The City Commission met at 6:00 p.m. on October 9, 2025, at Dunedin City Hall. Mayor Maureen Freaney presided, joined by Vice Mayor Jeff Gow and Commissioners Tom Dugard, Steven Sandbergen, and Robert Walker. The meeting included presentations, public comment, consent items, and multiple action items, including approvals for floodplain regulation updates, a land use change for 1050 Main Street, and a major debris removal grant. The meeting adjourned at 8:07 p.m.
Good evening and welcome to the October 9th, 2025 City Commission meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order. We'll start with our invocation and pledge of allegiance, uh, starting with our city attorney Jen. Thank you. Let us begin this meeting by taking a brief moment of silence and reflection. Amen. I pledge allegiance. And to the Republic. For which it stands. One nation. Under Gods. Liberty and justice for all. So good evening, everyone. I want to uh before we go to our first presentation. I did want to say that here in Dunedin, our hearts and our minds are in Toronto with the Toronto Blue Jays. Uh Mark Shapiro, the president, uh I would consider a friend. Uh and uh, of course, he has a place here, and he uh they work hard, and uh it's so exciting for them to have gotten to the level that they will now be uh uh going for league championship. And uh we are rooting them on all the way, and you'll see a few signs of that around town. Uh if you didn't know it, this uh next year will be their 50th year as a franchise as the Toronto Blue Jays, and at the same time our 50th year as their spring training home, the only spring training home they've ever had. So uh they are in our hearts, our minds, and we are with them all the way. Go Vladdy, go Springer. And sorry to the Yanks, but sorry. Sorry, not sorry. There's nothing else to say. Okay. All right, I'm just gonna set the tone here for a minute before I call up uh some people for this first presentation. So you can see tonight that uh we're celebrating something that has defined Dunedin since its very beginning, our proud Scottish heritage. Our story began in 1885 when two Scotsmen arrived here, opened a mercantile, and petitioned the government to establish a post office. They chose the name Dunedin, the Gaelic word for Edinburgh, their hometown in Scotland. From that moment, our city's Scottish spirit began to grow. You can see it throughout the community in street names like Loudon Avenue, Highland Avenue, Aberdeen Street, Beltree Street, Braymore, Loch Lomond, Lake Highlander, and Stirling Heights, each one a proud reminder of our roots. When Dunedin High School opened in 1961, the bagpipe band became part of the school's identity. That same year, Dunedin became a sister city with Sterling, Scotland, deepening our cultural connection. And in 1967, the first Dunedin Highland Games were held, an event that continues today as one of the longest running Highland Games in the United States. This is our first uncovering, so uh and gatherings representing Dunedin with dignity and pride, from two Scotsmen who founded this community to the generations we've carried forward. It's music, symbols, and traditions, Dunedin's Scottish spirit indoors. And as we look to the future, we do so with pride in knowing that here in Dunedin, we don't just honor our heritage, we live it. And thank you all for being here. I really want to thank um Vice Mayor because he actually wrote this. He said, I don't think I could get through it, Mayor, so I'd like you to read it. Um but uh we're really all sitting here in these kilts tonight because this gentleman who has our liaison to the Scottish Heritage Groups, um, just wouldn't let it go. He just thought we really needed to do this as a unified commission and including our city manager. Um, and so we all did it. So we're just gonna stand just so you can see us in full garb. What do you think? So on that note, we do have a presentation to the City of Dunedin Pipe Band, and I am going to turn it over to our liaison, Vice Mayor. Really? I've got to follow that. Ian and Eric, can you please come forward? While you're doing that, I'm gonna grab my phone.