Okay. Good morning, everyone. So everybody get a seat and welcome to the June 3rd, 2025 Board of County Commissioners meeting. And will you all please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good morning. I would like to invite you all to pray with me this morning. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and for the opportunity to serve this community. We ask that you pour out your truth, grace, wisdom, and understanding upon us. So that what is best for this county is what is accomplished. We thank you for your blessing and protection over all who visit here and for all who call this county home. And I ask this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. We have a presentation. Ms. Butterfield, you're going to go down and take over. Deedee. Good morning. Good morning. So we have a visitor with us today. I thought she might have came back. I didn't know. I know. It's like a boomerang. She's back. And we're excited. She does. So she's going to make a presentation to us this morning. So, Deedee. Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning. It's wonderful to be back with you today. Long time no see. To present four prestigious awards to Clerk Butterfield, the Board of County Commissioners, and your dedicated teams. These honors come from the Government Finance Officers Association, the national leader in setting best practices for governmental accounting and financial reporting. The first two awards go to Clerk Butterfield and her team. As the county comptroller, the clerk is responsible for producing the county's audited financial statements and providing essential checks and balances on the county's budget, revenues, and expenditures. For the 44th year in a row, the clerk's office has received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The clerk's office was also recognized for the 23rd consecutive year with the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting. This report presents a clear and concise summary of the county's financial data, making it an easy read for the community members. The third award is presented to the Board of County Commissioners and the Budget and Management Services Office for their work on the county's biannual budget. They've earned the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 33rd straight year. The budget outlines the county's financial plan and serves as a policy guide, operations manual, and key communication tool for the community. Finally, because all three awards were earned, the comprehensive, the popular, and the budget presentation, the clerk and the Board of County Commissioners are also being recognized with the GFOA's Triple Crown Medallion. This is a rare and impressive achievement. Congratulations to you all. Your continued commitment to transparency, accountability, and excellence is something to truly be proud of. Thank you. Thank you very much. So, thank you, Deedee. It is an honor to have you back to present these awards. And just as a reminder, this is the popular annual financial report, which you all have a copy. Everyone can obtain a copy. This is the easy, readable, citizen's report that says, where does our money come from and where does it go? Now, for your spare time, we have the annual comprehensive financial report, which has a lot of fantastic information. And in the back, there's a statistical section that everyone might find very useful. So, those are available both on our website. And then, as far as the actual award, GFOA presents us with a plaque, which we proudly display. And then, if we earned the continued award, then we just have a little extra button medallion to put on here. And budget management has the same in their hallway. So, we are proud of this. This award is just one way to measure our work and the value of our work. And it shows that not only are we meeting expectations, but many times exceeding expectations. And it's no small feat to earn these awards. Producing this, while it is an annual task, there are many players that are involved to actually produce this. For the budget and management office, and I didn't bring theirs. Christia probably has it as well, but they have to put it together. And then, this report includes all of the constitutional officers, the five constitutional officers, as well as the Board of County Commissioners' financial information. So, each of the constitutionals has a team. And from there, their information is submitted to us. And while we do all the work on the boards, financial, and clerks, we then compile it all together to put it in this report that is a required report and necessary report, while presenting it to GFOA for the award is not a requirement. It's something we want to do, and I choose to do every single year. So, that team effort, I want to recognize everyone for just a moment that plays a part in putting this together, starting with the budget and management services team. I'm going to ask them in a few minutes to come up with this and get a picture with all of you. But you can raise your hand. Christia Johnson, Glenda Rogers, Jennifer Holland, Jennifer Mathers, Jason Furman, Michael Phelps, Tabitha Alpers, Lisa Urban, Laura Boyd, and Darymas Griffin from your budget management team. And we certainly appreciate them, and the cooperation that takes all of us together. And then from the comptroller division and our inspector general division, we have Tanner Lee Milson, Mark Meeks, Cassandra Holt. There's hands. Where are you? There you are. Cassandra Holt. Lita McHugh is there. Brenda Doris. Laina Hicks. Sherry Watkins. Jill Pittman. Deshaun Griffin. Philip Brosny. Kevin Krause. Gloria Burnt. Talia Flores. That's Kelly McGinnis, Alia Shur, and Efren Santiago. And that is most of our teams that are here. We have a few that couldn't make it. So I don't know that it was long, but it takes the whole year not only to do the accounting, the financial reporting, to provide that transparency and accountability that our citizens deserve. And we're proud to receive these awards. Oh, I did. Thank you, Deedee. How could I forget them? And those are my humble beginnings as an auditor. And then our auditors, your auditors that come in each year. And with us today, we have Brad Winninger and Blaine Butcher from the auditors that come in and then produce, prepare, carry out the audit and produce the reports, which I think it was last board meeting they presented to you those reports. So with that, I'd love to say thank you and have us come up and get a picture with all of you in the background, if you would. And I'd like to say this. I want to thank you and your staff and everybody that's involved in this. I mean, every year, I know it's an undertaking, and y'all do an amazing job. And, you know, it keeps this county where we know what's going on because if something goes wrong, you definitely tell us, which that very seldom ever happens, you know. But just thank you for what y'all do. It's a team effort, and we appreciate it very much. Well, thank you. We appreciate your support, the county manager's office, the support of you all, so that we can provide that service to our county. So we'll get a picture. Thank you. There we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Good. I love the speakers. Good morning. You bye. I'll make it quick. I don't know. There's going to be enough room. I've got to tighten up. Tighten up. Tighten up. Here we go. Tighten up. Everybody. Room for tall people in the back. Well, I don't know. He's going to block it. If you stand there, I don't think they can still see me. It's okay. They're very tall. Stand on your tiptoes. We'll get you a little box to stand on. I'll stand in the chair, you know. I feel like you might need to move in. You want to switch? Yeah. I bet. Oh, yeah, we got it. Now we do. Here we go. I'm on my tippy toes. They won't be able to see my new britches. Hey, Ken. You're good, right? I think. Phillip. Okay. Where you going, Jill? Y'all want to take a deal? I'm going to the front. I'm going to the front. What do they say? Low and fully lifting. There you go. There. It can't be this hard. Take two pictures. We always got to think of it. Get half and get the other. Green ink. Yeah, green ink. Everyone look here, please. For me, please. Ready, one, two, three. Awesome. Perfect. All right. Thank you. All right. We're going to give them just a few minutes to clear the courtroom. I mean, courtroom. The boardroom. The boardroom. Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. I forgot two people. Michelle Udonis, raise your hand, and Kim Stinger and our team. They were here as well and part of our management team. So they're walking out somewhere. But thank you. Thank you. All right. It is now time for the general public. And we have some people that have signed, well, already have them on the agenda. Eve, I'm going to try to do this right. Salabine. Pretty good. Pretty good. Tell me, again, pronounce your name and give me your address, please, ma'am. Yes. My name is Eve Salambini, and I live at 4230 Live Oak Road in Lakeland. Good morning. I am the president and founder of the Street Cat Project of Polk County. Today, I bring over 20 years of animal welfare experience, including my role as shelter manager during Lake County Animal Control's transition to no-kill. I'm a certified professional dog trainer and a cat behavior specialist. In the four years my organization's been around, we have altered, vaccinated over 5,100 street cats throughout Polk County. And let me bring this to everybody's attention. And we appreciate what you're doing, but let's keep it down, and we're all here trying to get something accomplished here, and we appreciate it. What's being hidden at Polk County Animal Control is inhumane and abusive. We're facing serious failures in transparency, oversight, morality, and ethical accountability involving the living beings that are housed there. When we met with Animal Control Director Gordon Shearer in March, he couldn't even explain his own agency's statistics. The community has a right to know how their money is being spent and why killing is the default decision when other options are available and have been offered. I supplied copies to all of you of the yearly statistics with notes for your review. They're pretty outstanding. Shelter records are disorganized, incomplete, and intentionally withheld. We want to know how the $5.5 million budget is being utilized. When we asked for clarity, Attorney Jason Reuter stated, The Public Records Act does not obligate us to answer any questions. Shelter Supervisor Desiree Quito responded that public records requests can take 60 to 90 days. These are ongoing responses with a blatant disregard for accountability. This is a failure of leadership that falls squarely on your shoulders. You were elected to represent the public interest. We're requesting the following, monthly clear records published on the county website as happens in other counties, a county-wide trap, neuter, vaccinate, return policy with a voucher program funded by the county to lessen the numbers that are killed at animal control, enforceable clear standards and updated ordinance to increase penalties for animal abuse, tethering, and backyard breeding, and a formation of a public oversight committee whose leadership can, who holds the leadership accountable. Because all about, this is all about public trust and transparency, we're not going away. The public is watching and we're organizing. I'll leave you with Sheriff Judd's own words from his recent interview with Governor DeSantis. He said, quote, tell it all brothers and sisters, tell it all. When you are transparent and tell the truth right up front, you can't believe how the relationship improves immediately. Honorable commissioners, do your job. Please fix this mess at animal control and be accountable to the people that put you in these positions. Thank you, ma'am. Mm-hmm. Okay, please, please, please, please, please, please. Mr. Weedon, Robert Weedon, I believe it is. Yep. And give me your name and address there, and you've got three minutes. George Robert Weedon. My address is 8631 Ringe Road in Polk City. I'm ready for my first, yeah, there we go. In 2012, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners recognized TNVR as the most humane method for addressing cat overpopulation. This acknowledgement has been instrumental in shaping policies that support TNVR initiatives in the county ordinances and provide provisions that facilitate the management of feral cats and colonies. These changes have caused Hillsborough's live outcome rate to go from 51% in 2013 to 92% in 2023, well above the statewide average of 83%. Unfortunately, Polk County, which has no provision in support of TNVR in the county, has lagged behind both Hillsborough and Lake counties in terms of live outcome rate, going from 37% in 2013 to 65% in 2023. While this would appear to be progress, Polk still lags behind the state average outcome rate by 18 percentage points in 2023. Only six of Florida's 67 counties have lower live outcome rates. So the question then becomes, when comparing Polk County to two surrounding counties, why have Polk's live outcome rates not improved to the extent that the two neighboring counties have? The obvious answer is lack of support in Polk County for the humane and effective management of feral and free-roaming cats, known more broadly as community cats. Imagine for a moment how Polk's live outcome rate would soar if feral cats weren't killed in the shelter, but rather were trapped, neutered, vaccinated, and returned to their environment with a colony caretaker to provide resources like food, which has been shown to reduce predation of wildlife. So how much money and how many lives has Hillsborough's TNVR program saved? From 2013 to present, there's been a 47% reduction in euthanasia and a 30% decrease in shelter intake numbers, but more importantly, for the citizens, enacting a TNVR program has resulted in $320,000 saved annually in shelter operations. How much could TNVR programs save Polk County? It cost Hillsborough County $168 to trap, hold, and euthanize a cat. It cost them $65 to trap and TNVR a cat. Do the math. The difference of $103 when applied to 4,000 cats is a savings of over $400,000 to Polk County annually. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Ms. Jennifer Castro. Good morning. My name is Jennifer Castro, and I live at 216 Stembridge Road, Lake Wales. Today, I am here to support our animal rescue partnerships. Animal rescue partnerships save so many lives and are vital to our community. I would like to say that everyone I've interacted with at Animal Control has always been respectful and very helpful. I do appreciate their work. They're on the ground, like our rescue partnerships as well, trying to do their best. But things are not working. We have to really do a better job at networking our animals. Our networking really, really supplies the ability for the community to see the animals and to be able to know where they are and how to get them. In neighboring counties like Osceola and Ocala, as well as Orange County, they have actual descriptions of each animal. And those descriptions help people to know if that animal might be right for their family. Currently, we just have gender, we have description, and age, and a picture, and often it looks fearful. We have to do a little bit better with that because people don't want to enter the shelter if they're worried that the dog that they don't pick is going to be killed. Allowing a fostering process. A lot of counties do have fosters to get animals out of the shelters. This helps decrease the euthanasia rate, as well as allowing volunteers to come into the shelter in order to help. Transparency is vital to your community. Volunteers often take six to nine months to be cleared. You need volunteers. Volunteers are going to help you get those descriptions of those animals, get those videos of animals playing, get those people to come in and get those animals out of your shelter. Providing TNBR programs for your community is essential. You have a lot of retired people here that are doing their best to afford to spay and neuter cats in their neighborhood because they don't want kittens, because they find dead kittens in the street around their neighborhood, and they feel awful about it. They're doing the best they can, but they need your help because they need the funding for it. Spay and neuter programs and vouchers are a good way to do this, just like it has been mentioned. Stray hold protocols need to also be vital, as well. We need to not have animals killed within three hours of getting to animal control. People have had experiences where their animals have been killed, and they've gone there to look for them, and they're not there. These animals are our family members, and we need to make sure we're withholding those animals from euthanasia. And lastly, microchipping, we do need to have microchipping be a way that we are making sure animals get home. It is one of the best ways, but one thing that's happening is that we are not registering those microchips before they leave the shelter, and they need to be registered. Thank you for your time. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Chairman, can I clear a few things up? Yes, sir. You know, I know you're here. There seems to be a misunderstanding about what happens here in Polk County and who's in charge. You know the sheriff's in charge. There's some, for whatever reason you guys think, because the budget comes through the BOCC, that we have some oversight. Nothing could be further from the truth. Stacey's sitting right down there. We don't consult with her about her budget. We don't consult with the sheriff about his budget. They're independent. They're elected. The sheriff runs animal control, and he will continue to run animal control the way he sees fit. This isn't question and answer time either. You've got 16. Get rid of him. Hey, look here. Now, let me just say, I know this is a touchy situation here, folks. And let him, we let everybody speak here that came up and didn't interrupt. Commissioner Razzle wants to speak and let him speak. Now, I know this is a heated topic, and I think he's getting to the point. You're, you're kind of talking to the wrong people, but we understand. So let him say what he wants to say. And then I have a list of people that want to get up and talk, and we won't interrupt you. This is not a football game to raise heck and have fun. I know it's serious, and we're going to listen to you, and you're going to listen to him. So go ahead, Commissioner Razzle. So back to my point. Yeah, you're in the wrong place complaining to the wrong people. I'm pretty sure, I don't necessarily speak for the other four, but this board is not going to change the sheriff's policies. That, I'm pretty sure, is a fact. You need to talk to the sheriff. You've got 16 municipalities in this county. All 16 can establish their own animal control office or division or whatever you, go to their meetings. Tell them to get off, to get on the ball and get it done. We're not going to help you. This is the sheriff's deal. The sheriff's made that very clear, and the five constitutionals are not under our purview. We don't dictate their budgets. We don't hold them hostage. We don't have oversight over what they do. They are elected. We're elected. That's the facts. You can talk all day, but that's not going to change any of the facts. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Razzle. All right. The first one I have on the list is Ms. Cassandra Richards. Is she in the house? Good morning. Good morning, ma'am. Mr. Richards, 2357, Freeland Road, Lake Wells, Florida. I didn't come here to talk about animals, but I do have two cats, house cats, and they spayed, neutered. I wish somebody would give me some money to help take care of them because the food is expensive, the vet bills are expensive, but I love my cats, and I can't take no more. I wish I could, but I'm here to say thank you, thank you, thank you. I come every commissioner meeting to tell you again, thank you. We're getting closer to the common devices. I do wish we could put one more speed limit sign up, but I guess the common devices will help out as far as the speeding. One of my neighbors did get a letter. We are going to get common devices between Lily and Tangelo. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I got here this morning, and I'm elated because more than just me from Highland Park is here today, and I'm sure some of them will get up in speed. I just say thank you. Highland Park needs your help. We need to get things in the right direction out there. You know, it's not a highway. It's not a state road. I mean, it's a community, and flying through there is not going to cut it. We have children playing. We don't have a playground for them to play at, and they play, and the ball goes in the road. If you slow down, you can slow up for them to get the ball out the road or wait for you to pass through so they can get the ball out the road. It's all called common sense and respect for neighborhoods. Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. Linda Delosi. My address is 2264 Freelander Road, Lake West Florida. I'm here also to address the issues about the community in Highland Park Manors. I grew up in that area or been there since 1969, and it's been a big change in the community. It seems like it has turned into a speedway. We have industry trucks coming through there. The speed limit is stated 25. As soon as they get off a Tangelo Road and hit Freelander, the speed becomes anywhere from 50 to the next stop sign. And like the young lady before me has addressed it, we have kids out there. It's growing with families. These kids don't take but one new step to hit that main road and get hit by uncommon traffic. It is a play park out there next to the community, which they have to cross over to Tangelo to proceed to that play area. But most of the time, the parents do try to take their kids over to that area because the traffic is too fast. When you call to try to get someone to come out and address the incident, because on a Sunday, it becomes a playground for dirt bikes, four-wheelers. And it's just every Sunday we have to deal with this. And it would be nice if the community could get some speed bumps to slow that traffic down. And like I said, you have commercial trucks, and they take on the same speed as you do a car. And when you have an industrial truck with dirt and big loads, you cannot slow down a big semi going about 50 if a child proceeds to cross the highway. And that is a big concern of the community. And thank you for hearing me out. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome, sir. Rocco P. Polary. Oh, yeah. Good morning. Rocco Polary, 9611 Evans Road, Polk City. Mr. Braswell, are you my commissioner for Polk City? This isn't a question and answer. You've got three minutes. I have a list so you can see what I'm talking about here. I've lived in Polk County in Polk City for 65 months. There's an overpass there, and the drainage is completely blocked since I've lived there. So it needs to be addressed. The second thing is the stop sign at the end of the road of Holy Cow, Evans Road, and 557A has been twisted since October of last year with the hurricane and is facing the wrong direction. So it needs to be addressed. It has to be fixed. Yeah, and I am your commissioner. I thought you were here to talk about something. You are? Okay. This would be for you. I don't know if you're allowed to say it. My other thing is I want to give praise to Route 559. It was well paved, just redone. Beautiful. Except there was not one pothole in it. My issue is Route 557A, and there's hundreds and hundreds of potholes. And there was an accident there this weekend because of the speed. People go over the double yellow line without any qualms whatsoever. Okay? I've never seen police with radar there. The speeds are ridiculous. They came and put trash. They picked up the trash and put it in bags, and it was there for four weeks until the animals ripped it up and went all over the road again. Nobody ever picked it up. Okay, the potholes are worse from Evans Road westbound to Route 559, and eastbound is horrendous, especially right before you get to Route 557. And there's literally hundreds of potholes. Now, they come out, and they fill three of them and leave 27 alone. I don't understand that. And there was also a small issue, a one-mile stretch of Adams-Barn Road, and it's not wide enough. If somebody comes along with a trailer and somebody has a trailer on the other side, somebody has to go off the road. It's only a one-mile stretch. Okay? Thank you, Vernon. Sir, if you'll – I know he has a hard time here. If he'll get with John Bodie, I don't think Jay's here and give him some of his concern. I think John's in the back there. Yeah. I know Rocco has a hard time here. All right. Next up is David Bolton, I believe. Sometimes I have a hard time reading your handwriting. Please come forward, name and address, and you have three minutes. David Butler, 1891, Jim King Boulevard. On or about November of 2023, Sheriff's Office paid $4 million for an airplane. I emailed my commissioner, Mr. Braswell, and asked him why. This is what he wrote. Our board has placed public safety at our number one priority. You may be aware of drugs, especially fentanyl is crossing our border, pouring across our border. The cartels are setting up shop against cities across America. We will give the sheriff every tool he needs to protect the citizens of Polk County. The sheriff advised us a while back that unless a solution to airspace conflict, his surveillance plane, and the 20-plus Amazon jets inboard and outbound from Lakeland, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, he said that public safety keeps him up at night. That's why he voted for the plane. That particular plane was in Tallahassee 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 times already this year, particularly 3-11 and 3-13, it was in Tallahassee. Did you all fly up there on that plane? You think that's a good way to spend taxpayer money? Let me ask you. No, sir. Don't interrupt me. Hey, wait a minute. Just wait one second. Wait one second. Now, don't... Hey, if the numbers work and it's justifiable to use anything in this county that saves this county money, it will be done. Now, listen to me. Listen to me. Just please, sir. We're here to listen to you. Don't get... We're here to listen to you and try to help any way we can. I can see coming from you that's not what you're wanting right now, but we'll listen to you. So, just please use a little bit of courtesy, just like I'm going to give you. I didn't cuss. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't say you did. Why are you interrupting me? Because I can't. Thank you. Thank you. Because I don't like your attitude, that's why. Because you don't like my attitude. You don't like mine. And you almost kicked me out before that. Well, if you keep raising your voice, we will. Go ahead, sir. I didn't raise my voice. Go ahead. So, y'all think that's a good... $1,000 an hour, that plane costs. It's a five-hour round trip. $5,000 a trip. Nine times to Tallahassee. It went to Manassas Regional Airport in Washington, D.C. You think that's a good expense? That being said, these people are asking for something to be done with Animal Control Shelter. Mr. Braswell went on and on and on about how he can't do anything about it. Y'all have the power to enact ordinances, don't you? You can enact an ordinance to change the Animal Control Shelter. You certainly can. Now, as far as... Y'all spent 13 minutes up here receiving accolades, and so be it. Multiple rounds of applause. These people out here expressed their First Amendment clapping for somebody they agreed with, and you compared it to a football game, Mr. Wilson. Now, come on. Y'all interrupted us. Don't do that anymore, okay? I don't like your attitude just like you don't like mine. That was wrong. Now, again, I called Mr. Braswell's office and asked his opinion on body cameras for the sheriff. He's made it abundantly clear he's never going to tell the sheriff no. However, he does have the ability to enact an ordinance. I'd like for the sheriff's office to have body cameras. And just for... I'm not a cop hater. As a matter of fact, I retired from 25 years from the sheriff's office, okay? I know what I'm talking about. They don't need that Kodiak. It hasn't been used maybe three hours for patrol the whole time they've had it. Do you think that's a good expense, a good use of our taxpayer money, Mr. Wilson? I wasn't going to come up here and be rude until you interrupted me. Okay, so can we get your pledge that you will look into the animal control thing and see if there's an ordinance you can pass to help these people, help those animals? Thank you, sir. Patty, Patty, Patty. Is there a Miss Patty here? Pronounce your last name and that might be it. Okay, yes, ma'am. That's it. I'm at 378 Inverary Drive, Auburndale, Florida. Yes, ma'am. I have been with a cat rescue called Cat Rescue Alliance. I've been with Cat Rescue Alliance. We're a nonprofit. We trap, neuter, release, and also we have kittens and cats that we get adopted daily. We do our own funding, and it's a tough road. I'm from Massachusetts, and I've never seen the devastation of all the cats in this community. When I moved here 10 years ago, I was in shock. I have been told that the county commission board has the ability to amend the county ordinance for TNR. So please help us get these cats spayed and neutered affordably. People do not have the money to spend their own hardworking money because even as a nonprofit, we get very little donations. We have to spend our own money. I spend thousands of dollars, like all of us, to get these cats spayed and neutered. We, just alone, our rescue feeds 150 cats per day with different communities. And so please help us get this TNR program done so we can help these cats. It's not only going to save the county money, it's going to save lives. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Deborah Joseph. I think it's Deborah. Yes. Okay. Commissioner. Good morning, ma'am. Joseph at 1290 East Boulevard Street in Bartow. So I've been helping and rescued for over 30 years. And I'm going to get a little emotional because I'm so sad to see all of these animals getting treated the way that they are. And all I'm asking you guys to do is if you could please create some kind of ordinances for the tethering of the dogs 24-7. I've got neighbors, their dogs, they never get off the chain. And I even called animal control on them several times on it, you know. And the thing about it is, is I feed several cats. I've actually paid money to get a lot of cats and stuff fixed. And all I'm asking you to do is please, if there's any way possible, that you could help us, help, you know, get some kind of vouchers or something going like these other counties do where they can get fixed, spayed, neutered, get some kind of law into office where, you know, they get a slap on the wrist. They can do the dogs any time. I just went a couple weeks ago. There was a dog chained up to a car. The people left. They went to Puerto Rico. The Bully Project people, I called them, and they said, yeah, sure, bring it down here. They leave them out in the streets and in the grass in the county. There's no food, no water. There's skin and bones. I've got one that weighed only 10 pounds. He weighs 50 pounds now. I'm begging you with everything I have in me. I know what you said earlier. But, please, if there's any way that we might be able to, like, give them some kind of fines or jail time or something, just like these last two dogs, that would be wonderful. I've been helping animals for 30 years now, you know, and I appreciate everything. I voted for you guys, but I need your help to help these animals. If there's any way possible that you can please do it for the animals, I would really, really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Diane Schaffer. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Diane Schaffer. I live at 3657 Tiger Eye Court, Mulberry, Florida. The purple ribbons represent protection and humane treatment for the animals. Jane Goodall, the English zoologist, states, you cannot share your life with a dog or a cat and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities, minds, and feelings. Sadly, we live in a county that does not recognize this and has limited resources for the abandoned animals in desperate need, and they need our help. They're in desperate need of our help. I'm a resident of Polk County. I own two businesses. I'm extremely busy, but I take time out of my schedule to help the animals. They are so desperate for our needs. I take care of colony cats. I have a shelter. I help out with the street cat project. We trap cats on a regular basis. And I talk to people on a regular basis, and everybody is just desperate for our help. I pick up cats. I pick up kittens. They're in rough shape. They, you know, they're born. These kittens are born outside, and they need to be brought in. And if we can do something about the TNR program, every other county has it. If you look at the counties all over the state, they support TNR. People can go, and they can get this support. We don't have it here in this county. We desperately need it. I just want to say I've got a speech here, but I'm going off because I know the gentleman said he's not going to help us. But honestly, we need everybody on this board to go to bat for the animals, the cats, the kittens, the dogs, the puppies. There's a lot of abuse going on. I see it every day. I talk to people every day who say, listen, I'd like to get this cat neutered and spayed. I don't have the money to do it. So I'm spending thousands of dollars out of my own pocket to help the animals. I'm willing to do it. I'm just asking this county to do the same thing. We need the help. We need everybody on board on this county. Please, you can do it. I know you can. We need your help. Please. See these purple ribbons? Everybody in this room. Everybody in this room. Look around. We need your help, please. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Sarah Lynn Smith. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Sarah Lynn Smith. I live at 4740 Highlands Place Circle in Lakeland. I was born and raised in Polk County. My family's lived here close to 100 years, and I've raised two successful physicians that came back to work in Polk County. And I was an educator for Polk County Schools for 39 years. I'm here today to educate on the state of animal welfare in our county. specifically to discuss three basic ordinances that you could pass, even though the sheriff does run animal control, this board could pass these, just like Hillsborough, Broward, Duval, Marion, Palm Beach, Hernando, Lee, Pasco, Sarasota, adhere to at least one of these ordinances. The first ordinance would be unlicensed backyard breeders sell puppies like kittens, and kittens like pez out of a dispenser. I know each and every one of you have seen Frenchie puppies for sale signs in your neighborhood or even your grocery store, parking lot, or maybe just scrolling Facebook. These pets are almost always unvaccinated, sick, neutered, and they land back at the shelter, and yet another euthanasia statistic. These ordinances that I'm talking about would reflect Florida Statute 823.15, and it mandates for the reduction of uncontrolled pet breeding, which will lower euthanasia rates across our county and improve animal welfare significantly. The second one is for tethering regulations. Research shows continuously chained dogs show more aggression, which increases by risk to the public. These align with the statutes like trooper's law that was just recently passed and signed by Governor DeSantis. And lastly, the third is that Poe County adopts a robust TNVR program that has already been talked about. A University of Florida study found that it drops the 66% population drop of feral cats. And I would like to address also that you said that this is the sheriff's deal and to talk to him. On two occasions, I have talked to him at social gatherings, and Sheriff Judd told me that he would not, would not ever meet with any animal activists at all because he said that we twist his words. So he would never have a meeting with us, and that came right out of his mouth. Commissioners, it's time that we, as Poe County, improve the state of animal welfare for the desperate animals in our community. Their lives depend on it. Please act. We are ready. The animals are ready. Thank you for your time and your service. Commissioners. Thank you, ma'am. Kay Bork. B-O-U-R-Q-U-E. Kay. Try not to butcher your last name, though. I'm sorry. My name is Kay Bork, and I live at 1133 Brook Road in Fort Meade. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. I'm going to speak on mostly the same things that other people have, but I agree with others that I believe what we're trying to impart to you today is that we'd like to see some ordinances made to improve the situation of animals in the county. Polk County Animal Services has taken in almost 5,000 dogs and cats in the first four months of this year, and the numbers are only rising as Polk County's population grows. 33% of these animals were euthanized. This is an astounding statistic, and it's even more appalling when we realize that Polk County has one of the highest euthanasia rates in the country. This is a crisis, and we, as a county, must do better. We're never going to rescue or adopt our way out of this crisis. Reform at Polk County Animal Services is imperative, and we also must address the root cause that got us into this crisis, which is the unchecked pet overpopulation. What we need is a full-scale cultural and strategic shift to create sustainable long-term change. One of the first steps is to implement targeted, data-driven, low-cost or free spay and neuter programs that are built into the county budget, not tacked on as temporary programs or donation-driven programs as we have today. In addition, enact an ordinance requiring pets to be spayed or neutered. This one step will stop unwanted litters, thereby beginning the change that we all want to see. A second step is to enact an ordinance to require TNVR for community cats. This is a long-term solution that will reduce the cat population and meets the requirements of the Florida Statute, which requires that every feasible means be used to reduce the incidence of birth while improving adoption and reducing euthanasia rates at shelters. These actions are but two of many initiatives that should be part of a comprehensive animal welfare program, utilizing an animal welfare advisory committee to provide input and propose solutions to the county commissioners to drive policy change. I urge you to take action immediately to stop the endless cycle of intake and euthanasia. It's time to move from reaction to prevention, from rescue alone to real infrastructure and policy change. And we can fix this by working together to get to the root cause. Thank you for your time. Thank you, ma'am. Jennifer Castro. Oh, you already? Okay. You must have two in there. Shannon Medina. Hello, commissioners. Thank you for allowing us to stand up and be a voice for those who don't have one. First off, I would like to start off with just some statistics. As someone who is on the front lines and has been on the front lines for six years, I have seen a dramatic increase in the animals, the condition that they come into our rescue, the condition in which we pulled them from animal control. As a jumping point off from that, the euthanasia statistic for dogs, which is what I'm going to focus on because that is my wheelhouse. In 2022, 897 dogs were euthanized at animal control. In 2023, 1,622 dogs were euthanized. It doubled. And here we are, 2024 statistic, 1,742 dogs. So those dogs are more than just numbers. They were living things that found themselves in a broken system due to lack of spay and neuter, due to lack of support. This county needs to have the ordinances, as everyone has already said. But what's crucial is the spay and neuter. We have to stop these animals coming into animal control. We have to stop them getting into the system, period. So I have come before you in 2022, asked for spay and neuter. It was coming into fruition. It died on the vine. I went to the sheriff's office, asked for it again. It was all made in a nice little package on a desk, also didn't come out to fruition. Our phone rings constantly. We get probably 60 voicemails by the time we get there in the morning for people who are trying to surrender their dogs. They need help. They found a dog. They don't want to take it to animal control. They have seen the statistic that exists. We have pulled dogs who died within days of us pulling them. They died at the emergency vet where we spent $5,000. They died on the way to the vet. They died from the vet. So I know you can't change the way that the sheriff runs. I heard what you said. But what I'm asking for is change for the people who live in this county so that they can get their dogs altered. A spay and neuter program ordinance changed. We did pull the dog that was tied to the car when the person left Puerto Rico. Did we have a spot to stick that dog? We didn't. We came out with a safe place for strays so that the community when animal control is not open has a place to put a dog so that we could try to work through. Does this dog have a home? Does this dog need to go to animal control? And what can we do? So I stand before you as Polk County Bully Project, a community member, a person who lives in Polk County and someone who wants to make a difference. So I would like the county commission to support what it is that we do here. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Angela Lovio. L-O-V-I-O. L-O-V-I-O. Tell it again. L-O-V-I-O. It looks like a V instead of an R. Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Apologize. My name is Angela Lovio. I live at 2232 Janilah Avenue in Lakeland. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. I'm one of the founders of Polk County Bully Project with Shannon Medina who just spoke. In 2022, we stood before this body to share facts and raise concern about the growing crisis in our community, the overpopulation of unwanted dogs and the rising euthanasia rate in Polk County's animal shelter. We spoke with urgency. Today, we return with greater urgency and much deeper concern. Polk County is now facing a full-scale animal welfare emergency. Shelters are over capacity. Staff and volunteers are exhausted and overwhelmed. And tragically, more and more dogs, many of them healthy, friendly, and very adoptable are being euthanized every day simply because there's no room to house them. This is not the fault of any single agency. It's a cumulative result of years and years of systemic underinvestment, community-wide challenges, and a lack of coordinated response. But while we do not cause this crisis overnight, we do have the power and the responsibility to change its course. This is not just an animal welfare issue. It is a public health, community safety, and physical responsibility issue, and it is a test of our county's values. The primary causes of this crisis are very well documented. Lack of affordable spays and neuters. Increases in owner surrenders due to housing instability. People are losing their homes. Inadequate education on the responsibility of pet ownership. Insufficient foster networks. Our county could have a foster system if they chose to. They choose not to. Limited funding and space for municipal and non-profit shelters. In short, our community capacity to care has been outpaced by the scale of the need. As our county continues to grow by leaps and bounds, so does the need to help these folks with the animals and the stray dogs wandering the streets, being chained. We are not here to assign blame. We are here to ask for bold leadership and offer constructive solutions. We respectfully urge the commission to act on five priorities, which would be emergency funding for shelters and rescue organizations. We've been here six years. We survive on our county's support, the people in our county. We don't get funding from anyone else. Your constituents support us because they see the problem. We need to expand the spay and neuter services to include vouchers. We could campaign in social media outlets with schools. We could raise awareness about adoption, fostering responsible ownership. We know the choices before you are not easy, but this is a problem we can no longer ignore. The number of animals dying is growing. The number of calls for help is growing. We receive 50 to 60 a day. That's just on the phone. And the cost financial and moral continues to rise. We urge you to lead Polk County towards a more humane, sustainable, and responsible future. One where there is no healthy animal euthanized for lack of space. One where residents, rescues, and local government can work together, not reactively, but proactively. We thank you for your time, your consideration, and service. And we stand ready to partner with you in building real, lasting solutions for Polk County's animals and the people who care about them. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Silvers. John Silvers. Fawn. The first one. I didn't know if it was Fawn or Tom. It's Fawn. Okay. Give us your address there, Fawn, and you've got three minutes. My name is Fawn Silvers. I live at 401 Howard Avenue, Lakeland, Florida. My request to you is simple and to the point. Please make spay and neuter mandatory in Polk County by passing legislation. I'm not a commissioner. I don't know what the real verbiage for it is, but I know that you can enact legislation or ordinances or something like that in the county of Polk County. And I know that Sheriff Grady Judd obeys the law. So if you can make it law, he'll obey the law. If you pass it and someone complains about the money, the money is sitting behind me. Okay. But that is what I'm asking you to do is to make mandatory in Polk County, make mandatory spay and neuter. It is the first best solution to all these problems. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Della. Della Silvers. I'm Deborah Silvers. I also live at 401 Howard Avenue. I'm speaking to you. I'm one of the HOA presidents at the subdivision there. The first thing I'd like to tell you is we have become ground zero for dogs getting dumped there. Big dogs, little dogs, and we've even seen a few cats. And it doesn't have to be this way. We are also supporters of the Bully Project. I've adopted two dogs from them, one from Lakeland Pit Bull. And it started when we moved from Hillsboro to here. And I was shocked when I saw the conditions at the animal shelter. They all looked sick and it was dirty. And I heard people recommend on my way out. I heard people recommending the Bully Project. And I went there and I fell in love. We support them very much. But like everybody else, I would love to ask you to please. We lived in Hillsboro for 25 years. And I supported the Falkenburg animal shelter there. They have a full-time vet. And you do not adopt an animal there that is not spayed or neutered. Period. Full stop. Every animal that comes out of there, they don't give you an option. Even if you want a puppy, it's spayed or neutered before it leaves the facility. And they give you a voucher for the first vaccination and warming. It's not an option. And I had to take one there that had been hit by a car in my road. And they said, well, yes, a full-time vet is a big outlay at first. But within a year, that vet was, the program was breaking even. And within three years, it was turning a profit. Because you don't have unwanted litters. And you don't have, how can I put it, male dogs being male dogs. It turned a profit. So that's what I'd just like to ask you. If you could, please consider a spay and neuter program. If it's mandatory, it's mandatory. And it will come back to you in spades by no unwanted litters. And it will clear the population of the shelter. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Debbie Hicks. Good morning. Debbie Hicks, 236 Alderman Road. I just recently resigned as a volunteer for the Sheriff's Office because of Animal Control. I volunteered for four years at Animal Control starting in 2017. I have nothing bad to say about those people. And nothing bad to say about the Sheriff. He does a great job with the county. But the Animal Control's building, the original building, was built in 1988. Lots of problems. Lots of problems. I stood in the back and watched that new booking center be built. While, and I'm not telling stories. While things are bad in this system and I'm taking out these dogs that don't ever get out, watching the millions of dollars that put in a new booking facility, which from what I gather you already have one in Bartow, when the conditions are terrible. They're shorthanded the way I saw it. They were shorthanded. I think they want to do better. They're good people. But the morale there is so hard. Nothing against the Sheriff. But it's just out of the league of what he does. He's a great Sheriff for the community. So I resigned so that I could do this. Because I have seen it from the inside. I know there's good people. We used to write descriptions for the animals and try to take pictures. We had a good group of volunteers. But it's like these people have said, for us, we pay our own money to keep the strays off our roads. But we're paying our taxes too. And we're taking in, I've taken in dogs for 20 years now. And think of all the more dogs that would be at animal control. But then again, you have to remember, can't you do something about what they say about the county? Because it's a county problem. People are creating these animals. They're not doing right by them. Maybe you can't do anything in regards to the Sheriff. And I'm a fan of our Sheriff. And I had a meeting with him years ago when I first started volunteering. He was very grateful to have volunteers. But volunteers don't want to be there because the conditions are so terrible. Anyway, I'd love to see a committee or some small group put together that could maybe leave emotions outside and think of how we could help to lessen the amount of animals that go to animal control. And because they're not getting the cream of the crop. They're getting animals that really have had a bad time and are in bad shape. So I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Betty Jean Amaral. Betty Jean Amaral. A-M-M-A-R. Oh, there you are. My name is, oh goodness, is Betty Jean Amaral. I live at 1159 Colony Arms Drive, Lakeland, Florida 33813. I've lived in Pope County since 1976. And over the years, my daughter and I have tried to just volunteer and take donations out to animal control. We've taken food, newspapers, towels, beach towels, bath towels, and just tried to do what we could to help animals at animal control. And this past February, I filled out, along with a good friend of mine, Kathy McGee, we filled out the application to be a volunteer. And that's one thing I wanted to bring up. We turned it in in February, and I did not receive a letter until May 6th. And they said they would call me and let me know what my duties would be. I have not received a phone call as of yet. So I really, they really need to work on that. If they want volunteers, they need to call us after they get our applications or interview us. And I asked them what my duties would be, and they said, well, right now, just working in the office. And I wanted to work. I'm a cat person. So whenever I go out there, I stay, I go out there at least a couple times a month. And I stay an hour each time and walk up and down and check on the cats. And one thing I was really concerned about is it was so cold in January and February. And as you well know, there is no heating system or air conditioning system at Animal Control. The buildings are tall, and they just have heaters or fans in the ceilings. So I ran a donation drive on our Nextdoor app, and I got over 12 bags, garbage bags, of towels to take out in January and February to the animals out there. And they were not used. It's very disappointing. My goal was to have every dog have a towel when they went to bed at night, and every cat have a towel in their cage every night. And it just didn't happen, and I was told that most of the towels go back to the hospital. But I would like to encourage, if any of you have not been out there, please go. We need, I don't know, can I see a show of hands that has been out there? Okay. So we have some that have. Okay. Well, it is deplorable, and I'm being really honest, speaking from the heart. There are roaches crawling all over the cat kennels. There's roaches. And some of them, especially the bigger ones, the cages are so small, they're sleeping in their kitty box. And that really upsets me, because they have no place to go, so they lay in their kitty box. Thank you, ma'am. And we really need to improve our animal control building. Thank you. Thank you. Crystal DeJose. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. My name is Crystal DeJoseph. I live actually in Pasco County, 4925 Forecastle Drive, New Port Ritchie. I'm here today because of the attention that your county has received over the last several months and the last couple of years. I am a CPA. So, Ms. Butterfield, I was really pleased to see your team get the recognition that they deserve this morning. I think that's phenomenal. I own multiple businesses in Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas County. We volunteer. My employees volunteer at the shelters. We volunteer at local rescues. And we donate quite frequently. I've also fostered for Polk County Bully Project. Their dog, Charm, was a storm foster of mine. And, you know, I don't consider myself an intense animal advocate. I just love my dogs. As I'm sure each of you who have dogs or cats love your pet. They're a family member. You know, as Mr. Braswell mentioned, you can't control how the sheriff runs what he does. It's not within your purview. But I know that each of you are in these positions because you wanted to effectuate change for the positive within your community. Just the same reason why all these people are here today. And, Mr. Wilson, I appreciate you saying kind of at the beginning that you're willing to help. And you guys will do what you can. And I think as many people have said here today, I can tell you firsthand from what I've seen in my county. Tether laws work. Spay and neuter programs work. We have TNVR in Pasco. All of those counties have approximately 90% or higher live release rates. When I look at even Orange County, all the counties that surround Polk, it's really disheartening to kind of see this county stick out for the negative. And Polk is known for so many positive things. I mean, we all know the sheriff is known nationally. I think what he does is phenomenal when it comes to crime and keeping the community safe. Don't let Polk County be a cautionary tale when it comes to animal welfare. Simply not acceptable. You guys can enact ordinances. And I encourage you to look at your neighboring counties who are having success. And honestly, Pasco has been recognized nationwide for what they're doing in their animal shelter. And they have a lot of the same challenges. They have higher crime rates than Polk. We have a lot of really irresponsible people who live out in the country. You know, so it's a lot of the same and similar challenges. And I would just encourage you to look at some of the ordinances. Look at what they're doing. I mean, as a business owner, I'm in a lot of groups with other CEOs and other leaders, and I learn from what they do. I'm sure, I appreciate those of you who have been to the shelter. I would just encourage you to please help your community members become an example for good when it comes to animal welfare. And please enact some of these ordinances when it comes to spay and neuter, tether, and TNVR. Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. Kelly Kalap. Good morning. Kelly Kalap, 3809 Needles Drive, Orlando, Florida. I'm here today, as I was last summer, to speak with you all again about animal control. So I have some questions for you. I have a handout if anyone cares to look. I'd like to know how many of you have been to the shelter since I was here. I saw one hand go up. I'd like to know, does the sheriff have to account for how the money is allocated? As I've seen other groups come and present here at a previous commission meeting when I attended last summer. I'd like to know why Polk County does not have an animal shelter, a place where animals can be cared for and adopted out. You have animal control. Why doesn't Polk County have a TNR program? It's been brought up by many others here spoken today. Why has the sheriff who runs and staffs the animal control facility turned down organizations who have offered to help? Why do rescues have to sign a hush release in order to pull animals from the shelter or from animal control? Why does it take 90 or more days, as was said a few moments ago, to become a volunteer at Polk County Animal Control? Why do you have to leave your telephone in your car or lock it up in a locker so that you can't video what is inside the facility? What are they hiding from everyone? And then why is that facility hidden behind an overpass next to the county landfill where probably most of your residents don't even realize that it exists? Why have surrendered and chipped animals, again spoken earlier, been euthanized within 24 hours of being dropped off where their owners can't come and retrieve them? And since you probably don't have the answers to my questions and you will refer me to the sheriff, as also been spoken earlier, why don't you know where the money is going and how it is being spent? It is your tax dollars, Polk County. Please help make a change. That's all we're asking. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Kathy McGee. I'm Kathy McGee, 5022 Lake in the Woods Boulevard, Lakeland. I'm here as a mostly concern for the animal shelter. I have been there on several occasions in this past half year to take donations and when I go, I ask to go through and look at the animals. Back in February, it was horribly cold. Someone had apparently hosed down all the kennels, puddles of water everywhere. The cots were all filled with water and a tiny little chihuahua was huddled in the corner of its cot trying to stay out of the water. There is no warm place for that poor little animal to go. When I asked the employee who had came to observe me while I walked up and down, I asked him, could you at least open up, take the water off the cot? He says, well, I'll call someone. He wouldn't even be bothered to take care of it himself. But anyway, my concern is I saw a lot of horrible things there in the past half year. It shouldn't be that way. There's a lot of indifference on some of the employees as far as apply to the animals. And I did back in February put my application in as a volunteer and just in the first of May got a notice that I was approved. And still here it is June. I've still yet to hear that they could use me there. And I do know they have desperate needs of volunteers or so many animals in their cages. And then the main thing is just keep them out of animal control. There needs to be ordinances to stop, mostly to stop the backyard breeding all these people that are letting their dogs have puppies. And next door saying they're rehoming when they're charging these fees. They're making money. So it just needs to stop. And I'm just concerned. And I know this probably is not the platform, but if you can at least send us all in the right direction to get the help that we need for the animals. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Stephanie Widener. Good morning. My name is Stephanie Widener. I'm at 9055 Hickory Walk, Haines City, Florida. I am a taxpayer, homeowner, a voter, and as well as a native of Polk County. The current conditions in animal control result in heartbreak for our community. We have multiple agencies trying to help this problem. There is no air conditioning. I was not aware of that, even though I've lived here for my life. And if you kept an animal in those conditions as a homeowner, you would be fine. If it was over 100 degrees, which I know it has been last summer, those are horrendous conditions. Cats do not regulate their temperature like dogs do. And even dogs cannot stand that kind of temperature. The hours to reclaim pets are not conducive to working families. You want people to go and you're telling me you can't change that. I will get to that in a minute. But you want people to go and claim their pets. Lots of people work past four o'clock. They can't take off every three, four days as you have to go, otherwise your animal is put down. So that is not conducive. I do not understand these hours for working families. I use the analogy of a broken water pipe. So rather than fixing the problem, you continue to pay for water every month to put animals down, to cost the taxpayers money that we are paying every month to feed, house, provide minimal vet care, and to have open houses, which some of those animals, because they're free, they come back. I get that, but there should be a minimum, a bare minimum, to adopt an animal. We need a comprehensive, continuous, low-cost spay-neuter program. I have found multiple dogs and cats. I tried to rehome them myself because I know the statistics at home at Polk County Land Control. I found a dog. The owner claimed them. The owner then said, oh, do you know of any rehoming? The dog is now at my house. We called to get him fixed. Great dog. Awesome dog. Doesn't mind the little kittens I'm trying to save. He lets him eat of his food bowl. The vet down the road, which we've used, quoted me $700 to spay this dog. For most working families, that is a lot of money for one pet. That is not even including the vaccinations. Commissioner Braswell and Rick Wilson, Commissioner Wilson, you said that you have no control over Sheriff Grady Judd. However, you guys, as a commission, approved a budget item of a spy plane of $5 million recently. That money was approved. I'm assuming every year, I don't know, I'm just new to this, that every year you have to approve budgets. I think that you can make recommendations. That's by playing pass in record time. Thank you, ma'am. Michelle Sullivan. Michelle Sullivan, 2138 Wales Court, Lakeland, Florida. I was first introduced to animal control when we adopted Riley the Monday before Thanksgiving. My question, and I know you made it very clear, this is not a question and answer. You all make the budget. I'd love to know how much money is supposed to go to buy the food for these animals. Because I was told by the deputies there, not a dime. They don't buy food. It's what we donate and what Publix donates. This dog, with skin and bones, I have pictures. She wound up in the hospital the Friday after Thanksgiving. Spent the night there. We paid a small fortune. Thank God we were able to rescue her and save her from the torment and horror there. Please go smell there. Just walk in and smell. It took many, many, many baths for us to get the stench off of her. I sat in the back seat with her, gagging with the windows down. Please go look for yourselves so you can see. And again, please check out where the money is going. Have a nice day. Thank you, ma'am. Kimberly Tato. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for your time. It's Kimberly Taylor, 1525 South McAdoo Avenue in Bartow. So I would first say that all of you as elected. I would first like to say that all of you as elected commissioners clearly have passion for your community. Right? This is a position that you hold. Taxpayers elected you and we appreciate you. I'm a nervous speaker so sit tight. That's okay. So I would also like to say that we're not trying to make any of you cat lovers or dog lovers. That's not a requirement to be a commissioner. And nobody is asking for the sheriff's head on a platter. We are just asking for change and accountability. If I recall in July last year, there was a news special on the conditions of Polk County's animal control. And there were petitioners that stood outside and they held a protest. And on that day, the shelter was shut down. So because there were community members that were disagreeing with the way that animal control was being taken care of, they lost a day for adoptions. So I used to sit on the beautification committee for Bartow. And there was five of us that would vote on the funds spent for plants in the median so that people coming south into Bartow from Lakeland could see that we had beautiful medians. We wanted a beautiful community. And I believe the budget for that was about $20,000. So $20,000 could easily pay for a part-time employee at animal control to offer quality control. And again, that speaks to the accountability. Because as somebody else stated as well, we're not allowed to have cell phones in there anymore. We can't take pictures in there anymore. Which for somebody adopting a pet for their family, I think that that's an important thing to be able to take the picture of the animal. Get to know the animal. Bring that information back to their families. So since that has been taken away from anybody that goes into the shelter, if there's nothing to hide, there should be nothing to defend. So I would like to suggest that there is an advisory council, very much like we decide what flowers go in the median strip. Why can't we have a citizen's advisory council go in there and recommend improvements? The Brevard County shelter has recently added some improvements to that shelter. I would love to see the breakdown of cost. And they've added AC. I will close, but I would ask that you take the statements from all of these people in here that are animal lovers and advocates into consideration. If one in three households has a pet, that means at least three of you sitting up there have an animal or pet in your home that you love and care about. So take that into consideration. Go look at the conditions. All right. Thank you, ma'am. James Abercrombie. Good morning, James Abercrombie for the record. I've been in this building for 25 years, folks. Off and on. Trying to make everything acceptable for everybody. Looking out for the citizens of Polk County. Trying to make things help and make things right. I even sued. I won. I got a proclamation as well. My wife and I did. This is a charter government, folks. Any of you understand what a charter government is? You run your own government. You make your own rules. You enforce your own regulations. Now, a lot of these folks are absolutely right. You make them all. This process for them should have been county manager, county attorney. They should have been able to come and talk to them because they have a problem with Grady Judd. All right. They couldn't handle it. They should have been able to be put on the agenda to be able to talk about this. Discuss it. Not just talk three minutes and not being heard anyway. Should have been able to discuss it. We can't discuss anything anymore. I have no rights in this building anymore. The doors are all locked in the building. Every office I go into, you cannot take a camera all because of him. The way he understands the Florida statutes only. And you understand, you put all your confidence in him. That's not right, folks. You run this business. You run this building. You have the final say. We should never have to take anything to civil action. We should get a county manager involved in this stuff. If he can't handle it, then it becomes an agenda item and comes in front of you and you make a final decision. Just like any other judge in this country. You're sitting as judges. You're not judges. Not a one of you. But you're sitting as judges. You do make decisions. You can make Grady Judd do what you have required him to do under law. You can do that. I've been talking this stuff for the last 18 months. It's the same problem with code enforcement. I've still got a roof on my house that is illegal. And the contractor is still putting roofs anywhere he wants to put on Polk County. I can't get insurance on my house because I've got an illegal roof on my home. You don't care. Nobody cares. I've been asking for public records for the last three months in this room. I've been asking for it. I have received nothing. The last meeting, I gave you 1,000 pages. Anybody read it? Anybody? Not at all. 1,000 pages of public records that I got about that one park that nobody wants. We want a family park. We don't want a sports park. That's what we've been talking about. All right. You need to take care of business. I hope Ron DeSantis gets to see this video today. I do too. Thank you, sir. All right. That's all that we have signed up. Last of our signed up for people to speak. Does anybody else have anything they'd like to speak about? Yes, sir. Come forward and give your name and number, and you'll be three minutes, sir, and address. My name's David Roland. I live at 5463 11th Street, Hickland, Florida, Highland City, Florida. Mr. Wilson, I know you came to my house when I live in Bartow, and thank you guys for what you do. I'm here for speed bumps. I was not aware of what these people are here for, and it's ironic I wear this shirt. I had no clue. And thank you, Bully Project. You guys are phenomenal. My wife loves you guys. You guys are great. I'm an animal lover. We've got seven dogs. We had a cat. We had an overpopulation of cats that came in Highland City. Apparently the rumor is the lady had 30-something cats. Something happened to the lady. They all squandered the neighborhood. Most of them got ran over. I live on 11th Street, which is Highland Elementary School is right there. We've got a ballpark. We have people in wheelchairs, citizens. We have a deaf child. We have signs all around. We're requesting speed bumps because I can't tell you how many times I stand in my front yard disgusted by how these people drive like mad people down that road. The speed limit is 25 miles per hour. So as a citizen, I'm here to represent my neighborhood, Highland City, as nervous as I am. But I just wanted you to know that how serious that we would really appreciate if you guys would put those speeds, speed bumps in. Just recently, I had a cat. I'm not really a cat person, but I am now. I'm an all dog person, as you can see. But I work at Florida Southern College. And I know you guys know a lot about Florida Southern College. And I actually meet up with Sheriff Gray Judd quite a bit, and I love the man. He does a great job. The question I have here for, well, the thing I wanted to tell you was, with the overpopulation of kittens or cats, one adopted me. I was sitting on my front house, and the cat just came up to me, and I was like, I told my wife, I said, I don't know what to do about this. And so now every day, I put a food bowl out in the front, keep my dogs in the back, and I keep the stray cats in the front, and I feed them every day. But one recently got ran over, and I actually witnessed it by a high-speeding traffic person that was just going over the speed limit. Didn't even have a chance to stop, and I witnessed it firsthand. And if anything knows about PTSD, I'm telling you what, that was a moment for me. And I just, again, want to say thank you for what you guys do. Thank you. And please, if you could provide speed bumps to let people slow down in my neighborhood. Have you talked to anybody in the county about this yet? No, sir. Okay, we have a process that you do. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, I think, are you here for P1, which is 11th Street Southeast? It is on there. Oh, that's the one? Okay. P1 is on the agenda. Yeah, yeah. Okay, and somebody has talked about it then. There's a sign that says right there in A-frame to come here. Okay, okay, okay. And that's why I didn't know what was. Wanted to make sure. Okay, sir, thank you. Thank you both. Thank you all. All right. I think that concludes everyone. And we'll move on. Did somebody say something? Okay. And we'll move on to, we've got approval consent agenda. Move for approval. So moved. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? You get to speak once. Yeah. Everybody, hey, everybody signed up. And, I mean, everybody spoke. And you got to speak when you had to sign up to speak. And I've given everybody a chance. I reckon undoubtedly, including you, to speak. No, we're done. We're moving on. We get, let me say this, folks. I get it. I'm going to say this. I do. And we'll talk about it, discuss it, and one-on-one with the Grady or whatever. But we understand. And we've heard the same thing over and over and over. You can call our offices. You can call our office. I've met with some of y'all. It's been in the past, but I do. It saves a lot of time because we get to the point where we understand exactly what you're talking about. You do a great job on emails. I understand everything that you're talking about. So, we get it. We're going to do what we can and go from there. And we're done with it. We'll move on, just what I just said. But thank you, sir. Thank you all. All right. We have a motion and a second. Did we approve it? No, sir. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Ms. Butterfield. Good morning. Again. That's fine. Thank you again for the time this morning for the recognition. Today, we have for you to approve and ratify payroll checks number 03908 through 03951 in the amount of $55,755.23. We have 2,888 direct deposits in the amount of $4,638,520.22. Those are dated May 30, 2025. We have wire and electronic fund transfers of $34,793,622. Those are dated May 20th through June 2nd of 2025. We have invoice checks number 483-555 through 484-457 totaling $16,410,746.73, dated May 20th through June 2nd, 2025. For you to approve and ratify, please. Move for approval. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. All right. Thank you. And we request the approval of your minutes of your regular board meeting that was held on May 20th of 2025. So moved. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I appreciate everyone would go outside, please, and continue your conversation out there. And if we have to clear it, we'll clear it. All right. Anything else, ma'am? No. Thank you very much. All right. Randy, you got anything? Okay. Mr. Beasley. Yes, sir. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board, members of the viewing audience. The manager's office will have three items for board consideration this morning. Item number H1 is to request the board to approve an agreement with Jones, Edmonds, and Associates for professional engineering services in connection with the Phase IV landfill cell expansion project at the North Central Landfill. This is a proposed contract action not to exceed $2,940,797.77. The Polk County Board of County Commissioners owns and operates the North Central Landfill site. The site has five line Class I cells currently identified as Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, Phase V, and Phase VI. It also includes a series of closed, unlined Class I landfill cells, an unlined Class III waste disposal cell, and two scale houses. Since the North Central Landfill site is the only active solid waste management facility owned and operated by Polk County and the only publicly owned Class I landfill in Polk County, timing of the Phase IV landfill cell development is critical to maintain the uninterrupted disposal capacity for Polk County's residential and commercial customers. The current operations within the Phase VI cell is expected to reach capacity in 2029. As such, Polk County has completed a public process to solicit proposals from professional engineering firms to design, permit, prepare construction and bid documents, provide bidding assistance services, provide construction support services, and construction certification and initial operational assistance for the next Phase IV disposal area. This effort will also include modifying or obtaining a State Environmental Resource Permit, a United States Army Corps of Engineers permit, and any local Polk County permits as required. Request for Proposal Number 25071 was issued, and one firm submitted a proposal. In February of 2025, the Board approved the Committee's recommendation to enter into contract negotiations with Jones, Edmunds, and Associates. Fee negotiations for those comprehensive professional engineering services are now complete. Independent agreements for the future construction of the landfill cells and the related gas collection and control system will be brought back to the Board for approval once a vendor is selected through a competitive bid process. It is anticipated that majority of the required professional engineering services will conclude by January of 2029. However, the term of the agreement will be until all professional services are complete. Capital funding for this major site expansion is budgeted and available within the Solid Waste Operating Fund. So, Mr. Chair, members of the Board, I think consistent with the Board's commitment to the long-term operational availability of the North Central Landfill, I would request the Board to approve the proposed agreement with Jones, Edmunds, and Associates for required professional engineering services in connection with the planned Phase IV Landfill Cell Expansion Program in an amount not to exceed $2,940,797.77. I got a question. Yes, sir. I think we covered it Friday. How much time does this give us to fully implement that entire cell? How many years is that? Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Michael Henderson, your Director of Solid Waste for Polk County. The completion of Cell 1 will be 2028, so we will complete it approximately a year in advance of running out of capacity in our current cell. No, but I mean this next phase, phase, what is this, phase 4? How many years of life does it give us? Yeah, how much additional? 16 years of landfill lifetime. On top of the 2028 or 2029? Correct. Okay, all right. And then my last question, it's outlined in red. What direction will we go in 18 years from now, 19 years from now? After this phase? Yeah, I know there will be some engineering to figure that out, but generally speaking. Quite likely to the west of that cell. So can we go west of, that would be north of animal control? Yes, if you look, if you also, if you look, and there's some engineering criteria, if you look north and west of the proposed phase 4 cells, that's an area. We could also propose a valley fill between phase 2 and phase 5, so that's on the docket as well. Plenty of expansion area to choose. Do we have space north of 3? We do. Okay. That's another one. We own property north. We got a whole bunch. In addition to these roughly 16 years of service, we have just over 100 years of capacity total that we anticipate remaining in that site. Okay. Correct. Anyone else got any questions? Dale, just to confirm, as far as phase 4 goes, how many cells would be within phase 4? We believe right now there will be 4 cells that are designed within phase 4. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Do we have a motion? Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We have to request a board to approve an agreement with AECOM Technical Services in order to test their proprietary technology towards the reduction of harmful algae blooms from the Upper Saddle Creek surface waters. This will be a one-time expense, not to exceed $2,300,000 with 100% funding being received through a state grant awarded to Polk County. The nutrient levels in Lake Hancock and contributing streams are above the Florida Department of Environmental water quality standards upper saddle creek is the primary nutrient loading source to lake hancock this proposed project sets out to test a new algae harvesting technique to remove nutrients in the upper saddle creek waters before they flow into lake hancock this is part of an ongoing and variety of water quality improvement projects that polk county is working on to improve surface water qualities countywide in 2023 polk county submitted a grant application entitled advanced algae cultivation technology for nutrient removal from florida surface waters and this was submitted to the state state's innovative technology grant program subsequently in november of 2024 the board executed standard grant agreement number inv51 an innovative technology grant with the florida department of environmental protection in the amount of two million three hundred thousand dollars the state grant requires polk county to test the application of advanced algae cultivation technology as developed by aecom aecom has a patent pending for the technology and is the only vendor who can supply the use of this pilot technique as the proposed advanced algae cultivation technology is proprietary to aecom the parks and natural resources division requested that the county's procurement division approve a sole source acquisition with aecom to provide the services as required under the state grant sole source acquisition number 25 318 was issued in may of 2025 and the proposed agreement is the result of that sole source solicitation the term of the agreement is through completion of all pilot testing and final reports with the summer of 2027 as the set completion time frame funding for this initiative is included in the parks and natural resources five-year community investment program as part of the special revenue grant fund in anticipation for those 100 state reimbursements so mr chair members of the board i think consistent with the board's long-standing commitments to environmental preservation and polk's surface water quality improvements i would request that the board approve the proposed agreement with aecom technical services in order to test their proprietary technology in an effort to reduce harmful algae blooms from the upper saddle creek surface waters in an amount not to exceed two million three hundred thousand dollars when we got a question here so it's not as much a question as a comment is there someone from aecom here no sir the staff staff member here is from natural resources so it seems crazy to be cleaning any water that's going to go into lake hancock but i understand the reason we're doing it is it's a test a trial to see if the the system works my comment is if it does work and we figure out that that it's a good thing to do there's a 1200 acre 60 foot deep reservoir 500 feet from the banks of the peace river on the other side of lake hancock that would be an ideal place to start cleaning up water to send downstream i think i subject to you don't you know i mean i don't need any comment i just i just i just want it said this this place that sat there for 50 years unused that just absolutely makes me crazy uh all the things we do to conserve water when we could have been filling that thing with seven billion gallons as water as a whole but maybe this is an opportunity to clean some water i don't know but anyway that's my comment i think if it does work mr chair members of the board it gives us another tool in our bag and we can cite something on a larger scale that we have other lakes in the pope county that's got yes sir that could we could help okay anyone else all right did we get a motion on this i think becky second got a motion in a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries a final item mr chair item number h3 is to request the board to approve an agreement with the luns group for comprehensive architectural and engineering services in connection with the proposed polka county agriculture center complex these efforts will reflect a one-time expense not to exceed one million five hundred seventy two thousand four hundred dollars for the identified phase one services polk county has completed the public process to solicit proposals from qualified architectural firms to develop a master plan for the polka county agriculture center complex and to design those elements adopted from that master plan in future phases contingent upon funding availability the new agricultural center complex is intended to celebrate polk county's rich heritage as an agricultural community while embracing future generations by providing educational opportunities showcasing agricultural events and enhancing the quality of life for polk county residents through economic impact the phase one scope of work will include the development of a master plan final design cost estimating and bidding and construction administration services for an event arena livestock barns paddock areas trailer parking and a maintenance and operations facility proposal a request for proposal number 24 642 was issued and seven proposals were received in march of 2025 the board approved the selection committee's recommendation to enter into contract negotiations with the luns group these phase one negotiations have been completed while it is anticipated that all phase one program elements will be completed in approximately two years this agreement will remain in place to address any subsequent project phases subject to the board's direction and or future availability of funding funding for this major cultural and community facility venue is available in the county's general capital improvement fund so mr chair members of the board i think consistent with the board's priority commitment to creating this performance venue dedicated to polk county's agricultural heritage i would request that the board approve the proposed agreement with the luns group for phase one architectural and engineering services in connection with the polk county's agriculture center complex in an amount not to exceed one million five hundred seventy two thousand four hundred dollars second got a motion in a second uh i want to say this before we take a vote this has been a lot of work for a lot of people i've i've been after this since i've become a commissioner and uh it's been all it's it's had a lot of roads up and down bumps bangs but uh it really uh it's been a a great undertaking and it really feels good to be able to see this finally we're gonna you know start moving a little dirt here before long and putting something up but i just want to thank everybody that's been involved and uh it's this is this is polk county and uh it's going to be a nice facility for generations to come and i just want to everybody knows i've been on this and so with mr brazil all of us have and uh but just thank you thank you very much got a motion in a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries that's it mr chair okay uh commissioner trapman i have a couple of things first um the reappointment of sean malott as a member of the polk county industrial development authority for a three-year term i say i do think he's out in the audience and kind of like being voluntold but um i do believe uh he is an asset for us to have on that committee so have that yeah do i have to have a motion no yeah yeah i do okay so that is a motion second got a motion a second any other further discussion all in favor aye those motion carries you in and then just a couple of comments in regards to you know what we heard this morning um number one any idea and suggestion that the sheriff doesn't have a a budget and it's hidden i mean this is just the proposed for this year but i think we're all aware and the public should know that anyone's budget is open for review and there's nothing hidden about that and i have a dog myself she is definitely part of our family but the reality of some of the comments you know when they're talking about air conditioning and stuff like that the reality is we have human beings that live in this county that don't have air conditioning and i think when we look at is it somewhere where we could see some improvement i'm sure because we can improve everywhere but larger issues of human beings not having air conditioning in this county when it comes to food and what's the budget for food there are several thousand children who will not have three meals a day for the next two months because school is out and so as i love animals but when it comes to questioning are we focused on the right things i think if we take our eyes off of some of these other issues and get focused on emotional issues i don't think we're doing the best service to our county just my comment uh commissioner broswell uh nothing commissioner sondiago nothing at this moment commissioner scott i'm good i'm good too all right all right ben expedited hearings yes mr chair and i'll go over the general public hearing procedures and expedite here's procedures before we begin we ask that you please turn off your cell phones or other devices that may distract from the public hearings please adjust the microphone and state your full name and address for the record before you begin speaking on a topic individual speaking during the public comment section of a matter will be strictly limited three minutes the board is experiencing these matters and is able to discern what is legally relevant to an issue and what is not information that is relevant or repetitive only serves to frustrate and necessarily prolong today's business the commission expects civility at all times during all public hearings speaking out turns shout out from the audience disrespectful sounds or audiences while another is speaking are unacceptable and you will be asked to leave the chambers for the remainder of the day if any person decides to appeal any decision made by the board with respect to any matter considered today you will need a record of proceedings and for such purpose you may need to ensure that verbatim record of the proceedings is made which record includes the testimony evidence upon which the appeal is to be based which you must gather at your own expense anyone in the audience who wishes to speak and present testimony today must be sworn in all testimony given during public hearings shall be deemed to be sworn at this time if you're going to address the commission or speak on any case today please stand and raise your right hand and answer out loud to the following question do you swear or affirm that the testimony or evidence you provide to the commission today is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you mr chair the expedited hearing procedures expediting hearings are held pursuant to resolution number 2022-089 expedited hearings are used when no opposition was present at the planning commission hearing the applicant agrees to the expedited hearings and the recordation of the development review committee is for approval expedited procedures are the following after staff briefly introduces the case the hearing will be open for public comment if anyone speaks during public comment the applicant will be given the opportunity to respond at the public comment the board will consider the lane use case at any time full presentation from staff can be requested from a commissioner the applicant or a member of the public all documents attached to the agenda are deemed part of the record of the land use case unless removed from the list of x experts by motion of the board all individuals on the list of experts attached to the agenda are deemed experts for the purpose of land use case at this time i'll turn over mr zisco thank you mr mink good morning mr chairman for the record ben zisco land development director there is one item on the expedited public hearing portion of today's agenda that is item number 01 which is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pal 2024-19 minute made ramp road one cpa to consider a comprehensive plan land use change from residential high to tourism commercial center on 3.2 acres of a parent tract that is 13.47 acres you can see the subject site located on the screen on the west side of us highway 27 between minute made ramp road one on the north and holly hill grove road three on the south the request is to extend the existing tourism commercial center slightly to the west to accommodate commercial development you can see the l-shaped portion that i am hovering over with the the cursor to change from residential high to tourism commercial center to match the existing tourism commercial center due west of the subject site is a strip remaining that is residential high as well as a townhouse community in the city of haynes city and to the northwest is existing residential so the remaining residential high will serve as a buffer between the proposed commercial and the existing residential this item you see received unanimous recommendation for approval by the planning commission and following any questions or comments from the board or the public staff is recommending approval to transmit this item to florida commerce uh any questions all right uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come up and speak on this matter come forward and give your name and address and you will be given three minutes seeing none we will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for a motion motion for approval got a motion in a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries mr chairman that concludes the expedited portion of the public hearings and i believe i'll turn it over to miss gregory for the next public hearings thank you thank you man good morning for the record i'm amy gregory traffic manager in the roads and drainage division and i have two items before you this morning the first is a public hearing to consider adoption of a resolution to allow the placement of four traffic calming devices or speed humps on 11th street southeast in highland city 11th street southeast is classified local doesn't local residential road 20 feet in width 2556 feet in length with a posted speed limit of 25 miles an hour upon receiving a request for traffic calming staff collected speed and volume data and reviewed the crash history and with an 85th percentile speed of 35 miles an hour and an average daily traffic of 935 vehicles 11th street southeast met the board's traffic calming policy criteria for speed and volume staff subsequently distributed ballots to the homeowners with property fronting 11th street and we received the required 80 favorable response from yes votes and from non-votes per the board's policy on may 6 2025 a hearing date of june 3rd 2025 was set by consent agenda and staff posted on-site notices as well and as much as the board's criteria for the installation of traffic calming devices have been met staff recommends adoption of a resolution to install four speed humps along 11th street southeast and i'll stand for any questions any questions anybody all right uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come forward and speak on this matter please come forward and you'll give your name and address and you'll be given three minutes see none we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for discussion or a motion motion for approval second got a motion and a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries next the next item before you is a public hearing to consider adoption of a resolution to allow the placement of three traffic calming devices on freelander road in highland park manor the portion of freelander road lying between tangelo and lewis griffin is classified as local residential 20 feet in width 1300 feet in length with a posted speed limit of 25 miles an hour upon receiving a request for traffic calming staff collected speed and volume data and reviewed the crash history and with an 85th percentile speed of 35 miles an hour and an average daily traffic of 1 605 vehicles freelander road met the board's traffic calming policy criteria for speed and volume staff subsequently distributed ballots to homeowners with property fronting freelander road and received the required 80 percent favorable response from yes votes and from non-votes per the board's policy staff also distributed ballots to homeowners whose access is through freelander road and we received the required 50 percent favorable responses from yes votes and from non-votes on may 6 2025 a hearing date of june 3rd 2025 was set by consent agenda and staff posted on-site notices as well and as much as the board's criteria for the installation of traffic calming devices have been met staff recommends adoption of a resolution install three speed humps along freelander road and i'll stand for any questions any questions uh don't even go there don't even go there don't i saw that look for a minute she thought she wasn't sure if it was a joke or not yeah yeah don't even go yeah uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come forward miss richards you're more than welcome and anybody else after her with sound like we have one commissioner or maybe two that's not really in favor of this yes hey we are in favor we need this badly and um i want to add to what you're saying because my neighbor right there she received the letter because it involved tangelo and she just turned it in to jay because we asked for the stop signs they want to see if the speed bumps will you know help before the stop sign so she just turned in her paperwork where they also going to put speed bumps from it's all tangelo road but all the way down to lily street on tangelo because that's coming into uh freelander road off of tangelo so yes if you're coming out and you're going to put the speed bumps on freeland to keep from wasting time and money go ahead and do the tangelo like we've already signed to go ahead and do it save you time and money that you don't have to come back because gas is not cheap okay so please consider that when you come out that you don't have to make a second where is tangelo on the map can you tangelo you coming in she's going to put it up so that i could see it this is tangelo is it this one the north and south road is that right yeah we got it we we just received that the ballots are coming in on that one so it'll it's likely they'll go in at the same time i'm not sure of the schedule but it's dependent on our paving contractor so because that one falls right behind this one at the same time if it passes all right saves you time and money thank you miss richards i appreciate it thank you so much anyone else like to come up and speak my name is diane deloche borders i've had a stroke since i've been here the last time i'm sorry i've had surgery but i do want to come up here and say again that we do need those speed bumps i have four little grain i have grown grandchildren and i have four little ones that i have watched that gets off that bus in afternoon along with about 40 other kids and we really do need those speed bumps they're getting them on freeland road and i did get the notification yesterday that they're coming on tangelo too and it would be great if they can do them all at the same time i also requested a three-way stop there at tangelo and freeland the road but um if that comes that would be wonderful but if you just put those speed bumps there on tangelo that would really really help us slow that traffic down and help those kids to get back and forth across to that um center but i i sincerely thank you all for what you've done so far for us thank you very much have a good day anyone else see none i'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for motion move for approval our discussion just if i may for miss richards thank you for challenging i think the bocc you were one of the first that i heard from when i came on to this board last year and i know initially we had to go through and look at reclassifying the road to finally get to here and i just want to say thank you for being patient with us and also for the vision that you have for your community to make it better and i think for those that come in front of the board if they would take your template and use that it would be a lot more successful oftentimes in getting through to us not that we're here to be absent-minded or to not listen we just have to think of different ways to get to an end solution but it does take patience on both sides and vision so i do appreciate that and thank you very much uh do we have a motion move for approval second motion in a second all in favor all right uh motion carries and i believe that is it that's it mr chair