Microphones are live.

Not quite two o'clock, Roger.

It's two o'clock now.

Good afternoon.

This is the meeting of the Citizens Advisory Board.

Mr.

Carr.

Yes, here.

Dr.

Davis.

Mr.

DeFallis.

Here.

Mr.

Efron.

Mr.

Ellis.

Here.

Ms.

Mascatelli.

Here.

Ms.

Panfill.

Mr.

Redman.

Here.

Mr.

Haney.

Here.

Good afternoon, everyone on this beautiful day here.

Venice, Florida.

Is anyone signed in to see?

There is no one signed up.

Okay.

I'll second it.

Please let's hear your presentation.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, and if I could, before I get started, I look nice and loud this morning.

Um, I do want to take a moment and just introduce our new assistant city manager in the back, Roger Omanheiser.

Roger's joined us on week two here.

He's still still coming back, so that's a good sign.

Um, he comes from the U.S.

Coast Guard, recently retired after a twenty-four-year career there.

Thank you for your service.

And he'll be working with us in the future.

So for your consideration today and with any questions you may have, um, is a plaque in Centennial Park.

And as the chair said, Centennial Park is our main downtown park.

It's got a lot going on between the gazebo, the children's fountain, and some other uh memorials that we have there.

Um, but it was really important to the Centennial Committee, which uh includes Mayor Pashoda, myself, and our team, uh, and historical resources that when we rededicate this park, which is going to happen on April 15th, we do something to uh commemorate that event.

And so just the quick history here is Centennial Park.

A lot of people think it's named after our centennial.

In reality, it was established and named after the centennial of the post office.

So the post office was started in the Venice area in eighteen eighty-eight, and then they named Centennial Park in nineteen eighty-eight after that centennial.

Uh so not taking away from that history, but we'd like to add to it by um marking our own centennial and recognizing that Centennial Park can also stand for the city's centennial.

So that is kind of the purpose of that rededication on April 15th.

And as part of that, we'd like to put a plaque that recognized that moment, and so people can uh read about it and understand uh the significance of our centennial and that really important park uh to our city.

So we worked with public works to find a location that doesn't compete with any of the other plaques and memorials that are there.

Uh it's actually located kind of just to the east of the kiosk, if you're familiar with that, uh kind of in the central 200 block of West Venice Avenue, and then it's just uh just east of the there's a veterans memorial in the in in the center there, um, and it'll be a nice little spot where we'll we'll add some pavers, a couple benches.

We've talked with Mr.

Vetter and his team, he's gonna add some flower, uh, some flowers there to make it look pretty, uh, and then we'll have our dedication plaque right in the center.