical and mechanical utilities that were impacted by the storm.

The project was competitively bid through our invitation to bid process.

Three bids were received, and Kelly Brothers was the lowest responsive and responsible bidder with the total not to exceed contract amount of approximately 4.33 million.

Construction is anticipated to take approximately 365 calendar days from notice to proceed.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Yes, but I have consent on 7.1.

Yeah, I have a question for you.

Yes, sir.

It's not on this particular item, but at the Clearwater Marina, where they've taken out the the old the end of all the docks there.

We've got four big posts in the middle of the bay.

Um at the beach marina.

If the beach marina I'm talking about.

Is that set?

Is that new docks going out to those posts, or are they what are they out there for?

No, sir.

So those were set up for the barge to tie up to during the construction.

So during the dredging phase, uh you know, they put their big bars out there, and that's what they anchored too.

But the uh the B dock, the dock that's being put there is gonna be close to that.

That'll be at the very end of it.

Okay.

So thank you.

For a while they were putting the barge there and removing debris and they were hanging out.

I just thought, wow, it's going all the way out to there.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Jennifer May point one.

Award a construction contract to innovative masonry restoration LLC for the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility Clarifier splitter boxes.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Also happy birthday.

Thank you.

Um, my name is Kaylin Price.

Um the public utilities engineering manager.

And today I'm requesting your approval to award or construction contract to innovative masonry in the amount of 656,342.50 cents.

Um, and also for approval of 212,097 to Blackmoon Beach for the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility Clarifier Splitter Box re uh rehab.

This project is essential for maintaining the operational integrity of our wastewater plants and includes the rehab of the splitter box, the replacement of the eight slide gates, and critical concrete crack repairs at our facility.

Innovative masonry was identified as the lowest and responsive and a most responsible bidder following the competitive solicitation opened in October.

Opened in October.

Their selection is recommended by our engineering consultant, Black and Beach.

This action directly supports our strategic priority of high performing government for proactively maintaining public infrastructure.

I'm happy to respond to any questions.

Any questions on this agenda?

If not, do we have consent?

Agenda item 9.1.

Sure.

Okay.

Approve an increase of legal services contract with Gray Robinson for a representation certain law matters.

Council, in 2024, the city hired new gen to study the cost of municipalizing the electric system.

The city is currently in negotiations with Duke for a new franchise agreement.

In 2024, the former city attorney hired Gray Robinson to assist with these municipal law matters.

Up to 100,000 per fiscal year.

So as it relates to this item involving Gray Robinson, additional funds are needed for this project.

The city attorney's office is requesting additional 100,000 but not to exceed amount.

Keep in mind that those funds aren't necessarily going to be spent.

So even though you may commit to 100,000, we may not spend that entire amount.

Okay.

Any questions?

If not, do we have consent?

We have consent on 9.1.

Okay.

9.2.

Items 9.2 and through 9.4 are second readings.

No.

So I'm sorry.

No, I'm sorry, 9.2 amends.

Clear water credit warrants in section 28.04 related to trading and selling on streets.

So council, this is a follow-up from an item on the downtown development board, which was a 4.6 about the mobile vending initiatives.

Chapter 28 of the code of ordinances prohibits the trading and sellings of goods, wares, and merchandise on any street, right-of-way sidewalk or park within the city limits.

Pursuant to the earlier discussion and some prior items in front of the CRA and downtown development board.

City would like to help to activatate that area.

So what this ordinance proposes to do, it makes an exception and it adds subsection three.

So mobile vendors will be allowed just in the 400 and 500 blocks of Cleveland Street.

They must obtain a downtown mobile vendor right-of-way permit prior to operating.

While not in operation, mobile vendors must leave the site and be stored off site.

Mobile vendors may only operate during approved days and hours.

They're also responsible for the cleanliness and the waste removal.

And the city may limit the number of mobile vendors or approved locations due to capacity.

So Mr.

Battle has some additional comments if you have any questions for me.

Thank you, Owen.

So we heard a lot about this earlier.

This is really putting into ordinance form the ability for vendors to do their thing in the right of way as envisioned on in a legal way.

So all of these activations that we've done over time had been to create an opportunity to do it really in a special event format.

So this is testing you know, testing proof of concept on a day-to-day basis.

We don't know how many we'll get.

We don't know how many days a week people will take advantage of it, but it'll create the opportunity.

This will not compete with the restaurants.

You know, the goal is to have vendors providing services that you can't get at a brick and mortar location.

So we want to be very specific about that as well.

And um uh CRA DDB staff, they'll come back with the program guidelines to give you an overview of that at one of our upcoming meetings.

But we're very excited about this.

This is I think a step further kind of building our toolkit to keep you know uh uh providing opportunities for downtown to continue to be a place for people to come and enjoy themselves.

So we're excited about this.

Okay, discussion.

So that's a good idea.

Okay.

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you.

Okay, all right.

Anything else?

If not, we'll move to 9.3.

9.3 and item 9.4 seconds.

Yes.

Okay, very good.

Move to item 10, city manager verbal reports.

Nothing, sir.

Okay, item 11, city attorney verbal reports.

Nothing, sir.

12, move business and a request to add anything for additional discussion.

Uh item 13, council comments.

Anyone want to add anything to worry about?

I'll add something.

Yeah, um, you know, last week on the 12th at Cinecon in Las Vegas.

Um Evo Entertainment and W Digital with uh Atmos released a press release that they plan to bring a uh theater down here, world's largest theater, so that looks exciting.

I don't know what that project looks like.

We don't have anything uh tangible at this moment, but it's an exciting news release because it was released at one of the largest conventions ever uh for the cinematography world, and it put Clearwater directly in the in the limelight of that.

So uh whatever that holds and wherever it's going, I look forward to it.

Whenever staff has that, I think there's a lot of people that are eager for it.

So it's fun and exciting.

World's largest.

Yes.

Any other any other council comments?

Uh not uh closing comments by Mayor.

Um I just want to again wish our city clerk a happy birthday.

Yeah, thank you.

And uh uh most of them have gone now, but uh thank our staff for who you know endured a very long uh meeting.

Uh important for us to hear from the community and and uh but I appreciate all of you who stayed here late.

Uh those of you who are still here and those who uh stayed until just now to make presentations to it.

So appreciate you helping us uh get through a lot of business today.

So thank you for that.

With that, uh, we will adjourn the work session of Clearwater City Council for April 20, 2026.

Marcus, uh North