Town and the Martin County School Board to order. Welcome everyone and we'll start with introductions. Superintendent Mayne, do you want to kick us off? Yes, Michael Mayne, Superintendent of Schools. Good morning. Jen Russell, Martin County School Board. Chris Shelley Roberts, Martin County School Board, District 1. Good morning. Marsha Powers, Martin County School Board. Dr. Brian Moriarty, Martin County School Board, District 5. Vice Chair. Amy Pritchett, Martin County School Board, District 4. Tony George, School Board Attorney. Good morning. Matt Graham, Assistant County Administrator, Martin County Board of County Commissioners. Good morning. Eileen Vargas, District 1, Martin County Commission. Blake Capps, Martin County Commission. Sarah Hurd, Martin County Commissioner. Ed Campy, Martin County Commissioner. Stacey Hetherington, Martin County Commission. Elise Elder, County Attorney, Martin County. Village of Indiantown. Wade Vose, Village Attorney. Angelina Perez, Village Council. Hermione DePaulo, Mayor of Indiantown. Phyllis Waters-Brown, Vice Mayor of Indiantown. Chair and Chris, the Manager. Indiantown. Lee Baggett, City Attorney. Stewart. Eula Clark, Stewart City Commission, Group 5. Campbell Rich, Commissioner, City of Stewart. Sean Reed, City of Stewart Commissioner. Good morning, everyone. Laura Giobie, City of Stewart Commissioner. Good morning. Mike Giardino, City of Stewart, City Manager. Thank you all very much and welcome. We would, if you all would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance. I have a timekeeper for the, who's going to be, okay, thank you. All right, we will now start open to the public. If you would like to speak, please fill out a form and bring it to me if you haven't already. Our first speaker is Ellen Pates. Good morning, commissioners, school board members and neighbors. My name is Ellen Pates and I'm here today to express my absolute and enthusiastic support of the Martin Swims program and their efforts to place a referendum on the upcoming November ballot to support the Martin County Community Pool Initiative by adding $10 per year to the, to fund the swim programs in the county. When my husband Mike and I moved here in 1979 from the North, one of our very first things we did was to take our little 18-month-old Michelle for swimming lessons. We live in paradise and Martin County is defined by water. From the beautiful Atlantic beaches of Jensen and Stewart to the St. Lucie River to the thousands of backyard pools across our neighborhoods. Water is our way of life, but for our youngest residents, that beautiful water represents a vulnerability we cannot ignore. The data is clear as it is heartbreaking. Drowning remains a leading cause of accidental death for young children in Florida. Every time we see a headline about a near miss or a tragedy on the Treasure Coast, it's a stark reminder that water safety is not a luxury. It's a fundamental survival skill. We already have incredible building blocks here. Programs like Splash at the Sailfish Splash Water Park and the YMCA do life-saving work. But we need to ensure that every single child in Martin County, regardless of their family's income or their zip code, learns how to swim and how to survive an unexpected fall in the water. I firmly believe that Martin Swims can fill the gaps. That's why I'm standing here today to ask for your combined leadership and explicit support by supporting the ballot referendum. When a child learns to swim, they don't just learn a sport. They gain a layer of protection that stays with them for their life. Let's work together across our county government and our school system to make Martin County a community where every child is safe around the water. Thank you. Thank you. Nancy Jesse is next, followed by Marissa McAuliffe. Good morning. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to share with the Martin County High School pool how it shaped my life and who the person I am today. In 1975, I was nine years old and thrilled to be enrolled in swimming lessons at the new community pool. Stewart was a much smaller place and swimming lessons were a big deal. During the first lesson, I was approached by Coach Cox, the high school swim coach. He said, I need to speak to your mother before you leave. What could I have done that warranted a talk with my mother on day one? Instead of speaking to my mom about me being too social, which was the normal teacher communication regarding the nine-year-old me, he said, hey, this kid can swim. Can she join my team? And so it began. That afternoon, I reported back to the pool as instructed, and I never really left. I joined the team that day, fell in love with competitive swimming, and my life was forever changed. I joined a team, but truly it meant so much more. I had acquired a second family. As a kid, I was the young swimmer that looked up to the older ones, and they showed me, they emulated a great role model. I'm sure many of the people in the room know competitive swimmers and know that they are dedicated, hard-working individuals. These were my first, they were first great role models for me on how to work hard, have fun, lose with dignity, and win with humility. As I got older, I was the role model. I began lifeguarding and swimming, and the swimming instructor. I, along with my friends, taught a whole generation of Martin County kids to swim. And I actually know a couple of people in here who I taught your children how to swim that I recognized. I still run into people in town that I taught. They're doctors, lawyers, firemen, teachers, and even a veterinarian. I smile when I see these adults knowing that I had a small part in their young lives. I suspect that the pool provided a family for many of them as well. Even after we went our separate ways to college, the lifeguard and swim instructors were a tight group, returning year after year to work the summer at the pool. We worked hard, and we played hard along the way, forming unbreakable connections. We kept in touch long before social media. We shared the highs and lows of life. These friends and I have stood with each other through bad grades, relationship fails, graduations, engagements, weddings, children, and unfortunately, a number of funerals. But we were still this family from 1975. You see, the pool and the pool community not only kept me on the straight and narrow as a child and teenager, it had followed over into my adult life. Adulthood brought moves. Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you. Marissa McAuliffe, followed by Blanche Wills. Good morning, and thank you all for being here today and giving me the opportunity to speak. My name is Marissa McAuliffe. I'm 32 years old and I've been a Martin County resident for more than half of my life. Many people know me because I have accomplished many great things in open water swimming. I've successfully swam the English Channel two years ago and Catalina Channel last year. I will complete the 28 and a half mile swim around Manhattan to earn the triple crown of swimming, something that only 400 people in the world have done. But today, I'm not here as an endurance swimmer. I'm here as a Martin County resident, a firefighter paramedic, a former lifeguard, swim instructor, and someone who has spent her life around the water. For more than five years, I worked as both a pool lifeguard and an ocean rescue lifeguard. Today, I teach children, adults, and triathletes how to swim and how to be safe in the water. There are a few things in my life I actually will say I'm great at, but I'm pretty confident in my teaching ability. Florida continues to have one of the highest drowning rates in the nation, and drowning remains the leading cause of death for children between the ages of one and four. That's a heartbreaking statistic considering, in so many cases, it's completely preventable. In a place nicknamed the Sunshine State that's completely surrounded by water, lakes, ponds, rivers, canals, swimming pools, and of course, the ocean, we should be making swim lessons and water safety more accessible, not less. That's why it's so difficult to understand why Martin County has only one public pool. As someone deeply committed to fitness, I often have to drive more than 30 minutes to a different county just to find a pool that's open to swim before work. And that raises a bigger question. How are working people supposed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and use swimming for fitness if the only public pool typically open here is from noon to 3 p.m. during the school year? I don't know about you all, but I can't leave work in the middle of the day to go for a swim, and neither can most people. The reality is that access isn't truly access if it's only available during certain hours when the community can't use it. Years ago, people would line up outside the Martin County High School gates before sunrise just to get a workout in before heading to work. The demand existed then, and it definitely still exists today. The opportunities created by reopening the Martin County High School pool are endless, swim lessons that could save lives, fitness programs for working adults, senior wellness classes, camps, adaptive programs for individuals with special needs, parent and child classes, rehabilitation, and competitive training for young athletes. Perhaps the best part is this. We're not asking the community to build a new facility. The facility already exists and is there. We're not asking you to imagine what's possible. We're asking you to reopen something that has already proven its value to the community. I swam there 15 years ago, and it has some of my most childhood cherished memories. The pool helped shape my life, and today I have the privilege of representing this community around the world because of opportunities that started right here at home. Imagine how many future lifeguards, firefighters, Olympians, collegiate athletes, or simply confident and water-safe children could benefit from having that same opportunity. This isn't just about swimming. It's about public safety, and it's about public health. It's about giving our children a life-saving skill, giving working families access to recreation and fitness, and making use of a resource our community already has. Let's invest in prevention instead of tragedy. Let's make swimming more accessible. Thank you for your time and consideration. Blanche Wells, followed by Neil Colvin. If the next speaker could kind of be on deck when the speaker is done, that would be wonderful, and I'll announce those. Members of the school board and county commissioners, thank you for having us. My name is Dr. Blanche Wells, and I was a counselor with the school system for 25 years, but I'm here today as the president of the Martin Swims, which is a nonprofit which exists to reestablish affordable swim programs in community pools in Martin County, and we are devoted to water safety, wellness, wellness. That means wellness for the whole community, and for education and recreation. I'd like to start with telling a bit of history. When I married Coach Dick Wells in 79, he'd already had a legacy, which is world-renowned in swimming. He had represented us in the Sofia Games in Bulgaria for United States swimming. He had graduated from Florida State as an All-American and captain of the team, did his time in the service, and received a letter of commendation for creating the first all-army swim team, which carried on. He worked around the world, was invited to Columbia to prepare them for the Pan Am Games. And when I met him, he had already just created the IRCC swimming powerhouse, which is there today. And he was ready to slow down a little bit, and when he heard about the community pool, that's where he wanted to be. He loves Stewart, and he loves water, and he knew what to do with it. So what you've heard already is what he did. He was the second pool manager there, stayed for 20 years, created a robust program in which third graders all passed through the pool for a week, and that was for water safety, to teach that to people who, many of whom, especially from the western part of the county, those kids hadn't seen the ocean yet. They went there one day a week, and it was a prize. So this is what we had. Martin County is well known for our older buildings. We didn't tear down the Lyric. We didn't tear down the post office. We didn't tear down the old courthouse or the Stewart feed store. But the Martin County pool and the school board, I believe, has done all that they can. But we're bigger now, and this is 2026. It has to change. Martin Swims is asking that we reestablish, work together to reestablish a pool which is already there, and the robust programs that can be done. Dick didn't do it alone, but he did create the family that we've been talking about. Thank you. Neil Colvin, followed by Corey Carter. I'm Neil Colvin. I guess I'm important because I'm a taxpayer, and thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I work with Martin Swims, and the idea is that we have an opportunity in plain sight right now in two ways. We have a large but older pool at the Martin County High School, and we have a school board that is strapped for funds. Every year, they work hard. They cobble together what they can for funds and do the very best job they can in educating our children. We sort of think that we could help them by taking over the pool at Martin County High School and with a referendum, millage referendum, and I know, oh, we're going to be cutting taxes and the like and so forth, so we don't want to somehow propose a referendum, and we need to have it, that would essentially tax all property owners in Martin County $10 with a proviso, no increase, period, none. That money would be used to maintain the existing pool at the high school, manage it, and at the same time, funds left over, we'd be putting the community foundation of Martin and St. Lucie counties to be maintained, invested, and set a fund up for building more pools, say at South Fork or Jensen Beach High School or close to them. I'm also a now retired 45-year trial attorney, and I've had to try a lot of jury trials, and one of the things, I think Tony George knows this too, you go to the jury and the judge instructs them, do not forget to use your common sense and experience, and that's what all juries are instructed. You do not lose your common sense and experience when you go back in the jury room. Apply them to the facts and the law I have told you. I think this is a very good case of common sense and experience telling us that Martin Swims has a program that, if supported with a referendum, will provide another community pool for Martin County that people can afford to go to. It's $20 a head at Martin Swims, I mean at Sailfish Splash. That's pretty pricey for the average family today, for children. I thank you and solicit your sincere attention to the matter. Okay, thank you. Next, we have Corey Carter, followed by Ricky Stein. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for having us. My name's Corey Carter. I'm a native Floridian and grew up on a lake in Winter Park. My first memory is being tossed in Lake Virginia at age two and a half by my swim instructor who was in a rowboat, and I was told to swim. I did. I swam competitively through high school and volunteered at college with the swim team coach. The college I attended in Atlanta required every student to pass a swimming emergency survival test in the pool before graduation. My roommate's senior year grew up in the slums of Tampa. She couldn't swim and was deathly afraid of the water. Coach and I worked with her for hours, and she graduated. She gained the confidence and skill acquisition that swimming brings. She still didn't like the water, but she wasn't afraid. Earth is 75% water. I believe all Florida schools should require swim survival proficiencies before graduation. I started working as a guidance counselor at Martin County High School in the late 1980s. I swam early mornings at the pool there before work and was joined at times by master swimmers, swim team members, and Coach Wells, who gave me some pointers to improve my stroke. I solved a lot of work issues while stroking along. I remember the third graders coming by bus to get swimming survival skills. The pool served the entire community as well. Currently, I volunteer at the Environmental Study Center Council. The ESC invites field trips open to all school children, K through 7th grade, and their summer camps fill up in minutes after they are posted. Environmental Study Center is great public relations for our school district and a unique treasure to our county. No other public school district in Florida has a licensed boat captain on their payroll. Another asset Mark County has is the pool. Education remains one of the most powerful tools to support safety skills in the water for all sports and emergencies. Let's invest in the training and teach preparedness to ensure water-related activities are safe for all Martin County residents. Martin Swims is a non-profit, non-partisan group which can partner with the school district and county. Martin County is surrounded by water hazards, rivers, lakes, Lake Okeechobee, drainage ditches, Indian River Lagoon, Atlantic Ocean, and many residential pools. Please allow students and residents an alternative to learn life-saving skills until such time that other pools are built to accommodate the overflow that currently is experienced at Sailfish Splash. It's good public relations. Our county's water-related accidents and death by drowning statistics must improve. Ma'am, your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Ricky Stein followed by Dick Landrum. Good morning. I'm Ricky Stein, Palm City. I'm a retired sports writer, Pennsylvania school teacher, and lifelong swimmer. When my husband and I moved down here permanently five years ago, we thought we'd get our swim workouts in the ocean all the time until we learned what lurks below. We swam at the Stewart Y and now at Sailfish Splash. They are both great facilities but stuffed to maximum usage. Cities around the country the size of Martin County with more than 166,000 people have about 10 pools. During peak hours, the 50 meter pool and small pool at Sailfish are overflowing with age group, high school, and special Olympics team groups. They're swimming laps. There are also synchronized swimmers, water polo players, divers, and scuba divers. Martin County Parks and Recreation could easily manage Sailfish and the school pool so that all groups have time and space to meet their needs. Sailfish Splash is fun for entertaining slides and good for lap swimming, but it has limitations for lessons and free swims. Cost is an issue for many families. Children learn through play. Families develop safety awareness when they swim together during affordable free swims and during low-cost lessons in a pool such as the one at Martin County High School. At Sailfish, kids who walk over from the slide side are turned away from jumping into the big pool. Our group, Martin Swims Incorporated, has been talking to people at many organizations, including school board and county commissioners, the Y, the Boys and Girls Club, Stewart and Martin County Recreation, Community Foundations, Children and Youth Services. Everyone agrees our community can benefit by working together. Florida consistently leads the nation in child drowning deaths. The numbers keep increasing. Last week added three more deaths, which puts us at about 51 in the year 2026. A majority of these incidents occur in residential swimming pools, but the opportunity provided by community pools help families develop a better sense of safety awareness that they can take to other pools, the ocean and rivers. We can save lives. Please reopen the MCHS pool to the public for vital low-cost programs. Thank you. Thank you. Dick Landrum, followed by Sandra Thurlow. Good morning. I'm Dick Landrum from Palm City, a lifetime swimmer. I started swimming early mornings at the community pool at Martin County High School in 1986, so I've seen the pool at its best. Martin Swims, Inc. is a new organization intent on bringing back our community pool and re-establishing all the programs that made it a true community asset. Our goal is to eventually build new pools throughout the county to give everyone easy access to affordable, recreational swimming, and along with other swimming venues in Martin County, prevent drowning by promoting water safety, wellness, recreation, and education for all residents. The county commissioners and school board members here today are receiving a packet that includes the wording for a referendum that we would like to be on the November 2026 voting ballot. We need your approval to get the referendum on the ballot. Please add an agenda item to your next scheduled meeting to vote to approve that this referendum can be on the ballot. We would like the citizens of Martin County, the citizens of Martin County, to decide if an average increase in their property taxes of less than $8 per property per year would be acceptable for re-establishing the idea of having true community pools eventually throughout the county for easy access at very affordable fees. In closing, I'd like to suggest to the school board members that as a matter of goodwill to the community, you open the community pool at Martin County High School for the month of July in the same format and affordability of the 1980s and 1990s with the support of our efforts to provide drown preventive classes and promote health and wellness through swimming. With daily open swim times, time for age group swim teams, time for other programs like scuba, synchronized swimming, lifeguard training, certification, water polo, many things that Martin Swims Inc. is eager to reintroduce. Our community pool has been sitting idle now for over one and a half years out of the last two years. It's in great shape. There's no reason it can't be used every day in that whole period of time. So we've lost all those programs for a year and a half's worth of time, and these programs serve the community so well. Community pools are not money makers. They are created by communities to serve the public well. Let's work together to restore it to its best use and relieve the school district for having to maintain it. Thank you. Thank you. Sandra Thurlow, followed by Patricia Biondi. Oh goodness, I thought I was the last one. I'm sorry for all of this long talking and a bit of repetition, but since I probably lived here the longest, practically of anyone in this room, and my husband was in the Kiwanis, the outgoing president when they dedicated the pool, and maybe you don't know that the Kiwanis had the fundraising to establish the community pool in partnership with Martin County and the school board. Okay, I just have a little bit to read. You won't have to ring the buzzer, I don't think. Martin County is extremely fortunate to be blessed with numerous waterways and the proximity to the ocean. The St. Lucie River and the Indian River flow around it, and it is crisscrossed by canals. It's dotted with lakes and ponds and many private swimming pools. See how repetitious this is? This is what we started with, the first speaker. The water that blesses is also a danger to all who cannot swim. The first, and I'm the self-appointed local historian, you know, the first white child that was born in this community that is now Martin County, Aldwina Stepman, slipped into the river at the age of four and drowned. That's quite a beginning. We're an affluent county, and we can afford to waterproof every child by providing free swimming lessons. Maybe that's a bit extreme. I hear that the plan is for affordable ones. We have a well-located community pool that has been abandoned. The swimming lessons for needy children funded by the Children's Services Council at Selfish Splash are a drop in the bucket. If a child is eligible for such things as free lunches, they probably don't have a parent or guardian available to accompany them to the swimming lesson. There has to be a way for adults to stand in and be responsible for children. Perhaps, and see, I have educated myself today just listening to the other speakers and what the plan is. Perhaps this can be arranged to the Boys and Girls Club. A special lifeguard would be on duty at the community pool. I will be ashamed of the county commission and school board if you cannot figure out how to provide our children and protect them from the water we so share as. Thank you. Patricia Biondi, followed by David Wester. Hello, my name is Patty Biondi, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning about something that really contributes to our community. As a retired teacher at Martin County High School for 32 years, a frequent swimmer at Martin County Community Pool and an active member of the Martin County Community, I'm very concerned with the recurring discussions regarding the possibility of closing the Martin County Community Pool. While I was teaching many, many times, this came before the board, and we had to defend this wonderful, wonderful asset that we have in our community. This community is surrounded by water, and therefore, learning how to swim here is not just for recreation. It's a necessity. Already this summer, there have been drowning deaths in our community. Rather than talking about getting rid of a pool, we should be talking about ways to open the facility to even more swimmers. Many residents here don't have accessible, economical places to cool down during our hot summers. Martin County needs more pools, not fewer. Swimming is a lifetime skill that promotes lifetime health and safety. My own brother drowned at age 30, because he did not have the opportunity to learn all the safety skills and all the swimming skills as he was growing up. I don't know how many other families will say that and feel it the way I feel it. I don't want other families in Martin County to have to say, I lost a child. I lost a son. I lost a daughter. I lost a brother or sister. We can help prevent that. The Martin County Community Pool has always provided a venue for swimmers of all ages. Both my daughters learned how to swim at the community pool. One went on to compete with Martin County Aquatics. Continuing to offer this venue to our school-aged children and families in the community is not in competition with Selfie Splash in any way. Rather, they serve different purposes. These facilities complement each other and help to make our community a wonderful place to live. The pool is presently in good repair and should continue to be utilized for all the above reasons. I hope it can continue as an economical and safe place for children and families to swim and that you will support the referendum of Martin Swims. Thank you. Thank you. David Wester, followed by Bill Gillen. Good morning, everybody. First off, I want to say hi and thank you guys for all doing what you do. I know it's a thankless job and anytime you do something good or bad, you get lots of thanks, I'm sure. So I appreciate everything that you guys do and I know it's a tough job. I coach Jupiter water polo right now. I get to drive two hours a day to coach some kids down there because we don't have a water polo high school program here. Last year, I had the valedictorian, the number three kid and the number seven kid in the school. They all ended up going to Florida. You know, these are, this is a sport, swimming and water polo is a sport that, you know, kids that don't get to play basketball or football are playing these sports. We have a basketball gym in every high school and middle school and we have one little rinky pool at a high school. Every, every high school should probably have a pool at this in this county. You had an example where somebody came up and spoke that it shaped her career and it shapes a lot of careers. We have beach guards. We need beach guards. We need pool guards. We need firefighters. This is something that shapes all of these careers and we need it. We should be looking at this pool thinking, how can we maximize the programs? Why don't we have the elementary school kids going to this pool? Why don't we have the middle school kids going to this pool? Why aren't there, why isn't there a middle school swim team? These are all little things that we should be looking at to maximize the pool. I play at Sailfish Splash. I have a water polo club at Sailfish Splash. We play there Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It is full. We should have about eight lanes to play water polo. We're in three and we've got about 20-30 adults that that play and Sailfish Splash is full. We need more pools. We need to look at maximizing. You have the pool already. Let's use it. Find a way to use it. We're happy to help. Obviously, you've got people that are happy to help. I'm happy to help. I'm happy to sit with the attorney and make sure that they're happy with what the program's going in there. Find a way to make it work, please. Thank you guys and thank you all for your hard work. Thank you. Bill Gillen followed by Alberta Gillen. Good morning and thank you. My name is Bill Gillen. My daughter is Christina, the owner of Swim with Gill's swim school and lifeguarding services. And I want to say that we are all in with opening up the Martin County pool. My daughter couldn't be here, but let me tell you a little bit about her. She has been teaching swim lessons to children for many, many years and has helped save countless lives. She was awarded accolades by Palm Beach County and President Barack Obama for saving the lives of two children on Mother's Day several years back. She certifies lifeguards, she certifies swim instructors, and whatever she can do to help with this pool, she's willing to do. She sent me last night bullet points, so I'll go through some of them. For water safety and drowning prevention, provides access to life-saving swim lessons for children and adults, helps reduce drowning risk in a county surrounded by water, creates opportunity for water safety education for families, allows more children to become confident and safer around pools, beaches, lakes and canals, supports Florida's ongoing efforts to reduce childhood drowning incidents. I've got to stop here and say one of the biggest problems is facilities. Christina provides swim lessons at community pools and private pools. We lack facilities like the Martin County pool would provide. And years back, I worked with the Boys and Girls Club at Martin County pool pre-COVID, and it was great. These kids were reluctant to get in the water. I remember one particular guy who was taller than I was, he didn't bring his bathing suit day after day. He finally brought his bathing suit, got in the water. He was reluctant because he couldn't swim. He didn't know how to swim. And I'm sure everybody's experienced that with children, they're embarrassed. We provided, you provided the opportunity for the Boys and Girls Club at Martin County pool to experience water and to learn some water safety. I think every kid that was there learned how to swim across the pool by the end of the week. And it was, it was remarkable. Uh, everything else you've, I have on here, you've probably heard already, but I just want to say swim with gills is all in with providing whatever services swim with gills can provide to the Martin County pool. Um, and thank you. One of the problems is, thank you. Um, Alberta Gillen followed by Kristen Repetti. Good morning. My husband has told you mostly about our daughter, Christina Gillentice, who is the owner and founder of swim with gills, lifeguard services and swimming swim lessons. So I won't go into that. I'm proud to represent her as we serve Southern Martin County and Northern Palm Beach County. We need to expand. We need to expand into this area at swim with gills. Our mission is simple as yours is ever to teach every child possible how to say swim safe, confident, and capable and in and around the water. We believe swimming is not just a sport or a recreational service. It is a life saving skill. And may I add, that's not just children who we should serve. It should be adults. We have children attending our lessons and their adults have no clue what's going on. Adults have the ability to save lives too. They don't just have to look at their cell phones when their kids are in the water talking to their friends. They don't know what is going on. With lessons they will learn. And they too will be able to save lives. Not only the lives of their children, but the lives of other children. We've had, we've had women who have been during our, during our lifeguard parties. Oh, don't worry. Our child knows how to swim. She knows what to do. She's going through lessons, yada, yada, yada. And guess what? The child went under the water. Our lifeguards are trained. They're American Red Cross certified. Of course, they dove in and they got this one child. It's not the only one. I can't tell you how many lives our lifeguards have saved at pool parties given by parents who are really neat people, but who have no idea what swimming is and how, and how kids have to be safe with parents as their guides. Oh, good Lord. I'd swim with gills. Our, our mission is simple. It's the same as yours saving lives because swimming is not just a sport or a recreational activity. It's a life-saving skill that every child and every adult deserves to learn. Thank you. Um, Kristin Repetti followed by Karen Hall Yost Rudge. Good morning. Thank you for, uh, being here today, each and every one of you and hearing our comments and our considerations, all of which I echo, um, here today. Every single one of you, uh, had mentioned, um, born and raised in Miami in the seventies. I was one of those third graders that learned to swim for that week, um, that, um, Dr. Wells was talking about. I remember being on the side of the pool and blowing those bubbles and pushing off the bottom and having the original Yeti, a frozen can of Coke wrapped up in aluminum foil with our lunch. That was very exciting. Um, so I was not a member of the Martin County High School swim team, but my children were. Um, and I remember being there on that swim deck and all the, uh, amazing, uh, experiences and activities that they had and the discipline that they, um, that they learned from the sport of swim and they did that year-round. I do have a daughter-in-law who was also a state champion, um, and got a scholarship to Drexel University for nursing for those four years. So swimming does also provide amazing opportunities for students, um, for college scholarships. Um, I'm also a proud mom of an Eagle Scout and swimming is a required merit badge to earn Eagle. So one of those, you know, um, that we want to target and talk about is, um, ours are scouters that are in the area. Um, statistics. We talk about children drownings, but I, I also looked into adult drownings are three times the amount of children. So we talk about the importance of teaching children how to swim because they all turn into adults, right? So we have more adults that are, that are drowning, probably trying to save the children. So we need to think about those, those adults as well. So, and not just classes in swim and how to survive swim, but also to be able to boast in Martin County to say that all of our graduates know how to swim. How about CPR? How about life saving, basic, basic life skills? So if we teach our graduates, not only to learn how to swim, but to also save lives. So, um, and also rip currents. We, we're surrounded by water and we also, I also, I have seen that our Martin County Fire Rescue is exposing children on how to recognize rip currents and how to avoid those. Um, so thank you so very much. I echo so many of the comments that were made previously. So thank you again for all of your time and consideration. Thank you. Karen Hall, Yost, Rudge. And our final speaker will be after that. Frank McChrystal. Oh, good morning. Um, my name is Karen Hall, Yost, Rudge. I've been voting here in Martin County since 1992. And my minutes today are going to be, what do we teach our children? I have four points. What do we teach our children? Number one, we teach our children. If you see something wrong, say something. In 2009, during the developing loving Krauskopf commission, after our attorney, Kenny Sundhyde died unexpectedly, the city attorney, Nicoletti and Kilbride obtained an ex party injunction with police powers to raise our our entire 1.4 acre property with armed force and by Judge Metzger. And they did it by perjuring themselves to the court in their complaint. At the very same time, the Martin County property appraiser decided to drop our homestead while we are occupying our homestead. And then the city removed us, um, under the threat of armed force. We saw something and we said something and we're still saying something. Okay. It is our duty. All right. Number two, we tell our children, don't cheat, don't steal, don't lie. But if you do lie, just tell the truth. If you did something wrong, take accountability, own it. Lying always makes everything worse. Okay. The city has prevailed in this litigation because they are continually lying to the court, defrauding the court. Okay. Um, Mr. Baggett has never done anything perjurious. So this is not Mr. Baggett. He has not filed anything. Only Michael Mortel, Kari Leninger from Williams, Leninger and Cosby tell the truth. Let's see. Three, bad things happen to good people and good people do bad things. Okay. I have here two documents. They are already filed in January DD. And these are altered documents. This is Sherry White and Mary Kindle. And the things that they did are third degree felonies, but I'm not a judge. Okay. We have, uh, this just is corrections for the Supreme Court that just went in. We have Nicoletti and Mortel involved. And let's see, what else? Oh, emails from, uh, when we had mayors, Mayor Clark and Mayor, uh, Matheson and all the mayors that just ignored me. And not only that, like, uh, Tom Campani ignored me. Campbell Rich ignored me. Most of the commissioners just ignored me and that's okay. I just is really not what they were supposed to be doing, but it's all good. Um, what else? I haven't blistered the Collins or, uh, Reed because they already got a full plate already from all the nonsense that we have to, uh, that we have to, uh, uh, do after people like Eula Clark and all these things. But thank you. Thank you. Uh, our final speaker is Frank McChrystal. Good morning, all. I can see the aura of intelligence rising in here like a, like a cloud, a lot of brain power here this morning. Part of spiritual development is to recognize the satanic tendencies that characterize you and to fully wrestle with them and to integrate them. It's not so much to cast them away is to use them and transform them for good. You can see the difference between people who've done that and people who haven't, at least to some degree because people who haven't integrated the shadow at all are naive. And because they're naive, they're often resentful as well as because they get taken advantage of. And someone who's integrated the shadow more is dangerous. In the martial arts sort of way, they're dangerous, but they don't have to be. They don't have to use it because their presence radiates implicit potential for havoc. And that's really necessary. If you're harmless, you're not virtuous. You're just harmless. You're like a rabbit. A rabbit isn't virtuous. It just gets eaten. You have to be a monster who doesn't act monstrously. That's virtuous. It's a very common mythological notion. The hero has to be a monster who knows when to break the rules, a controlled monster seeking truth. So why not adopt the responsibility for your own well-being and to put your family together and serve your community and seek eternal truth? That's the thing that grounds you enough in your life so you can withstand the difficulty of life. Why not be a monster for good who stands up to the political winds of change at the FAA? Why would you want to double the amount of jet fumes dumped on the innocent children at St. Joe's and Parker? Why would you not stand up to Trump and his AI tech bro buddies whose atheist views envision a planet with way less humans? Why not stand up and fight those who would turn Stewart into one of their futuristic 15-minute cities, complete with a central public transportation hub surrounded by seven-story towers where the worker bees get to live and work without the need for the evil car and the freedom it represents? Thank you, Lord, for this day. And a special thanks to all those who have served and sacrificed so that I may have freedom of speech. And a very special thanks to the new movers and shakers who inspire me daily. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that wraps up public comment and we'll move on to our first agenda item with the county public's public works projects. Good morning. My name is Jamie Paladora. I'm with Capital Projects at Martin, the senior project engineer. So today I'm just going to go over some of the projects. First, we have Southwest Canter Highway improvements and the Southwest Waterside Way signalization project. This is anticipated to have construction completion in fall of this year. And this includes a new eastbound left turn lane and westbound right turn lane. Also new traffic signal at the intersection of Canter Highway and Waterside Way. So here's a photo showing getting it down to grade. On the left, we have them bringing in the fill and the photo on the right is the installation of the master. Could you speak into the microphone? The mic towards you. Okay. Next, we have the Rocky Point Neighborhood Restoration Project. This project is anticipated for construction completion in fall of this year as well. This includes sidewalk repair, drainage improvements, as well as safety improvements. The photo on the right shows during construction. And some additional photos here we have of an inlet drainage structure on the left and on the right, a regraded swale. Next, we have the Southeast Eleanor Street Reconstruction Project. This was completed construction in February of this year. And this was a full depth reconstruction of Southeast Eleanor Street, which was a project converting an existing shell road into a paved roadway. So the photo on the right is the end condition. And then here's a little before and after. So the photo on the left is the shell road. And then the photo on the right is after when the road was paved. We also have Charlie Layton Park improvements, which is under construction. These photos show construction of the boat ramp. And this project is in Palm City with anticipated completion of this summer. And in addition to the boat ramps, it includes reconstructing the parking lot area as well as drainage and safety improvements. And a little bit on the design update. So we have a few projects at 60% plans and 90% plans. We have Southwest Bulldog Way sidewalk project, the Sun Trail multimodal path project, and the Bascual Bridge scour protection all at 90% plans. And then at 60% plans, we have the another dirt road paving project, which is the Segave Drive and Haslam Street. And then another scour protection for a Rundle Bridge. And now I'm going to hand it over. Thank you, Jamie. John Mayall, the Martin County's Environmental Resource Administrator. How many people have met or heard of Miss Louise Yeiser, who we call Wheezy, and have heard about what she's done for our community? So this is a really special accomplishment and improvement for the community that I'm going to talk about first. I'm going to give you a little bit of the backstory here because it's kind of cool. In 1865, a young Hungarian gentleman named Charles taped a packet of dry yeast to his chest and wrote a boat over the United States of America. And that kicked off 150 years of successful business producing Fleischmann yeast and associated with that incredibly generous philanthropy in all the communities where where they lived and worked. And that came to us this year. Louise is the great granddaughter of Charles Fleischmann. And she felt the conviction that Martin County had a lot of special places. And we weren't making any more. And she wanted to be a part of preserving those special places for the community. And so she spent eight and a half million dollars from her own pocket to preserve properties in Martin County that we didn't have funding programs to to to provide for. And to and there were properties that were either adjacent to existing areas or provided some protection of a valuable ecosystem. So the first one that you can see on the slide there, it's a little bit challenging to see. But the the I'm going to call it the blue shading is the existing Hope Sound scrub preserve that was recently added to the county preserve system. And on the right side of that slide, you can see some green shading. It's not the best color, but she acquired about 15 percent larger footprint to Hope Sound Square Preserve all around the entrance to that to that preserve and has donated that to the county for preservation. A couple of those areas were already entitled to multifamily housing and were imminently to be purchased and built out by a developer that the property on the right by the entrance there on the kind of the center top of that slide was about an hour and a half from being put under contract by a developer when she acquired it. Jamie, could you move to the next slide? There's two other areas where she invested in her community on the left side. That's in North River Shores just west of US 1. There was there's three parcels there that had a by right multifamily. I think there could have been 30 units on that one acre. She acquired that, donated it, and our intention there is to to relieve some stormwater problems with a pond or man-made wetland and picnic benches and some signage and just kind of create a community park that also serves a stormwater function. And on the right side, the blue area, the bluish green area is an existing county property where the Environmental Resource Division just completed a stormwater retrofit to treat water from Poinciana Gardens and Heritage Ridge. And it actually looks like a really cool pond, but there's no way to access it. There's no parking. It's right off of US 1. And there's a lot of interest in being able to to walk around that. It's got lots of wildlife. It's got a great cadre of native plants. But there's just no way to do that. And to the north of it, there's a four acre property that was had had a couple of different development proposals for storage that did not come to fruition. And she put it under contract, gave it to the county. And that's going to be a new park that will add to the stormwater treatment area and provide a way for people to park, to read some interpretive signage, and then some trails that will connect to the STA so you can navigate that area. So huge improvements. That one is in a really high profile area right on US 1. It's hard to miss. If you drive to Hope Sound, it'd be on your left. Super exciting. And she's just a wonderful person to work with besides. And she's out challenging all of her friends and neighbors to follow suit and to get in the game of preserving land. Now we had another landmark achievement you've probably all heard about. I've been talking about it ad nauseam. This was about a seven year effort to preserve an absolutely critical ranch. And Barbee Ranch, which is just north and east of the C-44 reservoir. It's out towards Indian town. And it's a 2,000 acre ranch that was owned by generations of families that placed more value on the land than they did on the wealth that it could provide. And it has been maintained in such a spectacular way. You could open it up as a state park today. It's in such, it's such great condition. It's been so well cared for. Um, and that family chose to put a conservation easement on that so that forever it will be what it is today. Um, they sold the development rights to Florida forever and the county was a participating funding partner, um, in, in that acquisition. It was a 17 million dollar easement. The county through Martin County forever contributed 5 million of that and Florida forever, um, contributed 12 million. So that will forever be, um, what it is today and provide, uh, incredible habitat, uh, particularly now that the C-44 reservoir and stormwater treatment area are directly adjacent to it. Um, that habitat became even more important. It's also part of this, the, uh, comprehensive Everglades restoration plan, natural lands component. So eventually the state will get credit on the 50-50 cost share ledger for Everglades restoration. So the 17 million dollars that was spent on that easement will count towards 17 million dollars of federal spending on things like the EAA reservoir or the C-23-24 North reservoir. And then lastly, I was, uh, going to talk about the recently completed Hutchinson Island shore protection project, which was a huge success. We just completed that, um, two months ago, just before turtle season. Uh, it was just under 400,000 cubic yards of sand placement on the four mile beach section that, um, that, uh, goes to up to Jensen beach. And it, it has been a hugely successful project. We've been working on this for 30 years. There's been five re-nourishments, um, and progressively since 2005, we've been having to place less and less land because the, uh, the technology employed in modeling those re-nourishment projects has improved. We continue to tweak that, and we have incredible monitoring data. The survey data, um, is second to none to track, you know, how this beach responds to the ocean and to storms. And, uh, that the, um, things like the, the, the berm tow has moved 70 feet out. We have way more vegetation than we used to that helps to hold it. So this provides, uh, uh, a protection of that recreation resource, the economic, uh, impact of that. It protects the infrastructure. Um, and it was such a good project that the, uh, if you want to move to the next slide, the, uh, American shore and beach preservation association named this their 2026 project of the year. So, so that was really cool. And that's my update. Happy to take any questions. I'm sure Jamie would too. Are there any questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Great work. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have the city utilities and engineering projects. Good morning, everyone. Peter Kunin, utilities and engineering director with the city of Stewart. I have a few updates for you this morning. All right. So, uh, with respect to the city of Stewart's ongoing pavement maintenance program, we have, uh, starting this summer, the continuation of, uh, just pavement restoration, milling and overlay, and, uh, also, uh, a, uh, pavement rejuvenation located in the zone three area of the city of Stewart. Uh, the work is scheduled to start in July and, uh, be concluded, uh, sometime in October of this year. A few of the streets that are going to be covered with respect to the, uh, pavement work are Stittman Boulevard, Decker Avenue, Forest Park Drive, Lake Street, and Indian Groves Drive. We also have, uh, about to begin the work at the city's, uh, at the city's, uh, courtesy dock. And, uh, the, uh, project involves the demolition and replacement of the, uh, existing fixed or floating concrete dock. And, uh, also, uh, it will include a new fixed dock, also a portion of floating dock and a floating vessel platform. It's going to be in the same approximate location of where the existing dock is located. And as you can see in the, in the photograph, uh, we're looking at, uh, closing the, the dock on July 6th to begin the construction. And the construction is anticipated to be completed in March of 2027. So with respect to some of the city's utility projects that, uh, are going to be, uh, starting or currently under construction, uh, the first one is the city of Stewart North lift station project. It's a rehab rehabilitation of an existing lift station. And, uh, the work is going to involve replacement of pumps and electrical control panels, uh, piping work, and also, uh, the, uh, construction of an auxiliary pump, uh, to be utilized in the event of a power outage. The, uh, will give this sewer pump station the ability to, to function with a diesel engine operated auxiliary pump. The project is about ready to start construction, uh, within the next month. And it's, uh, about a year long project. The anticipated completion of the project's construction is, is going to be in June of 2027. On to a project that has recently been completed. It's the St. Lucie Boulevard fire hydrant installation project, which consisted of the installation of six fire hydrants along, uh, St. Lucie Boulevard. And, uh, it's, uh, it has been completed. Uh, that area previously did not have, uh, fire hydrants. So the project was, was much, much needed. And, and, uh, as I mentioned, uh, the fire hydrants are installed and, and active as we speak. On to a facility project at our water reclamation facility. It's the, uh, headworks project, the, uh, phase one project, which, uh, the first phase of the project involved, uh, basically, uh, assessing the condition of the existing headwork structure, uh, removing, uh, a, uh, deteriorated roof portion of the headworks and, uh, replacing it. Um, also modifications to the existing odor control, uh, system, have been, have been worked on as well. So this is the first phase of the project, which, uh, was recently closed out. And, uh, we're looking to start the second phase of the project, which I'll bring up next, the phase two of the headworks project. It's a continued continuation of, uh, structural, uh, rehabilitation to this, uh, the headworks and, uh, also will involve the installation of a new bar screen and grit removal system and, uh, reconstruction of the whole upper deck of the headworks as part of the project. Uh, the project is, uh, uh, the, the, the design has been completed. Uh, the city is about ready to procure equipment, new equipment for the headworks structure. And, uh, we are anticipating having this project under construction this year, starting in, uh, November. Most likely the project duration will be one year. We're hopeful we could get the, uh, project completed sooner than that. But right now we have a 365 day, uh, calendar day, uh, schedule for the project. And last but not least, it's the, uh, Veterans Memorial Park amphitheater project, which, uh, has been completed. Uh, we had the grand opening back in, in March of this year. And, and, uh, there are photographs in this slide that show just, uh, what a beautiful project that it is. Uh, the work, uh, workmanship was first class. And, uh, certainly, uh, having the, having a covered, uh, um, amphitheater in the, uh, Veterans Memorial Park was much, much needed. And, uh, we had a fantastic turnout at the, the opening day back in March as well. So, uh, with that, it's, it is completed. Uh, we closed out all the construction documents just, uh, last week. And it's there for all of you to enjoy. So, with that, this concludes my presentation this morning. Um, I'm open for any, any questions that, that you may have for me at this time. Okay. Seeing no questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have the Village of Indiantown Capital Improvement Projects update. Good morning. Pat Nolan, uh, Director of Public Works and Utilities for the Village of Indiantown. Start with some public works projects. Um, we've got the roadway, roadway repair and maintenance. Uh, what we're doing there is trying to repair as much of the potholes in the village as we can. We started out last year with the worst. We're getting to, uh, the not so worst this year, but we've concluded repairing the asphalt in the village, and we hope to continue that next year as well. We've got the Southwest Lincoln Roadway and Drainage Project. Uh, we're that close to getting that project started. We've been working with FDOT on the funding, and, uh, we're about to bring a proposal to the board to start the engineering. Seminole Drive Project, also another grant-funded project. Uh, we're ready to start that any day. We're just waiting for the contractor to, uh, to start water projects, which is a very, very scrutinized topic in the Village of Indiantown these days. Uh, the water plant project for the existing water plant. We were awarded, uh, state revolving funds quite a few years ago. We're finally starting to take advantage of that. We recently signed a contract to start rehabbing four of our existing eight wells. So we're looking forward to, uh, improving the quality of the water in the village once we get that project finished. And we'll move on to, uh, working on improvements on the existing water plant. We've got the Railroad Avenue Water Main. That is a hundred-year-old water main that runs, uh, parallel to the CSX Railroad. We received funding for that project in December, so we're just waiting through the grant process to be able to take advantage of that funding, and we'll replace that water main and, uh, increase the size of it and it can help improve the quality of the water in the village. 151st Osceola Street Water Main Project. Uh, that is a project that we are working with, uh, Congressman Mass's office to, uh, we've secured funding. We just, again, to grant, so we're working through the grant process to be able to start the project. Our Florida and Aquifer Wells Project, we're drilling four wells. We've drilled three. We have to do the head works on those three wells, but we're presently drilling the fourth well in anticipation of the reverse osmosis water treatment project. Uh, along with the reverse osmosis water treatment project, we're working on a deep injection well because once we get that project off the ground, we're going to have to have some place to send the concentrate from the, uh, reverse osmosis plant. So we're probably three quarters of the way through the construction of the deep injection well. Once we get that up and running, we'll be able to take advantage of, uh, the resources that well for both the reverse osmosis water treatment plant as well as the new wastewater plant that we're building. Uh, wastewater projects. You can see through the other pictures here, we've, we're building some new stuff. We're actually finally building the administration building, the tankage for the new plant, uh, up in the upper right-hand corner. Up in the lower left-hand corner is the existing reuse plant. We're rehabbing that as well so that we can provide reuse water for irrigation in the future. And then, uh, bottom right is just the property in its entirety with the, the old wastewater treatment plant operating and all the new construction next to it. That concludes my presentation. If anybody has any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have, uh, the county and village development updates. Good morning, all. My name is Clive Doolin. I'm with the Martin County Growth Management Department. Um, I don't have, uh, the nice pictures, uh, that the past slides included, but we'll try to go over the, uh, growth and development report. Um, this data on population you've seen before was in your, uh, last presentation in February. Uh, the numbers haven't changed. We have not, well, we have received, but we have not actually put into the report the new data provided by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. So this population, these estimates and projections remain as do these, um, estimates. And likewise, the historic growth hasn't changed. Uh, the next page gives you the residential approvals between January 1 and April 30, a total of 302 multifamily units. And the non-residential approvals, uh, between January 1 and April 30 total 387,263 square feet of non-residential development. Uh, the balance of the report provides, uh, the items that are in review, both residential and non-residential. And I'll be happy to try to answer any questions that you have. Okay. No questions? Uh, can I, Commissioner Clark? Hi. I was going to ask this of the, um, environmental person about lakes and so on, but maybe Mr. Doolin in the future, uh, because I haven't studied it carefully, uh, just an outline, an overview of what new field looks like out there in the county and, you know, what the, um, acreages are with preserve and water and that kind of thing. Just a very overview because, um, uh, I'd like to see how that looks in our county out there. I know it's an ongoing development. I, um, may I ask for a clarification? Are you looking for the, uh, outline of, uh, preserve areas in developments that are being approved? Yeah, in, in, uh, out there in Newfield, yes. Oh, in Newfield specifically. Okay. Newfield. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the Village of Indiantown. Oh, Mayor Reed. Yeah, my question was on your growth and development report. For the Village of Indiantown, in 2025, it goes from 6,704 to 2050, it goes to 7,633. And my question was just for Terra Lago alone, it was 2,500 housing units. So do they plan on finishing that after 2050? I know it's done in phases, but is that a 25 year development project to complete 2,500 housing units? I'm sorry, Commissioner, what page of my report are you referring to? I'm looking at the growth and development report, um, the chart. Page two. Okay. So if we look at, yeah, scroll back. So if we look at the Village of Indiantown, if you scroll up, it goes from 6,704 in 2025 to 7,633 in 2050. But I'm looking at Terra Lago and they have 2,500 phased housing units alone. I think that would exceed that number. This data comes from the Bureau of Economic and Business Research in, uh, the University of Florida. The first column is estimated data, which is looking backward at 2025. And the other columns, 2030 through 2050, are their projections looking into the future. Uh, basically the total is there, are their projections. And we've broken it down based upon the historic growth pattern in the areas. As Terra Lago begins to get, do approvals, these numbers will change. These projections for 2030, 35 and 40 will change. All right. Thanks. Sure. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, good morning everyone. I'm in, uh, doing a presentation that Dana Freeman and her team, uh, created for the village of Indiantown. Um, this is just to show we've kind of mirrored Martin County and their mapping system. So you can go in on our website and pull up the maps and see what projects are currently in review and what projects have been approved and get some information on those through our map system. Um, this is a listing of all the new businesses that we've recently have had come to Indiantown. We've been very excited when they're completely built out, particularly the I-Town Rail and Commerce. That's the old juice plant. They will have over 500 jobs in total from these, uh, businesses that are shown here. And I have, uh, I know y'all can read the slides. I'm not going to go over each one, but it's pretty cool. Some of the, um, some of the manufacturing that we have going on and remembering that Indiantown specifically has a lot of industrial properties already and has a lot of the county's, uh, industrial inventory. So now we'll look at the non-residential, uh, projects that we have. Um, the first one's a church. We have, do have data center, uh, application that has come in. Um, and then the other one's a convenience store. We have the go-cart facility and then Indianwood Landing, which is a new residential, uh, that has come in. We also have, um, these projects that are non-residential. The first one is the most exciting. That's Sedron. Uh, they are a biosolid processing facility. They will be locating their facility on the, uh, juice plant and they will be taking, uh, biosolids and processing them and turning them into a, uh, it's like a, uh, peat moss, uh, consistency, but it gets rid of all the PFAS and PFOS and they have a contract. Martin County approved a contract with them and Senegro, which is one of the largest haulers of the sludge material, uh, throughout the United States. So you can see the projects that we have going on there. This is all in industrial lands. And then these are also in the industrial area. Um, most of them are self-explanatory, except for the, the last one, RCC construction, they do tilt wall, small homes. Uh, and so they will be looking to locate their business out there in Venture Park. That's just the floor plan of the biosolid processing plant. They're going to be located on the corner of the juice plant. And then we will look at residential and, and, uh, Mayor Reed, to answer your question, we get as concerned about those population numbers as you are. Um, but as Clyde said, because they come from Bieber, it takes a while for them to catch up. Yeah. So Terra Lago right now, they've been approved for 825 units. They are coming in, um, with phase two and three. Um, we have actually redevelopment review with them tomorrow, but, uh, right now they're waiting on our new water plant because we are at capacity, uh, as far as being able to provide services with our existing water plant. So you can see where those various phases are and you're right. At the end, they will have 2,500 units. They came in recently with a amendment to increase their commercial space, um, from 100,000 square feet to 200,000 square feet. And then they also have carved out a section back in the upper right corner, back up in here. They're carving out some acreage for Martin County to have a fire station and an emergency operations center, uh, located there off of Allapatta. And that will help service the western county area as well as the residents within the village. So this whole site is where they are, uh, currently it's about, it's over 800 acres and they have about 30 acres of native wetland and buffers included in that project. That's also the updated their phasing plan that they came in with recently. And then that shows you where phases two and three will be going. And those are going to represent another 800 homes. So they will have the possibility of getting at least 1600. And timing wise, they're building about their initial plan was to do 30 homes a month, but I would say that's slowed down quite a bit. They're probably doing about 20. So far, we've had about 140 new hookups. So residents are moving in there. We've got about 140 new residents so far. Then we have other residential projects. River Oak just came in. Uh, there's a slide in here for them. Um, and they're, again, some of them have been able to be approved, some are under construction, but they're, um, some of them are only in phases because of our water capacity. And that would be Osceola pines. Citrus Grove, uh, they're pending, they are coming in with a comp plan amendment. Um, that's over by the airport. That was a project that was approved a while back that has been resurrected. And then you can see the other projects there as well. This is just a site for the Indianwood landing. That's in front of Indianwood development next to Terra Lago with town homes. And then this is the river Oak. And, uh, this is 131 homes over by the marina. And then this is showing you where they're taking two residential lots there in the back and they're creating amenities. Uh, the residents would like a pool and a clubhouse of some sorts. So they are going to be creating those in the back of that development. And that's a, a close picture of those two. We also have some annexation requests. This is not an, this was an annexation request that was recently approved, 57 acres roughly with FP and L. Um, and they are coming in with their, uh, comp plan amendment and it has been approved and through all their, uh, hearings. Then we have best car. This is a parcel that's not in the village that has asked to annex in. It's pending. And then Citrus Grove was that project I showed you just previously. They're coming in with their comp plan amendment as well. And they're going to have, I think they're planning on about 300 residential units. That's it. I'll answer any questions or do my best. Any questions? Uh, Mayor Reed? I might have to email you on them as well, just to follow up. Sure. What was the cost to fund fire rescue there once it's built? Has that been projected at all? Well, there's an existing fire station there now. Um, my understanding is that this station will, uh, provide, uh, hazmat. As you can imagine with, um, 710 running through the village, we have quite a few, uh, major incidents with accidents. So they wanted to have hazmat and they wanted to move some of the special teams there. But their plan is to move the existing staff and operations that are currently in Indian town to that site. Um, we've put in an appropriation request for 14 million with the state to hopefully help us fund that with the county's, uh, assistance. So was that 14 million to build the station or 14 million every fiscal year to fund it? 14 to build it. And then what, what was it for the fiscal year to fund it? I don't have those numbers. I'd have to. Yeah, that's fine. I'll email you. Yeah. Yeah. We can, I know they can figure it out based on how many, uh, paramedics and firefighters they have. And then, uh, my next question is how much grant money has the village of Indian town received since, uh, becoming a village? Right now, 73 million. And would they have received that money if they were not a village? Like for the, all the capital improvement projects that are happening in the village of Indian town, would they still have received that funding regardless if they were a village? It would have required someone to put in those appropriations. We've been putting them in specifically for the village. Uh, so it's hard to say, uh, but because the Indian town has been a historically disadvantaged community, they check all those boxes for the state to provide funding. And then we've also gone after some loans through the SRF program. And then as far as the, the river oak, you mentioned a comp plan amendment they were coming in for. Um, is that something I should probably email you on to get more information? Sure. Yeah. They have acquired property across the street, um, from where river oak currently is. They've acquired, uh, I think it's about 400 more acres and they have some under contract. So their plan is to expand. It's just the water capacity issue is holding them back right now. Thank you. No worries. Any other questions for Ms. Krista? Okay. Seeing none, we're moving on to our final agenda item, which is the school district update. So good morning, everyone. I'm Mark Secrest, director of facilities and planning at the Martin County School District. I'm going to give you, um, an update on several of our capital projects. It's not every project that we're doing at the district. We have multiple projects going on, but this, um, presentation has anywhere from small projects to large projects, but they're, um, kind of important to the community and they've come up in the past. Um, as stated at our last meeting, we finally closed Stewart middle and South Fork high school projects. So that will be no longer being presented to you. So those, um, final pay applications are going on the board meeting tonight. So that project will be officially closed once we get through that board meeting. I'm going to move straight to the, in case anybody wonders, we can back up to this slide. If you have a question about any of our school sites or charter schools, but this map actually shows the location of everything in Martin County. So our first project up is Murray Middle School. I think everybody's excited about this project. We are moving, um, on schedule. Um, this month on the 23rd, we will have a town hall meeting and just so everybody understands it started out as we were going to have a SAC meeting and then it was discussed with the school and staff that maybe we should enlighten the neighbors and give them an update on where the project's moving. So it's actually going to be a staff meeting, a SAC meeting and a, and a neighborhood meeting. Um, but it'll be on the 23rd and we're going to basically give a project update of where this project is. We do have some items on the abort agenda tonight. And once those are approved, then it, it, it starts the timeframe on our next phase of this project. But essentially what's going to happen, whoops, essentially what's going to happen with this project? Um, this is kind of a overlapping plan of demolition and future. So this is the new building number one, which is now, um, located in the green space. If you know Murray Middle, um, these three buildings right here, 18, 10, and nine were the ones damaged by Milton. Um, so as part of the project, these buildings will be demolished as part of the project. And then the building you don't see is building number five, which is the current admin building. It would be located underneath the new parking lot. So that building will come down. So now the new administration wing will be on the first floor of this building. And on the second floor, it'll be the media center. So it's going to be very similar to the Stewart middle school project that you've seen in the past. It's going to be identical building, um, same functions, but for economy of construction and being fiscally responsible, we actually made it one big building because we had to replace classrooms. Um, we had to replace the art lab. We had to replace music and band. So that's all incorporated under one building, which helps with the mechanical system, the roofing and everything, because now it's all located under one two-story building. So exciting news, there will be a big meeting on the 23rd, and we're going to enlighten the community and all the staff about that project. And again, it will resemble the Stewart middle school project as far as the front facade and how it faces the parking lot. And then we're going to redesign the whole car loop and drop off and pick up area and give them more parking spaces in front of the school. So the next project up is our shared campus project. We did have a town hall meeting at Indian town. Um, it was actually located at Warfield Elementary. We had that in May. Um, this project here and the next project are actually approved by the board to do a master plan. What that does is we're going to review each project and we're going to figure out the program for each project and how it actually works for the site plan. So it's kind of a conceptual plan that will be developed and it will be presented to the board August, September. And our goal here is to see, um, how we can fit a pre-k through five campus on the Indian town middle school campus. And now it would be a shared campus project between Warfield and Indian town middle school. Um, the challenges that we had with the, um, renovation of the old campuses, there's several buildings you can't touch because of their age. And then there's a couple of buildings you can remove because of their age. So now you're dealing with a campus that has additions to it. And then once you'd renovate those existing buildings, you have to take into account SREF, the current building code. And once you hit a threshold of a certain renovation, now you've got to bring it up the current code. So now that project becomes more expensive than the dollars we could actually use to build a new building at Indian town middle school for Warfield. So that project is, like I said, it's not been approved to move forward except for a master plan phase. Once the master plan phase is complete, that information will be presented to the board. And then if they approve it, the next steps would be similar to Murray middle school and Stewart middle school, where we do an RFQ for the architect, an RFQ for the see them at risk. And then that starts the whole design phase and construction drawing phase for that project. And then eventually you would hit the construction phase of the project. The next project is Dinsenbees High School, which was part of the master plan project. What we are looking at here is, um, adding additional capacity to that high school. We do have, um, we are showing a need for additional student stations. So we're looking at adding classrooms and labs. Currently we have that under the master plan review because we need to get an understanding of what we can do, whether we can add a building inside the courtyard, or we can add a building outside the courtyard because of our constraints to building code and SRF. So that project is under a year now, and they're doing a full cold analysis on the existing school. Um, but our goal here is to add labs and classrooms, um, if the board approves that master plan project. And then we go through the same process as an RFQ for the A&E and an RFQ for the, um, see them at risk. Our last is where we bring in some small projects, but they've been, um, kind of important. So I'm glad to announce that we are addressing the Jensen Beach High School gym and Martin County High School gym acoustical problems. So these projects started on June 1st. Um, this is Jensen Beach's gym. That gym had acoustical panels on the walls, but it did not address the ceiling. So right now the whole ceiling is being addressed with acoustical panels to enhance the acoustability in there during a graduation event. Um, and then Martin County High School, they are actually putting acoustical panels on the walls and the ceiling, and that's an, that'll enhance the acoustability in those gyms. When we designed South Fork High School, the acoustics were already designed in that new building and we don't need to do treat it in any way. So by the time we get done, essentially that all three gyms will act the same during a graduation event. And then also at Martin County High School, we are removing the first 15 portables. So that project has already been underway. Um, we're getting close to the phase where the defender will come in and actually move the portables because we had to reload. We had to remove the electrical. We had to remove, um, walkway canopies and get everything out of the way so that all these portables could be removed down this driveway and then back on the counter highway. And then the third project at Martin County High School is the auditorium. We're doing a renovation. It's not a full remodel, but it is a renovation to the auditorium seating area, a renovation to the lobby and a couple of the restroom. So I will take any questions at this time. Are there any questions for Mr. Seacrest? Okay. Seeing none. Um, are there any comments from, um, and oh, Commissioner Campy. Thank you. It seems like a while ago, but the public comments that were made this morning in regards to, um, not necessarily just the high school pool, but the concept of aquatics in the county. Um, most of us have heard lots of public comments in our days in office, but I think that was a series of some of the most articulate and compelling public comments that I've heard. Uh, I think they touched on a lot of the very key points. I think all of us would agree with what we heard. Um, we have been very fortunate to have the Martin County High School. And I know that the school board, you all and the boards before you have worked hard to keep it going. Um, several it's, it's a long time ago. Now we built Sailfish Splash and I know at the time it was deemed controversial, but I think it's worked out. I think a concept of whether it is through the school district, if that's your prerogative or community type situation, I think having the opportunity for the public to speak, the universal public would be a good suggestion. And I am, uh, I can only speak obviously for myself, but I'm not opposed if legally, uh, and logistically there was a way to have a referendum from the public. I think a majority of our communities nearby do have more, uh, aquatic facilities that are not necessarily based through the school district, but I know that the Boys and Girls Club has been considering some opportunities to do that. So I would be in favor of having a referendum vote on what the community thinks overall about our, our swimming and aquatics in a more unified way. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Campy. Ms. Roberts. Um, so I'd like to ask maybe if the county can look at their property inventory and see where they would have possible space placement, et cetera, for swimming pools. I mean, I know that when we look, when you look at our footprints for our properties, they may look large, but what we actually have on them is, um, a little bit different. But I think since that's also government owned property and maybe the city and Indian town could do the same under their inventory of property and kind of look at what they would have available. And maybe we could have that back at our next meeting and kind of see what, um, that looks like. I would agree. I don't think you could shoehorn a pool at Jensen. And when I was looking at the Jensen beach footprint, there's no way to put a pool there. You can't even figure out where to put the buildings. I completely agree with you. And I don't think it necessarily has to only be within the current inventory of municipal properties. I think a lot of our newer, uh, developers and, you know, other not for profits, for instance, the boys and girls club or other people that own land might want to participate. I don't think it could fit into any of your school sites. Thank you. Commissioner Clark. Thank you. I'll be brief. I absolutely agree with the ideas. Commissioner Campy and, uh, Commissioner, um, full board member Roberts. We've had the same dilemma at the city. People have asked for years and years, can the city have a pool, whether it's a 10th street or whatever. I remember when the YMCA was going in and I know all the, I wasn't on the commission then, but I was a planner at the county and, um, all these questions have come up and it, people will say, oh, there's duplication, but listening to the very, very, um, excellent presentation and how this affects people's lives and their careers and opportunities for scholarships. I think we do need to have that meeting and we do need to, um, to look at this as to provide in aquatics in Martin County and in all the different venues and locations. And it's a good thing to study and to prepare to work with. Thank you so much. Thank you. Commissioner Capps. Yes. Some of the public speakers seem to refer to continuing to have a community pool at Martin County High School. Is there a reluctance to have one there because of liability concerns, insurance concerns, security concerns, or has that been discussed at this point? Or is that a big discussion for the future of the school board or any comments on that at this point? Okay. Sure. I'll take that. Thank you. Um, all of the above there, there definitely is an opportunity for the pool is open. So first and foremost, I want everybody to know that the pool is open, uh, and it can be utilized through a use of facilities request, uh, and the payment structure that is board approved for anyone that would like to utilize the pool. Uh, so the pool is not closed. It's actually beautiful. We just had some boat races there not too long ago. It's clean. Uh, the board invested over $650,000 into upgrading the pool. Uh, the ideas that we would need to flush out or work on is the timing of when the pool is being requested to be utilized. If it is at 530 in the morning to seven in the morning, we do not have staff on site at those hours. So we do need to work through a fee structure that a custodian or a plan operator would be able to open those facilities, uh, for it to be, to be done, uh, access control and close proximity to the building. It is a pool that is utilized by the school, uh, and by the plan operator and the athletic director for students. And so, uh, there are all security things and all of that has to be, to be worked out. Uh, but if the pool is, uh, requested by the community or any members of the community, they can fill out a use of facilities request submitted. It goes through the approval process. Uh, if they pay the, uh, adopted fees, the pool is, is open for you. Thank you. And I'll just, I'll just kind of piggyback on what the superintendent just said. And that goes for all of our facilities. So all of our gymnasiums are open. Um, we have not for profits that are utilizing, um, running amazing, um, basketball programs inside our gyms. So those are all open to the public as well. But of course there is a fee that goes along with that because we have to pay for custodians and all the paper products that are being utilized. So there are fees associated with it, but we're also running those very successful programs in our gymnasiums as well. And fields, um, pretty much everything that we own, if it's not being utilized by school or during school hours is available to the public for, um, with our, uh, facilities use agreement. Ms. Pritchett. Superintendent, could you address the, um, person who requested that the pool be open in July for the public? Yes. Uh, thank you, Mrs. Pritchett. I, I actually have quite a few notes here. Uh, I agree with everybody else. The, the speakers were, uh, very well, um, articulated their, their passion this morning. Uh, I wrote down July opening of the pool, maybe some summer camps, uh, swim survival skills, and, and maybe some programs that we could, uh, begin to discuss or talk about, uh, that would be feasible. Uh, so I would like to, um, set up a time to meet with Martin Swims in their new format, um, and figure out a way that we could, uh, potentially make that happen if it's, uh, works on both sides. Any other questions? All right. Thank you all very much. I hope you have a wonderful, uh, 4th of July holiday celebrating our 250th anniversary of our independence. So thank you all very much. This meeting is adjourned.