Good evening.

And welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 Council meeting.

After 33 years of s of saying sales meeting on Tuesdays, I still still feel like I stumble over that.

But council meeting.

So thank you all for being here.

If there's any chance whatsoever that your phone is not been silenced, please check it and silence it.

Okay.

And as always, I say there's gonna be a lot of things going on tonight, and there's gonna be a lot of questions, but if you feel the urge to to ask the person next to you, I'm gonna ask that you step outside so that we only have one conversation going on at a time, all right.

I appreciate that.

So with that, I would say let's call this meeting to order.

Oh, I did I did call it to order.

You know, I get confused between that and roll call.

I apologize.

Okay, let me start over.

I've called the meeting to order, and now we will start with the invocation, which will be given by Vice Mayor Danos for the last time, and then followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, so please stand.

So usually I find a quote that seems appropriate for the time, but what's on my mind is the war.

And so whether you think it's justified or not justified, that doesn't, I mean it matters, but that's not what I'm talking about.

It's here, it's happening, and I'm just hoping that our national and international leaders can find a way to make it stop happening quickly, so we have minimal loss of life, because that totally worries me.

So I just wanted to say that as my invocation.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Thanos?

Here.

Councilmember Shaw.

Present.

Councilmember Jackson.

Here.

Councilmember Early.

Present.

Mayor Love.

Here.

City Attorney Salzman.

City Manager O'Reilly.

Present.

City Clerk Keriko is present.

Thank you.

So tonight we're going to um start the meetings.

We have several presentations.

And we're gonna start off first with a uh recognizing our officer of the year.

And I believe that our city clerk is gonna read the proclamation, and then I believe our chief is going to acknowledge our officer of the year.

Okay, and this is a proclamation honoring Officer Selena Ramos, 2025 officer of the year.

Whereas the safety, well-being, and quality of life of our residents depend greatly upon the dedication, professionalism, and integrity of the men and women who serve our law enforcement community.

And whereas Officer Selena Ramos began her employment with the City of Gulfport Police Department in 2018 and has consistently demonstrated exemplary commitment to the mission and the values of her department through outstanding service, leadership, and accountability.

And whereas Officer Ramos has distinguished herself as one of the agency's strongest field training officers, maintaining training documentation that is widely regarded as unparalleled in its accuracy, thoroughness, and professionalism.

And by not only meeting but evaluating, uh excuse me, elevating the standards of the field training program.

And whereas she has shown a genuine investment in the development and mentorship of new officers, taking personal ownership of their success and directly contributing to the overall strength and future of the department.

And whereas Officer Ramos has demonstrated notable growth and competence while serving as an acting sergeant on the Charlie shift, effectively balancing supervisory responsibilities alongside her primary duties with adaptability, sound judgment, and leadership potential.

And whereas she has consistently volunteered to cover shifts, often on short notice and beyond normal expectations, while maintaining exceptional performance, a positive attitude, and an engaging presence that strengthens both her squad and the department as a whole.

Whereas in recognition of her dedication, professionalism, leadership, and work ethic, the command staff has selected Officer Selena Remos as the 2025 Officer of the Year.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the City Council of the City of Gulfport does hereby recognize and commend Officer Selena Ramos for her outstanding service and dedication to the community and proudly congratulates her upon being named 2025 Officer of the Year.

Be it further.

One more sentence to read.

Be it further proclaimed that the City Council encourages all residents to join in expressing sincere appreciation and congratulations.

Okay, Mary, you need to hand this to her, okay?

Okay.

Oh Mary's cool.

This is actually signed by here.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Okay, then moving right along, because we do have several presentations tonight.

By the way, if there's a seat open next to you, please raise your hand in case anybody still wants to have a seat.

Now you know where the empty spots are.

Okay.

Our next presentation is going to be from Miss Linda Fisher with Forward Panellus.

You know, I think as soon as this council came into office, we pretty quickly started talking about ADUs.

We didn't have the rights to move forward.

We had to get, you know, jump through a couple of hoops, and we have done that now.

So for those of you that aren't familiar, ADUs are auxiliary dwelling units, something that other cities are doing and something that we've talked about.

So it's all yours, Linda.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So we are making good progress on the ADU study.

Tonight I am presenting the findings of Task Two, evaluating the potential impacts of allowing ADUs.

Before I start, I just want to mention that there is proposed legislation, state legislation that would require local governments to allow ADUs.

This is Senate Bill 48.

Even though we're we're winding down in the session, it's still in play.

It was passed by the Senate a month ago.

But the House has not taken it up.

And there's a disagreement because the Senate wants to allow local governments to prohibit their use as short-term rentals, but the House doesn't want that.

And that's what caused the bill to fail last year.

So we've got 10 days left in session, and we will see what happens with this bill.

But one way or another, we will be prepared and we'll continue with our study.

So the assessment tonight has five parts experiences of peer communities with ADUs, projections for how many ADUs Gulfport could potentially see, impacts that they might have on services and facilities, and at the neighborhood level, and then lastly, coastal and floodplain consideration.

So I've listed all of the citations in a technical memo that I will make available to staff in case anybody wants to dig into it.

So starting with the peer communities.

They exempted ADUs from the density calculation and eliminated minimum lot and unit sizes.

And the market responded.

Between 2019 and 2021, they saw about 42 new ADUs built each year.

In 2022, they went even further.

They expanded the areas where they could be built and streamlined the permitting process.

And since then they've seen about a hundred new ADUs built each year.

Things have been a little different in the unincorporated county.

They cover more land and a lot more diverse neighborhoods and communities.

But between 2019 and 2023, they still only saw about three ADUs per year.

In 2024, they increased the maximum size and streamlined the permitting process, but still the market hasn't responded at least so far.

And they've only seen about five new ADUs built each year since then.

So why are so many more ADUs built in St.

Pete?

There are a few reasons.

St.

Pete has fewer restrictions.

They don't require the owner to live on site, and they waive off street parking requirements in some cases.

Demand for rental has been very strong in the neighborhoods around downtown.

And those neighborhoods are also compact and walkable, which attracts and supports a greater variety of housing types.

And as a result, the city has attracted developers who are experienced at building ADUs.

And all that creates a critical mass that encourages more ADU growth.

The two local governments have faced similar concerns from the public.

What will it do to neighborhood character?

What about parking?

Will they be used as short-term rentals?

But once the ADU regulations were passed, neither St.

Pete nor the county saw those fears realized on any kind of widespread basis.

A few neighbors have concerns with drainage or parking or short-term rentals, but these are localized issues and they can be addressed individually.

And some of the complaints are actually from people who are building ADUs or want to build ADUs who just want the permitting process to be easier.

Also, neither local government has seen ADUs strain public services or infrastructure because the numbers are just really too small.

So which of these two very different market responses should we use as a model?

Everything I see points to St.

Pete being the better example.

They're geographically closer to Gulfport than most of the county.

They have a similar urban form with walkable neighborhoods and a defined city center.

Your real estate markets tend to overlap.

Person who's house hunting in St.

Pete is a lot more likely to expand their search to Gulfport or vice versa than somebody who's house hunting in the North County.

And the same is true of developers.

If I'm a builder who builds ADUs in St.

Pete, it's a lot easier for me to expand to a neighboring community with a similar urban form than somewhere else.

And you can see this in aerial photographs.

At the top of the slide is the Stetson area of Gulfport.

And this is Crescent, the Crescent Heights neighborhood in St.

Pete that's in the historic part of the city that has the most ADUs.

And you can see that the street grid is similar, they've all got straight lines, the blocks, the houses, and the lots are all about the same size.

Compare that with unincorporated Palm Harbor, which is pretty typical for North County neighborhoods.

The houses and lots are bigger, and the street network is basically spaghetti.

I don't know what their block size is because I can't tell where the blocks are.

But it's it's very different from Gulfport.

So how do we translate the St.

Pete experience to a projection for Gulfport?

Well, first I looked at St.

Pete ADU growth over two time periods.

Since 2019, the city saw an average growth rate equal to 3% of eligible parcels over 10 years.

So I use that for the lower projection, excuse me.

The last three years have been their most active, with average growth equal to 4.2% of eligible parcels over 10 years, and I use that for the higher projection.

Once we know the rates that we want to use, then we need to look at Gulfport's eligible parcels.

And the previous direction that I heard from the council was to look at the R1 and R1A zoning districts outside of the coastal high hazard area.

So I focused on those areas, but I'll also show some exist uh additional zoning districts and inside the CHHA for comparison.

Sorry.

Get rid of it.

Allergy season for me.

So this is the number of single-family detached parcels as classified by the property appraiser's office in five zoning districts, both inside and outside the CHHA.

The policy direction areas cover 1,655 parcels.

Applying the higher and lower growth rates to those eligible parcels gives you the number of ADUs that could be built over 10 years.

And I apologize, there's a typo on this slide.

My range is written in correctly here.

I should have added the RA, R1 and R1A districts.

So it would for the policy areas, it would be a range of 49 to 69 ADUs over 10 years.

Just for comparison, if we look at all of those possible parcels and the highest growth rate, that could be a maximum of 150 ADUs over 10 years.

But that 49 to 69 range is the better one to use.

So given those numbers, what impacts could new ADUs have on public facilities and services.

Would the units are smaller, so the households are smaller, they have fewer school-aged children, they don't have large lawns that need watering, they generate less wastewater, and they don't have long driveways that create additional impervious surface.

New single family houses would also have to go somewhere, which means new neighborhoods or subdivisions.

But ADUs fit into existing neighborhoods.

So they connect to existing water and sewer pipes, existing routes for garbage and recycling, and existing service areas for first responders.

They do increase some demand on the service on these services, but it's typically incremental and manageable over time.

So what about impacts in neighborhoods?

Well, according to the Florida Department of Transportation, each new dwelling unit adds five to seven vehicle trips per day.

But a typical neighborhood street can accommodate 500 to 1,000 trips per day.

I was surprised it was that high.

But that works out to about three cars every two minutes over a 10-hour period.

So the traffic impact of a few ADUs per street will be should be very minor.

Parking is often a bigger concern, but even here, based on the typical uh curb length per house, assuming one vehicle per household using the street, you could accommodate as many as three to four ADUs per 10 houses with on-street parking on a typical street.

Now, with a caveat that every street is different, and you might still have complaints in localized areas.

For property values, adding an ADU is typically a net win for the property owner.

There might be a small negative effect on neighboring properties, but this is typically seen in areas where you have clusters of poorly designed or managed units, and you can mitigate those effects with design standards and code enforcement.

Neighborhood character is more difficult to quantify, but that's typically addressed through standards, land development regulations governing things like building size, height, setbacks, and so forth.

And we'll be looking very carefully at those elements in the remainder of the study.

And noise and privacy can be addressed through many of those same regulations.

There is also the issue of short-term rentals.

Even if they aren't allowed where you are considering putting ADUs, they sometimes tend to appear anyway.

So it will be important to enforce your regulations.

Now, one way of mitigating the effect of short-term rentals is to require the property owner to live on site.

But just as an FYI, if that Senate Bill 48 does pass, that will cut off that option.

So just something to keep in mind.

Linda, one question.

Because we already have a short-term rental, short-term rental ordinance.

If the law is passed, that will override us as well, meaning we can't say not in Gulfport because we don't allow them in that area.

Short-term rentals, you're okay.

It's the Senate Bill 48 is the mandatory ADU bill, and that will forbid you from requiring the property owner to live on site.

So that's the that's the preemption.

Many times if you have short-term rentals, legal or otherwise, if you have if you have an ADU, you can require the property owner to live on site, and that way if it is used as a short-term rental, then that mitigates things like noise, parking, typically because the property owner has to deal with all those impacts.

Would they be like we have areas that where you can't have short-term rentals, period?

Would that still apply?

It would still apply.

So that's just something to watch out for, and you'll want to enforce all the regulations you can, but that Senate bill, if it does pass, might cut off some of those options.

Okay, thank you.

So overall, the impact of ADUs on neighborhoods is typically not as impactful as residents often fear.

And there are best practices for managing all of these effects that we talked about.

So the last topic I'll cover is coastal and floodplain issues.

Even if ADUs aren't going into the coastal high hazard area, uh residents may still need to evacuate or want to evacuate during a storm.

Countywide, we already fall short of the public sec uh shelter spaces that we would need for a worst case evacuation scenario.

But typically the rates of people seeking public shelter falls far short of those planning scenarios because people prefer to shelter with friends and family or other places.

Um the numbers of new ADU residents would be so small that it's very unlikely that they would affect evacuation and shelter rates.

If you were to allow ADUs in the FEMA special flood hazard area, we would need to look at whether uh that could affect your community rating system score for the national flood insurance program.

Uh I wasn't able to find a conclusive answer for that.

It's something that would have to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Um, but since that wasn't the desire to go into the CHA, I didn't I didn't uh pursue that any further, uh, other than to find out that more housing units don't automatically uh mean a lower score.

Uh but since you have said that you want to exclude ADUs from the coastal high hazard area, uh that would also exclude the special flood hazard area.

Now on that map, the special flood hazard area is shown in transparent yellow, and you'll see that you can see almost no yellow on that map.

It's green because it's laying on top of the blue coastal high hazard area.

So if you exclude this the coastal high hazard area, you are also excluding the special flood hazard hazard area, and the CRS wouldn't be an issue in that case.

So would that be AE areas basically?

V and AE.

Uh yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

So those are the factors included in the impact assessment.

Um, if you are satisfied with this, then uh the next task uh will be for me to draft the actual regulations and start working on them with the planning and zoning board, and then ultimately to bring them back to you for your consideration.

And that is my presentation.

If there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Uh we'll go in speaking order if there's any questions, Vice Mayor.

Uh you answered my questions, but um I'm all for this, and I thank you for your presentation.

It basically confirms what I've read and and talked to other people about.

So I think it's a great idea.

It answered many of my questions as well, so thank you so much.

And um, I I was particularly interested in that traffic slide too, because that's a conversation we'll be having, and I'd like to read that and see how that may or may not fit into our discussions on that.

Okay.

Um, do you um mention about um how that might affect police and fire?

Uh just to note that uh because you're not building a new subdivision, it doesn't extend the area that first responders have to cover.

Um again, typically the the numbers are not so great that they affect service areas for those those uses of those responders.

Thank you.

I have a clarifying question.

So if we write it up that we do want it to be owner, the owner has to be on site, but then Bill 48 goes through that waif that out.

Is that what you're saying?

Yes.

And the likelihood of that the Senate passed it a month ago, and the House has been ignoring it.

So my personal feeling is it's probably not going anywhere this year, but never say never.

But we could write it up right now and have it like that for the whole year.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I don't have any additional questions.

I've been following that bill real close to my understanding is is that they actually have kind of killed that bill and put it as an amendment onto the live local bill.

Um, but even at that, there's no meeting of the mines, and we're so late in the session that it's probably not going to go anywhere.

Yeah, we uh we're tracking everything, um, but I don't have an answer to that right now.

We don't really know what's gonna happen.

Right, I know, nobody can predict.

So I think um I know myself I'd like to see the city get ADUs, and I know when this council was new and they talked about it, we definitely had more consensus than disagreement, and we were just kind of waiting to get the go ahead.

Um so I think that uh we'll probably you know get back to you real soon.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

All right, and then for our second presentation, we've got uh Mr.

Justin Keller here, president of advanced engineering design.

Some of you might remember that we had a very intense stormwater um presentation from him, and then we gave him some feedback, and now he's gonna come back and give us feedback on the feedback and what he thinks is the best systems.

I think that's called a feedback feedback loop, right?

Yeah, so uh Justin Keller with advanced engineering again always appreciate the opportunity uh to present to the council.

Uh wanted to go ahead and um provide a brief uh brief kind of synopsis of the WMP.

User error on my part.

So there we go.

All right, so uh what we're gonna highlight is um we had a um lengthy discussion and got some good feedback from the council in the November 18th meeting.

Um we're gonna be talking about how we incorporated that into our final recommendations.

Um we're also gonna present some recommended next steps in order to provide a recommendation to the council as far as uh how we see moving forward.

We're gonna summarize the tasks uh performed to date and then also um leave it open for discussion at the end and of course questions.

All right, to me and you, sorry.

We're gonna tag to you.

All right.

So um one of the key aspects any time we're developing a project is we want to share the assumptions uh that we make.

Uh this is a slide that we went over at the November meeting, but I felt it'd be worthwhile to discuss it again.

Uh number one is that we want to make sure that when we are evaluating these uh proposed improvements to understand their benefits, that we are consistent.

All the model variables remain the same, tide elevations, so on and so on so forth.

Um we also are assuming that there are no city buyouts.

Uh, none of these projects propose um any sort of large-scale resident buyout to where we buy homes either within or adjacent to a floodplain and convert them for stormwater management.

Um it's important to us that we spread the wealth, although um, like many communities, there are certain um hot spots.

We want to make sure that when we present projects that we try to um distribute the projects equitably around the community.

Um also um this is stormwater 101, do no harm.

Um we can make a lot of improvements and just pass the buck downstream.

Um, but obviously anything we do, we have to make sure that not only do we realize benefits in that immediate area, but downstream and upstream, we do not um you know pass the buck to somebody else.

Um we also want to consider scale.

Um, you know, there are certain uh let's say more drastic measures uh that any entity could take.

Um but we wanted to make sure that we were mindful of the complexity and financial commitments um that each project would represent.

Um we want to minimize order dependency to where we want to have it to where um although we do have a scenario to where uh one project must be done before another, we do want to try to make them stand alone to where uh the city can uh review them all, assess their priorities, and make the call as they see fit.

Um, and then also to um everything is in today's dollars.

Um it's important that um, you know, because obviously um the council and staff uh determine uh the timing of any project.

So what we do is we present in today's dollars, and then during the actual CIP process is when it would be equated to future dollars, depending on when and if it gets slated.

So uh the first uh project we like to highlight is the adaptation plan.

Uh this is something that we discussed not only during the watershed management presentation, but also the vulnerability assessment.

Um and what this does is this uh this effort sets the stage for future planning.

Um, you know, we just heard about ADUs within coastal high hazard.

Again, you know, this kind of aligns to where um how how do you want to make sure that the city is resilient moving forward?

Um this builds upon the vulnerability assessment.

The vulnerability assessment was a study that kind of says here's what happens.

The adaptation plan is what are you gonna do about it?

Um and uh it also provides an opportunity for community and community engagement and feedback.

Um it is a one a study that is a hundred percent funded through Resilient Florida's program uh to where if if we are fortunate enough um to get the funds, that is something to where it'd be zero cost to the city in the end once the reimbursement is complete.

And that is estimated at $250,000.

And this schedule is prepared based upon a submission when the resilient Florida timeline ends in September 1st of this year.

The funds would typically be available in June of 27, which would put us at completion around February 2029.

This is a project that was added based upon the council's feedback.

This is BMP 3, which is improvements at 60th Street and 20th Avenue.

This is about adding inlets, reconstructing roadways in order to collect the water in a more efficient manner.

We would also add some additional piping again in order to connect those ones together.

So this this identifies a schedule which would propose the project being constructed construction completion by the end of 2028.

The marina tide of flooding flooding mitigation project, as many of you likely know, the marina area is one of the lower areas in the city.

However, because it is so low, there are challenges when elevated tides are experienced.

So what this is is this is more or less a pilot project that we would look into that also has it as a public facing element and a flood protection element to it as well.

And they are actuating valves that would be connected to a gauge that reads the water levels in real time, not only in the bay, but also rainfall levels within the pool pooled rainfall levels within the roadway.

And there would be a there would be a logic controller that would tell the valve on or off.

What this does is it provides some of the benefits that let's say a backflow preventer would provide without some of the challenges, which is backflow preventers have uh need additional head to open.

So this is uh more or less uh the best of both worlds.

So there um there is not a schedule identified for this because it is dependent on state funding.

Um, and we are um estimating our pre-design estimate is 1.5 million for this pursuit.

And if we applied for funds for this as well, y yes, there was an application submitted this year.

So uh this so this project is also one that was requested this year.

Um, and this is not necessarily a BMP, so to speak, but this is a project that again can have uh um stormwater benefits.

This is the police and fire rapid response roadway improvement project.

Um it focuses on improving stormwater collection and reducing spread of flow.

Um again, in some of these older areas, uh, one of the challenges is you have inconsistent longitudinal longitudinal slopes, uh, you have cross slopes that um are atypical and vary throughout the drive.

So, really what this project does is it provides improved stormwater collection and better drivability along the southern end of the city's uh complex to improve ingress and egress in and out of the site.

Um it um it it correlates to BMP uh to one of the BMPs, and and we'll talk about that here.

Um, but again, this schedule is depending uh dependent upon state funding with a pre-designed estimate of 3.75 million.

And and so this is a this is a stormwater focused expansion of the police and fire rapid response project.

Initially, we proposed a um, and we still are proposing this, it's just an alternate.

Um there is flooding that we essentially want to collect the water and we want to discharge it to the bay in order to get it out quicker.

And what what this project does is it um expands upon some of the council's feedback as far as how can we use green areas a bit more strategically.

Um in modeling this, you can see we have the uh the pink polygons, which demonstrates uh climber park excavating out that area and using it for stormwater management.

Um this would provide similar results um to BMP one, which was presented as solely the piped option.

Uh the one difference is that this would allow for a smaller pipe, um, a smaller outfall pipe.

So we can either have a larger box culvert or we build the pond and we have a smaller pipe leaving to the bay.

Um the cost is pretty comparison uh pretty comparable um to the initial version of the project, but I do think that as we if we were to get into design, that there could be some cost savings in the utility location, utility relocation and impact aspect of the project.

Um anytime you have a bigger pipe, you have more chance of having utility impacts, and that has a dollar uh value associated to it as well.

So um there could be benefits realized on the back end as far as minimizing the utility disturbances.

BMP 7.

Um there is a home at the corner of uh Wood Ibis Park and uh 59th Street, and um one of the comments was there's a parcel that may be up for sale, and how how can we use that in a strategic manner for stormwater improvements?

Um we did a preliminary engineering report that looked at the Wood Ibis area um independently.

So we wanted to make sure that how can we provide an additional recommendation that focuses on this parcel.

Um so this you know, one of the things that uh you know, one of the one of the benefits the city has that uh was just shared walkability, density, urban environment.

Um that's also a challenge for stormwater.

So um the area we need to let's say construct meaningful stormwater facilities is larger than a single lot.

But if we do have a single lot, we can be slick with kind of how we do this.

And um, for this project, what we're proposing is we we would have a gentle um depressional area with native Florida plantings like a bioswale, if you will, and we would utilize a stormwater pump station in order to discharge the water via a pump system.

Now, this would not reduce floodplain volumes to where when you get your 25-year and 100-year storm, it would still flood to the same amount.

But what this would do is this would allow you to recover quicker to where um we identified that you would have about 12 hours of roadway flooding during the storm, and it would reduce it to about four.

So um, you know, although the maximum stages or those maximum flood elevations um suggests that the project doesn't have effectiveness, it actually does, and um it's really about just lessening the duration of the impact more so than lessening the impact itself.

The inclusion of uh bioswales and native plantings provides an uh an opportunity for stormwater quality improvement, and um the stormwater pump station, again, as I mentioned, would be used to focus on recovery, not necessarily flood reduction.

And this has a um a pre-designed estimate of uh 2.2 million.

Uh BMP number eight, again, this is focusing on the same theme of using uh or evaluating opportunities to use green space for stormwater management.

Uh Tomlson Park actually has a stormwater facility uh to the north of the two ball fields.

Um this hypothetical project proposed removing the northern ball field and expanding the pond uh to cover uh to cover that area.

Um there's a lot of water that's generated north of 22nd and uh you know within this area here in the Tangerine pond area.

And so uh we certainly did see some meaningful benefits.

We do realize that in order to really um in order to really um maximize on these, we have to route water to the 49th Street system.

Um there's a large 49th Street system that actually has capacity.

So this is a rare situation in Pinellas County to where there's an opportunity to pump more water into the existing system without having it pop out of the ground.

Um so this project maximizes or let's say uses that facility that has some capacity in it and um provides a degree of flood protection.

It does not meet your level of service, but it will provide benefit.

And so this project is estimated at uh 5.3 million dollars.

So as far as the recommended next steps, um we would recommend that we uh that um we continue with uh pursuing the adaptation plan grant application.

Again, that is due in September of this year.

Um, and if we're fortunate enough to get the funding, those funds would be awarded in uh around July of 27.

Um we also recommend that you pursue the following projects BMP 3, which is the 60th Street and 20th Avenue stormwater improvements, BMP six, which is the marina title flooding reduction project, and the police and fire rapid response roadway improvements, which is roadway project that does have some um secondary and impactful stormwater benefits to it.

And you'll note here that um the adaptation plan has a grant window coming up, and uh two of these projects were already submitted for state appropriations this year.

So to put a bow on the presentation, um we have 10 BMPs in total that we evaluated, four of them utilize green space, um, either for um stormwater or say for flood reduction or for housing a facility, like the Wood IBIS uh proposal presents.

Um there were some smaller green spaces that we evaluated.

Uh Coldwell Park was a location that was identified, uh the rec center as well.

Um, you know, a lot of times when you have these small areas, just the you know, the juice isn't worth the squeeze, um, to where you know, in order to have impactful flood, you know, flood benefits, you need you need land in order to, you know, in order to convert the green areas uh to a pond.

Um the project presented um and we provided some recommendations to certainly solicit the council's feedback.

Um and then we also wanted to share that um we have been working with city staff in the background that funding acquisition has already been um you know is already underway.

Um when we get the final answers, we will certainly share those, uh likely through staff, and we will continue to look at opportunities for grant funding.

Um a couple of ones that we already are eyeing in addition to the resilient Florida.

Um the good news is that with the vulnerability wrapping up, um that is you will now be eligible for resilient Florida funds through the implementation side of the program.

Uh that is a that is uh it's a competitive program, but there are there's a good chunk of change there at the state level, and um that requires a 50% match.

So I know we've talked a lot, and so I just want to make sure that um you know we've we've provided all the necessary feedback requested of the council and here to answer any questions.

Okay, we'll go in speaking order.

Um the ones that we've applied for this year, I know was the marina one and the fire um scheme.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, the police and rapid response fire rapid response.

Um and we'll hear when the final budget's done, and I think that that they have to have the budget by July 1st.

Yeah, so um uh the I tend to not follow the play by play because I've got my heart ripped out a couple times.

Um so I tend to just say, okay, what budget did the governor sign, and then I'll look from there.

Um I do believe one of the projects made it in I want to say the Senate's budget, but I understand that there's some uh discussions that happen during the budget conference, and that can get added back.

And so that's why I uh I try to keep my sanity and just see what the governor signs and go from there.

And would either of those require matching funds from us?

So the state appropriation does identify um that the city has committed a certain amount of funds.

Um for example, the police and rapid response or the police and fire rapid response, um, that project is estimated about 3.75 um three million was requested with a 750,000 dollar match.

Umlike a conventional grant opportunity, uh the state appropriation um does not require you to put that that match in writing, but the city, in my experience with the city, the city has in good faith always um committed to that match and and move forward with that understanding that what was committed to in the application will be followed through on the back end.

And I know that Tampa Bay Regional Planning helps with that adaptations um grants, but uh I I presume you could you would write that yourself, and they probably either you you would get it from the same place, they would get the funds, right?

Yes, it's it's state of Florida.

Um we've we've been uh we've been successful in getting those uh funded in the past, and um you know, knock on wood, we certainly hope that's the same thing coming up this year.

Um and we you know obviously with the council's blessing, our our intention would would be to submit on your behalf.

Okay, and and just you know, when I was thinking of that house on um 27th and 59th, my thought was to close that street, so it would go from that lot across the street into the park because that that whole area in front of the house floods terribly, and so you might as well you know people could go around.

But anyway, that was just the idea, but it doesn't have to happen that way, obviously.

Anyway, that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions, thank you.

All righty.

Um, does this include a maintenance cost in your plan?

All these costs are um are our upfront capital.

Okay.

So yeah, so so there is no maintenance cost.

Um certainly it's it's important for us to make sure that any time we move to the final design stage that we are aware that we're not signing the city up for what I would call atypical maintenance.

Um, but no, these um these these numbers do not include a specific maintenance dollar to my other question is just um is there any like removing of pollutants that you have factored into any of these pumps or so you know the um so the ponds that we propose there there would be a water quality or a pollutant removal element to them.

Um and also for the wood Ibis project, um, we wouldn't envision what would be called like pre-treatment, and what that is is that we would run it through a bioswill to remove a degree of pollutants before being discharged.

Um and um and also I believe for the um for the BMP 1 and 1A, which is the bigger version of the uh police and fire rapid response.

I keep on saying that pretty quick, that's good.

Um and um so for that project, there is an offline stormwater treatment structure proposed at the downstream end.

Um so we we certainly do try to look for opportunities, um, strategic opportunities to to address water quality improvements in these.

Thanks.

Yep, thank you.

Um yeah, so I love what you said about time Linson and the fact that you could utilize 49th.

Is there any way you could not take away one of our ball fields to do it?

Can I challenge you to do that?

To look for something else because it sounds like a great idea.

You know, that's um I hear your concern because to be honest, like so.

When we initially came in November um, I've gotten yelled at for trying to suggest using parks.

Um because of this reason, you know, because eventually you're you're you're gonna be trading out one benefit for the other.

Right.

And um a lot of people don't value stormwater like they do a park, although I'm a nerd, I love stormwater, but you know, I mean a lot of people don't.

So um that is certainly something to where once once we had the council's feedback to to evaluate that, um, we had to look for large swaths of land that can do it, and unfortunately, a baseball field is one of them.

Now we try to be nice and only take out one, um, you know, to where I mean taking out two would be more impactful, but it does um it does get into the larger discussion of what the city prioritizes.

I know I understand that.

And there's a lot of kids.

No, yeah, no.

Okay.

All right.

But we can talk about it again without the ballpark.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, and and these are you know, these these projects are certainly um just because they're on paper now in this form doesn't mean that they cannot take the sh take a different shape.

Yeah, um so focusing on the immediate area of concern, which is Tomlson Park, and seeing that green space, although it's valuable, it was available.

Um that is something that we took the opportunity to evaluate to see what the benefit would be.

I I like that, and the fact that there's room at 49th and all of that, but maybe it's gonna be a little different.

Yeah, it it felt a little dirty drawn upon over ball field, I ain't gonna lie.

So thanks, Justin.

Thank you.

You got it.

Well, I'll tell you just uh within the last 48 hours.

I talked to a couple of the parents from Little League.

And I'll tell you that they don't have their schedule for opening game, which is real soon, which opening season, because they have so many more kids this year that they're trying to figure out how they can possibly do the schedule to uh to accommodate everybody.

So there is a lot of kids, it's wonderful.

Yeah, so now the league is growing, is what I learned the other day.

So it's funny that you would even dare to suggest to say those words.

I'll grow the beard out a little bit more, so that's fine.

Okay.

So um th first of all, thank you so much for this presentation, because this is like the real meat and potatoes that you know means something because we're not engineers, and so this this presentation was extremely helpful.

And I also appreciate the fact that you did take into consideration some of the feedback that we gave him, and it's very that we gave you, and it's very obvious.

So um when it when it comes to the when we talk a little bit about climber park, um are you I just wanted to be clear, are you suggesting that we would literally have uh dig down deep enough that we'd have ponds here all the time, or are we talking about we would create some pretty good size swells that when they're dry people can still walk and play and their dogs can do whatever?

something because we're not engineers and so this this presentation was extremely helpful and I also appreciate the fact that you did take into consideration some of the feedback that we gave him and it's very that we gave you and it's very obvious so um when it when it comes to the when we talk a little bit about climber park um are you I just wanted to be clear are you suggesting that we would literally have uh dig down deep enough that we'd have ponds there all the time or are we talking about we would create some pretty good size swells that when they're dry people can still walk and play and their dogs can do whatever but when we have the floods we don't care about that we want to keep the water out of the houses so what extreme are we talking about are we even there to answer that question so when when when we are going to look at green space um we don't want to nibble around the edges because from an evaluation standpoint it's important to report what the up what what project X could yield from a flood benefit for this specific location um we did propose that we would be more or less cutting down to the groundwater table um it would be um in this design it would be a wet pond so it would be um it it would have a varying degree water elevation based upon the season the season we're in but it would be one to where we wanted to maximize our volume kind of getting back to my comment of um when you are you know they showed that picture a St.

or um the prior present presenter showed the picture of St.

Pete and Gulfport what wasn't in that picture ponds and and and go go look at Pasco County go look at Hernando County where they're building new subdivisions you got a good percentage of that land being allocated towards the pond.

Right so um when you see the green in a stormwater standpoint you know we got to look at how much benefit it can provide and and in this case that's impactful.

Now the second part comes like people like their parks and how do we make it to where we can accomplish both and um you know if we make it a wet pond it could be a water feature could we put a recreational path around it could we um you know make it a art walk and put the art around it in order to kind of bring in certain certain the elements that the city likes and that's certainly something that I think as you go forward with a project as impactful as this that requires a substantial financial commitment I definitely think that those elements have to be considered for this stage dig a hole as deep as we can go and see what it can do.

Okay so then are we talking about one block of climber park or two blocks of two blocks of climber parking back to the ball field question okay it's two blocks two blocks so might we be able to have a compromise if one is a wet pond then maybe the other one is a deep swell that'll hold it during the worst of our events but it'll dry out relatively quickly for play yeah no and and you know kind of uh to the comment earlier these are um the these can be shaped as the city desires so if if this was determined to be um not worthwhile pursuit and it had to be modified then that can certainly be done.

Now I will say that um if we take out half of the storage then we can expect that we're gonna spend also a similar amount of money and not get as much benefit.

Right.

So um one of the things that we would want to look at is to see okay if we did incorporate that naturally we would not have the same improvement to where you know and and we would just want to make sure that we could accurately report to you as far as here's option A with both of these blocks of climate park being removed here's the benefit here's option B with let's say a hybrid version of that and here are the benefits um are we we wanted to demonstrate what this project could do as we scale back for various reasons the improvements would scale back but that still doesn't mean that it couldn't be something worthwhile looking at okay um thank you I do understand the answer and I I understand cost experience yeah um then the only other one I had was um on wood Ibis um and I think that's down the road enough that but I'm just wondering you know when you talk about a bio swell um in there um with a pump system great I was just wondering did we ever check to do you know what the water table is there meaning is it possible for us to do one of of two things or both these things can we take the pond and wood ibis now can we take and make that any deeper or are we gonna just hit water and to how about the creek that comes into it can we make that deeper or wider to hold more water so for from uh let's get to the question of wood ibis and if we dredge it um if you dredge wood ibis the water level will not drop essentially what you're seeing now is the groundwater table manifesting itself in the open area now if you dredge it you will get additional treatment volume to where you know there if if if you you know dredged a hole 40 feet below the water level you're not gonna get flood protection but you can get additional treatment benefits um so right now kind of the bottom of that cup is your water table and that's what you see when you walk out to wood ibis right now so so really and and that's that's part of the challenge

Essentially, what you're seeing now is the groundwater table manifesting itself in the open area.

Now, if you dredge it, you will get additional treatment volume to where you know there if if if you you know dredged a hole 40 feet below the water level, you're not gonna get flood protection, but you can get additional treatment benefits.

Um right now, kind of the bottom of that cup is your water table, and that's what you see when you walk out to Wood Ibis right now.

So, really, and and that's that's part of the challenge when you work in low-line areas with high groundwater tables.

I grew up in Shore Acres, that's like that's it.

You got to go wide.

And in Pinellas County, wide is not good, you know, because land land is at a premium.

You've answered all my questions.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Mayor, I do have a question now, and I'm really glad that you asked what you did about the swale versus pond at at Climber Park, because uh I recalled it being swale, and then what made me question that when you said pond was exactly what you just said about climate um Wood Ibis, because I remember that from before.

So why would that at Clymer Park be different than at Wood Ibis then, if it was going to be just the just the um at Clymer Park, there's enough land to make a dent into the flooding problem.

And and more or less, if we have big areas and we're able to excavate and and provide flood benefits, then that is that is worthwhile in this stormwater evaluation environment.

With Wood Ibis with that individual lot, there there's just not there's not going to be any tangible flood benefits.

But what I'm trying to understand is if Wood Ibis will only by dredging it will only increase water or improve water quality, but not help flooding.

Like why is why is climber park different?

Why is exactly so climber park has a lot higher uh climber park's a lot higher elevation-wise.

Okay.

Um, yeah, like like what like when you look at the city, Wood Ibis is really Wood Ibis um is the historic coastline of the city.

And then PYCC got built, and uh, and and that more or less that that marsh area with the ditch where that natural area goes to, like that was the old coastline before they developed.

Um so Wood Ibis is is much lower, and so you can dig a lot deeper in Clymer Park, and you can um you can get more volume between grade and the groundwater table at Climber Park.

Thank you.

And what about in Tomlinson?

You know how uh on First Avenue North, there's a ball field that's Bear Creek, yeah?

Yeah, so that's that's that's a floodable park.

Yes, that's a floodable park, and you know, and you see how big that is?

That's that's big and isn't that big, right?

Well, what no, uh uh well Thomson has some good size and it provides some benefits, um, but it I don't believe it's as big as that Bear Creek facility.

But but would it be able to be like could you dig it out and still use it for a ball field when it's dry, or do you are you thinking a permanent pond?

Well, it for this one it would it would be a permanent pond, just because it if if if you were to make it to where it was a floodable park, um you still have to reasonably have it be a park, you know, to where it still would have to dry out certain amount of times, and that means more or less what you're doing is you're elevating the bottom of that facility to where you're limiting storage in order to maximize play.

And so um with the Bear Creek, that was a creek facility to where they had the ability because really it's not only the park, but actually, if you look on that embankment as you're heading west on First Avenue, it goes down pretty significantly.

Um that's a good amount of volume.

And um you'll notice too the difference between the road and kind of the static water level in Bear Creek is decent for Pinellas County.

Um so that that's really you know that that floodable park because of the unique situation that that's in, and you got the land and the groundwater table is favorable, that that works there.

Um with you know, again, we could look at a floodable park for for Tomlison, but again, what we're doing then is now now we're removing the storage to to improve the likelihood of play, and there just isn't a stormwater benefit for that.

Well, we'll have to have boat rentals or something on there, whatever.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All righty.

And now we're gonna move to our third presentation, which has been given by Miss Amy Bradlow.

Good.

I was gonna say I don't know what you look like, so I didn't know how to find you.

Okay.

And you are with Pete PBK architects who have done our designs for the senior center in the past.

So we're very excited to hear what you have to say.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

I'm Ward Frisolowski.

I'm president of PBK Architects.

With me is Amy Bradlow.

She is a registered architect, and she's been a colleague of mine for almost 20 years.

She's a principal with the firm and she heads up our civic practice of the entire firm.

Also with us is Felipe Delgado in the audience.

Here he's an intern architect with the firm.

And also here is Mark Stalker.

Mark is president of Hennessy Construction.

If you're familiar with Hennessy Construction, they've been a construction company in this area for over a hundred years.

They work with us on a lot of different projects.

We asked them for complimentary service of as we do a study, what are the costs?

So we have some real-time costs from Mark and his team who really invested a lot of time, and I can't thank Mark enough.

They're a great company, and they understand this size.

They do projects that are smaller, they do projects that are larger.

But they're the right team member to have with us, so really appreciate what he's done.

Amy is going to go through the presentation, but I did want to say that we have all watched the previous meetings of the council.

And as you know, we did the original design.

Of course, there's a cost to that.

The fundraising didn't come quite through like everyone expected.

So we understand there's a need to make some changes.

And we did hear the vision of the mayor and the council that we need to change direction, take a look at renovating the existing building and doing some additions.

So Amy's going to run through three different scenarios that kind of carry out your vision, where we're trying to keep the senior center in operation, which is really important because that gets phenomenal use.

Take a look at a phase one, which would be an addition.

A phase two, which would be a second addition that would get it start to get close to the original square footage that we had envisioned previously.

And then the third renovate the third phase would be a renovation of the existing building.

So it kind of takes it into manageable bite-sized chunks that are also financially manageable.

So I'll let the real expert take over now, and that's Amy.

Thanks, Ward.

So we uh did a three-phase project uh like you all requested in the past.

Um the first thing we looked at is your land development regulations to see how big can we build an expansion to the existing facility as well as the Florida building code.

Um we can build approximately a 10,000 square foot expansion, which once added on to your existing facility, like Ward said, it comes close to the originally program size for the new facility.

Um of the biggest needs are just large multi-purpose rooms that you can use for different kinds of activities and classes.

So for phase one, we're showing two large multi-purpose rooms in the the red color.

Now that could be one big space with a um uh folding partition between, so you could have it's two spaces or is one large space, depending on what's going on.

In the yellow there, that is an expansion to the lobby, and we're looking at this from the library side of the facility.

Um you can see the theater is up there to the left side of the screen.

So this would be an expansion going south there.

And then in blue, we have restrooms, which would be uh to accommodate the expansion and the you know the occupants of that expansion.

So that would be uh phase one.

You'd be getting about um 4200 square feet with that phase one.

Now for phase two, we're showing three different options.

So uh the first one um we understand there was a uh an idea to build over the existing facility with a second floor.

So that's what we're showing here.

Um again, we're doing large multi-purpose rooms with the idea that uh you know we need to build these big spaces as um the expansion and then some of the smaller spaces like the offices and such um can be renovated in the uh in the final phase in the existing facility.

So one thing to note is that the existing building was not built to accommodate a second story.

So what you'll see here in uh yellow through going down through that second floor expansion, that's new columns that would have to penetrate through the existing building.

Um that means building new foundations, so it would be a pretty um extensive renovation or expansion, I should say.

Um, and you would have to shut down the entire facility during the construction of this option of phase two.

Um we're also showing uh additional restrooms here above those built in phase one, and uh the yellow is uh again circulation space to bring you up from the first floor into those new spaces.

Then in the dark red, that would be vertical circulation, stairs and elevators.

So we'd have a stair and an elevator here towards the right side of the screen, and then one additional egress stair over there closer to the theater.

We would have to have the two stairs as required by code.

So this would be option one for the expansion, phase two.

Option two would be just building up over the phase one expansion.

And the benefit of this is that we can design the phase one expansion to receive the phase two expansion in the future.

So it would be less costly and less complicated.

You wouldn't have to shut down the existing building during construction.

Of course, what's below the phase one expansion that would have to be shut down during construction for safety, but you still have use of a majority of the facility.

And then finally, the third option is just to continue building horizontally and uh and keep moving towards the library.

So this would be uh you wouldn't have to shut any part of the facility down during construction of this phase.

Um it would be the least costly option.

You would get a little bit more program area because we're not having to build stairs and elevators which eat into that amount that we're allowed to build by code.

Um so your uh multipurpose spaces will be slightly larger.

The downside is obviously we're taking up a lot of that parking lot.

Um so you we'd maybe still be able to get a little bit of parking, but it would be drastically reduced.

So we no matter which one of these options that we go with, we would have to talk about a parking variance of some sort because we're not able to really add any parking to accommodate the expansion that we're adding on the building.

And then finally, phase three would just be a renovation of the existing facility.

So at that point, you could occupy uh both the phase one and phase two expansions while the existing facility is being renovated.

So we've done just some renderings looking from the library towards the expansions just to give you an idea of how phase one might look.

Uh and we're just trying to keep some of the same materials of the existing center, but you know, bring in a uh more contemporary look, and uh this is you know done without the benefit of talking with any of you, so obviously it's open for uh discussion, but it's just one idea of how it might look.

And you can see we're adding a porca share for drop-offs uh at the at the front entry.

That's just another view, and then this is looking towards that uh multi-purpose room expansion.

So we did look at when we build phase one.

How can we reconfigure the parking lot to avoid losing parking?

And in phase one, we believe we can do that by going to 90 degree parking instead of the angled parking that's there now.

You will lose parking uh if we go with the phase uh I'm sorry, the option three of phase two.

That's an all-horizontal expansion.

So as Ward mentioned, Hennessy construction was really helpful in assisting us with doing cost estimates for each of the options.

So this is phase one.

Um your construction costs would be just a little over three million.

Um we've added an owner contingency of five percent.

That's really important, especially on renovation expansion projects because you know, if anything unforeseen comes up during construction or if uh the city feels need to make any changes, that gives you some some money to do that.

Uh FFE is furniture fixtures and equipment, so that's an additional cost, and then soft costs.

Uh, one thing to note on uh phase one here is that this includes some money that's already been spent on the design to work done to date of the uh the new construction option.

So that brings the grand total for phase one to a little over four million.

Now the various options for phase two, um, of course, uh option three is the least expensive.

That's the option where we go all horizontal.

Um, phase two, option two, which is going above phase one, that's about a 17% increase as compared to going all horizontal.

And then option one, which is building over the existing senior center, is the most expensive about 31% more expensive than going horizontal.

Um now these are all in today's dollars, so these all do not yet include any cost escalation depending on when phase two might be completed.

And then finally uh phase three, you're looking at in today's dollars, about 2.7 million in construction for a grand total of about 3.5.

And again, depending when phase three is completed, it it will increase.

Um that's everything we have for today, and we would welcome any questions.

Mayor, before we and council will be receiving a letter this evening to sign in support of what we recommend is the phase where you build on top of the in new section.

We for phase one, we'll be having a congressional community project ask of Congresswoman Luna of three million dollars.

We'll be in we're in the process now of gathering our information.

We need to submit that by Friday.

So that's to ask for a congressional appropriation.

Now we also have partners with the foundation, and of course the city has some dollars.

And regards to the soft cost, those dollars were a congressional appropriation, so we're still utilizing them as we proceed through the design phase.

Okay.

Okay.

So you okay, good, got it.

All right.

So do we have any questions, any comments?

Yeah.

Um, does this any of these?

I mean, I assume all these options require closing 27th Street.

Between no, these do not require that.

But if we did, that could give you the additional parking or some additional parking that you need, right?

Because I know that was a discussion before.

So just to clarify in the plan that you showed us the last time you did have where 27th would be one way and then you'd be forced into the library and from the library forced out the other way.

This is not including that.

That's correct.

27th would stay the same way as it is now.

Yes, right.

Good question.

Okay.

The reason why that had to be done before was we were keeping the existing building in operation and building the new building next to it.

And the only way you could do that was to affect the road.

Right.

So that's the good news here is that we're not affecting the road.

If we were to affect the road, we'd gain some parking, but then there's also the cost of doing all of that work too.

So then I guess I um the other question would be for the city manager about why you chose that one rather than the less expensive one of building, you know, uh because I kind of like the idea.

I mean, this this is more compact, but the other one without stairs and and elevators would be cheaper and less to maintain.

Well, we felt that we had talked about building it in one space, trying to keep it consistent, and council had talked about the possibility, and that was in the price range that we felt that we could manage and get more space.

If we do get the money from Luna, could we still choose to do the other thing?

Well, the money the first one would be the same anyway, right?

The bottom story.

Yes.

Um, what we're looking at is was if you wanted to change the project, this is still a renovation project.

If council chose to go in a different direction at that time, but what we're looking at is to take direction today to say, okay, that's why we came up with the number and for the ask.

Can you tell me the difference of the square footage on option two versus option three?

Uh the overall square footage is the same, but the uh multi-purpose space here in option two is uh three thousand square feet.

In option three, it's thirty nine hundred.

So you gain almost a thousand square feet of uh usable program space if you build up, if you build out or out.

Because if you build up, you need stairs and elevators, and those take out of the square footage we're allowed to build by code.

But but then we lose parking.

Yes.

Correct.

You're exactly right.

And we don't have a lot to lose.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so I guess my preference would be this one, because I think it's not it wouldn't be difficult to close 27th and get your parking that way, because I think you know, going around a block is not a big deal for anybody, but that's my thought.

Because I like not having the stairs in the elevators.

It's just one more thing to break.

All righty.

Councilmember Shaw.

So you started my question about square footage.

Initially, you mentioned 10,000 square feet.

Are all of them going to be an equivalent of 10,000 square feet increase?

It's approximately 10,000 square feet, it's a little less than that, and all of them are overall the same amount.

Okay.

But then the activity room uh square footage changes in each plan.

Is that what you're supposed to do?

Only on option three.

And the reason is we don't have the stairs and elevators.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um I don't think I have any other questions, but um, I am definitely curious, uh, kind of see what Rachel might have to say since she spends every day there.

So I had a similar thought.

So I'm wondering about how many people drive there.

I'm wondering about the library spaces.

I'm wondering about can we do another gems?

I think we could probably work that out.

I love that um phase two, option three build out.

It seems like the less of the cumbersome.

We're not moving around anyone quickly, you know.

So that would just be something for HL.

We could work it out.

Thank you.

Can you um help me one more time on the price of I wrote down the price of face of option two as 5.4 million, but I didn't write down the price for um option three, which is all the all one story.

Option three is um 4,681,740.

Okay.

Cheaper or less expensive.

Okay.

Do we have any more questions right now of the architect?

Because I am gonna ask Rachel to come up and give her thoughts.

Yes, please.

If you're comfortable options, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, really like it.

And really, um, when I was talking about going over the top of the second, that's because you know, one of our local businesses were doing it, and I didn't realize, yeah, but you know, it would cost so much more to get you know uh those all those beams in there to take the load.

So um I like the way you were doing it this way.

I know in the long run it costs less doing it that way.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay, no pressure, just yeah.

I think uh council member Jackson asked a good question.

You're there every day, in and out.

What are your thoughts?

My initial thought was option two of phase two, only because of the parking.

I know parking's a big issue here in the city.

So that was my initial um between option two and option three.

Um honestly I'm just happy to see the project going forward, to be honest.

Yeah, is the parking lot full, Rachel?

Yes.

Day to day.

It is.

And how many gems or loopers or what have you do we so we have four vehicles, um, two driving every day?

Um, but even that is only used when people that ride the gyms use it.

We we don't now our numbers of people that are coming to the senior center.

We obviously don't have that many cars coming.

Um but even with that, because there are people that come by a bus, they walk, dropped off, they get dropped off, all that sort of thing happens, but even still there are many times that our parking lots are full on both sides.

Many times.

Many times.

Yeah, would it be better in the expanded, you know, all one story?

Because that would be less disruptive, it wouldn't close down the other sections.

Would that be better?

That is what I understand.

Yeah.

Close or shut us down.

Right.

I didn't understand the question.

Between neither two or three would close down.

Not the main building, but but if you build on top of what you've just built, that closes down the stuff underneath.

Where if you build next to it, it doesn't close that down.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

All right.

Anything else?

So yeah, it does kind of come down about the whole parking because I've always thought that you were short parking to begin with.

And I also just heard you say the people that use the gems, and then you made some other statement as if I mean what percent do you know what percentage of people use gems versus drive their own cars?

Uh so I know that we have um oh gosh, I'm gonna say 110 gyms uh users uh that are paid for users of the GIMS program.

And yeah, and not all of them are coming to the senior center every day.

Um I can't off the top of my head how many rides we get a day.

It's probably about 50, but they're not all to the 50, 70.

Um, but they're not all to the senior center.

They're the grocery store, doctor appointments, that sort of thing.

Did I hear re I think recently I heard the number that we have approximately 700 users per day?

Yes, that is correct.

Yep.

Okay.

You know, I'm just wondering, because uh I'm assuming not all, but a good portion of people would be coming from town shores, that maybe we could use one of the Gems vehicles just as a shuttle, you know, to have a time shuttle thing.

So the GEMS vehicles are very much restricted by the federal grant that pays for the vehicles.

So there's so it wouldn't just be able to be just used as a shuttle.

If they've paid for the if they paid, if they signed up and became members, sure.

So could they because I don't know exactly what our agreement is.

Could could they pay per shuttle as opposed to paying as as you know monthly kind of thing?

The way it is it is currently set up is that it's an annual membership fee and then uh a per ride fee.

So they couldn't just do per ride.

Even if it was a little more than isn't it like two dollars or something a ride?

Correct.

Yeah, so even if they did three dollars or something, we the agreement wouldn't allow for that.

Uh I would have to look at all the details, but just a thought that maybe we could use the uh trolley instead during the day during the week.

We're not usually using it.

Thank you for coming up and answering your question.

Thank you.

All righty, so city manager, do you need anything from us right this minute?

Uh yeah.

Just uh direction which option you'd like us to pursue.

We're still gonna ask for the three million dollars because we think that's a nice number in the fact that we can match some segment of it, which makes the application more attractive.

Um whichever model you'd like to proceed with for phase one.

And when I say phase one, what would you be your initial step to start the process?

Which project well, I thought from the way it was presented to us at phase one is phase one.

There's really no decisions.

Right.

And that phase two for us to have to make a decision between option one, two, or three right now, when that could easily be five years out.

Right, is not necessary tonight.

That's correct.

We can make our request from a representative.

How we build phase one is the question.

I understand.

Okay, but you also just said that um we're gonna request three million anyway.

Right.

Okay.

But they have to build it stronger if they're gonna build above it as opposed to next to it.

Yeah, I I got that.

Okay, so when you make the request, do we have to be exactly particular to her which way what we're doing in phase one?

No, just the overall look.

That you're gonna build either re renovate or remodel or prepare for the second story.

Okay.

So again, we really don't have to make decision on that right now.

Right.

We can um we have to make that decision before we start phase one.

Definitely.

Okay.

And you'll have to work with the architects to it was just to get guidance so we also can start keep moving forward.

Yeah.

Oh, well, I thought it was so great because you know, bite, I mean, we can attack this in small bite-sized pieces.

I mean, I I see all this as manageable because we got a great foundation.

Okay, all righty.

So I think our consensus is that we will sign the letter um asking for funds.

Yes, okay.

And that's all you need from us right now.

Today, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

We're excited.

We're really excited.

We've been waiting a long time.

And to be able to actually give our our residents um of a vision of where we're going and how we're going and how we plan to get there is gonna be really important.

And we're gonna get this train rolling, and we're not gonna let it stop.

So all righty.

So now our last presentation of the night comes from our own Mr.

Kendrick's handerson.

Sorry, Kendrick's Kendrick's Anderson.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Close enough.

All right, good evening.

Um just wanted to bring you guys up to speed as far as the phase one project for 49th Street and the safe streets are all uh grant that we were awarded.

So I did meet with Cheryl Stacks with the city of St.

Petersburg and um Kyle Simpson was uh four panelists a couple weeks ago, and they brought me up the speed as far as where we're at with the project.

They were kind enough to share the presentation with us so I can just go through the slide, give you some fee um some history behind the project and where we're moving forward with it.

So I'm just gonna scroll through here.

And I would like to, like I said, thank Cheryl Stacks and Kyle and the Fusion 49 district for all their participation in this, and obviously thank USDOT for the money that's that they provided us on this grant.

Um so 49th Street.

So Fortnite Street was identified on the Ford Planellas High Energy Network.

Although the network represents only 3% of the county roadways, it accounts for approximately 40% of serious and fatal crashes in Pinellas County.

The study area uh ran from First Avenue North to 25th Avenue South.

Um the study was completed in the fall of 2024 and was led by Ford Pinales with both the city of Gulfport and the City of St.

Petersburg contributing requiring matching funds of 12,000 from a previous uh Safe Streets Rawl grant.

Okay.

Um community outreach.

So this was a uh community-driven study uh with the help of Fusion 49 District.

Uh three guided walking tours were conducted, including one evening audit.

Uh, online crowdsourcing map was uh created with 135 uh uh local comments created, and in a response to a workshop and online survey of consultant recommendation, over 600 responses were received.

And you can see on this slide the uh the uh the data that was collected as far as the uh feedback from the community and the highest categories of concern were sidewalk conditions, crosswalk safety, traffic speeds, lighting, and visibility.

Uh this confirms that pedestrian safety and safer crossings were the community's primary focus.

Okay, so here you're gonna see the long-term options that were proposed from forward panellas.

These are not set in stone, so just these are these are just recommendations.

Uh so the study recommended adding a wider share path on the east side of 49th Street on the St.

Petersburg side to allow for multi-purpose use.

Um alternative one would be repurposing, converting four lanes to three with a center lane uh designated for a turn, and bus space and enhanced crossings.

And alternative two would be vertical traffic calming, which we will maintain our four lanes, but we'll be adding raised crosswalks, and we'll dive into why that wouldn't be an option in the next slide.

So what what city staff did, uh this was primarily city of St.

Peter staff, but they also gave us input was city staff reviewed the previous mentioned alternatives and evaluated the opportunities and challenges associated with these options.

For example, option one, the repurposing option.

Uh the the opportunities include moderating speeds without vertical traffic commenting, shortening pedestrian crossing distances, creating opportunities for medians and curbside green space.

But these challenges include higher overall cost, uh potential for some intersection delay, and uh greater construction construction impacts if the project were to proceed.

Uh for alternative two, which maintains four lanes, but it uh vertical traffic calming, the opportunities include speed moderation at a lower long-term cost, and fewer construction impacts.

But it's must be noted that City of St.

Pete is not included in their comp plan to allow traffic calming on 49th Street.

It has to be on local roadways.

So they would have to revise their comprehensive plan.

And there's also with traffic calming measures like crosswalks, race or crosswalks, you also have issues with noise uh abruptly stopping, it might impact um emergency vehicles response.

So there is those challenges that come in play too.

So this slide right here just pretty much illustrates the framework of what the diversion study is gonna try to accomplish.

Um and we're gonna talk more about the demonstration later now in the presentation.

So basically, this is gonna it's an illustration of alternative one, which is converting the existing four-lane roadway into a three-lane cross section with a center lane designated for turning.

And this features chicanes, bus bays, uh hence crosswalks, and wider sidewalks along the east side of St.

Pete, as we mentioned before.

Uh this concept would be implemented as part of the SS4 a demonstration project that we're gonna talk about and allowing us to collect real data.

Uh, this uh demonstration project would be approximately a year where we're gonna have temporary diversion measures in place.

Um slide eight is uh highlights to the opportunity to implement this repurpose, and this is the importance of why we're trying to do this study, and utilizing the federal funds will allow us to test, configure, and collect performance data, and ensure compliance is updated to the Florida statue.

Okay, so what was accomplished was this was broken down into phases.

So you had you just saw the long-term overall goal as far as with 49th Street.

These are now smaller little bite-sized projects.

So uh let me see.

Short-term projects include high visibility crosswalks, um, leading pedestrian intervals, LED lighting conversion, raised medians, and additional corridor studies.

Midterm projects will include mid-block crossings, multi-use paths on the east side of 49th Street, potential speed limit reductions, and trail connectivity improvements.

And as far as the short-term projects phase one, so this is the one we're actually in the uh process of implementating right now.

So we actually are working with St.

Pete.

We uh allocated funds for this.

Uh they are currently assigning us a project manager, and they're gonna be going out to design and construction procurement in the near few months.

So this is what and you've your your uh council approved this ILA in January for us to proceed.

So this will include intersection improvements, upgrades at the four signalized intersections at Fifth Avenue South, Fairfield Avenue, South, 11th Avenue, and 15th Avenue.

Uh special emphasis on markings over refresh stamp crosswalks.

So you're the brick stamped uh the red brick stamp crawlwalk, we're gonna be uh updating those.

Um ADA accessible ramps and pedestrian push buttons and signal back plates and signal operations review of all the signals and additional improvements, uh 18th Avenue and Tangerines uh enhancements, which will be the uh the rapid uh flashing beacons, the yellow bleakings for the crosswalks, you'll see those there, and um ADA rampant improvements and refresh pavement markings, uh convert seven painted medium to raise meetings from 10 to 15th Avenue South, which will also possibly include plannings, uh things to attract uh driver's attention slowdown.

Uh additional speed limit signs uh and yellow-green pedestrian school signage and uh corridor and lighting study for the phase.

So, this is the one that will be happening this year.

We're currently working on.

So, hopefully, within the next couple uh next month, I can have a presentation available when we're gonna start.

Kendra, can you address the Gulfport Boulevard intersection that that's a county project?

Yes.

So there is another project going on too at the same time.

Uh we don't have a timeline yet, but Gulfport Boulevard and 49th Street, which Pinellas County main uh jurisdiction is Gulfport, they are going to be um uh revamping that intersection with mass dark signalization, and they're gonna be redoing the crosswalks uh as you guys probably notice.

You have a crosswalk going right into a storm drain on the on the on the east side.

So that's gonna be uh resolved uh over the next uh couple months.

So we did we're notified that they have 100% plans completed, so we're just trying to find out when their timeline is to do the construction on that, and so that I'll hopefully have some more information for you in the future.

Um thank you, sir.

Uh let's see, we are at short-term projects phase one.

So once again, this is a partnership.

We did contribute just a little history.

We did contribute $500,000 to this $1.2 million project with $750,000 going tour from City of St.

Pete.

Uh they will manage this project, and once again, once complete, maintenance responsibilities will fall back on a jurisdiction.

So we will maintain our side, they will maintain their side.

Um the uh and once again in uh December 2025, the city was awarded that $800,000 safe streets for all federal grant.

And to touch back what we just previously were mentioning, this will cover the demonstration project.

So this will be a year, we don't have a timeline yet.

Uh we just were given our case, our grant manager from at US.

I just got the email probably not an hour ago.

We were given a grant manager from USDOT.

So I'll be meeting with him on March 30th.

And talking with the city of St.

Pete, this whole project will probably be between 18 to 24 months with 12 months of the version being in place.

Now, once again, if there's issues with impact of traffic, if if St.

Pete or us start noticing with those temporary uh traffic measures in place, we can call the project at any point.

If we start seeing impact on fire rescue schools, uh businesses, we're gonna make sure that they are being there is active communication amongst uh businesses and the residents.

So it we're not and that's a good thing about doing the temporary measure because it can all just go away and it might not be successful, could be successful.

So that's that's a good thing about this study we're getting ready to do.

Um, and hopefully, like I said, after this is all done, we can get some feedback as far as vehicle speeds, crash data, um, and hopefully guide as far as future improvements for pedestrian.

And the last slide, I just wanted to share with you an update on our end uh for phase one.

Our interlocal has been given back to us from the city of St.

Petersburg.

Uh in City of St.

Petersburg, like I mentioned, is getting ready to assign a project manager.

And once they assign that to us, we'll work on getting the procurement for construction a design and construction.

For the S for the demonstration study, the Gulf War is waiting for it to draft.

We are waiting for a draft agreement from the USDOT and Federal Highway Association.

And once received, we'll review and present the council the draft agreement to council for execution.

So hopefully we'll have that in the next few months.

I can bring that ILA to us.

Okay.

We'll do that in order.

So my first question is you know, we've had a lot of accidents at 18th Avenue crashing into our wall.

Like the flag, I mean you're talking about flashing crossings for pedestrians.

Is there anything, guys?

I know they've talked about a roundabout, they talked about a light, you know, a lot of different things.

Is there any indication whether this will help with the problem of people crashing into the wall?

I think I'm gonna divert that the chief.

No, no, no.

I I unfortunately that is a uh a serious issue that we've been having, and I think without the data in front of me, I think a lot of it has been possibly under the influence or health concerns, which is still an unfortunate situation.

Um but as you mentioned, a roundabout would technically be a traffic calming measure, which wouldn't fall on their comp plan.

Um we did I did talk to Cheryl briefly about it, and it's kind of we're kind of in a standstill as for what could be done there.

Um but I definitely will bring it back up to see if it's something, and I know council brought up previously about potentially turning North and South Tangerine into a one-way each direction.

So we are establishing a survey to send out to the property owners.

We're still working on it, and uh that may and I did bring that up to St.

Pete as far as based off their expertise if that's something that could possibly help.

So I definitely will absolutely bring that back up to see if there's a resolution.

And somebody else mentioned to me, um, you know, they do this vigil on the corner of 49th and and 22nd, and in one day, they saw three bike crashes of people coming southbound on the sidewalk on 49th, crossing with the light, and people turning coming from the southbound 49th turning right and hitting them.

And um so I had suggested to the city manager we should put a sign up on the sidewalk for the sidewalk bikes, be careful.

And so I don't know if there's something that we can do in the interim, you know, to to prevent that because I mean to see three in a few hours was ridiculous.

Yeah, that's that's something terrible to hear, and I think St.

Pete just had a fatality with the knee bike uh recently.

Um I think it was it last week.

In the same corner uh on the 149th Street uh north.

So it's uh it's definitely unfortunate.

I think, and I'm no uh legal expert.

I I don't know what the uh as far as the liability that falls on the pedestrian and the driver.

So it's just it's signage and clearly this was a driver's fault.

It was driver's fault, okay.

It was drivers making right turns and not stopping or paying attention.

But being that cars are bigger than bikes, yes.

It would be well to warn the bike people not to just assume that they're gonna be okay.

I think that's something that could be brought as far as uh signage.

Yeah, and that's one of the part of the project.

We're gonna brighten these signs up and make sure you know it catches their eye.

So small things, small wins like that, which should hopefully help out.

Okay, otherwise it sounds great.

Thank you so much.

I'm thrilled to hear the progress.

Um I used to regularly attend the fusion 49th uh meetings until council member early took them over.

And so it's it's very exciting to see it go forward.

Um, I've always understood that the wall at Trolley Market Square was there as a buffer because of accidents, but it is a very good question as to what we could do to help prevent those crashes.

Well, in the past, we've had vehicles entering the park area.

Right.

So that was part of the design phase of putting the barrier there.

Right.

And and and that's logical.

So I understood when it was explained to me it was a buffer, but yet again, what we could do to improve those circumstances so that didn't continue.

And I'll be very interested to hear how the survey goes on the one-way.

Yeah, no, that may help with reducing the lane.

You know, that's something I'll have to thank one of our senior center uh uh members who who who suggested that requested it.

Yeah, no, that's great.

Yes, absolutely.

They deserve all the credit.

Uh the uh um well, like I mentioned when I have my next conversation with St.

Pete, I will dive deeper into that and see what their experts think.

That will be interesting, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Um so 49th past to twelve Pascal Port Boulevard is already two lanes.

Correct.

Yes.

So then where would the four lanes cut like uh um be um reduced to two ones?

North of the boulevard.

North of the north of the boulevard had a better picture here.

Okay.

Yeah, so we're not going south toward sort of water with the reduction like that.

Right, right, right.

Right.

But then going towards St.

Pete, like uh are we going all the way to fifth?

Yes, it should be all the way to fifth, yes, correct.

Yep.

That's what we'll do the traffic study of how does that production?

Yep, yep.

Okay.

Um so one million thank yous.

Oh no, and for going last night, especially nine out of ten people in my ward ask me about 49th.

Even the crosswalk that they have, which is next to the ice box, even then you see people just you know, howling through there.

So all of this will help, and I appreciate it.

Thank you for taking this over.

Absolutely, thank you.

All right.

Have it in the case.

Okay, my question is.

Oh, you are oh, I'm gonna get out of here.

No, no, I've got to be.

So I just have two.

Sorry, so I heard you say some mid-block crossings, which I know, like we just had a child hit in front of Dollar General.

Yes.

And that was a case where and she's okay.

Yes, thank you.

Where she came out of the store and just ran mid-block rather than going down a block and a half or a block and a half and using a crosswalk.

So, do you know when you're talking about mid-block crossings?

How many?

We're not gonna talk every block, we're gonna cross in the middle of the street.

No, they're the uh proposal was to add the uh the pedestrian crosswalk uh warning signals at 18th and 49th.

That's closer to Dollar General, so I don't know if they're gonna put one near near to that.

So, but I'll have to find out this farm.

So, with and and again, I thought you were saying maybe more than just that one.

That one you got specific, but I thought you kind of spoke generally that they might add some mid-block crossings.

But going to the one at Tangerine and 49th or 18th and 49th, so just like them, that was the first thing that jumped out at me, and I'm thinking that's the last place that I want to have a pedestrian crosswalk.

I mean, that's where we've had more cars crash than anywhere else.

I would much rather have our pedestrians crossing a half a block up or a half a block down, not right there at the most dangerous intersection we have because the people that are driving under the influence who tend to be the ones taking out our wall.

If they can't see that wall, they're not gonna see that child.

No, that's what I'm thinking.

Very valid point.

And let me dive into the SUTI findings if you don't mind, and uh when I come back, see what we can we can approach as far as find out why they want to do that.

That's that's the big selection.

So maybe they didn't get that feedback that you're providing me now.

I'll make sure to share that with them.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

Okay.

So um thank you very much for coming up here and bringing us up to date.

And I know the other presenters have left, but I just want and I know that there's people feeling impatient right now, they want to get to public comment, but I really appreciate the fact that we were able to take and go over these four things because these are four things that you know you don't snap your fingers and make this happen.

It takes a little bit of time, and we've really been working on this for some time already.

So to be able to show the progress and the forward momentum that we have going now, and all of these was really important.

I felt for us to hear.

So with that being said, let me move to um public comment, and just for those of you that aren't sure uh how this works, let me say um you can speak anything you want for three minutes, okay.

It is important that you give your name and your address when you come up to the mic.

Um that's that's kind of about it, and don't be shy, show your hands and I'll call on you in order.

Nicole my name is Nicole Thanos, and my address is 585.

Okay, good.

Um so for those who are aware, April Thanos is the last day is today in terms of city council.

And so I wanted to present you with some flowers that was done for everybody.

We wanted to thank you so much for all of your wonderful um contributions to the city.

So thank you so much.

Okay, next, Eileen.

Good evening, Eileen Griffo.

Uh Corning Griffo, I have to get used to saying the Griffo part.

Tangerine Avenue.

Thank you, Nancy.

I'm thinking everybody, may I love council members?

Um, tonight was phenomenal.

A lot of great information.

Been living in Pinellas County for over 32 years, and I have to say, tonight, my heart is very soft and feeling the love here, um, especially about our senior center.

So um, they did a great job presenting.

We are super excited.

Our foundation met last night.

We had a strategic planning session at our house on Tangerine.

You probably saw all the cars, Nancy.

But anyway, we had a great time, and I can't tell you how enthusiastic we are to have something to share with our residents.

But yeah, fundraising.

I wouldn't be the leader if I didn't say we have an event coming up on March 28th.

Leslie Smith, if you haven't seen her performance before, it's just breathe, and I think we all need to learn to do that a little more often.

So please, we'll be at the Hickman Theater on Saturday, the 28th.

And then after that, we have our golf tournament on the 4th of April, and we have the 11th coming up with Lori Loyce.

So many things.

Go to our website, go to the Gulfport, my My Gulf Port, and see what's going on.

And I have another minute and a half, but I'm gonna go.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

And now we know why we're going to these fundraisers, right?

We have a clear vision.

Yeah, Rosemary.

Yes.

Good night here.

Rose, okay.

Rosemary Seawall.

New address.

I'm in town shores now.

Okay.

I have a question and a comment.

The question is for the um the road, the changes for the rapid road.

To me, if they're gonna be digging up the roads, right?

To be changing the roads.

If they're I'm wondering if you dig up the road, if it's a brick road, does it get replaced with the bricks or are we paving them?

That's what I would answer questions, but okay.

Okay, that's what I I love my brick roads.

And the comment I agree with April.

Having gone to like Hickman and it's crowded.

Well, there's parking on each side of the streets.

And the idea of closing off seventh, that gives you, I mean, that street there it's more parking.

So I'm with April on that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes.

Sorry, don't know your name.

You don't know my name?

Yeah.

Name and address.

Christopher Butler Jones, 50 Second Street.

Mayor Council, City Manager.

Um, 40 year resident.

I love Golfport, but you cannot truly claim to love the city while you are busy protecting its lies.

I've grown up here.

I thought that in the beginning separation was just normal.

They live there, we lived here.

That's just how it was.

But now you guys are hiding the truth of how that separation was created.

I handed over a 43-page master dossier to move this conversation from local memory into the realm of established uh municipal academic facts.

A University of Michigan professor representing the Sundown Town Database and researchers from Tugaloo College have reviewed this and called these very solid sources.

Despite this, the mayor, city manager, have refused to acknowledge this term.

Even in the resolution that you guys passed, the word sundown or black is nowhere to be found.

You're attempting to address history while refusing to name it.

You cannot heal a wound that you won't even look at.

In the paperwork that I gave you on page three, you'll find 1937 city records where leadership derootted admitted to a well-known condition of excluding black residents.

You look at page 15.

Historic Jin Schumer points out that even our 1927 annexation discussions were part of this design.

At the time, this was serious talk of golf courts surrendering.

It's unity because of St.

Petersburg back then.

The boundaries of 49th Street wasn't seen as different.

It was part of the same deliberate design of exclusion.

Some people ask why the paper trail went cold years later.

The answer is nearby.

Largo 1934 had a written segregation laws, but they scrubbed that in 53 to avoid the NAACP lawsuits.

They realized that unwritten conditions were legally safer, but just as effective.

Lack of statue is not lack of intent.

The litigation strategy.

If you look at the right side, there's 20 pages of residents and citizens who live this.

T.R.

Leverson, an eight-year-old child running for his life at Sundowntown signs on Beach Boulevard because the fear.

General discrimination did not chase an eight-year-old boy into his father's arms.

A sun-downtown condition did.

This isn't here to hold you guys personally accountable for what happened in 1937, but you now have these facts in your hands.

How you respond today is on you.

You're becoming just as complicit as the people who created those conditions.

I mean, if not worse, it's 1926.

We know better.

You can't claim to be in better times by actively trying to hide the past.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Barney.

Thank you.

I know this is different.

Barney Waterberry, 5110, Tangerine Avenue.

When Nita left me five years ago, she said, be a knight for this city.

When asked to do something, do it.

This is not my idea.

I want to let you I'm gonna give you a uh doing this for uh an outstanding business owner that believes that when we sing together, we love together.

We come together.

And also I wrote this song before y'all talked about one-way street.

Disclaimer.

In sixth grade, uh I learned the word queer is a bit being weird and peculiar.

That's okay.

So sing along, please.

Snuggled on bogabay.

Cutest town, USA.

In Gulfport Streets go both ways.

That Gulfport Glow.

That Gulf Port Glow.

We all do know.

The conus shores does flow.

Gulfport Florida.

Golfport, Florida, Gulfport, Florida.

Gulfport Florida.

Oh my Gulf Port, you're deep in my blood.

I hear the call.

I hear the call.

I can not fall.

I can not fall.

I'll let my voice sing loud.

And clear.

Like a howling wool.

Ow.

In a raging fire.

We'll sing our song.

Our voices hiring higher.

I'm a male five.

He's a man.

With one guitar, but it's one guitar.

And my heart fit dance to my feet.

Gulfport, Florida.

Gulf Port Florida.

Oh my God, yeah, DMA blood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yeah, Amy.

Oh my Gulf Port, I love it.

I love it.

Love it.

All right.

I don't know how I'm gonna top that one.

But Amy Costa, um, up here as Wonderworks and the Midtown Business Collective.

Just want to say that on Sunday we um produced an event for Gulfport Pride called for the love of Gulfport.

It was our first annual.

It was amazing.

Um we had about 50 vendors, including local agencies, other Pride groups from St.

Pete, the Kawanis Club, tons of volunteers.

Everyone showed up.

It was a constant flow of people all day.

Um I did many loops talking to the vendors.

Everyone had a blast.

The people who came had a blast.

People were emailing after saying how much fun they had.

Um, we're just so thrilled to have brought some love and life up into Tangerine Greenway.

With the support of the city and Justin and Jim and everyone who made sure everything was up and running, made sure the streets are safe for us, safety tire and salty pop sponsored our bathrooms, which turned out great.

Got them a little extra business.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes.

Hi, Matthew Galvin, uh 15th Avenue South.

Um I am primarily here to also thank uh Vice Mayor Thanos for her um service on this uh on this council um to express the general sense that uh really appreciate um the tenacity that you've brought to the questioning and that um I think that it has elevated the uh I think it's elevated the council um with no disparagement meant toward either of the possible candidates who might replace you.

I fear we may be um somewhat poorer um for the future.

Um that's it.

Thank you very much.

Jonathan, Jonathan McCoachy.

Uh I just want to echo with you what he was saying.

Heap more praise on April if I can, and uh we're looking forward to having you out here in the cheap seats and and uh that that will be as entertaining, maybe more.

Um I do think there's a learning moment in April's career on council for everybody, particularly for current council and for candidates, and that is that she was wildly unpopular with a previous council that did all they could to see her offer here, and they're all gone.

And she won her reelection overwhelmingly very strongly.

And I hope that's a message to everybody that um people are paying attention, they care that they can tell if you care about them.

They get to April does, you guys do, they can tell.

They they get this.

And uh the communication is so difficult.

You're you're so hampered by the sunshine law, and you have to get up here and you have to ask questions and talk to each other in a way that may seem a little weird to people.

They think, well, why are they doing all that?

Why don't they know those things?

Well, you have no chance to do it.

It's very difficult, and it we should we should make that more clear to people.

Um, but she's done that, she's been vocal.

I hope you all will continue to do the do the same in honor of that, and um makes a better golf port.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Regina.

Hi, Regina Buscemi, Gulfport resident.

I just I came up to remind you that Saturday is a welcome to Gulfport.

I know a few people responded to my emails, but not many to be expected.

Uh I wish I could have brought those people here because this was such an entertaining night.

There was so much information.

April, you know, you can nitpick out here any time with us.

We love it.

And Cozy, I'm sure you didn't realize what you were in for.

Thank you.

Thank you for putting up with this.

That's it.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes, Charlotte.

I see you next.

Charlotte Downey, 13th Avenue South.

Um heaps of praise on April.

Uh, and I'm not gonna reiterate, but she knows.

Um, I've worked hard for her in her elections, and uh a couple of the others of you too.

And I really want to express my uh appreciation for your determination and your perseverance and persistence uh with the other council.

You have soldiered on I hope you're proud of yourself because we all are in uh like McCurry said, we hope that you all got that message.

You are here because we were done with the vindictiveness and the vileness that we saw in this council beforehand.

I'm glad you know I came when you all first took your seats.

You were honey to my heart.

And this is sweet to thank you for all you have done for the 49th Street.

You're my council person.

Thank you.

Thank you for all you've done.

Kelsey, thank you for.

Sorry to see you leave, but thank you for taking the space and helping keep the meeting short.

And thank you.

You have such a strength beneath your quietness.

You are amazing.

Thank you.

And mayor, you have brought this city through some tough times, and you have communicated above and beyond with our with the citizens here in your work to help us recover from the hurricanes.

It's I hope you know how much we appreciate that.

You've got us back on track with this senior center.

Um moving us forward in so many directions.

I'm proud of you.

You've conducted this meeting with civility and respecting protocols, treating each other with dignity and respect.

And I'm sad to see you go, but I hope the person that takes your seat will in your seat.

I hope they will appreciate your leadership, Mayor Love.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I live on 27th Avenue South, and I have a uh draft resolution that I would like to present to the council in the hopes that they will adopt it.

Uh resolved.

The City of Gulfport will continue its 287G agreement with ICE, but under protest.

The 287G program provides that Gulfport's police Gulfport police will assist ICE in the detention of illegal immigrants.

It's advertised as voluntary, but in fact it is not.

It is coercive.

When the City of Key West voted to terminate its 287G contract with ICE, it received a letter two days later from Florida's attorney general threatening to designate Key West as a so-called sanctuary city.

Under this designation, the state can initiate judicial proceedings to remove all city councillors from office, expose them to civil liability suits, impose a fine of up to $5,000 per day, and suspend all funding to the municipality for up to five years.

Under the circumstances, the Gulfport City Council felt it had no alternative but to continue participating in the 287G program, but does so now only under protest.

There is abundant evidence from around the country that ICE has frequently acted violently, sometimes brutally, and rarely fatally.

During the training, Gulfport police are taken off their usual public safety duties but are paid their usual compensation by the city.

During a recent council meeting, the chief of police said that she wouldn't or couldn't reveal the content of the ICE training.

It would therefore appear difficult to refute the allegation based solely on the facts that the city of Gulfport employs, at least on a part-time basis, a secret police force.

This is another reason why the city of Gulfport participates in the 287G program, but now only under protest.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Show of hands.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Angry Bredenberg.

Gulfport.

Sorry, her hair's longer.

I'm here to invite everyone to a party at North End Tap House at the conclusion of council meeting.

I understand there are no voting items on the agenda, so it should be fairly brief.

Cozy, if you stick around, you get to have parties.

I'm not sure it's worth the cost.

April has been a thorn in the side of a variety of people.

And it is a seriously important undertaking.

I suspect she will continue to be a thorn in the side of a variety of people.

And when I hear that somebody on is very glad she's leaving, I can only think their loss.

All right, thank you.

Did I see your yes?

Julie Jacobi 49th Street South.

Full disclosure, I'm a member of Boca Seeka Yacht Club and a full supporter of Golfport Yacht Club.

However, tonight I speak as a homeowner of 24 years in the marina district who's very much invested in the future of the city, specifically the future of the marina district.

Two referendum questions on the city charter both uh concern me, and that they could potentially have negative impacts on these two not-for-profit clubs who currently lease from the city and for the future of any not-for-profit, nonprofit or community organization.

The first is a limiting of the lease to me.

That seems an investment to limit investment.

Investment in property is an investment in the city.

Currently, both BCYC and in the past, currently both GCYC have always paid for all maintenance improvements on the building at least.

The five-year lease could seem to me to discourage any both clubs from making any improvements or fixing anything major.

Is the city willing to take on that maintenance of both buildings?

After Helene, when many of the homes of my area, the marina district were flooded without electricity, BCYC was able to provide a charging station because of a commercial ice machine was able to provide that precious commodity of ice to the residents.

Some of the members even took it upon themselves to help deliver ice to the residents of the area.

These clubs have made commitments to the city and invested in the city because the city has been for the most part made a long-term commitments to these clubs.

The second is least based on fair market value, and not to be snarky, but a general reminder of the Lions Club buyout.

What is fair market value going to be based on?

A rental of a non-heated, air conditioned, non-heated, non-air-conditioned clubhouse, which is what BCY has right now.

Our comparable cops based on the whatever highest and best use.

The city cannot sell the buildings or property without another referendum.

And will the clubs be punished for their improvements that they have made to the properties, paid for by their own money with the city's approval because they added value to the property.

What are the intentions of one of both clubs is priced out of the least?

Will it go to the highest bidder?

Is there a highest bidder?

Will the city lose lease revenue and let the buildings sit empty or tear them down?

Or the city, and will the city turn the backs on the clubs if they are priced out of the leases.

Will fair market value completely priced out any nonprofit, not-for-profit, or community group from leasing for these cities.

Both these clubs offer a unique opportunities for people to go out and enjoy being underwater without actually having to own a boat because you get to know people with boats or with BCYC, you get to use club boats.

I ask the voters to please consider possible consequences on voting for something that sounds good on paper, but there's a potential to lose both clubs, which have been part of this community in history of Gulfport since 1965, BCYC and Gulfport Yacht Club, 1938.

Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment?

Wolfgang.

Thank you, Mayor.

Wolfgang Dininger, uh Beachway Park, Gulfport.

And that is uh our Gulfport grassroots with uh the um city of Gulfport and also with our co-hosts keep uh Penellus Beautiful.

Uh and we will be meeting on the south end of uh Marriam Street.

We have all supplies for everybody, uh pickers, grabbers, bags, uh uh pails, uh, and a secticide, which we may need because it's warming up out there, but it it should be great.

In the past, we've uh collected from uh from the bayou area as much as 500 pounds in a few hours of trash and debris.

So we hope it's gonna be very uh successful this uh time around.

And uh moving on ahead to uh March April, April 11th, we are having the uh swap and drop at the uh recenter, and for uh people that remember uh a junk in the trunk, the swap and drop is very uh um similar to uh junk in the trunk, and now is always a fun activity for all residents.

It's like a a free yard sale where you can just uh come and grab things and uh take them home or use them for yard sales or anything else.

Uh and uh Gulfboard grassroots will be uh running that with the uh the city of Gulfport.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before we close this part of public comments, anybody else?

Yes, Christine Crosby, uh Baywood Point Drive, 28 years in Golfport.

Uh first off, I just want to thank April.

She has been an inspiration, a role model, an amazing lady to look up to and thank you for your service.

The other reason I'm here is I just wanted to say a couple words of support.

What she just said.

The BCYC Yacht Club and the Gulfport Yacht Club provide a lot more than money to this community.

So much more you can begin to imagine the benefit and the value it brings to our citizens.

So this idea of fair market value.

I'm not an expert, I'm not a real estate person, but I do know that I want this council to please consider what these clubs bring in value to our community.

It's irreplaceable.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yes, Jennifer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Hey y'all, I'm Jennifer Webb.

I uh live at 6019 17th Avenue South.

I um said that I would uh give up stand up and give a brief uh account of what's going on right now in the legislature.

There was discussion about ADUs, and those bills are coming together to align.

So that is Caladi's bill and Redondo's bill.

And so if this is an issue that is of importance to this council, you should reach out to Representative Cheney and Senator DeSegli and Senator Hooper, because a lot of these decisions are being made higher up.

And so Mayor, you are correct.

It has been attached to the live local bill.

I was just um texting with um Senator Kalatiud, and I think she's she has an appetite for ADU language.

So we just want to make sure that it's language that we can live with.

Um also sovereign immunity is going to get increased this year from it.

500,000 per incident.

This I think is the negotiated amount between the Senate and the House.

Um, so looking to make sure that we can deal with that is also important because now's the time that we should be texting Hooper and letting him know if we can deal with that or not.

Um they did, however, maintain the cap, and so that's good because one version had us um negotiating above the cap, which would just incentivize lawsuits and drive all of us nuts.

Um and then finally, session is getting extended.

Um this doesn't what is it?

Life, liberty, and property um is not is at risk when the Florida session, when the Florida legislature is in session, and so they've extended um session, they've given them the themselves the ability to fundraise during an extended session, and so and that's in addition to the two additional sessions that they are already planning on.

And then finally, for property taxes.

Um that the House is trying to negotiate um is trying to get property taxes, and so now's the time to be educated to be communicating with all of our legislative delegation up there, not just our specific members, but our but all of Pinellas County's legislative delegation, telling them exactly how this would impact us, exactly how we we aren't just like you know, getting rich off of increased property um values, but that actually the cost the actual cost is higher than the three percent CPI.

And then finally, with my 10 seconds.

Thank you, Councilwoman Jackson, for stepping up.

You've done a great job.

And you didn't even and and you did it with such bravery.

Great job, and thank you, Councilmember Member Thanos for your eight years or for your years, six years of service.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Jennifer.

Anyone else before we go to e-comments?

Okay, seeing none.

Oh, that was an example.

That phone turned the phone off in advance.

Karen again.

All righty.

Um I believe e-comments, please.

Uh yes, I did have three um e-comments.

However, I did have one who was having an issue getting into the system.

I believe she was working with Mr.

Mather on this.

She could not get into the system, so she did email me.

It did not come in until 4:37 p.m.

I did not know if you wanted me to include that or not.

Yes, include that.

Okay, so we have a total of four public comments.

Uh let's see.

The first one is from Miss Courtney Prokopis.

Complicity in crimes against humanity is aiding, abetting, or facilitating severe human rights abuses through action or mission.

Rome statute, Article 25 parent 3C.

Individuals can be held criminally liable for knowingly enable enabling systemat systemic violations.

International organizations have documented crimes against humanity at Alligator Alcatraz.

My question is: do you want to remain complicit in a voluntary 287G agreement?

Knowing the documented harms and your criminal liability, excuse me, liability under international law.

Courtney 33707.

The second one is from Deborah Schufs.

332026 D.

Shufs, Gulfport Mayor Karen, you failed to respond to my Gulfport constituent emails 2025-2026 about historic black Lincoln Cemetery Annex Petition missing required date on the Lincoln Cemetery Annex document dateline.

Ignoring emailing constituents is about this Gulfport legal liability issue of Lincoln Cemetery non-legally compliant annexed petition fails your sworn sworn oath of office.

Karen, at today's council meeting, go on the record city attorney salesman writing a legal review missing date.

And the third one is from Kimberly Lang.

The proposal to change multiple streets into one-way roads seems very dangerous.

The few one-way streets Gulfport currently has are inundated with bad drivers.

At least twice a week.

I watch people driving the wrong direction down the one-way streets by the library.

I love the idea of adding more handicap parking, but I do not think taking away regular parking spots to add smaller spots for golf carts is going to improve parking.

And the fourth one was from Miss Margaret Tober.

Why does the marina AR portfolio have a 90% delinquency?

Some active accounts haven't paid for over a year.

What's being done to collect the money owed?

Why does the billing department send collection letters to dead people week in and week out for two years or more?

Does the billing system not allow accounts to be designated as bankrupt and/or deceased, etc.?

And have those letters suppressed.

Needless to say, if there is an estate, that's another subject.

None of this appears as good AR management.

That's all I have.

Alrighty, with that public comment is closed.

It's 818.

I know that you all want to hang for a few more minutes so that your council people can respond to you.

I know I have a couple uh things I'd like to respond to from public comments, but if we don't take a two-minute break, we're gonna have a problem.

So two-minute break, two to four minute break, please.

I don't mind.

If you'll have your seats, we're ready to get started.

Just a little bit.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'd love to talk to you.

Hi Karen.

All righty.

So now we will start with our um council comments and reports.

And again, we'll go in speaking order.

Oh, yeah, I jumped right over that.

I apologize.

You know me.

Eight o'clock's bewitching hour.

Okay.

So if we will, please.

City manager report.

No report, Mayor.

Okay.

City attorney just stepped out for a moment.

Okay.

Uh city clerk report.

I just wanted to remind uh the residents that one week from night tonight is election night.

So here in the chambers is one of your polling places.

Um our recreation center is another polling place in our neighborhood center up on 49th Street.

Polls are open from 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

So please get out and vote.

Thank you.

Um we'll come back to the uh city uh attorney report when he makes it back to the room.

With that in mind, then we will then proceed now to council comments and reports.

And we'll start with Vice Mayor Thanos.

So first I want to thank everybody for their comments.

I really appreciate that.

It's been my pleasure to be on council.

And it's sort of been a wonderful thing to do something very new and different in retirement.

And I felt like I had another college education on things like stormwater and that kind of stuff that I never learned about before.

So I really appreciate feeling appreciated.

So thank you very much.

And then back to the thorn in the side.

Okay.

So we just we're gonna have to go through each permit individually.

The portal doesn't give you that information automatically.

No, because it does you can't determine what length of time, why the reason is because they're skewed because if we ask for additional information or someone doesn't respond to us, then what happens is it's an externally late.

But we do, but it does tell us the length of time.

If we go by individually to each one.

But it does, I mean it will still tell us the length of time.

It just won't.

The portal will not.

We will have to go check each permit individually.

Okay, that's kind of shocking.

I would have thought a permit, I mean a portal would give you that information.

Anyway, um, also we didn't get I had asked, and we didn't get information about how much it costs to train our officers for the 287G.

And so I looked at the budget and figured that the people who had been here at least two years would have had to be more senior people and kind of made an estimate, and so it's not accurate exactly, but I figured it would cost about $20,000 for seven people 40 hours a week.

So just want people to know that.

And personally, I would want us to rescind the 287G.

I understand that's complicated, but I like the resolution that was brought here today, and so I really think we should consider that because at least that's keeping the resolution, but under protest.

So I really like that, and I think we should think about doing that, even if I won't be here to do it myself.

And then um when we had the big fish kill in Wood Ibis, um it was determined that a good portion of that was because of the cold weather we had.

But I had also asked for a water quality report.

Did we ever get that?

No, because it cleared up as quickly as by the time you would.

You said you were going to still do a water quality.

No, in the pond.

No, we did not.

Okay, because I had asked for that specifically because people fish in there, and I wanted to make sure that there was nothing else going on, and you said you were gonna do it.

So then we had another unfortunate incident of people cutting down things that they weren't supposed to.

And I understand that the person go went in there was supposed to be cutting palm, you know, dead palm fronds, which they did, but they also cut down 25 little palm trees and cut back brush down to the water and several feet, you know, where it didn't get all the way down to the water, they cut back four or five feet sometimes where there was wider space where we could have kept habitat and especially during breeding season.

And I know that the um the staff wouldn't have been expecting this person to do this because it was outside cutting dead palm fronds, but one of the agreements we had made was that these people would be supervised when they were in the park and would be told to leave all the fringe around the pond, and that didn't happen, and that was very disappointing.

Um was happy to see all these presentations today to know that we're making progress, and I think we'll make good progress on these things in the future.

But I think we need to really keep an eye on the permitting department because we don't we made these changes because everybody heard when they were running for election that this was a big issue, and yet we haven't really checked if the changes we've made are effective, and if they aren't effective, it's a waste of time and money.

So going out with my thorn in people's sides.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Shaw.

Tough act to follow again.

I'm gonna take a whole different direction tonight.

Uh it's women's history month, and during women's history month, it's especially fitting to pause and honor women in Gulfport.

Over the decades, women have worked to help shape the Gulf Port we know and love today.

Long before Gulfport became known for art walks, colorful cottages, and front porch conversations.

Women's work that rarely made headlines, but shaped daily life.

In the early 1900s, when much of Gulfport was still sand roads and shoreline, women provided many services within the community, often running boarding houses, providing meals, helping with children while others worked and more.

The town's first dependable services were not municipal, they were neighbors.

By the mid-century, women were organizing school activities and neighborhood improvement efforts, not as volunteers filling spare time, but as residents shaping what kind of place Gulfport would become.

Decades later, when artists began moving into small cottages, it was again women who opened galleries, started informal art gatherings, art walks, and encouraged neighbors to come outside and meet one another.

While much of early history records land sales and buildings, many of Gulfport's civic foundations came from individual women who simply saw what was missing and fixed it.

To offer a few examples, local golf port Gulfport historian and former council member Lynn Brown shared that public safety followed a similar path.

In the 1940s, Edna Christmas became the city's first female police officer and later continued her service as a member of council.

Karen Ost, who served in the Gulfport Library for decades, was an in-depth researcher and was relied upon as a community go-to source and tells how the city's first female mayor, Yvonne Johnson, helped guide another quiet but lasting change, moving the community from a small rental library to a cooperative library model, expanding access to books and shared learning.

But even that effort had roots earlier.

According to Ost, Marie Bryan carried a basket to Haslum's to purchase books to stock the town's library.

Today's festivals, small businesses, and civic conversations are part of a long continuum, one where women moved steadily from keeping the town running to shaping its culture to helping guide its decisions.

These stories and so many more share a common thread.

The institutions many residents think of as permanent did not begin as government programs.

They began with women acting long before recognition followed.

Honoring women's contributions matters because it reminds us that Gulfport's character was not built by accident.

It was shaped by women who worked, organized, led, ran businesses, managed households, advocated for change, and stepped forward when something needed to be done.

They were and are employers and employees, entrepreneurs and public servants, problem solvers and bridge builders.

Recognizing their work affirms that leadership takes many forms, and that the strength of our community has always depended on women who are willing to take care of business in every sense of the phase.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jackson, okay.

I'll stick to my ways and keep it short and sweet.

So I look forward to a little break.

Very good.

So are you gonna stand, Mayor Love, as my designated flamingo wearing posters?

That's great.

Those of you who don't know, I didn't know until today that Mayor Love ran the Pink Flamingo Home Tour for many years.

And here we are, yes, and here we are on Saturday in Ward 4.

Hashtag Ward 4.

Um we um from 11 to 5.

We have the pink flamingo.

Registration if you haven't gotten your tickets yet.

You can still get them, I think, at the Beach Bazaar, correct?

Yep.

And uh online, of course.

And then registration is at Overspray.

If you've never been to Over Spray, that's the whole reason to go down even when you get your tickets, you'll really enjoy it.

Then we have the blueberry patch and on and on and on.

So please don't forget about our pink flamingo.

We have a lot going on this um this weekend, but it's gonna be uh really really good.

Thank you.

City attorney, did you have a report for us tonight?

No, ma'am.

No, okay.

All right, then that leads to me.

And um, first thing I wanted to say, of course, was thank you to Councilmember Jackson for stepping up when we needed somebody to step up on relatively short notice to say the least.

And and also to Vice Mayor Thanos for six years of perseverance.

Appreciate your time and efforts.

Um, so that was my first thing.

The second thing I wanted there were two comments that were made.

Rosemary, if you would send me an email, because I wasn't clear what street you were asking about, but my understanding is is that if we tear up a brick street, we replace a brick street.

That's correct, ma'am.

Okay.

Okay, so maybe that's good enough.

My second response was to Jonathan.

He said something that was really valuable in case y'all didn't get it.

When you hear us up here stu uh stumbling through and having conversation back and forth and trying to figure out our direction, that's because we are abiding by the law.

The sunshine law does not allow us to have conversation about anything that we might potentially vote on.

So if we act like we don't know what the other person's thinking, it's because we don't know what the other person's thinking.

We are following the law.

And also I want to say that kind of pertains to, if any of you have ever seen I do these take two on Tuesdays.

Then I had all the stuff I was gonna tell you about tax bills that and how they were progressing, but Jennifer Webb said it very clearly and precisely for me.

So I say thank you.

And then I just wanted to address for a second the uh track of traffic flow workshop.

That is March 26th.

So if any of you took the time to watch it or you were here to watch it, um you will know that I was very clear that I wasn't jamming anything down anybody's throat.

I was starting the conversation about some needs that we have about increasing power parking um, slowing down traffic and creating more handicapped spots.

And I was uh suggesting ways that we could do that.

So that is out there.

The maps are being improved.

We will have maps actually in the audience so it'll be easier for people to actually see the maps and read them, and we will be looking for all kinds of your ideas in terms of improvement.

I've heard a lot of people make some comments that it's very obvious that they did not listen to the presentation because there's some pretty absurd things out there that were not ever discussed in the uh presentation.

So I hope that you'll come because this is an opportunity for our community for the people who live here to talk about ways to solve problems that we have today that are only going to increase over the time because again, I am a firm believer that we aren't up here only to solve today's problems, but also to uh build and make plans for our future.

And then the last thing is for all of you that came out here to show support to our council people for their last days.

I hope that you'll consider coming out next uh two weeks from now, March 17th, because that's when we'll be swearing in at new council members.

We don't know who they're going to be.

I'm excited to see who they're going to be, and I'm confident that we're going to work together well as a team no matter who they're going to be.

Okay.

So with that, then I'm going to say this meeting is adjourned.