Stewart City Commission, Village of Indiantown, and Martin County School Board. So if we'll all take our seats. Anybody trickling in? We got everybody. So we will perform the Pledge of Allegiance, if everybody's ready. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's go through introductions, maybe starting with the county and working our way clockwise. Elise Elder, county attorney. Sarah Hurd, Martin County Chair. Blake Capps, Martin County Commissioner. Eileen Vargas, District 1, Martin County Commissioner. Don Donaldson, County Administrator. Wade Vose, Indiantown Village Attorney. Carmine DeFalo, Indiantown Village Mayor. Karen Krista, Village Manager. Roz Johnson-Strong, City of Stewart, Interim City Manager. Laura Giobbe, City of Stewart Commissioner. Sean Reed, City Commissioner. Christopher Collins, Mayor of the City of Stewart. Campbell Ridge, City of Stewart. Lee Baggett, City Attorney. Tony George, School Board Attorney. Chris Shelley Roberts, School Board, District 1. Dr. Brian Moriarty, Vice Chair, Martin County School Board. Marsha Powers, Chair, Martin County School Board. Jen Russell, Martin County School Board Member. Amy Pritchett, District 4, Martin County School Board. Now we'll move on to public comments. I have two. And we'll say ladies first. How about Kelly Ribaudo? Okay. Good morning. My name is Kelly Ribaudo. I am here today as a parent and advocate for student safety in Martin County. The Martin County is growing rapidly. With population now exceeding 165,000 residents, we are seeing more development, more vehicles, and increased congestion in our roadways. Over the past five years, our county has recorded more than 26,000 reported crashes, resulting in hundreds of serious injuries and multiple fatalities. In just the first three months of 2025 alone, there are already 12 traffic deaths. These numbers are not abstract statistics. They represent real risk to our community. As growth continues, safety planning must be kept at pace, especially around our schools. Growth without infrastructure planning puts our most vulnerable residents at risk, our children. I want to specifically address Citrus Grove Elementary. At Citrus Grove, we have students as young as four years old crossing streets to get to school. Many of these children walk with siblings who are even younger. These are preschool-aged children navigating busy morning traffic that should give us all pause. Multiple requests have been made to establish a designated school zone in this area. Families have raised concerns. Parents have asked for signage and traffic-calming measures. Yet this issue remains unresolved. School zones are not decorative. They are critical safety tools. They signal to drivers that children are present, and speed and awareness must change immediately. Without clear signage, flashing lights, reduced speed enforcement, and proper crossing protections, we rely on chance instead of planning. Statewide data shows Florida continues to struggle with speeding and unsafe driving in school zones. That reality makes proactive local action even more important. We should not wait for tragedy to force change. I respectfully urge you to prioritize the installation and maintenance of effective, clear, visible school zone signage, warning systems at Citrus Grove Elementary, and other high walk areas. Enhance traffic-calming measures and enforcement around school entrances and pedestrian crossings. Data-driven collaboration with the school district board, traffic engineers, and law enforcement to identify and address high-risk areas before incidents occur. It is imperative that the county leadership work collaboratively with our district school board to ensure that every school in Martin County can be reached safely, whether a child walks, bikes, rides a scooter, or is dropped off. Four-year-olds should not be responsible for navigating traffic risks because adults fail to plan appropriately. Safety access to education should not depend on luck. Our children deserve infrastructure that reflects their value to this community. Let's act before we react. Thank you for your time. Frank McChrystal. Good morning. Time goes by. Some things never change, though. Drive with me now on Monterey Boulevard across the tracks. And to your right, you see the end of runway 1230. And then you see on your right-hand side 23 acres of mature, very mature pines and palms and native vegetation that is part of the buffer between the airport disaster and, let's just say, East 10th Street. And the neighborhoods there in St. Joseph's and Parker, 2,300 feet from St. Joe's and all those neighborhoods to the north. So I'm here, and it's so pathetic that I have to be here to beg you to throw us a bone. Previous Martin County commissions have stated that those 23 acres of buffer would never be on the table. And now, just like that, it's on the table. Okay? And I'm asking you to throw us a bone because I'll go into my tirades you've heard 100 times before. 1230 was illegally extended in 1998. The uprising occurred, and the noise contour study sent to the FAA in 2003, which was mechanically done with microphones at the edge of the airport, was also faultily done. I was there at the golf course. And it's all weekend long, Thanksgiving weekend, instead of those jets taking off in their normal balls-to-the-walls angle of ascent. They took off like rocket ships. They call it a short-field takeoff. And then they limped out of town. So the original noise contour studies are probably 40% wrong. Okay? And when I call it an illegal extension, you don't have to believe me. In 2011, the FAA decided, uh-oh, hey, those runway protection zones do go into existing neighborhoods, and we're going to make you install EMAS. So there you go. So please, please take those 23 acres of buffer off the table for airport development. Thank you. Thank you, Frank. Moving on to comments from commissioners and council members. Maybe we'll start from the county and work clockwise. I'm set. You're good. Mr. Capps? I'm good. Thank you. Ms. Vargas? I'm just delighted to be here to meet everybody again, and hopefully we can work together constructively and respectfully. Don, I mean, you got a microphone. No? Okay. Not for me today, sir. Thank you. All right. Any in town? I don't have any. We're good. How about us? How are we feeling over here? You, LaClarke, for the record, City of Stewart, it's always great to be here. I did look at the calendar, I mean, the agenda, and it was just reports from the various agencies from the city and the county. But I just want to say that there's so many things that we still can work on, city and county-wide. And we just need to continue to consider those things, the airport being one of them. And, of course, there's always traffic, and there's corridors in the city that belong within the county, and, of course, you know, within the DOT's jurisdiction. But just let us continue to consider and think of things that we can work together and do together as a community so we can always try to bring those up when the time is right. I know that the city has a lot of considerations, and we're thinking of sending some ideas to the MPO to try to look into, as well as I know that I serve on the airport advisory board, and I'll be bringing up some things. But it is a great opportunity to have this joint city-county school board and village of Indiantown median board. Mr. Reid? Yeah, I just wanted to say to my constituents, I truly love this position, and I hope you guys are proud of what I'm doing for the city of Stewart and Martin County residents on the MPO. Thanks. School board? I'd like to echo the comments of the first speaker there about a school zone at Citrus Grove Elementary. I've been out there, and cars come whizzing down from Port St. Lucie through that school. There's a crosswalk there. There's kids walking to school, and it's entirely too fast, and I think she has an excellent point. And I'd like to see some action taken here. It's been suggested, but it doesn't seem like anything's happening. I've been out there on site, talked to the SRO, and they're aware, and they feel it's also a big problem. So much so that the SRO out there has parked their car out by the street with the flashers on to try to get cars to slow down. So this is a big problem, and I'm hoping that maybe in this joint setting we can have a constructive discussion and get some action so that some disaster doesn't happen outside of Citrus Grove Elementary. Thank you. So I just really quickly, I wanted to mention the superintendent sends his regrets today that he's not able to attend. And he's gave me permission to share. He's with his wife, Colleen, who's having surgery today. So please keep her and her team of doctors and their family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. I, too, want to mirror what Ms. Roboto said. I spend a lot of time out there because I have family there, and it is treacherous at times. And it really doesn't matter what time of day. But particularly during the school setting, the school hours, we really need to look at all of the schools and all of the traffic and make sure that our kids are safe because that's our primary concern. Thank you. This would be the time for discussion about that item. Is there a particular question for? Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Chair. I would suggest, I wish I could have conferred with our county administrator first, but I'll do that now. Mr. County Administrator, do you think this would be best handled before the MPO or before the county commission as a potential agenda item? It would be the county commission. So we could request our county engineer and traffic engineer to make a presentation. I know there's a lot of work going on, Citrus, with the development and putting in some roundabouts and other facilities. But that would be my suggestion is we have a presentation from our county engineer who will be the one making the ultimate be responsible for its design and construction. Would a county commissioner need to make that motion at the next county commission meeting? Or could we discuss that right now with the chair of our commission and maybe give some assurances to people here today that will have that on an agenda in the near future? I think the county administrator can take that as direction. Oh, great. If Madam Chair is okay with that. All right. Great. Okay, so we will add this on the agenda coming up for this meeting? I don't know that it's going to make it to this coming meeting, but we will let everybody know when it will be scheduled. I don't think you can ask for more from a joint meeting than that. Good job, guys. Commissioner Clark? Yeah, I know that we're saying that we're not discussing it now, and I'm asking this question, and we don't have to have an answer. I'm just putting it out there. I know that the school board does their own planning and building and development, and I'm not sure how much traffic work is done when a school is put in, like when we have that Port St. Lucie Boulevard that comes down to Citrus Boulevard. I'm not sure what you have to produce in order to show around the school where you have different zones for crossing or entrances into the school. This is not for this meeting now, because I don't know how much a county sees when you do your building plans and then the off-site. If you, just like any other developer, if you get all your ingress and egress looked at carefully by the county at the time when a school is being developed. But since the county may be looking into it, it would be good for the traffic engineers to know what standards the school have when they create a school, what are their standards for creating various ingress and egress for students within, like, say, within the two-mile radius when they're crossing major highways to enter into the school and how that pathway to the school is made. And that's a good point to make sure we have safe pathways to our schools. So, yeah, just, you know, somebody, we're going to be looking at it, so it's important. Ms. Roberts? Thank you. Yes, tagging on that, I'd like to suggest that the county contact both Mr. Seacrest from our facilities and Frank Frangelico, who's with our safety department, because they can give you more of that information of exactly what that looks like, and maybe we can look at more than just that one school at the same time and maybe do a comprehensive look at all of them, that would be appreciated. Thank you. So, to the commissioner's point about traffic, when Citrus Grove was built, there wasn't really any traffic on that extension. There was not anticipated a new field, and also the amount of people that would utilize that extension into Port St. Lucie. And I would say that the majority of the traffic is coming from Port St. Lucie into and through Martin County. And I know it's going to become, traffic is also going to become an issue, because there's a 10,000 home development in Port St. Lucie that is happening off of 609, which is right at the four-ways, just, I don't know what direction that is, but it's the back entrance of that 10,000 home development is going to be off of 609, which they'll come to the four-way stop where Martin Grade is, the Canopy Road, and they're going to be headed right to 95 through Martin County or the Turnpike. So, it's really concerning. That's going to be an issue, although I don't anticipate we'll have walkers, but we do have a lot of constituents that will be navigating those roads, and it's going to become a real issue, more so than it is already now in Palm City. Ms. Pritchett. I was wondering if there's something we can do temporarily while it's getting on the agenda, because it's a safety concern. So, I don't know how that happens, but maybe an extra traffic director, someone out there to make it permanent, temporary, if that makes sense, until we get something permanent in place. Okay. Are there any other comments from commissioners or council members? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to presentations from the County Public Works. All right. Good morning, everybody. I'm here. My name is Jamie Paldora. I'm the Senior Project Engineer for the Capital Projects Division. I'm here with John Mayle, and we're going to present today about what's going on in our Public Works Department. So, the first project we're going to give an update on is Charlie Layton Park Improvements in Palm City. This project is to increase the boat ramp capacity, and it is 40% complete. Along with the boat ramps, we're going to reconfigure the parking lot and provide additional docking, open green space, and the expected completion of this is summer of this year. As you can see in the photos, on the left-hand side, that's showing the cofferdam, which is where the boat ramps themselves are going to go. And on the right, we have the South Observation Pier pilings that are being constructed. Next, we have a HAL Patioke Park resurfacing project. This is about 95% complete for construction. This includes the path, which is the photo on the right. So, that is the path that goes to the back side of the park. We're also paving the entire parking lot and doing some drainage upgrades in the park itself. We also have county line bridge replacement project. For this, we have external utility coordination ongoing. That is with the Loxahatchee River District, as well as the Village of Tequesta. Once they are done, we are also currently working with Florida Power and Light for future utility relocation that will have to be completed prior to construction of the bridge. Tentative construction for that right now, we have at summer of this year, 2026. Throughout this, we've also been coordinating with emergency services, and that plan will be in place for the duration of construction when the detour is in place. Here are some photos for the Southeast Avalon Drive sidewalk project. For this, we're adding a sidewalk along the west side of the road, and that will include the drainage improvements. So, you can see on the top right and the bottom right photos, we have the drainage structures being installed and the pipes. And then on the left side is the newly poured sidewalk. We also have Southwest Fox Brown Road resurfacing project, which is under construction. That one, we are just milling and resurfacing the roadway. You can see the two photos there showing the new pavement and the milled pavement. And in terms of upcoming projects that we have, on the left, we have the Rocky Point Neighborhood Restoration Project, which is drainage upgrades. And on the right, we have the Southeast Dixie Highway multimodal path, and that's from Airport Road to Southeast Monterey Road. And there, we're putting in a multimodal path along where it shows the red lines. I'll pass it over to John. Good morning. John Mayle, the Environmental Resource Administrator. I've got a few updates on activities in the Environmental Resource Division. The first is the ongoing work at Indian Riverside Park. It's a living shoreline and a breakwater project. They're continuing progress with those rock revetment breakwaters that will help attenuate those waves and then create an opportunity for us to do some shoreline stabilization with tow rock and mangrove plantings along the park. And then lastly, we'll do some seagrass plantings between those two where we expect to have some natural sand recruitment. You'll see that continue through this entire year, really. We just moved to kind of the south end next to the pier by the Lankford Center. Thank you. Can I always count on the county administrator to know your stuff better than you do? We're trying to get those done before spring break, and we start to have more activities in the water along that beach. Next update is East Fork Creek, which we expect to have substantial completion today. And we're going to finish up with some littoral zone planting for nutrient uptake and some buffer plantings for the area. And then this will help to provide nutrient removal and clean water in the East Fork Creek Basin starting this wet season. It's kind of a difficult one to see because it's got a fairly narrow footprint that touches US-1 near Mariner Sands. And then an update on the activities of Martin County Forever. We finished up a couple more agreements that we expect to take to closing for 90 parcels in Poinciana Gardens, which was a long-platted neighborhood that never had open roads or utilities. And the county has been working on acquiring lots there for a long, long time. I remember in, I think, 2018, the last time we made a substantial purchase there, Commissioner Hurd used some MSTU funds to help pick up a few. And this will be far and away our largest progress on that. And then we're going to closing on a 1.2-acre parcel on the beach just north of Gilbert's House of Refuge on the south side adjoining the public land that makes up Clifton Perry Beach. And that stretches over to the river, too. So it kind of creates both, preserves both habitats. And then my last update is probably the most fun one. This is an update on a story of redemption for broken places and broken people. So in November, we sunk a ship, a 227-foot cargo ship, that spent its life hauling illegal drugs. And we sunk it nine miles offshore on one of Martin County's artificial reef sites in 150 feet of water in honor and memory of John McCauley, who has a similar story of redemption. He had actually spent time in prison for drugs buggling, found redemption, and then spent the rest of his life bringing life to the ocean. So this is a really cool story that will serve the ocean and the people for a long, long time. Do you have any questions for Jamie or myself? Ms. Bridget? Yes, good morning again. Several residents in Rocky Point reached out to me regarding Maggie's Hammock. They were told that they needed enough e-mails in order for Maggie's to be looked at, and I'm just advocating for those residents. Maggie's is a beautiful gem in Rocky Point. Families go there. Dogs go there. People just go there to relax. I was wondering if you had anything to provide regarding any type of revitalization for Maggie's Hammock. Can I get with you offline? I guess I'm not totally sure what type of revitalization. Is it exotic removal or...? Cleanup, repair of swings and things of that nature. Make it more inviting, safer, obviously. And just the fact that it's kind of gone into a little bit of a sad state as of late. I'm there pretty much every day, and I pick up the garbage and I put it in the can. And I don't think much of it, but it would be nice to walk in and just see that it's kind of uplifted. And I think that's what the residents want for their kids and their families. But I will reach out to you offline. Thank you. Any other questions? With the boat ramp, what were the before parking spaces for the boat ramp versus after? How many were added? I don't know the exact amounts. We can get back to you on that. Okay. Thanks. Seeing no other questions, we'll move on to the city. Thank you, guys. Peter, thank you. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Peter Kunin, Director of Utilities and Engineering for the City of Stewart. It's very nice seeing all of you this morning. I have a presentation for you that I'll bring up right now. Apologize for the technical delay. So I have a variety of projects that are the city's utilities and engineering and public works projects that I'd like to share with you this morning and give you an update on those that are in construction. The first projects are transportation projects. And we have, as we do every year, we have plans for doing additional pavement restoration within the city of Stewart. This year, we're going to focus on within Zone 3. And a few of the streets that we're going to be doing this year are Southeast Georgia Avenue, Delaware Avenue, Lake Street, Apache Avenue. The project is currently in design, and we're anticipating the construction to start this summer. And these projects usually take place during the summer months just to minimize impacts to traffic after the winter season. The next project is the City of Stewart's Courtesy Dock and Wave Attenuator Project. The project involves a demolition of the existing dock and replacement with a new fixed dock, approximately 7,500 square feet in size. And with pilings and associated, there will be a wave attenuator as well and a floating dock portion. The floating dock portion is not part of this particular project. It will be constructed at a later time. The fixed dock portion will be constructed. And the project is currently out for bids with the bid opening in March of this year. The anticipated date of construction most likely will be the summer, during the summer of this year. The next project that is in the closeout phase of construction is at the City of Stewart's Fire Station No. 3. And it's a signalization project. As you can see from the photos, the mast arm and the signal is in place. It's operational. And we're planning on closing out the project most likely in either before the end of this month or in March. So on to our utility projects. So we have currently under construction a lift station that we refer to as our conquistador lift station project that involved a total rehabilitation of an existing sewer pump station with new piping and valves and their recoating of the wet well. There's also part of the project, an auxiliary pump for bypass purposes. And these are current photos of the project. And this project is also anticipated to be completed in March of this year. The next project is also a sewer lift station project. It's for the City of Stewart's North Lift Station, which is north of the Roosevelt Bridge, also involving the rehabilitation of existing equipment and putting in new pumps, control panels, recoating the wet well, also adding an auxiliary bypass pump to the station. These auxiliary pumps add redundancy to these facility-type projects, these lift stations. Should there be a loss of power, we have the means of pumping the wastewater and continuing with that until power is restored. The project is currently out for bids with the bid opening in March of this year and anticipating the construction start of this project this summer. On to another utility project, it's the installation of fire hydrants on St. Lucie Boulevard. This project is currently in construction, and we have five of the six fire hydrants installed in place and operational. One more fire hydrant to go, and we're anticipating the completion of this project this spring or early summer. On to our facilities projects. We have currently underway at our water reclamation facility the construction of the rehabilitation of the existing headworks structure at our wastewater or water reclamation facility. The project involves total rehabilitation of the existing headworks, which is the main entry of wastewater into our water reclamation facility. And there's also new equipment to be installed as part of the construction of the project, repairs to existing flumes, installation of new gates and valves within the headworks structure itself. The anticipated completion of the project is this fall. And last but not least, we have our Veterans Memorial Park amphitheater project that is just about completed. As you can see with the photos, it's a beautiful project, no question about it. It has just beautiful features incorporated within the project, and we are very proud of this project. The, we'll be able to stage outdoor events, and we have a covered stage, a green room, there'll be lawn seating. It's just a fantastic project that we're very proud of. With that, the project is in the closeout phase, and the anticipated completion of the project's construction is March of this year. And in addition to that, we have scheduled the grand opening of the project, slated for Saturday, March 14th. And all of you are invited. Please come out to the grand opening of this amphitheater project, a very terrific project. And with that, I'm open for any questions that any of you may have for me at this time. I know everybody at the courthouse is looking forward to the Leonard Skinner cover band. It's going to be there during the daytime. Are there any questions for Mr. Cunin? Thanks for everything you do, Peter. My first question was, on those fire hydrants on St. Lucie Boulevard, are they new or replacements? They're new fire hydrants. Did we ever have fire hydrants on St. Lucie Boulevard? We did not. So these are new fire hydrants that will add to fire protection on St. Lucie Boulevard. Gotcha. Okay. Ms. Powers. Good morning. I just, as a resident of the City of Stewart, I just wondered if you have an update on Palm City Road. Obviously, we are seeing a lot more traffic on Palm City Road, especially this time of year, but also due to the backups at Kanner and US-1. So a lot of people are now cutting through and taking Palm City either to get to Palm City or to get to Port St. Lucie or north. So I wondered if you had an update on what's happening. Well, I know at a recent MPO meeting, the focus has been the intersection of Palm City Road and US-1. That project or one of the alternatives or an alternative for that intersection is in design right now. I don't have an exact date for the letting of the project, you know, the project going out for bids, but it is currently in design. With respect to the Palm City Road itself, I know that's a, it's also a project that's slated for design. However, I'm not aware of the project actually being in design at this stage. That's from the US-1 to, is that Kanner Highway, Monterey Road, I'm sorry. Thank you. You're very welcome. Bit of a process. It had gone through the MPO. There were alternatives. And then FDOT came back and recommended a whole new alternative. So it's taken a little bit longer than normal. Did you have another comment? Okay. Seeing no other comments. Thank you, Peter. Thank you very much. We'll move on to Village Capital Projects. Mr. Nolan. Good morning. Pat Nolan, Director of Public Works and Utilities for the Village of Indiantown. First on the presentation is some of our Public Works projects. First one is Seminole Drive Project. That project is actually ready to commence. We've been talking about this project for a while, and we were winding through the grant process. We actually just had the project approved at our last Village Board meeting, so we'll be getting on that very shortly. The next project is a Southwest Lincoln Street Roadway and Drainage Project, also a grant-funded project. So we're working with DOT to get that out and get it designed and get that project done. Roadway repair and maintenance, that is what it sounds like. We started working on the potholes last year, so we had a lot of potholes through the Village. So we tried to do the worst first. So this second year is more of the same. But hopefully next year we'll be doing an actual project where we combine utilities and the road work. Water projects. Water plant. We've actually got two water plant projects. One is in the works. We're going to rehab the existing water plant with SRF funding. I actually have a meeting with the engineer this afternoon, so hopefully we are going out to bid with the first part of that project very soon. The next part is a reverse osmosis treatment plant. That is also in the works. We just received another bucket of funding from the Department of Commerce for that project. Railroad Avenue Water Main. You've heard me talk about this every meeting since I've been coming to these meetings. That is a hundred-year-old cast iron main, and I'm happy to say that we got funding for that project in the last round from the Department of Commerce. Thankfully, that project is already designed, so we just have to work it out with the funding agency, and then we'll be able to go out to bid. So that one is personally very exciting to be finally doing this project, because we've been talking about this project since I got to the Village of Indiantown. So it'll be nice to actually do it. Floridan aquifer wells, as part of the reverse osmosis project, we're going to need wells to supply water to that reverse osmosis treatment plant. So timing has worked out. We were able to bring a contractor in and actually start the Floridan wells. So we have a need for, we thought, three initially, but once we saw the data from the first well, we're going to have to drill four wells. But again, fortunately, the drilling contractor has been on site. We've got two of the four drilled, and we're working on the third, with planning on the fourth. 151st and Osceola Street Water Made Project. That is, we're seeking funding with that through Congress and Mass's office. So same story as some of the other ones. We're working with the granting agency to get to the point where we can put that out to bid. Special water projects. As part of the reverse osmosis treatment plant project, we need to drill a deep injection well for the concentrate from the reverse osmosis project. Part of this was just pure timing. We had the funding to start the project. And there are very few rigs in the state that actually drill deep injection wells. And the contractor that we were working with had one available. So we have been working on this project a little over a year already. And it should be completed sometime mid-summer. We'll have to do some testing and hopefully to be online by the end of the year. Wastewater projects. We are also building a new wastewater treatment plant. We are much farther ahead on that than the water plant. If you look at some of the pictures, we've actually got tanks coming out of the ground. We're rehabbing the reuse plant as well so that we'll be able to provide reuse plant to the village in the future. And that one picture, that spaghetti, is all of the conduit for the controls for the administration building for the wastewater treatment plant. There's actually 109 pieces of conduit in that building, which is a weird number. But I just thought I'd point it out because it took a lot from the contractor to do that and do it right. Hopefully, we'll be pouring the floor soon and actually building a building and getting close to having this treatment plant operating, which the scheduled completion is summertime. And that is it for my presentation. Do you have any questions? Mr. Capps. Yes, Mr. Nolan. My question is about the water plant project and the RO plant that you're putting in, reverse osmosis, I was curious about what creates the need for an RO plant and how expensive is it to construct them and to maintain them? I know that SMRU has one to service the water needs of the southern part of the county. I'm not sure if there are any other RO plants in Martin County, but what about those issues? What creates the need and how expensive to construct and maintain? RO is reverse osmosis. Presently, we have surficial wells in the village of Indiantown. Surficial wells are apt to be contaminated or can be contaminated because they're what it is, what it sounds like, surficial. They're only about 130 feet deep. Looking at future planning, it is much safer for the water system to go to Florida wells, which are much deeper, so the chance of them being contaminated is much less. They actually do have a reverse osmosis plant in the city of Stewart. There's a lot going on there because of PFAS contamination. So when you're building the next water treatment plant, that was the thought is future contamination. It's an alternative water source if you talk to the South Florida Water Management District. So again, it's less chance of contamination. So to build these Florida wells, you need to treat it. That would be the reverse osmosis treatment process because the Florida water is brackish, so it's a different treatment process. Our estimates right now are about $60 million to build that plant. We haven't figured out what it's going to cost to operate it yet. That is part of our planning so that we have an O&M schedule and a staffing plan. It's definitely going to be more than what it costs to run this official plant that we presently have. So that is part of our planning process is exactly that, figure out what it's going to take to build it, which we're pretty close. We're still seeking funding. It was every topic that we talk about, and this is not just our municipality. We're always looking for funding. We're almost there with the reverse osmosis treatment plant, and the next step will be definitely O&M because one thing I do know is it's going to be a lot more expensive than the plant that we're operating today. It's going to take more staff, and it's just a more advanced process. Thank you. To his point in the city, as we found that wells were contaminated, you do have that level of redundancy. You are pulling from Floridian, and if you need to turn off wells, you can pull from RO. And in terms of cost savings, as long as you're not pulling exclusively from RO, you can do some sort of blend where it helps with cost savings for maintenance. But it does add that level of redundancy. God forbid there's new contaminants that pop up. You're pulling from what should be clean water other than it being brackish. Other questions? Okay, we'll move on to development updates. We'll start with Martin County, move on to the city, and then the village of Indiantown. Ms. Lovelady. Good morning, everyone. Samantha Lovelady with Martin County Growth Management. I have your look for you. So, I want to go over population first, because we don't normally go into it. But in the last update that I gave you, the estimate for the county for 2020, the projection for the county for 2025 was 166,400. And the Bureau of Economic and Business Research provides estimates and projections to the Florida legislature. Well, their new estimate for 2025 is a little bit lower. It's 166,281. So, that's a drop from what they projected. And that means we had 0.87% growth for 2025. And for the calendar year, January through December of 2025, we had 666 residential units approved. We had almost 1.5 million square feet of non-residential. And here's a look at what we've got in review. If anybody has any questions, let me know. A lot of non-residential that is under review. And with that, for 2025, we issued 601 residential permits. Does anyone have any questions? Questions for Ms. Lovelady. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to the city. Ms. Coogler. Morning. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Jody Coogler. I'm the development director with the city of Stewart. Let's go over a few projects that we do have in-house. Last month, we did approve a Coffee Rush restaurant located right by the Walmart next to the mattress firm. It's actually 470 square feet. We have in review is a Baker Road Storage, which is an outdoor boat storage area. And the Martin County Supervisor of Elections is doing an addition to their existing building. And then also, we did receive an application for a multifamily located at 15 Southeast Seminole Street. It consists of eight units, three-story townhomes. And we did have 13 pre-application meetings within the last time that we did meet with you. And this ends Stewart's update. If you have any questions, please let me know. Questions for Ms. Coogler? Okay. Moving on to the village. Ms. Freeman. Good morning, everybody. Dina Freeman with the Village of Indiantown Community Economic Development Director. This is the February update for development activity. I have a short presentation. The non-residential projects are listed, with the ones in blue being the ones that have had changes since the last meeting. Dollar Tree was approved for a 10,000-square-foot commercial building. It's actually open for business as of now in the last couple of weeks. StoreAway, which is outdoor storage, has been completed and had a ribbon-cutting, so they're open for business for their expansion. The other projects are what has been approved and is under construction building permit stage, which includes performance boats in the Venture Park Industrial Subdivision, TA Estates, which is office and warehouse, Grind Hard, which is the manufacturing building facility, which is close to opening. I believe they have a ribbon-cutting in, is it March or April? April 6th. April, April 16th. RCC Construction is in Venture Park. That's an approved site plan. They've not submitted any building permits as of yet for their 22,500-square-feet. Itown Commerce Park, which is the former juice plant, has an approved site plan that is pending building permit submission. They received site plan approval. This is the CEDRON Technologies, for anybody that's aware of that, in the proposed processing facility plan. We also have, I have that twice. It's only been built once. Yellow Pine Truss Company is approved and site plan under construction, very close to CO for their building permit, for 86,165-square-feet of manufacturing of roof trusses. P3 Technologies had their ribbon-cutting a couple of weeks ago for the pump-testing facility, 1,500-square-feet, and then the approved construction of all of the ancillary equipment to test for their business venture. Indian Town go-kart facility was still pending resubmission, but we did have a recent meeting for a private go-kart facility, shop, and office. Sky Leasing is pending resubmission. That's for truck parking and storage at Venture Park. U.S. Advanced Transportation is Venture Park as well. That's actually in for submission since this slide was prepared, and so that's under review with the development review colleagues. SilverFox is a data processing center. We have a request to rezone from heavy industrial to PUD. That's for 2.2 million square feet of industrial, which is specifically for a data processing center facility. We also have Venture Park, lot 24, outdoor storage, which just had a staff report issued. We have a development review colleagues meeting tomorrow on that with the applicant team. This is all the residential development. Terra Lago, the overall master site plan was reported in previous meetings for 2,488 units. Of that, Phase 1A and 1B are under construction of site plan approval and are under construction with building permits, and the rest of that is all the different phases. River Oak site plan is under construction for 131 units. They're actively submitting and getting approval for individual dwellings in association with that rental community. Seminole Crossing is approved, and again, under the active building permits and constructing those single-family homes. Indianwood Landing is adjacent to Indianwood Drive and the Indianwood mobile home community. A pre-application has been held for 57 townhomes. They've not yet submitted their formal application. Osceola Pines PUD was approved and limited to 40 units due to water capacity issues. They have 158 that has been approved, but they're able to construct 40 at this stage. Heritage Park is a change from the last joint workshop. There was an approval on the 8th of January for 71 single-family homes. That is the former FEMA site within the village of Indian Town off of Charleston Street, Farm Street, and MLK. We have a PLAT that's in for review, and we're due to issue another round of review staff report for the applicant team in the next couple of days for the PLAT. They intend to sell the lots, individual lots. JPI Indian Town is an approved development of 40 units. It's pending building permit submission, but a development order has been issued. And we have other applications, which include Parkview Apartments that have not submitted building. Hendry Ridge was a pre-application, so no change there in terms of formal submission. And River Oak, there's a phase 2 for 800 units that has not been submitted for site plan review and approval. And Citrus Grove is a comprehensive plan amendment to change the land use from rural residential to suburban residential. So that goes from a 2-unit to 5-unit per acre. We have a staff report that's been issued in pending resubmission. And this is just the maps, just to provide some geographical context. The Silver Fox Data Center is number one that's shown on this map. Number two is the Project Para that we're going to get into in a moment in terms of annexation and large-scale comp plan amendment. It's either side of the canal and Southwest Canna Highway. We have another annexation, which is called Beskar, which is 1,100-and-something acres annexation and a concurrent land use amendment to light industrial. We show you in context, Terra Lago is number four. Number five is the River Oak residential community. And number six is that comp plan amendment, which is called Citrus Grove. And these are just some of the other areas. We list Heritage Park, Indian Town Commerce Park. There's number two. There's number one is Terra Lago. We also show some of the, like, four is Grind Hard. And as you can read, Osceola Pines, number seven, eight, JPI over here. And this is just a zoomed-in plan that shows the Cedron, iTown. This is the Cedron that's just been recently approved, and the Yellow Pine, which are all effective reuse of that old juice plant that's very much heavy industrial, active industrial activities in there with at least 16-plus businesses operating from there, as well as these two new site plans approved. And this is the applications for annexation, comp plan amendment, and rezoning. We have an active application in for Beskar Investments LLC, which is a voluntary annexation. That is under review, and staff reports are going to be issued in the next couple of weeks. Concurrent with that, we have a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment to amend the land use from agricultural to light industrial. And there's a location map in relation to the existing village of Indian Town boundary. To the west is the Venture Park industrial site, and across the street is the juice plant we were just talking about. And this is a summary of Project Parrot, which is a voluntary annexation for 5,722.30 acres. And this was actually approved at Village Council's second reading on the 12th of February. And that's to increase the boundary and add a property owned by Florida Power and Light into the village of Indian Town. Concurrent with that is a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. When you do a voluntary annexation, there is a requirement that there is a land use change to go from Martin County to Village of Indian Town. So there's a land use change from agricultural, major power generation, and institutional public conservation to light industrial. It's actually scheduled to go before Village Council at the end of this month for second reading. We have received all of the consultation responses from third parties, including Florida Commerce, and we're ready to prepare that staff report, and newspaper advertising is being done today. And there's a location map that shows in blue the area that has already been approved as of that last Village Council meeting to expand the village of Indian Town boundary to include the Florida Power and Light land. And that's the end of staff presentation. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you. Questions? Okay. Ms. Clark. On the truck in, it was like a, you know, a 16, 17, but one had like 2,000, and then one was like 120. Is that square footage, or is that number of parking? Yeah, that is actually square footage. A 120? Yeah, it's just a small office. Small office. I understand. I understand. I understand. And maybe can put up a bigger, yeah, city in. So I can't remember where things would be in terms of the Barley Barber slump, but you mentioned FPL property. Is that included in the city, or is it further? Sorry, can you just repeat the question? A property that used to have a tour out there with FPL called the Barley Barber slump area. I believe that area is still part of FPL. The village boundary goes to the north. You can see where you see that large southwest Warfield Boulevard, that red line cutting over to that cooling pond. Those are the village boundaries. So FPL plant is within the boundary of the village, and I believe that would include that area, right? Yes, the Barley Barber swamp is within the property of the power plant. It's in the village, yes. Thank you. I've been following the data center pretty closely, and I know in St. Lucie they're also talking about a data center. I'm not asking you about that. But through conversations and meetings that I've been to, the concern of water and electricity to power and support those data centers is of a concern. And I'm wondering if it is so in Indian town as well. Dean, if you want, every conversation we've had with any, we've had numerous individuals come in and mention the data center. We have made it very clear they have to be self-sufficient. The village, I don't even think Martin County can supply the level of volume that has been communicated to us. So we make it very clear they have to be self-sufficient. Do not rely on the village. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Roberts. Thank you. I know that the county gave the report for the Bieber population projections, and it appears that for Indian town, they're looking in the next five years to go up 327. But do you guys agree with that based on the residential that you've approved? No. We never agree with the Bieber. No, we never agree with them, and we point that out. In fact, the mayor mentioned it to me when he saw those numbers. I mean, our projections, knowing today there's probably 100 rooftops completed in Terralago and another maybe 50 in River Oak, those numbers are, I mean, my conversations with the builders, when they get up and running and when their sales start improving, they'll be pushing out 30 units a month. So the 6704 for this year, is that a valid number for your population? We struggle with the census, if you will, particularly knowing that there's multifamilies within residences, and they're hesitant during the census period to actually get a good head count, if you will. I mean, we know they're flawed, but how we get our arms around the exact number is a challenge. The school district, I think probably you would see more of that, you know, reality in the population through the school numbers. Thank you. If I may. Yes. Also, a lot of the, some of what goes into the Bieber projections factors in electrical accounts, and so I would expect that once units are hooked up and ready to go, then they'll start showing up on Bieber's calculations as well. Thank you. You've got your card up. You're recognized, Ms. Clark. All right, thank you. You need to have a mic, because people can hear. Oh, yes, forgive me. Well, thank you. Thank you. All right, thanks. Can you hear me now? Mm-hmm. Okay. So, I know you don't have this prepared, but at some point, if you could show us the commercial corridor in Indiantown and the commercial that you have supporting the growth, like the residential growth in Terralaga and so on. I know that when I work with the Mardi system as in transportation and working with the TD, persons trying to come to Stewart to shop on the weekend, and I know that you're working with Publix and other things like that, and there's some development coming along, but still, I'd like to see how, what you have supporting the residential so that there's some ability for people to stay and shop within Indiantown, and we still want people to come to other parts of Martin County and to go to anywhere they want to shop, but at least to know that there's something there supporting the large residential growth. Thank you. We do, Terralaga has commercial development that's approved as a separate phase that will be underway at some point in the future, and they are looking to accommodate a Publix. It's all about rooftops and demand and supply is a lot based, a lot of the retail that's going to come into Indiantown is going to be as those projects that are approved are implemented. We're very much encouraging any pre-apps, anybody coming in pre-pre-app to identify and show them where the commercial areas are to encourage people. We're getting a lot more inquiries as we're getting a lot more of the site plans being built as building permits, so there's a lot more interest in Indiantown, and we're really passionate about trying to encourage commercial so that the population, the existing population and new populations have access to commercial without having to travel 30 to 40 minutes outside of Indiantown for some of the basic commodities and health care, access to health care. So that's something that we're all, the staff are very much trying to encourage in Indiantown. Thanks. May I ask a question with regard to transportation? And again, I'm just putting this out there. It doesn't have to be answered today. And I know that the MPO does the transportation, but with Warfield Boulevard being a major, you know, the whole 710 being a big cross from Palm Beach County to Okeechobee County, and the accident rate, I don't know. Maybe that's one thing, Mr. Nolan, or you can tell us about the accident rate in Indiantown now, what's going on for the past year. Maybe that would be helpful. Just let us see what's going on out there. But I just know that we've had issues with the accident rate out in Indiantown in 710, and I'm wondering what the planning is with the DOT, and again, it's an MPO-type issue, to have, you know, to change a roadway, to make that somewhat calmer, although we know that it's major truck traffic going through there, but some ways to develop in that whole boulevard area to create some, I can't, a traffic pattern in the city, in the main part of the city, where we can avoid some issues, but I don't know what your talks are with the DOT and what the MPO has been planning with regard to that area, but I just know that it's a major, major through traffic area with truck accidents within that whole 710 corridor. I don't know if the mayor wants to answer. Two things. On your first comment, I meet almost daily with prospective business owners that want to come to Indiantown. Our biggest challenge is providing water at this point. Once we get our water volume up and once we get our water plant built, I think you're going to see great growth in commercial businesses in Indiantown. That's what's holding us back. That's what was holding us back from selling our five-acre lot on Warfield Boulevard. Several buyers wanted to buy it, but nobody wanted to put up three and a half million dollars and sit on it for two years. So we've kind of gotten around that and we have an offer and a pending deal on the lot. So as the water plant as the repairs that are being done to the water plant now to produce more water happen, we'll be able to allocate more water and maybe start taking in some businesses. But once that reverse osmosis plant is done, you're going to see everything from dry cleaners to restaurants. As far as Warfield Boulevard, I do sit on the MPO with Sean and Christopher and that project is funded. I had a conversation earlier with Mr. Donaldson and he can probably tell you he spoke to DOT and they're going to try and move that project up. A lot of what's holding the project up is property purchases for the right of way and I and the village would be willing to help in that process in any way so we need to get that done because it is a death trap and I've said this a thousand times before I've picked up my shares of bodies off those roads and I don't care to do that and I don't even want to see it. So that is a big priority for Indiantown for the village and from Okeechobee to the center of town and back to the school board in the traffic. As you all know I sat on the green line I was a deputy I was a sergeant out in Indiantown for many many years 30 years almost and the best way to slow traffic down and everything that you're doing everything you spoke about takes time and that's great but law enforcement okay writing tickets getting the cops out there to write the tickets getting the motorcycles out there getting them hidden believe me when you start writing tickets not warnings and not okay slow down no here's your ticket you know what a ticket cost in the school zone you're not going to do that people are going to start talking about it and they're going to slow down and that's probably the quickest and the best thing that you can do and I can talk to you from experience because I've had women get out of the car and jump on the hoods of their cars because they just got an $800 ticket you know so that's what that's what I would suggest that you all think about doing you know and we got great law enforcement here in Martin County on the city side and on the county side and I'm sure if you talk to the chief and the sheriff they'd be more than willing to help okay that's all I have Mr. Reid good morning Ms. Freeman what was the maximum density allowed in Indian Town with board approval with village yeah or the village of Indian Town 20 units per acre 20 units okay thanks so I wanted to express as a Martin County resident I'll point this this way more than that way my concerns about the AI data center I appreciate your comments on power being you know within but there are also concerns about water consumption these types of facilities can put a huge strain on the aquifer using I don't even know how much water per day these types of facilities from my understanding can create a lot of background noise and humming that residents might have to be exposed to and generally for the amount of space that they occupy they don't produce many jobs so as a Martin County resident you know I'm not you know I don't belong to you guys but my hope is that we do not have ultimately data centers in Martin County I think that this is this is not the kind of thing that we should be building here in my opinion for those reasons you know power consumption maybe even indirect strain on the grid and again I haven't looked through your applications but these are just generally my concerns and my understanding of these things so in case I don't make it to that meeting I just wanted to share as a resident my thoughts thank you all right seeing no other development update questions we'll move on to the school district update good morning I'm Mark Cowles one of the coordinators of the Martin County School District alongside me is Kirstie Jermaine another coordinator within the Martin County School District we both work with the public information office letting Kirstie handle the tech side of things behind me is Mark Seacrest he is the director of facilities for Martin County it's a pleasure to be here I want to reiterate or just follow up on something you said Mr. Reed you said it was an honor to serve your constituents and the reason being is Martin County is a special place and I think we all should pause at times I know we may not agree on everything this is not a political statement this is not an endorsement from the Martin County School District or our superintendent or anybody at the table but I think we do need to pause at times and realize what a great community we live in what's made up of a lot of special people all right and with that I will take it over thank you Kirstie Germain so we wanted to bring a snapshot of the 2025 successes within the Martin County School District by the numbers we served more than 2.4 million meals helping students stay healthy focused and ready to learn we had a lot more than 60 maintenance projects that were completed improving campus safety and protecting public facilities those range from simple paint jobs to roofing to adding fencing or fixing fencing and then our transportation team logged 1.4 million safe miles ensuring reliable daily service for families across the county and then of course we have a lot of student and academic achievement that we would like to highlight as well I'm sure everyone knows by now that the district has earned its A rating so we were able to start off the 25-26 school year with our A rating back within that rating we have all of our schools are C or higher and notably all our middle schools earned a B or higher in addition our graduation rates were up across all three of our traditional high schools Jensen Beach High School earned a 98.6% Martin County High School earned a 96.8% and South Fork High School earned a 94.7% that's just within our seniors we also saw a lot of gains in our earliest learners our youngest learners in kindergarten readiness we in Martin County district Martin County as a whole earned among the top four in Florida so we tied for fourth highest statewide the readiness rates increased from 48% to 52% exceeding the state average of 44% and these gains reflect strong VPK programs across Martin County not just within the Martin County school district so we have to give a shout out to our early learning partners across the district across the county national recognition we had several high schools earn recognition from the U.S. News World and Report Jensen Beach High School ranks number 133 in Florida top 11% nationally Martin County High School ranks 230 in Florida top 16% nationally and South Fork High School ranks 314 in Florida top 24% nationally some other academic achievements of course are in our sports but it's not just on the field it's off the field in the classroom our athletes are very academically rigorous as well in 2024 2025 season South Fork High School took first place in class 5A for the third consecutive year Jensen Beach High School earned third place in class 5A and Martin County High School placed in the top 10 in class 6A also this year we were focusing on systemic improvement and fiscal stewardship this is not business as usual this is intentional leadership within the Martin County school district we just recently had our mid-year review and it highlights how the district is operating with disciplined intentional systems focused on improvement across fiscal responsibility academic successes and just overall operations in that some of the highlights we established in our ESC department we established a manager of Medicaid and ESC related services strengthening coordination across the departments doing so and adding training and oversight we were able to improve billing accuracy parental consent processes IEPs and plans of care and these steps support stronger compliance and continued progress within the state accountability system so we were able to get reimbursed for 2.09 million or 2.09 million in Medicaid reimbursements and then we also in our finance department reinstated GOV deals surplus auctions expanded reprographics with built-in budget controls and enforced three quote requirements to ensure competitive pricing overall just showing our fiscal responsibility to our taxpayers Kirstie's been battling the flu she's a real trooper she's recovered now at least I hope she is since we're this close proximity with one another but she got through that whole thing you might have to bail me out because I might be coughing I wanted to reiterate because athletics is a huge passion of mine going back to talking about the Florida High School Athletic Association Academic Team Champion Awards and what a prestigious honor that is for high schools to do that South Fork three times three years in a row number one in the state and it's just it's not like they're just good in academics these are programs that are producing district and regional champions so they're good on and off the field as well we're off to a great start here in the fall we have 30 programs that were eligible 28 of the 30 were three point or higher that's the threshold and of the two that didn't make it one team just didn't have the required number of participants they were one short but they were well above the 3.0 and the other that fell just short was at 2.93 so it wasn't like they were that far off we probably should have just cut one more kid with a 2.0 GPA and then all 30 would have done it on our high schools Jensen Beach got their A back our other two high schools were less than a point from each from achieving their A we would have had all three we think it was the French figure skating judges that were involved in the scoring if you've been watching the Olympics you know what I'm talking about right there but we we appealed and I think it went to them because they denied our appeal but we're well well on our way Kirstie mentioned that we're talking about stepping out of the status quo we talk very much about a shift in the way we operate school sites and our our families are not only our partners but they're our customers and we have to listen to their needs so there's some operational things that we're doing and making sure we're listening to their choice their feedback it's important it's a collaborative effort we got this A rating back because of the hard work of our teachers obviously our school site administration and staff our district leadership school board superintendent everybody involved but we know that's a community grade as well and we all should be very proud that we're back at that A rating stepping out of the status quo means providing our families choice it's recruiting from outside of our area opening up our schools beyond our borders we have a very aggressive choice program in order to try to get more students into our schools and get that FTE funding we're not talking about closing or shutting down or you know neighborhood schools we know the importance of that it's about expanding the opportunity that we have maximizing the public education access for all of our today's families you know it's about accountability again we hold ourselves to very high standards we know our community holds ourselves to very high standards as well we want to meet those we talk about being number one and that should be the goal across the board our graduation rates are incredible but until we get 100% across the board we're not quite where we need to be we it's great to be top 10 top five top three but unless you're number one you're falling short of that ultimate goal and that's I think in everything in life I come from a huge athletic background if you're not competing for the state championship national championship super bowl or world series if you're not getting there you can celebrate all of the accomplishments along the way but you fell short of the ultimate goal and the ultimate goal is to make us the number one school district in Martin County there was mention at a school board meeting about looking at opportunities changing up some of the operational things we do like going to a K8 model want to reiterate again we are in the very early stages of just looking at that type of planning and what it involves it goes back to being fiscal stewards of taxpayer dollars making sure we're maximizing every cent that we get you know it's not unlike what we do probably daily weekly monthly annually you know every Thursday I don't want to endorse a certain local grocery store but I go on the app for their BOGO specials it's exciting when I see muffins and peanut butter BOGO it's a great day in the Cowles household when that happens but it's really looking at opportunities and what makes the most sense for us as a school district to one offer what our families are looking for and two using the money wisely so I think at that point we're going to turn things over to Mr. Seacrest to talk about some projects can I ask a question before Mr. Seacrest thank you I thought we did such a thorough job there won't be any questions but go ahead this is just a long list of things that you can look at when you referred the 2.4 million meals is that the entire meal or is that free and reduced lunch and if not if you could give us the free and reduced lunch amount at another presentation and what is behind that what does the face of a family looks like in Martin County that's waiting to see those BOGO special so what's the average income how many what's the percentage of students who are getting free and reduced lunch per school and which schools are getting the highest number of free and reduced lunch that's a question the other thing and I'm putting all these out for the school board homeless teenagers I've had calls from non-profit organizations who are telling me that they're young young men and others who are homeless I know that the city of Stewart we've had families they weren't necessarily homeless they were living on boats in some of our dock facilities within the city of Stewart but we've had people who are homeless young people their counselors at the school are asking non-profit groups to help them and so I'm trying to figure out if the school has anything within that counseling you're getting reimbursement for ESC reimbursement for those children who are being taught a certain way and whatever that Medicaid reimbursement comes in is there something that the schools can hook into with the state to figure out how they can help these students who may need to live someplace for a few nights or whatever is going on I know that Martin County in general doesn't have a homeless shelter and have abilities except for what the sheriff does sometime they may allow somebody to stay in a hotel or something but it seems like we're having more and more teenagers who are homeless and we need to look at this as a community so I'm just putting that out because these are school-aged children that have been brought up to me and they're needing help and not just with a roof over their head but also possibly with lunch and other things and to add to that I have a third thing for the school board is that we are going up in our I guess our ranking our ranking and our percentiles of where our different schools stand but at the same time I'm hearing that there's a great deal of issue going on with reading levels and that there's a chronic issue within certain I guess student populations that have chronic reading issue problems and there are more and more community groups that are popping up to help with reading levels at the school and I just want to know how we can work with that and what are the actual numbers when we can if you could even just provide a report or prospectus that shows what the breakdown is on these reading levels when these students are taking these tests I would really appreciate that I like the fact that we're you know 234 in the state or the national but I would very much like to know what's going on at our local schools and if I know that I used to work with Dr Tracy Miller and she would give some information so if we can see that information or at least if you send it to me I'd appreciate it just so that I can know what's going on with these schools and where the failures are happening and how I can recruit parents and friends to come out and help at these schools that need help thank you those are great questions and thank you for your support as well that the meal question I'll address that first that is total number of meals that we have served yeah you think I can see that I'm like oh that is like holding it up some glasses and then for as far as like some of our struggling schools on the slide that's currently up there we've identified working with the state six schools they just happen to be our c-rated schools at the elementary level they get enhanced reading support through programs and that is one of the areas that we've addressed as well and then I think you had regarding the homeless thing the homeless situation that we have I do know that our counselors work with a lot of the agencies that you refer to when students are identified and getting some sort of support and Dr. Miller is here today I don't know if she had anything she wanted to add okay but we're gonna go over to uh Miss Powers is that like I think I broke protocol there I'm sorry you probably should call on that no worries I just wanted to address a couple of things that um Commissioner Clark brought up as far as lunches go for for a homeless student or any student there is never a student that goes hungry because they can't afford a lunch we just had a wonderful presentation by our food nutrition services and there will never be a child that leaves the lunchroom that wanted a lunch or needed a lunch money is never an option it's not even if they're not on free and reduced lunch and they don't have lunch money that day they will receive a lunch there is never a child that leaves school that doesn't get a lunch provided by the school district regardless of the cost homeless students specifically I know that our our counselors work diligently with their homeless families they are provided transportation so it may be if they are temporarily homeless and they go to a certain school that's outside their zone there is transportation involved and there's protocol for us to support that child in that family reading levels I think that the data is readily available on the Florida Department of Education's website for every school in Martin County but I think specifically to the school district's credit especially at our lower performing schools which many times are title one schools because we're dealing with a significant population of English language learners so you will see we have a lot of resources in those schools to support families and our after-school programming as well we partner with many not-for-profits like the boys and girls club that really support our students and it's very literacy focused and we will continue that we have great partnerships with many not-for-profits and we're also supported by the children's services council the united way who are really focused on that literacy piece and free and reduced lunch I mean we can provide numbers by school to you I would probably ask Dr. Miller to reach out to you individually and you will see that majority of our free the highest number of free and reduced lunches are at our title one schools naturally so that's just based on title one is takes into consideration poverty as well how many of those title one schools do you have oh gosh we have um six six elementary and we have Indian I know we have Indian town middle and nine total nine six elementary three middle in addition to the free and reduced lunch so we have eight schools right now within the Martin County School District that receive meals at no cost they're on they're eligible through the um community eligible provision through that's through uh federal I believe that's federal yeah the CEP so at those eight sites every student at those eight sites receive a meal at no cost and that's breakfast included so breakfast and lunch and our our overall free and reduced percentage rate is in the low 50s across the district Mr. Reed yes I had a question on the a rating for the high schools and the appeal process uh when it comes to ratings is it done from the state and do they come in do they base it off just data is it opinion based where they're doing assessments by people from the state coming in and observing things and why was it appealed just I was just curious on the entire process yeah a lot of it comes from the assessments that are giving annually as well as learning gains and some other factors um how uh certain um subsections of students how they're performing as well the state goes in and gives a rating our assessment and accountability department goes through and looks at the results and they come up with what they think it should be as well and if there's a discrepancy there's an appeal process that takes place so like an assessor from the state would come in and they have their checklist I guess yeah okay thanks so I just wanted to say it sounds like you guys really are doing a great job you've got it going on so um mr owls owls owls owls owls the c owls owls this guy's great listen can I can we poach him we need we're interviewing for manager no okay I'm fine at the risk of rocking the boat which I tried never to do um we'll talk after no I'm just I'm kidding I'm kidding I just want to say what a difference a conservative thoroughly conservative school board makes so that's my rock the boat comment but okay are there any other questions we have uh mr seacrest to wrap us up here yes sir good morning tracy miller deputy superintendent and I have the honor of introducing mr seacrest our director of facilities and planning so good morning everyone mark seacrest director of facilities and planning martin scott martin county school district um I bring this plan up because if you haven't been here before this is our plan of the district and the county where all of our facilities are where the charter schools are located and where the district buildings are located so you can kind of see where the um actual buildings are located in the school sites and it's basically where the population is so just so you understand what that map shows so some exciting news for you guys this will be the last time stuart middle school is presented it's at a 99 completion level we are doing the final pay application reconciliation and we are going through the closeout process which means we get all the documentation from the contractor once all that's submitted to me then it'll go to a board agenda item for final pay up approval but this also does a dual purpose slide if you look at where my mouse is this cursor this building here you actually see replicated at the Murray middle school project which I'm going to talk about next the only difference is we did some combination with the building at Murray middle so you will see this part in the front and then Murray middle actually grows in the back of the building now but just to give you a recap of this project since you'll no longer see it we create a new play field we create an ice plant storage plant just so everybody understands about eighty percent of the campus is now running off as ice storage which means it burns ice during the day to cool the buildings and it creates it burns the energy during the night during less peak hours to rebuild the ice for every day so now we have approximately eighty percent of the campus on that and then moving forward as we get some of these older buildings coming down we're talking in a 10 to 20 year mark when we replace some of the classroom buildings they will be connected to the new energy plant but that's fully running now exciting news the gym's done so now the gym's connected to this plant the music building and band buildings connected to this plant building 10 is a new cafeteria building with the multi-purpose room and kitchen and then the new building number one which has the media center on the second floor and the admin on the first floor again the old building one used to sit right here in this grass and go clear out in almost to almost to Georgia so when we took that building down we were able to to basically double the car line and double the parking at Stewart Middle School so that's it for that project unless you have any questions I'll move to Murray middle seeing no questions so some exciting news with Murray middle I want to kind of clarify what you're looking at because of safety and security I can't present floor plans at a public meeting because it may give information to people we don't want to have the information so essentially what you're seeing that part of the building right there where my mouse is will look similar to Stewart Middle School and then essentially what we did is we added classroom and labs and then this this little rectangle here will be the new band and coral room that was destroyed during milk so all that now is one building that is two stories we're going to have an art lab on this corner and an egg lab on this corner and then everything in red is going to be demolished so the current building admin building and media is going to be demolished here and there's actually a media center the media center is actually located in building number 9 but so number 9 10 and 18 will be demolished and then this whole parking area will be redirected and reconfigured so that we get a longer car line and longer parking we are currently done with a schematic design review the week of March 4th we will get the design development plans which for you guys means I will receive 80% construction documents so at that point you will see a majority of the details for every classroom what the what the elevations look like what all the materials are what the mechanical systems look like we will do a full review from March to April and then in May we will get we will get the construction document so that's currently where we are with Murray middle it's moving right on time and right on schedule so I'm open for any questions at this point questions just for notation purposes the sidewalks going tomorrow middle school I know that's a county issue but we talked about safety so if we would make sure that when these things are happening that we try to work with the county to see if we can get all the as many sidewalks as we can along those 47th Street 46 whatever in there thank you want to add one thing it's not a slide this Saturday at Stuart middle I'm glad you brought that up at Stuart middle school we will have our 2026 black history month celebration it's going to showcase the talents of our schools and our school sites and students we invite you all to come it starts at nine o'clock doors open at 830 tell them I sent you you get in for free okay I mean it's a free event anyway but it makes me feel important to say that so we hope to see you out there because it's gonna be a great event thank you any other questions okay seeing none are there any other non-agenda questions from council members commissioners board members seeing none I'm going to adjourn this meeting