03.23.2023 Pasco County West Side Joint Cities/County Workshop

foreign city's workshop of March 23 20 2023 at this time please silence all electronic devices please rise to the indication and pledge a merciful creator y to satisfy the needs of every living creature make us thankful for your loving Providence and Grant that we remember in the account that we must one day give may be faithful stewards of your good gifts amen of America which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty universities for all Medical District One commissioner Oakley here District Two commissioner waitlist District Mr Starkey District 4 commissioner Bradford District 5 chairman Mariano here and also from the City of Newport Richie Mayor Rob Marlow Deputy Mayor Mike Peters here councilman Peter Altman councilman Matt Murphy yeah councilwoman Kelly mothershed here mayor and from the city of Port Richey Mayor Scott Tremblay I'm here vice mayor Tom kinsella councilman Bill Mumbo councilman Todd McFlurry here and Council a woman Linda Rodriguez and you could also acknowledge the administrators that are here as well um the I don't have that on my list but yes the Debbie Mann thank you Mike carvala Pasco County John Deere poor Richie all right well thank you poor Richard Newport Richie for your support and development of the new public safety administration building for pastor County your lettuce has supported an instrument on garnering the necessary momentum and the intention to address the critical needs for an updated and Consolidated facility I appreciate everybody coming in here today to talk about the different issues going on with the cities it's always good to have these discussions and at this point in time everything was the first popular discussion and Community issues homeless initiatives and Kathy personal address [Music] administrator for public services and we are going to talk a little bit about homelessness and it's not the topic that we all like to talk about but it's a very important topic that we really need to face you know with the increase of mental health illness and affordable housing lack of affordable housing we're seeing more and more of this in our County and so I do have some experts in the county here sitting in here that we need to defer to if you've got questions I know Don Anderson is here from the Pasco County Homeless Coalition I've got my team Paula barracado Support Services Brian hope and director of community services and you know how we focus and with us on homeless issues and committees so what we're hoping to talk to a bit about today is what we're seeing some options about what we think we need to go and hopefully we see some

input from all of you so we'll start with um follow us by the numbers so this is unofficial count but right now we are seeing in um Pasco County from the 2023 unofficial point in time pound between 300 and 400 unsheltered individuals eighty percent of the unsheltered count reside in the west side so that was why it was important that we talked to you about especially with the city west side leadership here and it gives you the breakdown of the ages 20 to 40 32 40 to 55 40 and 55 and plus as 28 and that's on the rise our seniors are seeing more seniors become homeless where is this happening So currently this is from our Code Enforcement office and I forgot to mention Patrick Allerton is here too who's very much dealing with a lot of our homeless issues with code and this is their numbers they're currently seeing about 62 confirmed in campus at camps are identified with five or more transients and two encampments or identified with 10 plus and most of them are on the west side of the county just wanted to show you what the Homeless Coalition does now in their housing and service system of care for homelessness so they do have a coordinated access system this is a little bit of what they do they do a whole bunch more but people can contact the access points they are assessed they have a couple of teams that go out called the Brigade and they also have the soil the spoon they'll go out and assess our homeless they triage them and then they replace um on a list and then people are matched with agencies having funding and housing and services Nashville if they're available units this is what Community Development has done and Community Development is under the county and right now since 19 we put about 11.9 million of our community developed with block grants I mean just emergency solution grants and our home investment funds as you can see some of that um about 269 post homes Coalition for a software system that they use for all the agencies so we're not duplicating services and we can keep track of all the services they're receiving about 2.34 million of emergency shelter and some of the big projects with that we put a HVAC system and the Youth and Family alternative building which is our foster building Sunrise domestic Electric Systems section recovery we've done renovation so then these are all services that are provided to help with our homeless emergency shelter construction 1.77 this is a new one that's just opening up last week was publicity house that's a single women's shelter on Majestic and is joined by Catholic Charities the youth Lane this is a building that the county owned and we had turned that into a nine Family Family Shelter that is run by Catholic Charities about 2.1 million is the rosary brand new residents will show you a little bit more about that that is a I believe it's a 19 Unit A 14 units for Supportive Housing and then of course we

do rental assistance so that's some of the services that we have done through our Community Development Department here again is some of the big projects that Rosalie when do residents again that is um funded by this and then the building a family shelter some of the kind of comment I just listed along here I'm not going to go through each and every one of them but these are the folks that are doing some wonderful service to help combat homelessness and then we want to talk a little bit about the housing first model so National um Alliance to end homelessness supports the housing first model and what is that homeless assistance approach to Prior this prioritizes providing a permanent housing Guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and shelter and once established the person will be provided with case management so that's the whole key is getting the person in a shelter and providing the case management and connecting other resources what about some of our challenges so you know I'm talking with our Sheriff analysis here today too is that we have some great services but we're still lacking services and one of them is a lack of a lowering shelter and what do we mean by a little barrier that is uh pretty much taken a person as there is and so if they have their issues we need to be able to take them in get them the services they provide and all that kind of resources that they need to become successful we are a lacking that we also lack affordable housing we have economic challenges domestic violence family issues The Chronic health conditions substance abuse mental illness is on the rise you know sheriff's department has a great Behavioral Health and malaria representative today they can share with you lots of stories that they're seeing out there so we as a group we've been meeting on a monthly basis coming up with what does the county need to do and it's not only just a county this is a community issue we need to get the buy-in from the community and so we're hoping to take a lot of this and go out on the road do Town Halls talk with our your constituents and see what really is that we need to come together as Community to do so these are alternative Solutions nothing has been placed on nothing is in stone we have not gone out and purchased any of this this is just Alternatives we want to present and hopefully get your feedback so one the group has visited we've gone down to Pinellas when we've gone down to Tampa hope and these are two facilities Villages or whatever you want to call them they're run by Catholic Charities and they're the the great thing that they're doing they do a combination of tents or canvas shelter with pallet Combs and these Helen homes are pretty cool they're um they're about 64 000 square feet it costs approximately fifteen thousand dollars and they're alreadycome free electric or heating and air conditioning and all of that kind of

good thing so we're looking at maybe do we purchase some land do we purchase a building and put some acreage it provides some of this that's alternative number one the product the pro closed captioning not available [Music] that's what they mean by Mulberry to two the county can look for land and just do a tent city and again run by a not-for-profit again all in one location the not-for-profit can serve a lot of people in one place to still provide the services that are needed the third option it's sort of an option I still personally like is doing a pallet Village of sunshine so the county department with a not-for-profit and actually have a village of just Catholic homes and what that could do you could have these pallets that come in all different sizes you can purchase one that has bathrooms in it you can do a congregate dining so these are some of the options that we are presenting to all of you today and the last thing is a congregate so the county could look for a huge building put them all in one building some of the factors of the some of the things that aren't good about that is you know they're all in one space it's you know keeping it clean uh one person gets sick all the background's a good thing not sure I like that but at least bring it as an option and then the last thing is why do we missing those are the where you all come in what do we need to do what do we listen we have to do something um we can't keep going with the 60 something camps you talk to code the camps are growing more people are becoming homeless I mean let's face it folks we I know personally we have people that are telling me that their one paycheck already for being homeless so it's not just the people out there that we think are not wanting to be homeless there are people that are really falling into hard times so these are some of our Solutions this is an open dialogue what are we missing so that's all I have and I'm happy so I hope we can get some dialogue going like before gets a question for Kathy um Bishop Starkey is not with us and there's a little customer in Columbus so thank you guys for coming too um is there any questions for Kathy [Music] so we're throwing all options out because we want to hear from the public yeah are we going out to these are the homeless armies where they're staying and trying to get them to move out of that that's a great question commissioner Oakley so Patrick can speak to that but I will tell you I personally right now to the boys I spent with Richie Carroll one of the Code Enforcement Officers I spent pretty much the whole day in about four or five six camps and I was quite shocked at what I saw and um very messy and you know they're not very kept up very well some of the folks

we've talked to wanted some help one of them actually walked this up to the car and actually took my card and said he definitely wanted him and then two days later he was shedding somebody in the woods and now he's in jail because he killed somebody so we've got some serious issues and just to think I was out there with this challenge for a good 45 minutes sort of frighten me a little bit but this is the reality of it so code does a wonderful job Patrick I don't know if you if you're here if you want to add anything to that but um they see this day in and day out and it's getting to the point where I think they're not going out to the camps anymore unless they have shower with them so that's it yeah yes that's right prior to this in his face upon what Kathy just said that the issue is code officers are not armed they're not trained in any self-defense I don't care any Weaponry with them so it's best advised at least on my end of that how to call the Sheriff's Office beforehand these guys usually do that so we're working hand in hand with those guys and a couple of their representatives are here in the back and we've spoken to them many many times when we've come into these places I just don't want my guys going in without the protection as in town I think you've done it for normal jobs to shoot them in here I mean we went to a few different places in Hudson right off the bat and we're getting some good work done and then when the machetes came out you had to protect you guys we appreciate that um you know a lot of these people are from here but I think we get a lot of people from other side as well I think you've got to come across some of that experience people collaborate a little bit on that well I don't have the exact numbers to say how many people are from uh or original Floridians or not but he hears a majority of these folks are not from here maybe the Sheriff's Office can give you a better idea of that percentage or number wise or maybe God can but uh what we're what we're seeing at least from RM people we can identify a higher percentage are not from Florida's original you'll find that some of them have brought in from elsewhere as well that we don't know they're here you know in the holiday if you've heard that from anybody that maybe some people have been dropped off there's rumors about all kinds of ways and the weather be a nicer anything else yeah that's John Anderson did you have a question well I do but just to add on to that I I have constituents in holiday that say there that they have seen people being dropped off by some I'll throw anyone under the class but there's been some inappropriate behavior behavior and people have been dropped off at our accounting line going Anderson with the Coalition for the homeless here in Pasco uh our recent point in time count we asked the

question uh commissioner Mariano has put to us on many occasions we have it and we determined 88 for folks that we encountered in the point in time they've been in Pasco County some of them uh on average of 10 years so that's the data that we have from the point of time 88 of the escrow residents now just a couple of years ago with more like 65 or so so we've seen an increase in front of our own people well we are seeing an increase in Faster residence if you look at the Alice data it supports that we're going to see more and more folks of homes so how many of those people are from Pasco Cafe of the point in time now I mean I mean not from just been here for eight years or longer but how many are born and raised here in Pasco County uh we only uh went to 10 to 15 years so 15 years 88 okay I'm going to dispute that okay I understand it it is a point in time but commissioner Mariano I want to make sure everyone knows we did do something different this year um in the past with our property owners they they had to file an annual Note trespass agreement with the sheriff sheriff's office before we could um evacuate get them off private property now we've gone to a Perpetual no trespass agreement I know that I spoke to the landowner at Plath and little and and I'll tell you it took her over seven hours to fill her paperwork in um and so she's very grateful that um that she doesn't have to do this every year but this is one of our tools but when we get them off one property owners place they just moved us to another one and so we do need an answer or maybe don you know we have 400 clubs right what do we know about those people do we have a percentage that are addicted do we have a percentage that are suffering for mental illness we have the cities that are just down their luck and just needs a little hand up you know I'm trying to understand just what what we're dealing with I don't know if Don you keep that statistic I don't think you do but I can tell you just from my visit out there what I was hoping to maybe see as a veteran out there and I probably visited 35 to 40 of them I did not not one of them was as natural as I thought they were veteran that way we can try to get some service and help with them and I did not see one woman and so a lot of them were Council Major Crimes behind them have some mental health illness definitely have substance abuse issues that's the majority that I saw but we also got to think about the folks that are a single male that is getting close to being homeless and all that we still don't have a place to put them and that's I think what we're trying to get direction from our leadership is really think about what do we what is some solution we can sit there and talk about other counties and this County and that County we have 60 something camps what are we going to do about it and that's why I'm asking all of you we can sit there and debate

that all day long but we need to come up with a solution and we're providing you some Alternatives and we're just trying to get some feedback please this is the way we want to go um to see Alexander also Alex we come up and recently talking with the shark we had a whole sweetie we had an agreement that we need to have code for going out with the Sheriff's Office and trying to work on time to actually go do that so you want to elaborate a little bit on that yes sir so uh that was a conversation I know we had uh with you and uh and code enforcement uh kind of as you guys have been working on this and seeing more and more encampments out there you know we've always said that the department of Sheriff's Office plays with with all this is the criminal aspect of it right so if there is you know trespassing concerns something like that that's when we would get involved now that being said uh with quotation going out there and talking to a lot of these folks and trying to start that whole process going with the trespass students as you lead to uh commission Starkey uh sometimes they go out there and there's some concern for safety so we've we've worked a lot with uh with Patrick on that and said hey you know if if they're planning on going out there just give us a heads up in advance and we'll share with our our district manager they can they can plan ahead for that but also their own welcome if they go out there and something happens that it wasn't planned they're always welcome to notify us either through the non-emergency line or if it's an emergency 9-1-1 first and he's always welcome to give me a call as well so we've been we've been working pretty good on that um one day if I made anything right yeah John Anderson um code let me see code of course Code Compliance has along with the sheriff's office's work to identify the property owned by Walmart in an attempt to get a trespass agreement then they were just successful with some amount of the Midwest and that's being coordinated between code the sheriff and coalition to participate as well so Monday entire team will be going out to uh to do the trespass work and we'll offer services at that time make sure that all the individuals that are there in hmis in our homeless management information system as well as under binding Mr procedure so it's a real good example of the coordination that goes on the kind of a staff Josh say that for a second let me just I want to go on this subject to some of that because a few years ago down at Legion lean been during this tremendous crime prostitution all sorts of issues over in that area yes in that area we went and there was like 30 people at one point uh offered them all services you remember everyone who shut us down and then when I called you up we had a couple people sitting in front of

the Eagles you came back yeah went to those people too that had nowhere to go they said yes none of these people took Services that's that's right now I will say that you know when the opioid settled in money that's coming up uh there's discussions going on I know the Harper's the debate you know how big here used to be the harbors is now working to actually get some funding into redo a building that they have so they can do treatment right there and not even have housing for the folks right there that'll be coming forward I think it's a great that's a great opportunity with commissioner Starkey mentioned that and I I mentioned it Continuum of Care meeting was smarter than I think there's a real opportunity to make a difference in that regard so it's mental health opioid addiction and it can be anybody with the opioids affected in any almost any way they could be homeless just because mom or dad went to jail and they don't have a place they can be used for money for that you know I think Ashley Woody's team did a great job putting a whole script together which when I first heard about it I was a little skeptical as far as thinking that settlement money we should be able to decide how to do it but the list is so expensive and they think so proper that we may be eight ten years hopefully we could be done with the program that'd be great but everything she's got in place lays up good and I think there's potential when we've been working with them to do even matching fun money from what they know as well commissioner Kathy's um uh Mrs Pearson has this one has tasked us with with saying if we're willing to do something different than what we're doing now I would say that I am not okay with people living on someone else's property and when we shut one down like we just did on 19 and moved they're going to move to someone else's property so we have to have a solution so I'm up to exploring one of those other three options I'm not up to exploring number four um but I I look forward to a palette um seeing how these palettes work I've talked to some people who are representing them in Washington I think we need to buy some land I'm happy to have a non-profit run it not the county but we have to have a place to take people and they cannot stay on someone else's property thank you commissioner I just wanted to add because it's a great Walmart story but where are they going to go right they're going to do something else for us and that's my point we close one and then they're going to go somewhere else so we do not have a place to put them that's what I'm trying to get direction from so thank you for that and I do want to move on to the bank here in that conversation so yes opioid money we're looking at it possibly an urgent walk-in clinic but just to remind you they only have big round beds they don't have beds I mean

those folks come to the Urgent health clinic and your dad's in full so folks still need a place to go so I don't want you to think that they were going to have overnight stays in that urgent healthcare clinic so just wanted to reiterate that so we have been working this team has been working hard behind the scenes and it's time to hear from our community where you want us to go you're all I think you saw in the presentation get over 211 complaints we've been tracking your complaints that you're getting from your constituents about this so it's time when you listen to them and do something so I needed correction and that's what I'm asking for thank you Kathy one of the things years ago was talking about the frankly the San Francisco Coalition out there what they found to be the most effective uh of all the things we have done to reduce their populations actually sending people back from where they came from years ago years ago we tried we're going to try that but there was resistance from having a place for them to land fully accepted and everything else I don't think it's our responsibility to take care of that situation uh talk with the sheriff authorities on board as far as working with someone like clever rentals by me by name to give them funds where they can go send them back when they're from somewhere else and I think it's something that we should be doing and I don't trust frankly John Anderson the Homeless Coalition because the information that I've seen and I got is not co-looking with different people being from here so I can assure you with our visits to Tampa International that's one of the first things they do is try to connect folks to the family before they actually you know take them and read them and they take them and try to replace them to their families so that is happening in other areas I can't I know Coalition operates with diversions one of the first things we attempt to do and if we can identify a bed outside the area that they have they can go to in their support services we'll put them on a bus or plane and we've done that with minimal stations so think about all the things you just said that have to be in place right it's not that easy to get that done so again again if those people were bust down by somewhere else and I've heard it done as far as Carolina over New York they bust them down there they send them down there they leave them here they say it's better in Florida they need to go back to where they can eat them the same way and if they don't have support up there let them go deal with it if we get the direction to move into one of these one two and three options the not for traffic Catholic Charities has a huge success on this whether they'll be the agency of choice I can assure you this is their business they will do that could you explain those one two and three options to begin so it's been so bad okay so option one and let me just explain to you what Tampa and Pinellas talk to so maybe you can get a little

bit of additional that is run by Catholic Charities in Pinellas they've been there for 18 years I started off with a tent city they've gone to pallet homes and not only they gone to palette homes they've actually built Apartments so the folks come in there and they gradually work their way and they have apartments that they and they're actually successful they took that because Maggie Rogers during the coven mayor Castro was having a huge homeless problem and so she approached Catholic Charities and said I need you to set up me a tent city and it was an emergency thing 30 30 days because she was having a tremendous problem with businesses and then camping on all over the place Kennedy I think it was where they set it up somebody remembers Kennedy and father I think Florida Avenue thank you in the middle of the most Prime locations she set a 10th up a tent city under 30 days they were able to tackle a lot of the issues right then there mayor Castro was so impressed that she said we need to put some money and buy a building and help you start this Tampa home they bought an industrial building over in Ybor City a few of us have gone down there to see it they are still they just opened up maybe um maybe not quite a year yet so when we make two trips now now we are renovated their main building and that's where they provide all the services they have a Bible study in there they have a career source they when I was leaving the Hillsborough County School representative was there and said listen you need to partner with them because guess what we just went into an agreement with them because they're going to we're short janitorial staff in our schools and we're going to use them to do some janitorials so there's some great connections we're missing the boat we're not doing anything at large scale on that so that's the Tampa spinos hope combination of pallets and um canvas shelters we like to call them the second one is we can just purchase land and just have a bunch of tents and do some congregate dining and all of that kind of good thing it might be something you want to start off with not sure and then the third thing would be Jeff pallets no tent cities no canvas just make it a pallet Village of just all sorts of palettes for these folks to come and get you know a health and resources that you need so roof over their head and they're getting the resources they need does that help those are the three options so if we're missing something tell us it does probably looking to get started we haven't done anything yet so we need to get started I'd like to make a look at maybe a piece of properties and surplus or some property that we can get them to fairly quickly I don't have a problem starting with the intensity but moving into some kind of more structured after that but some football transparency we do have some buildings we're going to be looking at next month and have a look at the Bay

Bridge so maybe it's a possibility if that comes through we could be maybe looking at these buildings and expanding just like Tampa hope those they have their building and then in the back they have their Tent City and then they were Building 200 Calvin homes when we were there I think that was on six acres six acres so um they'll have they'll have 200 pallets and 125 TENS for a total of 325 homeless on that property commissioner I just have a question about funding so that's I mean that's one of my questions so how is it funded so with um Tampa hope the county puts a lot of money into that I think they purchased the building you have the budget breakdown um just the city or the city and the county the county does not the city of Tampa did um same thing with Pinellas I believe Pinellas County and the cities both contribute to Pinellas Hall but they also do their home funding they get grants and they do fundraising so it's not all funded by them that was we have Community Development Walgreens that would definitely be eligible for this but does the county need to put some money into it this year I I would think so so you know we we're compiling budgets now looking at 81.5 million to you know really get this thing where we want it to be so we're working on that but we wanted to just get out there and talk about it I would think that our citizens would be happy to see some of these camps near their homes moved I mean I get calls all the time people using their hoes going to the bathroom in their yard front yard and yeah it's we need something and I would think we'd have a return on our investment and I think our Sheriff would be happy too because you know I talked with Allison Chase all the time it's like we just don't have a place of them so I think that would be supportive on speaking for them I hope I'm okay Alex thank you sure consolidation like this happened where would folks go during a storm event during a storm event where would folks go during a storm event if they were to be moved during a storm event would they be put in a shelter with other citizens that work in this type of situation mixed in together in a safe space like this great question these pilot homes are built to 170 mile per hour winds so that hurricane state Kathy what is the cost of those metallurgies [Music] says you'll see the Palace of our 64th square foot which is very small runs about 15 000 and they come larger then come you know that's the smallest you can get but they didn't come larger so that's about 15 000. and then looking at the disabilities and all just like when we saw these at uh with Catholic Church

model stretch they brought one in it's really about like 12 by 12. um bed and definitely let's say a piece of luggage and and the good thing about it which may be something that wants to that make you want to get these people out of the woods is you're going to heat and air conditioning so between a higher shelter and privacy for all their own stuff I think safety wise it's an ultimate way to go to the tents there they're still not getting any benefit there it may not be enough to bring them up but that that structure right there at 15 grand I would wonder how many of those we could actually qualify if that would call qualify the opioid money still looking after you use because it's mental health if it's in mobile addiction Etc then it does qualify and go back to the 10th I'm glad you said that so even though the tents were 200 they go through tents like crazy because of the weather here so we have the Sunbeam dinner on it and all that so I can't remember what they said they spent like 29 000 a year on tents just changing tips customer deals so the question was um so fifteen thousand dollars in general you've got to have some other Billings or showers or eating facilities and for you know maybe in other stories for sale absolutely so a couple of things my little group here is you're looking at maybe doing purchase a big building where you can provide all those services in that building and so we do that we will read the positive part or these pallets also provide you can purchase dining areas and showers bathrooms and all of that they have them where you can purchase those too so that's why they say it could be a pallet Village any other questions on this issue yes over the past five years of the homelessness around the 20 count of four five four five hundred what has been that growth over the past five years so according to the account The Unofficial count we have three or 250 to 400 I believe those numbers have gone down according to those counts that's what they're saying they're going down if you talk to other folks they'll see the rise of homeless in our County so I wrote that I can only go by what the Homeless Coalition is done on their point of time account which they do once a year one of the things with the probe Center I've been fencing the high barrier shelter to make sure the people are working and I've used them many times on different parts whatever they just went through the five I think five or eight people from then graduate to get get their own place as well so it does work and if they do transfer people over but they go through and we thank them we thank a lot of the folks that are doing the great stuff now we just need more and we need a little barrier and so that's where the issue comes and Kathy we were out at uh at

youth Lane along with Catholic Charities there uh there's some improvements we could make out there and they're pretty much jammed up they didn't have every they even put one of the units for their family and had to use it up for office space there's probably enough to put a few mobile units that are out there that could take some old families get them up as free [Music] 400 one person per unit you're talking roughly six million dollars to accommodate the how the homeless issue right now without press release so it's probably closer to six and a half million dollars I don't think we would do that's why there's a scale right now I think we're talking maybe 100 150 right now just to see where that all goes I don't think we'd be looking at 400 people we need to grow as we can see how this is all going to work out so [Music] and I will tell you the the not-for-profits that we would be looking at they'd have to put some skin in the game too so it's not all going to be 100 for County or whatever they they folks that we had talked to a woman to put some skin in the game too this is not profitable again yes I got no Catholic Charities yes others [Music]

I think we need a thumbs up or thumbs down from some of the other electives in here [Music] so uh I'll give you my I like the I like the palette issues I'd also like to you know as as you know I'd like for there to be a lot of communication on activities that we participate in working with the homes if there's a large Camp it's going to be exposed maybe that needs to be communicated particularly you know if we're going to do one we always are counting up the university Camp 20 individuals we're going to go somewhere so we just need to understand that because it's going to go across the border so to speak right we just need to understand that so we can maybe have coordinated efforts sir I love the idea very well [Music]

in Massachusetts and she found out that he was in Florida yesterday could you set up a tour so I can go see Catholic Charities sure we have been there and we will set up another one we'd love you to come and see uh absolutely and if I can just say thank you thank you to my team that works in the Homeless Coalition the sheriff's department the theater we are really coming together to try to help conquer this problem and I just want to offer to each and every one of you if you've got homeowners so you've got a council meeting whatever Paul and I will come and see we want to get them we want to hear the constituents we want to hear what their Solutions are so please we throw that on to you and you can get my contact information all right as of right now on April 17th there was going to be a Hudson town hall meeting uh then open up and down the whole area so it's I think we're going to be a productive meeting they have a whole list of things and we had a meeting with only 20 people in our conference room just about a week ago and we went over there list and had a really good set of listing over and we're trying to get more information from them because we're keeping them going we're here to help okay so whatever we can do thank you for allowing us to talk fishing okay home reduction presentation Department of Health [Music] so good afternoon everyone my name is director of support services and current chair of the Opium task force um as you know our community has been negatively impacted by the misuse of opioids and in the last few years all of our municipalities divided with non-profits and other community organizations have gotten together to try to figure out ways to mitigate the impact of those terrible disease so to address some of the solutions available to us today as a community I have the pleasure of introducing trans chicotone she's assistant coming Health Department director and Shelby Meadows the executive director for the Florida harm reduction Collective these two exceptional Public Health public servants will provide you with an overview of the expansion of the infections disease elimination act which was passed in 2019 and El Paso County through a potential implementation of the harmful Reduction Program could make difference in the lives not just of our community but of those members that are negatively impacted by substance use disorder good afternoon I'm short [Music] can you hear me okay everybody can you hear me okay okay hi so I'm Shelby Meadows as introduced uh thank you for having me today I'm just gonna spend a few quick minutes talking about harm reduction um if you're not familiar with what harm reduction is any positive change so harm reduction can be somebody who uses medications for opioid use disorder so

that would be your Suboxone your Vivitrol your methadone that could be somebody who practices abstinence face recovery so somebody who does chooses not to use any substances whatsoever during their recovery harm reduction as I said any positive change is something it's something that decreases the negative consequences of something so in a common everyday terms harm reduction is a fire extinguisher so if you don't want fires to happen right but they're inevitable sometimes fires happen by having something like a fire extinguisher on hand you're decreasing those negative consequences of something so we're talking about drug use today and we're talking about syringe service programs which is a type of harm reduction so talking about the economic costs looking at one hep C infection for one individual it costs over eighty thousand dollars for Pasco County in 2017 and 2017 is the last data we are able to pull from vodka from the state Pasco County picked up almost 18 million dollars for individuals who did not have insurance who went to the hospital for an injection related infection they had so again they shared injection equipment they got a really nasty infection which leads to endocarditis and other medical complications they didn't have health insurance and they were hospitalized the county had to pick that up 18 million is the last that we have on record and then for one HIV infection without comp any type of complications we're looking at over three hundred thousand dollars so what are we doing and what can we do so the Infectious Disease illumination act came out in 2016 allowed for one pilot program in Miami it was a five-year pilot three years in it was doing so well Governor DeSantis signed it into law so since 2016 these programs have been popping up across the counties we have six right now as of 2023 but again as a 2019 they were able to to open each county has to pass a law to allow for such program you can see here in 2019 the Pasco Representatives that voted yes Hoover Simpson ignolia Mariano and zika in the Senate there was 40 yes votes and zero no votes in the house there was 111 votes three note votes and three missed so I'm talking about certain service programs but just to reiterate ssp's Adara version of harm reduction they provide resources to people who use drugs it leads them to treatment the goal under this law is disease elimination and prevention so we're preventing these diseases and preventing those costs from coming to the county so who operates in SSP a syringe service program hospitals health care clinics medical schools addictions receiving facility centers and HIV AIDS service organizations in the State of Florida you cannot use state county or Municipal funds to operate ssps so these are the services our existed and this is actually not even inclusive of all services because SSP is completely wrapped around offering all types of services to an individual these are some examples so there's a free one-to-one exchange of syringes for

every syringe that person brings that they have used you can give them one sterile syringe in exchange for that and then you take the syringes they give you and you properly dispose of them you test for hepatitis hepatitis C you test for HIV and you also uh treat if they have it you offer Narcan naloxone and overdose convention Education and Training you refer directly to treatment a lot of programs across the state have them on site treatment providers you can link directly to treatment vaccinations the Pinellas County location has the Department of Health come in once a week and offer free vaccines to anybody and Beyond just have a and b but covid flew everything referral to mental health and medical services this also includes enrolling for health insurance and then also access and wound care so providing basic wound care for people so that preventing these nasty infections they're getting and then having to go to the ER for them so the responsibilities so there is a County ordinance that does have to pass at the county level the commission enters into a letter of agreement with the department and contracts with the extra syringe exchange there's a one-to-one exchange again for every syringe that's brought in that individual that they use they can get one in exchange for that and again it's required for these programs to offer HIV and Hep C testing it's required they offer referrals to counseling and referrals to treatment for substance use it requires something about Narcan and also education around that and we do collect data at all of these programs that are reported to Doh every year and so the Department of Health enters into a letter of agreement with the County Commission they offer advice and consultation to to the process that are operating again report data every year back to the commission into the state so real quick these programs have proven and we do have the research links both here in this PowerPoint I'm happy that anyone wants to reach out to see the studies here ssps are directly linked to reduce overdose debts they're linked to increased linkage to care and that's again any type of care whether that's treatment that could be somebody that needs a primary care doctor that needs somebody that has a brain tumor and needs Specialized Care it leads to decreased costs of hep C and HIV treatment the programs are directly linked to decreasing those rates of those infections so there's no cost when they don't have the disease later on because you're preventing it and there is an increase of Public Safety by decreasing syringe layer and I'll go more to talk about here I highlighted a lot of words but highlighting a few things here they are associated with a direct linkage to 50 reduction in HIV and hepatitis C new users of certain service programs are five times more likely to enter drug treatment and three times more likely to stop using drugs altogether and it is directly linked to a 50 less 50 less syringes improperly disposed of and you have to think with

this law every you have to bring a syringe in to get one so you know so day one of the Pinellas exchange they took in 500 syringes and they gave out 70 that day so you can kind of already see where there's way more coming in that are on the out disposal in the community that are coming in and not that many going out thank you Shelby so um I want to talk a little bit about what the convenience say so the syringe exchange programs are supported by local entities within the county we have some individuals here in the audience today that support the program as well as in Nationwide is important the Pasco County Sheriff's office has issued a statement that says that they view a safe needle exchange as a public health initiative not a law enforcement initiative however they do support the states of Public Health if you knew is beneficial yeah the Department of Health along with the United and we send out a week-long survey asking the public asking residents what they thought and what they thought they needed within the community there was about 400 respondents and 94 of the respondents said that yes there is an opioid crisis within the county we know that um however we were surprised to see that 80 over 80 percent of the respondents said they were not aware of servicing in the county for folks wanting to organization and then finally over 50 says that they have seen mules within the county that need to be discarded so the communities say had said the respondents and said that over 32 percent have said that they have a family member a friend somebody they know who has overdosed or passed away from addiction these are some of the things that they're also saying that students at school who have parents who use they can't take their children apart because there's needles on the ground there's drug paraphernalia in outside of elementary schools that kids can see people have experienced family members who've passed away from overdoses and finally children are going to their bus stops and seeing needles on the ground so why does passive Academy the change program so number one is to reduce infections and see this returns over provide additional education to the public with for the services that we had in the county as well as intervention or substance abuse abuse and then also to increase Public Safety to to get the litter off the ground of the needles just touching on infectious diseases on the left you'll see in the gray you'll see that Paso County leads the state ant hepatitis C infections if you take the numbers that it takes to treat the infection you're looking at 5.8 million dollars to treat hepatitis C in 2021 for the county now on the right you'll see that in Pasco County HIV infection it is lower than the rest of the state however if

you dive into those numbers the HIV diagnosis for IV drug users is increasing and I compared into Miami-Dade diagnosis who has three and decline since their Inception of their program they see the 40 decrease but you can see that Miami-Dade who's tripled the size of our County we're seeing the same amount of infections through IV drug use something that we can prevent if we were to take their success rate and apply it to a program that we have here we could be looking at a 2.3 million dollar savings in healthcare relating to something that we can we can pledge also pass the time Sheriff's Office works hard to respond to overdose of the 2022 they respond to over 1500 overdoses 23 of them were fatal so that means every day they're responding to at least four overdoses and every and at least one is fatal that's a three percent increase in 20 from 2021. they also reported out of all the overdose exchange four percent is truly homeless now I say four to ten percent because the 10 depicts the the folks that are Couchsurfing who doesn't quite mean uniquely homeless definition [Music] a lot with the overdose data the state reports that again Pasco County in the blue and the left leave the state in overdose deaths when we're looking at Pasco County related to All Counties across either of us we're still one of the highest related to but not right there next to Pinellas related to Public Safety these are just some pictures that my staff were able to go out to based on the survey that we got and get some pictures of meals that are on the ground now I showed pictures on the west side but we had from the survey we've identified animals at the Emerson Center Hudson all over the county so these are things that kids are seeing at bus stops people are seeing out there so just to summarize the sort of change program is just one component for harm reduction it's a tool that we can use to address Community concerns related to Public Health needle there and to reduce health care costs for infections diseases addiction is a community issue and we need the community to come together to be able to address this issue and this is why we need your help English any questions well I guess I do have a question what was that yellow Dot is that on that on the the heat mat so the darker areas is where they've seen the most yeah so what's in yellow that is I got that from the sheriff's office I know that the darker spots are more overdoses [Music] so does that mean 25 are homeless people are overdosed or is this do you have it do you have how many overdoses are the same individual how many individuals overdosed in 2022 some of those might have been more more

than once the same individual oh yeah right sure so just try to figure out we have homeless of 400 people but seven percent of that um it seems to be like 105 people so that that equals almost 25 percent of the overdoses is to our homes well and also just to clarify that this is this is what the Paso County Sheriff's Office responded to so this is what many responded to have been reported um to the state as far as what I think not a total um [Music] that one there which is uh 32 of respondents had a family member frankly older girls for uh passed away from addiction I'm just curious that seems like a pretty high percentage to me how did you run that survey and did it potentially attract folks who were interested in the subjects there were the higher percentage rate so I know I'm not sure that sure so we worked with the alliance for helping Community to push us out on a social social media platform and one of my specifications [Music] was written and it was uh pushed out on Facebook through a Pasco news source that we've used and it just asked um it stated that ASAP was looking for responses to a survey we got people on both ends of the spectrum and we took the comments that they wrote because there was a Google text field at the end and then went through and read through all of them and seeing them by what they had stated so something said I had a family member we went ahead and put an Italian Marketplace so in other words you solicited members to participate and anytime you do that on almost any survey you're going to attract people that are particularly interested go and read or another in that subject so I don't know how that necessarily reflects the population yeah they said that we weren't using the survey to say kind of and overall this is the population of Pasco County regarding to protecting that it was just our survey yeah okay so we should try to see who was response good old statistics [Music] well you know again you can put that almost yeah good question any other questions I don't need a lot of stuff with those yeah okay thank you very much appreciate it all right second topic of discussion development Redevelopment Western market area for redevelopment American disaster for concentration I have a little bit of a software it's just an update really we're not looking for profound policy to the direction so the Westmark Area Redevelopment plan was put in place by the County Commissioners about a decade ago with the help of a consultant and our staff members it still exists despite the ads and blows where priority changes in our staff teams over the years but I think we can

agree that it seems like it hasn't been used as a Guiding Light for our work thus far and so the county dedicated a staff question to engage with the community break some silos and bring back Collective title plans so in the past year Kelly phone project specialist has built the less Market action in many motivated citizens from the West Market area this group meets monthly at the Wisconsin government center to voice concerns and share ideas also Kelly has arranged for guest speakers to come speak to them each one of the meetings so they can learn more about current projects and just the inner workings of government members of this group have also all but one of them been through the Pasco Citizens Academy so they've definitely learned a lot over the past year we welcome the elected officials or team members who would like to attend these meetings we are currently working through root work season we're currently working to audit more than 150 priority items and tasks that come out of the report that says in terms of you that's the old report from I believe 2013. so we're auditing that right now to see what we've accomplished what has left thus far uh and we can reevaluate based on the direction um excuse me re-evaluate our Direction with your guidance so we will provide our findings so we are finished with that and I'm happy to take any thoughts you may have today any questions well well I I would just say that I'm very excited that we're putting this focus on that Corridor it's needed some attention lots of times we hear that I is happening in Wesley Chapel and nothing's happening on the west side so we we put a lot of resources and a lot of focus on making sure that the 19 Corridor um has a economic and quality of life Renaissance so we appreciate all of our help for sure I've had medicine too that Redevelopment event quarter of 19 and all that's that's going on and more people getting involved so it's very good to see that and foreign [Music] and the water quality and um working on a dressing plan for much of the coast and I don't know if David Engel wants to say anything at a high level but we are working on some some projects that will will really have a humongous impact I think on the face of 19. so maybe you can just speak so what he thinks he can speak about [Music] high level [Music] 19 and near Tarpon Springs all the way up to the Hernando County border housing is being built shopping centers are being repaired and renovated we're helping small business rehabilitate the properties with landscape grants and Capital Loans and this year I promise you we're going to have one or two major items for the award agenda we're

stripping down shopping centers and redeveloping those properties is going on if you remember the old high Burger King sign there in I don't know if it was Darlington or Moog somewhere along there they're down he reinvested in his building the Great Subs is being reinvested into a Charlie's and new Landscaping new signs so I think you can really over the last few years really see a difference in the way US 19 is starting to look that that project [Music] and um and I would say thank you also to the Sheriff's Office they've done some rates on some known drug houses especially behind the Wawa and so um those are gone knocked down to the ground and I certainly have seen a difference there so I I hope you're seeing at least I'm speaking from my area to speak for yours but um I see I see Bank Improvement on 19. you know I think Dave has been very helpful with the project coming up in Hudson New York Avenue Hicks Road area where we got 168 acre Industrial Park coming forward today has been very helpful to try to herd them together to bring it all together to follow the commission's very earned receptor with developments coming direct money for their just being up in Tallahassee uh one of the groups of different um mentioned they could actually put the money into the roadways at the meeting and it was just approved they were initiated with the New York Avenue to take a section that wanted to come in for multi-family homes English was going to take away jobs that should take all the landowners as they come forward I should make it for or it could be a lighter industrial product so it's a great story we have jobs you have capital investment we'll have Rising property values rising at warm taxes sales tax capture It's a Wonderful story and literally within a decade I've worked hard will be transformed and certainly we see I've been a supporter of my Commissioners on the west coast ever since I was elected to the point of waiting knee deep in the water and later on I heard it was not very clean but I was out there with him Jack and I looked at a lot of places about flood issues and so I have concerns and to be able to support my Commissioners on the west side I I spend the time to go check it out with myself and I've been along with them with support of cleaning up 19 and it being much better than what it has been in its own way so it really uh they've brought out a lot of a lot of things Peterson the City of Newport Richie is very interested in the Redevelopment of US-19 we're trying to do our best efforts to do that as well since one of our priorities and we've had you've seen some changes already happened in your Main Street Kaiser University where Parks truck is right next door was able to do comments about the opening we have some projects down near the shopping center there in front of Barbers the Condominiums and the hotel going in with

a magnificent hotel is this man and we are actively looking good problems up and down 19 to find broken areas Redevelopment so we'd like to be very much interested in participating in that West Market area so we can maybe back pain on on some projects that we'd like to be performed and be participants we wouldn't be happy to work with you and we certainly look at the efforts that you've made in the attempted for our success in our community thank you so maybe Kelly in the future you can have a meeting right at the city council chambers and kind of bring your team together and then [Music] Mr Gibbs already councilman Murphy yeah thank you for putting that focus on you know quarter we have a small little section that a real estate but we're doing our best efforts to try to get things done and redevelop and you know we the county and the city both leave in and out of there quite a bit along 19 so we appreciate all the help and um you know I always say you know we're the we're the sports Coast so we really like to help over there yeah I I would like that too that one thing what Richie has I've not discussed this morning do you have a Highway uh overlay district for Highway 19 we do not have that now granted we we had an even smaller sector than 19 than usual I think it runs about a mile and a half and we've seen some changes I've been in Pasco County for a long time as has many of you and a lot of it kind of happened organically in our city as much as used to be we used to call that the Dual Pasco County we were here okay we were the thing and then it aged in place and this happens in many many many areas this is not unique to us you have neighborhoods of all built around the same time age [Music] what you're now seeing is the economy you're proving to a point where our little city is an example of the intersection of Ridge Road 19 now you've got some newer restaurants in their newer buildings in there but there's still some areas where we would like to do something again along the lines with people which you have a lot of information and you know control those those those little portions of r19 that still are unattractive they're holding or broken and just don't get enough information that I would like to keep moving along with yeah you know Port Richey section like it was very small slice out of five but it is a slice of the pie and again people heading south the south end of our city is what they see right before they go over the bridge in Jersey and I know that said okay we do all have to kind of work together image of Highway 19 for better for worse is kind of the image of West basketball County to an awful lot of people [Music] has gotten some national recognition is

one of the if not the most dangerous roads in the entire country uh I'd like to suggest particularly with the development that you're talking about up in Hudson holiday and what we've got going in Newport Richard and Puerto Ricans that may need to rethink the role of U.S 19 it is not a highway and we've got we've got problems with a lot of them are speed related we're we've got a 45 mile an hour speed limit and people are doing 60 plus maybe we need to lean on fdot to resync the way this road is configured and make it safer for local traffic get that speed limit down to like what they've got down in St Petersburg where it's 30 or 35 miles an hour the traffic actually travels that in coming from from Spring Hill down to Newport lynching I'm averaging 30 miles an hour already I mean it's not like it's a big change the problem is you've got very slow traffic and you've got crazy fast traffic all-nighter mix you've got curb Cuts everywhere where people are going to these local businesses that we're encouraging to to build there on US 19 and it's just not a safe situation so I think I think we need to deal with that thought and maybe you know both cities and the county all together and and taught them about you know what can we do to make this a functioning Street for Westminster hiring driving appetite officials a number of years ago and their basic opinion was exactly what you were saying was 19 used to be the north south maybe it's harder on the west side and their focused after they've put an awful lot of money down in Pinellas County with their term lines and flyovers and everything we have down here was as far as Pasco County goes they were never going to put a lot of money into turning 19 into an even bigger faster highly their efforts are going to be over on Little River inside away from the coast so their vision of 19 was in fact as told to me and this has gone back number of years that their ultimate vision for 19 was more along the lines of what you're saying was that it was going to turn more into a mainstream yeah I don't know if you can change the demographics of the populations or whatever it is yeah that's going to be a problem you can't make everybody drive a little road you know if they're going down to Pinellas County maybe they are from New York but I just said from the way I gather the focus from dot was you know don't expect me to see anything flyovers there's not a land uh you know the evidence of domain I will I will say uh you know one of the I think the ultimate Redevelopment project we have is also safety related that underpass on the under the bridge [Music] coming from DC so the transportation committee they talked about they had safety money which they never fully allocate all the money yeah in the way the federal government has done that now is that money sitting

there the way you can be claimed for safety and I think what I'm talking about right now we'll talk about later about that project there I think is critical for both cities it's a great Safety project uh cross Heaven Golf Course crossover in 19 it's not the ultimate way to go the safety underneath is good I think the city of Port Richey needs to can work and I think discussions with the with the lows with catches whereas your sidewalk project is not going to go into catches and onto the old doctor little side There's an opportunity there for somehow it's going to take working with I think the NPO uh working with DOT catches to work on some type of exchange to at least get that first part done and it could be a tremendous opportunity with what you owns the property there you could probably build this one you guys haven't come out with a dime of money but if we can make that underpass happen I think the safety money could fund the whole project from what I'm here up there I think it's worth a shot but we got to come together two cities in a county asking for is this trying to make make it a better Community thing and make it a safer way to transverse across my team well this is going to take the three of us together and more about what's Market redeveloping okay uh Port Richey and County Riverside developmental collaboration that's what Richie brought that subject up I believe okay well I'll start out with you know the county uh Bots um property on the river we kept it under the radar um so that we could make that purchase happen it's on the south side of the Cody River next to Whiskey River and also we bought a piece on us 19. I think one piece is in the city of New Port Richey and one piece is in the apartment team and we're separated by a motel not a hotel [Music] um we I literally went up and down the coast trying to find some kind of some piece of property where we could get more voter access for the public and stumbled upon that piece of land and and thankfully our Administration um took I guess we took general fund money and we we went into contract and purchased that um and I know that city in New Port Richey has some aspirations to come in with us and partner in a Redevelopment of some type on that corner and I know I I have spoken with some of your some of your electives and said I'm sure the county would work with you to maximize the potential of what that could be for the area and I think we have some investors who are willing to come in so I hope that we can do something big and help our voters and help our community in that area on the river

it is absolutely fantastic ideal places to put a big major boat launch type facility it's on the downstream side of the bridge so we don't have to worry about the high things it's got deep water is drenched all the way up to the Gulf of Mexico it just makes huge huge sense and so yes Newport Richie is very definitely interested in being involved in trying to make this happen it's a win for Richie has to take pressure off the main street boat ramp where people are now going because it's one of the few places they can go and then they speed down the river instead of going idle speed creating problems for our residents it's a it's a win for Port Richey because let's face it the next Park ramp facility is really tiny it just works out from all the way around for everybody so I'm excited to see them yeah well Mr snarky did a great job burning that project together to the board the board was unanimous to make it happen very excited about it I think it would be good if something could happen with that hotel as well because hotel that should be a premium piece of property not affordable housing like we have in some hotels or even elsewhere right I mean it should be highlighted so I think the opportunity could be worried for that we would agree with that yes until it's a little bit [Music] um [Music] and I think mayor of Marlo restaurant something that's probably one of our concerns he's saying well when they launch up up forever if you're down the river and they bother all our residents so if they launch there they don't go by our residents instead they can come through a quarter issue so one of our concerns is that's one of our oldest neighborhoods and it's all residential for the most part um you know so the couple concerns one of them is just where it's at in the river I think the currents are pretty strong there more so than in spark there's no sense it's perfect for novice voters to put in and out the other issue that's going to be a problem that we we experienced this within town is where you turn in to get there it's a narrower road going in when you turn there you can only when you leave there from the boat ramp to go on to 19 you can't head Northbound so that means folks would have to unless we change the traffic pattern to a South and then do a U-turn online team with local travel and everything else so there's a lot of challenges there not to say they can't these things that can't be worked around but I think one of the concerns that we have for the just the residents in the board she is you not about traffic that goes through there um and then the other issue is going to be enough that we're necessarily post these are just things that have been brought to my attention to some of our residents um

votes in and out in the next our equipment and I would add to that comes to make a car very limited amount of space we also right for the ramp in there to try to put a dock in there and a friend of Mr Clark and drive the 16 parking spots in their uh there's not much as I say parking is because but you know if you're looking for buying property I don't know how properly the consumable businesses these days and then take on the property right there in that same section and expanding next part of someone which is too as far as having more staging area and having supposedly now you can launch two boats at a time of the car and you know we all know you can't because it's on one side of the ramp it's pretty much wash it out if we had it to where you know if the park were designed where you could stay to launch a couple of boats too to us that would be a much more professional program so we move a lot along a lot and [Music] accident Columbo was saying not only do you have a property that's next door which is owned by the Portugues family but they've also have a bait shop with about an acre that's off the water that's directly across the street from the next part and that's just another lie um and that's been up for sale and I think last time it was up for sale it was up for sale for 700 000 if I remember correctly but that would be ideal to utilize that property for both parts during the day and then overflow parking for the bars and restaurants at night and then have this art itself just as a boat and so you're not partially those of those trailers on the water because that just doesn't make sense a way to set up now where you've had people both parking actually on the waterfront it seems to move the parking and closing those trailers off the water and use that Waterfront which on the rims themselves so you know I I think there's some some opportunity there but like I said I think we're Limited in resources please [Music] um [Music]

very good okay all right third chapter we'll go to Green Key resiliency storm on our other projects um green tea has been something we've been working with for many years and uh trying to solve the issue down there represented by Rihanna when we've got the state house and I think she brought back like 2.3 million it deals with the northern part of let's say the great area it doesn't deal with the green key itself but the immediate area where we have upbody practice if we've had a mutual constituent come before these people forwards several times and I think there's some opportunities there I've had conversations work with DOT bringing admit as well to try to work on someone that they have who can actually get some of the stronger together you know I'll go to funding availability we had some Opera money that we're going to work with redoing Leisure named vendoren I don't know if you guys are aware but habitat is sold the property to a private person that right now we're looking to do affordable housing in with them I understand how they were losing money in the homes that they bought we tried to get money from the state uh to get their stroll motor stuff done we looked at using our maintenance there but I think the Opera Monday we're going to designate for that area is uh would be better used to go fix the storm water in the green carrier and I think we took that money Mr Carabella gave me a price to repay the Green Key Road itself was about 1.5 million we could use that money through that whole roadway put a halfway up on Golf Course Etc getting out there and back use the balance in partnership with the other one that we've got and I think we can make green key much much better and take all the headaches away from all of us reviews are you talking about to do the infrastructure on Leisure yeah that's where I thought we were going to this the first time for this one I mean what's the best way to get all the money you can what's the best way to use utilize it all and again we've been part of the money through part of the Green Key solution model but if you listen to uh Commissioner of Agriculture Simpson talk about the money he's put for septic disorder he's put about 20 million of a side that we can actually go and get this other another I think I said 500 million to subject to sewer sustainable Lots you know this is there's lots of money out there perceptor and that project right in there with other projects you said you may have both cities in the county is Citrus County I think at 100 million dollars per second consumer conversion now they were focusing before just on the springs that has opened up now let's change so between the 20 million that part of money they said with the state uh the previous special money I think

it's a better to go after the substance to sort of that way because I'll tell you once we do it we've still got to look at other granted too I think because you don't want to just build it but you're going to raise up all these structures either I think we can look at a major infill projects where you can have one big development come through level at a lot of raise it along so that they probably it would be I think a much more productive development [Music] we still have problems you guys from status Lane to Ozone and someone bringing TV stumble flooding issues up there as well so we just fixed part of it we can fix the roster talk with them out there they're looking at it with us I think together we can fix that whole area instead of having just part of it because let's face it look at the roads that are in there too we might get more rows done when you drive down the whole service it's not pretty you can drive down the side rotor Green Key we can actually improve that park I think it's a more efficient way to spend the money especially when you go get other money from the state to do just most of what we're going to do with the subject to solar conversion anyways and that money is out there Mr Sterling well some of my concerns about putting a lot of money in that area that you're speaking of is that it's very very loved and so I just wonder if you're throwing good money after bad and that maybe it's better to move some people because some there are there are people in this County that are living in places that we that they shouldn't I think of Alfred Parkway for example we have been working with Federal money to just buy them out of there they're really living in the river swamp and maybe in today's world those people in some of those areas along Twinkie not all of them but some of them are so low then the streets are so low I don't know how you keep the water off you like the building a dyke like in the Netherlands so I I'd be I'd be interested in looking at some um elevations and seeing if it's even possible to keep water off with some of those words well first we've drainage I mean you can't drain it if you can't drain higher no so on the strong situation when the water comes in it's coming it's Department we all know that these cities have projects that we put water and sewer and where it goes on the water and we talk with those folks we actually built a bowl of sea level but coming in if we can get the water with it at least when it comes in afterward when the storm surge is going to go out it can get out quicker it makes it better as far as Creek oh yeah well I'm seeing if you have pictures that are full of jerk that are sitting right there a little different canals full of dirt that are sitting there if you clean those things up when the storm surge goes back and goes away get the water will float again and our

cities there are certain canals really essentially an extension of the storms and years and years Highway 19 wherever the water comes from I mean at the end of those canals as a matter of fact we'll we'll go to that situation because I think that's a situation as well we can talk about that you know we were on before near Trump and then black was there I came before the war we talked about what could be done there as far as partnering with mine in the interim of us not partnering with swellmar there was a 10 million dollar project done through the pond next to a Waterway the Penelope's kind of got they got fan billion dollars with still motor line and Swift money to match with the money I think it's even a restore money so all that potential is there and now there's even Federal money or Canal restoration which could be something we could discuss but so anyway so back to green key I mean I'm sure one that wonder is probably watching this right now or very concerned about this as she comes forward to when they do go underwater the water can fill up the improvements we made before in Leisure Lane Bandera from golfway working as a stonewater team we first had to clean out Gulf Drive we then cleaned out Leisure Lane we then had to go further with the company pickup on the backside of the apartments had to clean that ditch out and then we work with the apartments across the way during tropical storm Debbie when everybody was flooded out when the storm surgeon drop down that place was dry as a bone so it couldn't fit it could work if you clean out to the ultra thing and then with the roads in that whole little area I mean I say Green Key of 1.5 bill then maybe other opportunities we could do more roads in there as well and help the area [Music] corporations [Music] a commissioner might have been but the commission as far as having the discussion goes wasn't going that way so there may be another discussions you might have had but as far as coming for the from between myself I was never looking to do that I knew there was discussions going on with it but as far as to bill was going that habitat was going to be developed in the homes we tried to get them the funding we look forward with it and again it was shelter could store money now out there if I can grant from a separate pot of money that can go right this up to the store that's out there right now being pushed very highly especially with the new secretary of dep they want to see that stuff done and I think if as Senator Simpson said when you've got Citrus County that went for 100 100 million dollars worth of separate store that there's even more money available to it and he says we should be looking to go to think bigger I think we should be looking to do every step of the Civil project in the whole

County both cities up and down the full Coast because they want to protect the dogs so that's a separate pot of money as opposed to this one would be much more isolated that you would be applying for the bonds to install effective composures and usually yes any other projects too I mean literally we need to think big up and down the whole folks from the Sea Pines they always gloss everybody that's on they set the internet septic system we should be looking at going to do it and I think of the potential to get the money um what I heard when we were in Tallahassee was yes there's a lot of money that we have not been applying for it's very frustrating I don't know about you guys but in Pasco we haven't done one septic to sewer conversion yet um my understanding is there's a bill going through and Ralph may or may not be here that will actually require us to get residents who were x amount of distance from a water body to get office septic and um and there will be some money with that and and a little bit of time is what they told us um my thought for making a plan for the county is is based on what the legislation comes out this year is that we do a an assessment of the worst areas and the areas that legislatively we're going to have to fix first and that may be group one and then group two group three group four and keep going down the line but we're going to have to have a plan uh an assessment done of where our most vulnerable and important subject to sewer conversions are going to happen in the county on the subject of sewer yes we've discussed with utilities and infrastructure to begin that work of identifying those areas and of course as I've mentioned to you all in the past our focus on chasing after grants is changing fundamentally within the county so that'll be on top of that with regards to the Newport Richie I will tell you that that deal is previous administrator and I'm looking at it but I from what I understand the direction was to bring an intervocal back before the board money has been budgeted and set aside in your 2023 budget for Newport Richie so I'll have to bring that to you for some additional Direction on this but but certainly we should have the discussion and go about getting the money to achieve all of our objectives smartly so we'll we can continue to have that that discussion but I do have that as current board Direction and so I'll I'll discuss that at a future board meeting and another you know how the tent doesn't have the property or all of the property anymore it's it's a significant change in my opinion too the we'll get the next next one the New Port Richey wastewater treatment plant there's all sorts of money out there for girls that Brazilian sake um we've had many complaints I think you guys are probably aware that when you guys release water into the canals I get phone calls about

the smell the smell of the smell so I think there's like a little bit of a problem that's out there that kind of slows the water from flowing out but from the studies we've seen the organs are dying up out there from doing that I saw the documents getting an extra permit a change in the permit to be able to dump more I don't want to see that happen I'm just saying it was present between I started from the EB I don't want to see that happen what I would love to do because we don't half of it as well is work together to fix the situation if we got to move it let's go move it but I want to see it build to a better resiliency so we don't have to even do that anymore foreign but I think again back to a coastal water plant if we can if we can raise it if we can make it safer or something like we should do after there's Federal money will be for that as well [Music] yeah I think we need to think about the wastewater treatment plant or from a long-term resiliency on the support of using anything else is the city manager pointed out that the water releases are generally feel very part of the point but long term as we have sea level rise in this area it's in a very vulnerable area and one of the issues and Mr Oakland and I were at the Tampa Bay Water meeting so we could go and the the discussion was there in doing the so-called sharp budget which I believe you're familiar with the South Hillsboro unportation project are really taking treated Wastewater and just trying to hold back the The Saltwater intrusion and that may ultimately be something that you need to look at in Wisconsin you may have another alternative too that could work well if we take a look I think if we could take and put a requirement we claimed water line which we don't currently have and take that reclaimed water from the plant and move it into other parts of the county yeah I think there's there's a number of of opportunities out there we do have an interconnect I think to take some of your excess reclaimed water that can't be used for your customers but if there's an opportunity to expand that system with our storage capacity that we have in Pasco assistant it's quite resilient that's an opportunity there may also be opportunities within you know for Grants to look at collection system Rehabilitation which is you know during wet weather events you get inflow and infiltration that can certainly cut down on the high amounts of water that would flow out of the plant during those wet weather events so I think there's a lot of opportunity there and we're as co-owners we're happy to work with you per capacity yeah [Music] Florida Department of Transportation processary

you had but I know we're working with DOT to allow for golf carts to go across us 19. well really actually have our TMA meeting transportation management let's say area um Friday is that tomorrow and so um I'll be asking for an update I don't know if any of you guys are coming but it it's going to be an important meeting and it's actually right here tomorrow morning um I know representative Yeager uh had in draft a bill just to fix it for the whole state not just for us and personally I think that's where we need to go um in this day and age that we're not allowing golf carts to cross a highway when you can walk across it bike across it wheelchair across it scooter across it I think it's outdated and I think we have a good chance of getting that through so um but we're um do you guys have any more updates on us okay let's go applications for consideration to act that the district seven office and we have asked for permission to use golf carts to cross that both Marine Parkway and it's called I'll be here tomorrow also okay a little more conversation just over over here I think we we got involved in the same traffic study because that was one of the requirements of my understanding the cross and it's Our intention the importance you apply to print cross at granted 19. because that's the logical place to cross with in our city um and I spoke to Mr Brad Ager as well and he said he didn't want to look for this process twice so he's asked that we work also with Newport issue of the county to get everything done at once with the dot so I know Mr dude I think there's been a contact with this is this has been um so is your application [Music] I think we're waiting for the study to come back for we have to completely as well oh okay foreign no no it's in draft but I don't think it made it out of draft I think it's more will be teed up for next year okay um as to well first classes we've not been involved with that but if you're looking Crossings on the 19th pedestrian mid blocks dude he is working on seven different Crossings that'll take place up and down at Elizabeth Avenue San Marco Drive Tudor Lane Charlene Lane Eastwood Lane Buena Vista Lane and Lois Avenue and those will be mid block pedestrian classes I think we'll talk about those tomorrow at the TMA that's not on the agenda but I'm sure [Music] underpass project oh Blended so status on this there's an engineering estimate conducted by Ford dot they estimated the cost of 40 we're going to pass to be approximately six million dollars three million dollars of that was

attributable to the capacity for golf carts to use that facility the other three million is attributed to pedestrians and cyclists at this point in time golf cart access is not eligible using state or federal funds so while dot could fund The Pedestrian cyclist path they're unable to fund the golf cart half of that cost so we would have to find among our Collective group three million of that the other thing I'll advise is that because this is a structure on US 19 there's a state highway I think it would probably make dot most comfortable if we were to provide the money and ask them to implement the project because it is their structure lastly we would want to study to look at what we do on either end of that facility and where we take it through the neighborhoods aligning right-of-way so that we can take it from under 19 and then connect it up from there now before we had talked about doing it with that same rejection coming up and I thought we pretty much thought about just making it as wide as we possibly can not associated with a gun part and just built it was that possible still uh it would be of course obviously it would be a elephant is out of the internet that's the elephant in your room the Secret side of it but there's no secret applied I just want to build as wise weekend and maybe legislation changes down the road we can actually go do it and [Music] allow myself right I think the need change in our city is still allowed to cross the Grain in 19 the need to give all parts under the bridge changes and and I think that on purpose discussed it but we would probably revisit the idea of this having a regular height and bike trail it's already fully funded small city of fully funded project is much better in a lot of ways from a festival standpoint and one of the main reasons for us to try and go with the golf cart project under the underpass there was because there was no other way safely to give all parts across if we can cross safely and Grant I think it takes that need away and it changes probably the city's position to a certainly to make it big enough for the golf carts to go on it makes it breathtakingly expensive and so the great Crossing for the golf carts just makes huge sense and I'm certainly supported an important change so then at the next time feel we can make a motion just take the 45 degrees [Music] foreign [Music]

Trail down the part of your Grand Boulevard yeah when will we see those designs and you know Grand Boulevard goes all the way down to 54 into a big old piece of land um that Walmart owns that they're not going to do anything with that is rightful Redevelopment and I just see uh you know if we could have a really nice connection between 54 and downtown New Port Richey on Grand Boulevard with a multi-use trail of some sort we could really activate those two those two areas [Music] uh two would be just fine so there's a huge amount of opportunity for a multi-use trail to go from uh close to the downtown all the way down to Marine Parkway ultimately going out Crossing US 19 and Marine and then going south and picking up the uh the trails that the county has been envisioning going out in all the way down by the power plant it's a huge opportunity and we've got some multi-use uh Trails already actually south of Marine Parkway along Grand and so if you're thinking about trying to connect that's not out of the realm of possibility yeah I think we should have a grand plan um yeah that is not I didn't mean it was two meetings so there is a trail all the way down 19 starting at florimar and it is very well used um by some people maybe we wish weren't using it but it's very well used and I'm I have um put into motion the idea of bringing that multi-use trail up Gulf Highlands Boulevard and we already have the right-of-way and then it would eventually connect to the coastal and Club Coastal Trail so um I I love making these connections and I just want to have a you know a a workshop on Grand Boulevard with us and you guys Sunday on their way we're we're anxiously weighing the because when we work on the Grand Boulevard bridge is that we raise and so forth and so we're trying to coordinate our Universal designs with the conjunctional tax so I think it's going to be a great responsible yeah here well you're going to have one at Marine Parkway and go you already have a Crossing head your trail goes from Marine Parkway across I would hope that as you're redoing them the Magnuson project is coming in they're going to bring that multi-use trail from Florida up to Marine Parkway right and then you're connected it's already there all the way down to Gulf Trace Boulevard on us 19. and that's coming in for redevelopments all right uh Jones Street Maintenance projects that was one of the ones that we asked to put on and we're using a chunk of our article funds of those in order one of the things that I've asked

[Music] think I State procurement laws allowed for piggybacking of agreement so you know we can sit down and share those agreements with you and you know kind of let you know what's what's going on there so I appreciate it I just wanted to mention that that was one of the things that we had going on and um we could really use a bigger contract a better prices yeah of course [Music] the County's been a fantastic job in recent days and flood litigation over there and there's been some really good short-term fixes one of the issues that they're running into is Swift blood is now saying that they don't want them pumping the water [Music] um stormwater projects in that area and I wanted to know whether or not we could have a joint venture to move that water and that's just what's happening is as the county builds up there's less permeable soil so that water is running down Ridge Road and inducting into the city but we need to get it instead of dumping into the city all the way out to Salt Springs which is where our natural log goes and our storm water goes and what I wanted to see is if we can work with the county increase the the infrastructure in terms of moving more water because as counting was more water into the city it's just going to bottleneck to flood the city so we need some help I think moving the rest of the water out and then the other thing I wanted just to touch on with that is the filtration of the steam water because it is coming out into the wall Salt Springs and then we have several canals where we have now it's 13 through 17. we're still in water if it's not filtered a little bit better we just have more more of the runoff [Music] those canals there so we wanted to know if there's any options or any way to work with the county on some of those issues sure yeah we've been working on the Alcohol of that and then we got voted down at night on there definitely we'll murder this down on the alcohol conversation on that it's been a while back and I think we go back to it and look at it and see if we can't work together as far as increasing alcohol well they just didn't they wouldn't agree for us to do anyhow I mean indeed basically their owners has really been along we don't want any Waters that are not basically purifier so anything that brings more water storm water runoff or even you know overflows the treatment facility that's still clean they don't take good care of it well this type of long enough tells them they kind of clean that up and have it changed I think within the next 10 years off of the project for retention uh some Ambassador chairs [Music]

you got more into the detention area of the mobile home park like a seven inch nails yeah what's better that and go through it I'll give you choose that first of all the northern Outlaw to pass through and cleaned all that up into some Springers that are literally cleaning of taking out that whole area before the bridge a little while to close right now it was a pretty punch we're going to clean that whole way around it's going to be a big treatment before releases out the southern article was the one that I think is pictured a few greatest potential I think would work with the dot Etc all the sediments in water flows where it flows if the flows from Magnolia Valley up it goes across it goes across it's not just us it's just where the water is going to go yeah and they said there might be a audience member never one of the guys runs the property Matthew Todd that was one of the canals running right to The Minister's property that also going across when you get on an Old Bay Road Old Post Road to this to the left side there's a big Pawn that's there that collects water I got to assume that's a little bit so much like the Pinellas Park yeah right so the Pinellas County just like so all that water goes in there goes into that pond before it starts releasing out and it releases all the way from to the north model we are almost to where they they a road is coming across the canal all the way down to the individual yes sir I think it would be best if I had my Public Works director perhaps go address um you and your staff and your team and kind of show you what the project is about we can address concerns through that and you know Swift Mud always looks at benefit costs as we go through things so let's let's look at it through that lens but we certainly can go and explain to you everything that's going on with all of our stormwater projects because we do look at them regionally we want to make sure there's no Downstream negative impacts every night in the United States will you tell me during the presentation right now no we're not from here to do that but on this specific project and let me continue my conversation today yes sir thank you um [Music] but anyways so I think the potential between the federal moneys out there for Canal restoration that you could actually take in that pond right there we can go approach swipment to go get joint funding just and use the exact same example we've done with others they've got a matching funds of money and they've been changing what they're going to do between water schools Etc but I said I think the approach we can go after we then go get the federal miners out there kicking right now that looks good directly to the counties in the cities there's nowhere to go get that and then you can take those five panels where all your homeowner found a

soaked with mud and the water quality is not good either because all those nutrients that have died over the years the environment either you can go clean all five of those up and then assembling those all about this uh we've talked about this before if you work together you can work those as a stormwater production with DOT as well improve every one of those canals and every bit of water quality key to what we're talking about some filtration because I think that there's this lamb of filtration that's what was causing the lowest analysis so I I think the part of the project and those things is better filtration because I think even if you didn't maintenance if you don't know if that water is just going to go back up well exactly let me just go over to exactly to my point right so it's not just doing the canals it's doing the fun beside it just like we're going to treat the modern Warner boys coming through we're taking the water that runs up from the apartments down every Springer it's now going to hit a big pond that's going to sit in that pond the settles will stay there then it can really solve this problem is there now yes when I went down to see what the tropical storm went when I came in and we were out there all of a sudden we were going to go clean that out because we knew it was going to be a strong surge storm it was gonna be a rainfall school and we went out there we took eight truckloads of dirt out of both sides and both sides is a good point yeah people tend to forget um [Music]

including some of those issues so we're out searching for Grants and other funding as well but if you have additional resources that we made or places we've applied just let us know well as I said it's it's good it's going to take work and I think you work with DOT you can work with swift money and money's out there and again the federal program that I saw at Naco it lists exactly those those features and again seeing the Pinellas had done it I mean it's out there you just got to go after it just like I mentioned eight years ago when they talked here all right all right uh so that's we already talked about the code here in the past we're going to go to recreational opportunities um Westchester Little League Baseball Field enhancements you know Bishop Bradford was going to talk about that but we've got someone Captain I got Christina right here all right [Music] assistant our celebration and natural resources I'm just going to quickly go over the improvements we've done uh to the pineapple Park so in summer of 2022 this past summer we did a field renovation in fields one three and four at the park the renovations consisted of regrading new infielders new Turf and a warning track around each field we have plans in this upcoming summer of 2023 that include all of the current buildings at the park and dugouts will be demoed new concession buildings with a restroom a meeting room storage and an outside grill new dugouts new vinyl coat fencing to replace all the existing fencing at the park new bullpens and batting cages bleachers with shade covering a new parking lot along with an additional parking area that will be created retrofitting LED field lights additional sidewalks and hardscapes and a new Maintenance building for the team out there so that's all planned to take place starting this summer oh look all right um so at aimco River Park um this project is part of our redesign of the entire park right now our focus is on access for ecosystem best access to the park there are improvements to the boat ramp plan but right now due to potential permitting delays we want to focus on the redesign of the park as is kind of as phase one and then the boat ramp will be phase two of the project okay the next boat ramp we've talked about that already like I said there is over Improvement money if we can kind of like it because I promise me what we can do to improve it yes we took some notes including when we were talking about the property that was just purchased by the county so we took all those comments to make sure that we take all that into consideration thank you it's the future close to close connector uh the Sun closer on this Trail expansions cold season yeah we're not done yet

on now [Music] come on now all right so here's what's going on right now I was just up in uh for tourism day up in Tallahassee I met with all our Representatives uh one of my textbook a strong conversation the data that I saw from 2012 to 2019 showed that Pasco County actually performed for him to come in the accounts that are shown with what's out there in the water Citrus is a house the meeting I had just this morning eight o'clock with Fish And wildlife's deputy director was to go over that data in going over that data they relate to me that they're no longer using that data so I said well why wouldn't you use it but we don't know if we can count on that so the same data that we've been penalized for 20 some odd years about not being The Scholar has now been thrown away they've got news out of the user this new band that's out there they're taking the square footage of seagrasses out there and then get the specifics about what kind of seagrass because how we do these out there in the loans as well as the Deep stuff of Bellagio across the board they didn't give me any details about this thing because of the square footage of seagrass we're going they want to keep us at our 10-day period I said tell me this where is the scientific basis about what's in the water that used to matter that's not doesn't seem to matter anymore crickets I said I don't know how you penalize this for 20 years on some data it's out there and the new data itself that most current that we can see shows that we're compatible to Hernando and now you've got this new experimental that that's that nothing to do what's in the water just on your own Square footages I said I don't see how you're going to do it so they're going to take a look at it they're going to go further I then went to the governor's office talked with a representative there engage in the story what just happened and I will tell you I think fisherman could change their minds okay I'm going to encourage all of you to reach out to our state legislators and the governor and tell them how you think they're getting treated and if you want I'd be happy to share that data that I've done everything I looked at I'll even show you a letter I'm getting ready to send then we'll give all the details about all the reasons why I think we should go to a full full 60-day special season and if we need to let's do a five-year study on it we'll see the results in five years but give us five years of a 60-day window just like the rest we will download this That official Wildlife after the five years to decide where we should go from there so we're not done with it yet if you

want to work with me I think we can still get that change so they don't change per negative in 10 days well it would be tough for them to do try to imagine that happening I don't think that's going to happen with the five year you don't want to lengthen this patent for the scoping and have it kill the seeds but it's going to produce College because in Homosassa that area and also even in pressure River and all their numbers as far as taking stops way down but they do they do a much broader picture of that we could just get another weekend involved in our scholar season I think would be great but I've been told that that didn't support you want to get the new guy that they use them and then from what I understand they don't get current data for the same day I've been losing for 20 years is always what we couldn't do it they don't get the current debt on that but as far as the Harvest from what we've heard and what they've heard the scholarships actually been getting how they're actually larger than once up the coast as well so yeah we I that's what I think let's do a five-year study but there's no reason even with the skeletons since it's founded our numbers have gotten higher in Hillsborough was I mean Hernando's been pretty constant but islands are actually higher than theirs so why why would we be treated worse than Hernando town that's the bottom line with the same and that number is actually better for the stone production so I think just treat me the same so any other comments because if those disappear all right I'd like to say thank you all for coming out I think the discussions are good sometimes things [Music]