Board of County Commissioners on 2025-07-15 9:00 AM

based upon your wisdom. Father, we place our hearts and minds in your hands so that you may direct us. And I ask this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good morning, commissioners, staff, and visitors. I'm Caitlin Hoverkamp, Public and Media Relations Officer for Polk County Government. Today, we are recognizing five employees for their service to Polk County. I'd like to invite the employees to come to the front as their names are called, and then if the honorees will remain at the front while the commissioners return to the dais behind them, we'll take a group photo at the end. Abram Cadillo has worked for Polk County Roads and Drainage for 20 years. He currently serves as an environmental technician three for the division. Abram is a graduate of Lake Region High School and is a certified stormwater erosion and sedimentation control inspector. Abram is a member of the Heartland Church in Winterhaven. In his spare time, he enjoys restoring classic cars, fishing, cookouts, and spending time with his wife, Janet, his son, Nathan, and his daughter, Abigail. In the future, Abram looks forward to pursuing a foreman position with the county before retirement. After Abram retires, he would like to open his own paint and auto body shop. Eugene Gorikoff has worked for Polk County Fire Rescue for 20 years. Eugene began his career with the department as a part-time volunteer firefighter emergency medical technician before joining the department as a full-time firefighter. Throughout his time with Polk County Fire Rescue, Eugene has served in a wide range of roles, including firefighter paramedic, SWAT paramedic, field training officer, battalion chief positions in both operations and medical direction, and deputy chief roles overseeing planning, training assets and infrastructure, and now personnel. Eugene has obtained an associate's degree in emergency medical services, nursing, and liberal arts, as well as a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's degree in fire and emergency science. He is a certified level one and two fire officer, a certified fire instructor three and Florida safety officer, as well as a graduate of the Polk County Succession Management Development Program. Eugene is a member of the Florida Fire Chiefs Association and has received three sheriff office accommodations throughout his time with the department. In his spare time, Eugene enjoys the outdoors, sightseeing, mountain biking, weightlifting, and ice plunging. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, Inga, his daughter, Victoria, and his son, Jaden. In the future, following retirement, he looks forward to remaining active in public safety consulting, leadership, mentoring, and traveling the world. Jerry Lynn Tessenier has served Polk County in public safety for 20 years in both emergency medical and fire services. She began her career with the fire service in 1997 as part of the Ladies Fire Auxiliary at the Colusa Station, which is now Polk County Fire Rescue Station 21. She continued with the Ladies Fire Auxiliary in Poinciana before joining Polk County Emergency Medical Services in 2005. In 2013, she obtained her fire standards and moved into the role of firefighter emergency medical technician for Polk County Fire Rescue. In her spare time, Lynn enjoys jeeping and currently has no future retirement plans on the horizon. Charlotte Fillmore has worked for Polk County for 25 years. She joined the county as an office assistant for the building division. Throughout her time with the county, Charlotte has held many positions within the planning division, including Secretary 1 and 2, quality assurance technician, and services manager before returning to the building division for her current role as a customer service supervisor. She is a Navy veteran that graduated first in her class out of 26 as a hospital corpsman, earning her a naval hospital corps school commendation. During her time with the Navy, Charlotte served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm at Fleet Hospital 15 in the intensive care recovery unit. Charlotte is a certified public manager and has her white and yellow belt in Six Sigma. She received the Divisional Employee of the Year Award when she worked with land development and while working for the Office of Planning and Development. Charlotte also received additional kudos, reaches awards, and letters of appreciation throughout her time with the county. In the future, Charlotte looks forward to continuing her career with Polk County Government. Following retirement, she can't wait to spend quality time with her husband Kevin, her daughter Paris, her son-in-law Steel, her fur baby Charlie Choo Choo, and her grand fur baby Luna. Benjamin Thomas Fort has spent 25 years with Polk County Fire Rescue. In 2000, Ben began his career with the department as a firefighter before moving into his current role of driver engineer. In his spare time, Ben enjoys hunting, fishing, skeet shooting, and spending time with his wife Amy and their two daughters. 110 years of service. Thank you. All right. We didn't have any comments on the agenda, so we need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Move to approve. Second. Got a motion and a second on consent agenda. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Ms. Butterfield. Good morning. Good morning. Today we have for you to approve and ratify payroll checks number 04053 through 04070, totaling $23,853.80. We have 2,947 direct deposits in the amount of $4,503,438.21, and those are dated July 11 of 2025. We have wire and electronic fund transfers of $15,670.13, $670,013.56, and those are dated July 1 through July 14th. And lastly, invoice checks number 486213 through 486967, totaling $14,084,411 and 64 cents dated July 1 through July 14 of 2025 for you to approve and ratify, please. Motion for approval? Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We also request the approval of your minutes of your regular board meeting that was held on July 1 of 2025, please. Vote. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Anything else? Yes. Just briefly. Oh, I'm sorry. We recently marked the two-year opening of the Northeast Government Center, of which many of you were there. In May was the two-year mark, and the numbers are telling a strong story about just how much that area is growing. And I know you with the Board of County Commissioners and their management are seeing the increased demand in services in that part of the county, but we are as well. And the numbers really tell the story. In the past two years, the Northeast activity for passports and marriage license applications have greatly outpaced Bartow and Lakeland's numbers. In 2024, the Northeast Office averaged about 530 passport applications a month. So far, we're running around upper 800s per month in that office this year. So we're looking at about a 65% increase in just that one service loan. And marriage license, we're seeing the same thing that in the past two years, Northeast has seen about a 27% increase in the activity there, whereas Bartow and Lakeland are in the 20% and then the 10% range. So we offer those passport applications, pictures, marriage license, all those services at all three locations every day of the week, Monday through Friday, 8 to 430. But I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to you for your commitment to providing the facilities to meet the needs so we can provide those services. And it's certainly a fantastic facility. Stacey, let me just add to that. That was the vision that the prior board had 10 years ago to create that facility. And that's the exact same vision this board is having to create the North Lakeland facility. Thank you. I got a question. Okay. There's two courtrooms in there, one? Two. Are they being utilized pretty much daily or how's it? One is, and the courts are planning to use the other one. The legislature approved three new judges for the 10th Judicial Two Circuit in one county. And the chief judge, we met recently and he said he will be putting one of those new judges out in that courtroom because it has the facility and the capacity. And so we're working on how those cases will be assigned to that area. Thanks. That's good. That's really good. All right. Mr. Mink, do you have anything? Okay. Mr. Beasley. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board, members of the viewing audience. The manager's office will have four items for board consideration this morning. Item number G1 is to request the board to approve a construction contract with first class roofing out of Auburndale for roof replacement at the existing Polk County Specialty Care and Children Home Society building located at the County's Health and Human Services Campus in East Bartow. This action will authorize a one-time expense not to exceed $850,500. Polk County has completed the public process to solicit bids from qualified contractors to replace the existing roof with the specified installation of a Duralast PVC roof system located at the County's Health and Human Services Campus in East Bartow. Bid number 25205 was issued and four roofing contractors submitted bids. The lowest responsive bid was submitted by first class roofing in the amount of $810,000. A recommendation of award was issued and no protests were received. In accordance with resolution number 13066, $40,500 is added to the contract for allowance and contingency work to reflect a proposed contract award not to exceed $850,500. The contract time for this work has been set at 150 calendar days. This project is fully funded through the state of Florida's Department of Commerce Community Development Block Grant Mitigation Program. Funding for this asset management initiative is available within the county's special revenue grant fund. So Mr. Chair, members of the board, I think consistent with the board's proactive asset management support, I would request the board approve a construction contract with first class roofing incorporated in the amount not to exceed $850,500, all of which is in connection with bid number 25205. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Chair, members of the board, item number G2 is to request the board to approve a right-of-way agreement between the city of Lake Alford and Polk County in connection with the County Road 557 capacity project. Today's action would reflect the city's donation of identified parcels listed as number 100 and number 145 and the county's purchase of parcel listed as number 146. The county's purchase parcel of number 146 has been negotiated not to exceed $550,000. Polk County has a community investment project to improve County Road 557 to a four-lane corridor from north of U.S. Highway 1792 in Lake Alford to just south of the I-4 interchange. To allow construction of the new roadway, the county will need to acquire various rights of way along the corridor from impacted property owners. The board previously adopted a resolution authorizing negotiations and written offers to be made in connection with this project. Parcel number 100 and number 145 are both irregular shaped parcels containing approximately 2.7 acres needed for mainline right-of-way and parcel number 146 is a nearly rectangular shaped parcel containing approximately 4.9 acres needed for a floodplain compensation site in connection with the project, all of which are owned by the city of Lake Alford. As a result of ongoing discussions, the city has agreed to donate parcels number 100 and number 145 to the county in connection with the project. However, the city has requested compensation for parcel number 146 due to its impacts to a planned city park. The parent parcel was purchased by the city for a park complex and the county's floodplain compensation parcel will necessitate the city's redesign of that park parcel eliminating certain planned amenities. Further discussions with the city have resulted in the proposed amount of 550,000 dollars for the purchase of parcel number 146. The county attorney's office and the real estate services director have reviewed the agreement and recommend approval. The alternative to of acquiring this parcel through condemnation litigation would result in substantial cost to the county. So funding for this right-of-way acquisition is budgeted and available within the roads and drainage five-year community investment program as assigned through the transportation trust fund. So Mr. Chair, members of the board, I think in keeping with the board's priority commitment to roadway infrastructure projects, I would request the board to approve the proposed right-of-way agreement with the city of Lake Alford for the donation of parcels number 100 and number 145 and the purchase of parcel number 146 in an amount not to exceed $550,000. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Chair, members of the board, the next two items are directly related and they're associated with telephone technology upgrades to support a number of various constitutional officer functions across Polk County. Item number G3 is to request the board to approve a proposed cooperative agreement with Optus Incorporated to provide a software-based telephone solution and implementation services to support the Polk County Sheriff's Office and elements of the 10th Judicial Circuit Court system. This action will sanction a technology investment not to exceed $438,000. $846.26. Over the past 30 years, Polk County has used NEC phone system equipment to support board and constitutional officers' desk phones with either GTE, Verizon, or Frontier as a telephone system providers. NEC has ended all equipment sales outside of Japan. With many of the enterprise phone equipment providers transitioning their products to a cloud-based operation, the Polk County IT division met with internal stakeholders to establish telephone operating requirements and subsequently vetted those requirements against available cloud technology providers. Ultimately, the Zoom platform was selected because it met or exceeded system performance requirements and has gained a positive national reputation for system reliability and availability. Optus Incorporated is a reseller of telephone-related equipment and is the on-site facilitator for this technology initiative slated for three judicial buildings and 18 Polk County Sheriff's Office locations, including the New Ridge District Command Center located in Poinciana, totaling approximately 1,300 users. The proposed agreement provides for both telephone equipment and implementation services to replace the end-of-life existing telephone system, specifically to support the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Public Defender's Office, the State Attorney's Office, the Guardian Medlidem Agency, and the 10th Judicial Circuit's administrative offices. Polk County is a member of Omnia Cooperative, an association of nationwide procurement entities representing state and local governments, K-12 educational entities, higher education institutions, and non-profit organizations. This membership enables Polk to piggyback agreements that were solicited on behalf of the cooperative. Polk's access to Optus is as a result of a prior solicitation awarded through the Omnia Cooperative. The proposed agreement with Optus is for telephone and related equipment purchases totaling $284,829.84. Implementation services and technical support as part of the system conversion totals $104,034.42. The proposed agreement will also include an owner's technology contingency not to exceed $50,000. System conversion and implementation will begin on August 1st of this year and with conclusion fully implemented by the fall of 2026. Funding for this technology upgrade is available in the IT Telecommunications Project Fund. So, Mr. Chair, members of the board, I think in keeping with the board's commitment to investments in communication technology, I would request the board approve the proposed cooperative agreement with Optus Incorporated for software-based phones and implementation services in an amount not to exceed $438,864.26. Commissioner Braswell. Hey, David, I got a question. So, looking at the slide you just had up there, are we like what I think of hardwired phone service now and we're going to internet phone service or something else? That's exactly it. The technology that we're currently on is outdated, not supported, and going away. And this is part of our normal phone replacement and we're just moving from basically wired and certain phones to different phones that are now compatible with the internet. I mean, that just, to me, it seems like a bad idea not to at least have a backup hardwired system. I can remember, what was it, four or five years ago, somewhere right around here in Central Florida, the internet phone line was cut and all that, you know. Perkins. No. Well, yeah, Verizon got hit over there in Plant City, too, there in Milton. But it just seems like it doesn't make sense to keep just a basic wired backup. I mean, so the internet goes down, nobody can call us. Does it affect 911? I mean, all those kind of things. And we have seen that. A few years ago, you're right, Frontier actually had a big cable cut along 75 and it took out 911 and that's the hardwired. In all reality, they're using the same cables in reality. So whether it's the internet or the hardwired phones, it's still running on the pole. Are still running on the poles and underground. Okay. And then it's just beamed locally, so to speak? Correct. Okay. It's not even beamed. There is hardwires. It's just now using different equipment and using the basic infrastructure of both internet and the wiring to be able to get the phones together. The current providers are just getting out of the business. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? All right. We need a motion. Motion for approval. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Chair, members of the board, item number G4 is the complement to G3 and this is the connectivity associated with those inline devices. Item number G4 is to request the board to approve a proposed cooperative agreement with the Kerasoft Technology Corporation in connection with providing software and implementation services to support the Zoom phone technology platform. This action will sanction the communications technology investment to reflect a one-time implementation service fee and annual support service fees with a total investment not to exceed $1,332,450.43. The state of Florida belongs to the National Association of State Procurement Officials Value Point Cooperative Purchasing Organization. This state arrangement has enabled Polk County to piggyback agreements that were solicited on behalf of the statewide cooperative. As such, Polk County is proposing an agreement with the Kerasoft Technology Corporation for technology products, services, and related technical solutions to include software, network configuration, maintenance, and support for the Zoom phone technology platform. This technology initiative provides a software platform to transition voice communication services to the cloud and will configure and program the telephone cloud communication systems and provide premier voice services to support the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Public Defender's Office, the State Attorney's Office, the Guardian Ad Litem Agency, and the 10th Judicial Circuit's Court Administrative Offices. The proposed agreement with the Kerasoft Technology Corporation will reflect a first-year cost totaling $320,355.03, inclusive of implementation and support services costs, and four annual support service payments, each at $253,023.85. System conversion and implementation will begin in August of this year and is to set to conclude and be completed by fall of 2026. Funding for this communications technology upgrade is available within the Information Technologies Operating Fund for the first year's cost, and yearly maintenance costs will be budgeted in the IT's telecommunications phone projects budget for each succeeding year of the agreement term. So, Mr. Chair, members of the board, I think again, in keeping with the board's commitments towards investments in communication technology, I would request the board to approve the proposed cooperative agreement with the Kerasoft Technology Corporation in connection with providing software and implementation services to support the Zoom Phone Technology Platform at a five-year total cost, not to exceed $1,332,450.43. So moved. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. That's it, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Troutman. Do you have anything? Just one thing. Today, the Polk History Center is reopening. It has been undergoing a large renovation project, so it is definitely something to be seen, and if you've never taken in the time or taken the time to go over and visit, I would strongly encourage that. Ms. Murtis-Young does a wonderful job with that, and I think it's something to celebrate that we have that now open again for the public. All right. Commissioner Braswell? Nothing. Commissioner Sandiaga? Nothing. Thank you. I don't have anything either, so that's pretty good. All right. Expedited hearings. Mr. Chair, before we go to expedited hearings, I will go over the public hearing general procedures. 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 topic. Individuals speaking during the public comments section of a matter will be strictly limited to 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 irrelevant and repetitive only serves to frustrate and necessarily prolong today's business. The commission inspects civility out at all times during all public hearings. Speaking I'll turn, shout out from the audience. Disrespectful sounds or utterances 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 here today, you will need a record of the proceedings, and for that, for such purposes, you may need to ensure that verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and 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 or 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, raise your right hand, and answer out loud to the following question. Do you swear or affirm the testimony or evidence you provide to the commission today, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Mr. Chair, before we go to expedited hearings, I will go over the expedited hearing procedures. Expedited 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 hearing, and recommendation 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. After public comment, the board will consider the land use case. At any time, a 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 experts by motion of the board, all individuals on the list of experts attached to the agenda are deemed experts for the purpose of the land use case. At this time, I'll turn it over to Ms. Peterson to present the expedited hearings. Good morning, Board of County Commissioners. Eric Peterson for the Land Development Division. We have five expedited hearings. Two are withdrawn. That will leave us with just three. First expedited hearing, LDCP-AS 2025-7 is a future land use map change of 3.8 acres from residential low to Business Park Center. 153 mailers were sent to area property owners on April 18th. One board was posted on the property on May 19th. A legal ad was published in the Lakeland Winter Haven Sun on June 25th, 2025. You see before you the request. It's in the Eaton Park area. It is going to meet the compatibility standards of the area. It's a logical extension of the district, and the city of Lakeland provides water. There is no sanitary sewer in the area. I'll stand for questions. Mr. Brad. I'm surprised there's, I guess I would probably vote against this if there was anybody in the audience who was against it, because it just, like I said Friday, it seems like we're kind heading in a little too aggressive direction, changing zone or land use without a request. But at the same time, I understand why you're doing it. I totally understand how it makes sense back when the phosphate land issue was coming up. But yeah, I mean, I just wanted to get that out, because it just moves the uses to the north on a road that, like I said the other day, has issues as a cut through and bypass and all that. But, you know, I'll support it today, but that's my comment. Anyone else? All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to come and speak on this matter, come up and give you a name and address, and you'll be given three minutes, and I have some people signed up. I have, nope, I don't have any. The applicant? Is the applicant here? Yep, I jumped ahead on that. This is our expedited here? Yeah, this is expedited, yeah. Hearing? Yeah, expedited here. Yes. And I don't have anybody registered, but if you'd like to come up and speak on this matter, you're more than welcome to. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for a motion. Now, if I may, just to clarify, Mr. Pearson, this was applicant-initiated. This wasn't county-initiated. That is true. The county will be reviewing the area. It's an area in transition, and we will be likely bringing forward some county-initiated amendments in the area as well. So I'm jumping ahead on that. Yes. So this is only for the one parcel, and the conversation we had Friday was the possibility. Okay. I stand corrected. That's what I'm saying. Thank you, Randy. Anyone else? All right. We need a motion for approval. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Was discussion at Friday's agenda review about getting direction from the board about reviewing the whole area to turn to BPC. Is that, you won't have that discussion now, whether or not you'll want to get direction of the board? I will just say my concern is I don't like the idea of this creep of land use moving into places that probably shouldn't be. And this particular site I'm just familiar with because I've been out there a few times. The residents have had some issues with the trucks on the road and all that. But, you know, we can have that conversation, you know, in the next agenda review or something like that. Thanks. Well, I think my question with that is, are we, are you needing direction today? Because then what process would land development move into as far as would it include contacting those owners prior to count the county initiating this? So an understanding of what the process would look like so that we understand what direction we would actually be doing if we're in favor of it. Yes, we will be reviewing the area and making assessments and establishing a community outreach to the area to get property owners' consent and agreement on the direction we would go in the future. Mr. Chair, it may be that if we do that first and then when we gather that data and bring it back to the board and have, you can get a feel for what the community thinks before we have it. Sounds like the right way to do it. Yeah, that's the right way to do it. So we're going to get, we're going to do this at a later date and talk about it. Okay. See, now where was I? Our next case is a transmittal hearing for LBCPAL 2025-4. This is our evaluation and appraisal report. The amendments necessary to meet consistency with Florida statutes, this is just the preliminary part of it. These amendments are necessary just to meet basic state requirements. There is an ongoing process to reevaluate the entire plan that will be coming before you later after the committees have done their work. That'll stand for questions. Any questions? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to come forward and speak on this matter, now will be the time to do that. Come up and state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Motion for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We have one other item under expedited for your action. This is the modified version of the ordinance for chicken coops. It's no longer chicken coops and roosters. It's just chicken coops now. The ordinance you have in your packet is the revised one. And if there's any other questions about it, I'll stand for questions. The legal ad was published in the Lakeland Ledger or the Winter Haven Sun, Lakeland Winter Haven Sun on April 30th, 2025. We've continued it a few times. This is the final adoption hearing. Any questions? All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to come up and speak on this matter, please come forward now. State your name and address. You'll be given three minutes. Pardon me. Stephanie Widener, 9055 Hickory Walk, Haines City, Florida. I just have a question. Is there any way to make that larger when you show that? I have glasses. I can't even see it. The text? I don't know, ma'am. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Maybe sit a little closer. But I don't have an idea. All right. Seeing anyone else. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Motion for approval. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Chair, N-4 and N-5 are being withdrawn by staff. So at this time, we will go to the non-extradited public hearings. All right. I think just for the record, it's important for the public to understand that we are withdrawing this because we were preempted by state rule that's not allowing us to. Senate Bill 180 preempts us for bringing more restrictive murders during a state of emergencies. All right. Let's move on to the public hearings. Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. For the record, Shonda Bennett with the Land Development Division. This is a request for the board to consider the adoption of a small-scale conference of plan amendment, LDCPA-S 2025-2, the Moran-Watkins Road conference of plan amendment on 0.55 acres from residential low to institutional in the utility enclave area. The property is south of Lake Hatchenha Road, west of the northern finger of Lake Pierce, and also on the west side of Watkins Road. For the record, 38 mailers were sent to area property owners on June 18th. One board was posted on May 20th. A legal ad published in the Polk Sun on June 25th. One phone call in opposition was received, and there were public comment at the Planning Commission hearing that was held in June, and then it was continued to July for the Planning Commission to consider last week, and they voted approval 5 to 2. Also, as part of the record, staff submitted the staff report, the ordinance, the applicant's application, and the impact assessment statement. A few points, that you heard some of this at a gender review, but the need for the changed institutional is to go to the next level for group homes. That's 7 to 14. We call that a medium group home. Currently, it's a small group home. Residential low does not permit group homes from 7 to 14 patients. The property is part of a planned unit development from 1976, the Sun Air Country Club, and on that PD, it designated this parcel as office. The single-family home on the property was constructed in 1997, and the group home's been operating there since 2008. The property is connected to public water, and there is an on-site septic system, and the living area for the home is 3,120 square feet, and under roof is 3,536. That's per the property appraisers' records. This is a location map that you can see. It's a location in Sun Air. You can see some of Lake Pierce, the southern part of Poinciana. You can see on the upper right-hand side, the county's park is the closest regional park in the area, and then you can see the city of Dundee, not too far off to the west. This is an aerial photograph showing the context of, I guess, Sun Air, really. You can see the different homes in Sun Air and the surrounding properties. And then this is a close-up aerial photograph of the property. You can see the property has frontage and access to Watkins Road. It does not have access to Sun Air Boulevard. This is the current future land use designation map. The pale yellow is residential low. The orange color is residential low, 4. There is an institutional property, institutional 2, that you see on the southern part of this slide. That was a wastewater treatment plant for Sun Air. Currently, that treatment is being sent to Toho. A little bit further south was the old fire station that was moved north on Watkins. That property, it's farther north, near Lake Hatch and Haw Road. That's a five-acre site that was designated institutional. A little bit, just to expand the discussion on the small group homes, how our land development code permits them, you can see the different residential categories on the upper row, agriculture, residential, rural, residential, suburban, RL. And that has the different districts, one through four, residential medium, and that should be residential high, institutional one, and institutional two. You can see small group homes are meant to be in a small home. It's supposed to look like a home. The purpose for it not being large group homes, not being in residential categories, again, if it's a single-family home, it's meant to look residential. It's getting pretty large. But it's also potential that the law that existed in 2007 had that restriction. We're currently reviewing that particular information. Then you get to the more intense facilities, group living facilities, more of like an independent facility or the traditional ACLF nursing home. And you can see how those are permitted and institutional. One of the requirements that staff has faced with them with all land use classifications is looking at all the uses that are allowed in institutional, not just what's on the property. So institutional is really meant for your fire stations as well, offices. The board may remember another institutional case we had on US-27. On the west side of US-27 in the Green Swamp area of critical state concern, it was the Laurel Oak subdivision. It was at the front. That was about an acre in size. But it didn't access 27. It accessed the local road. So we have similar situations where these lower-intensity uses are in an institutional. The location criteria for institutional are items to consider. They're not like other requirements for the land use where it has to be at the intersection of two collector roads. So in general, these have access to roadways, proximity to other incompatible land uses, location criteria, which is our general public facilities and other urban services, proximity to similar compatible uses, and any plans for the school board or other public service agencies. Again, institutional has that. And institutional has two sub-districts, institutional one, institutional two. Institutional two is your high schools and your bigger, intense facilities, your solid waste management facilities. Institutional one is meant to be those smaller institutional uses. This is a site photograph standing on Watkins Road looking at the site, so looking west. Again, this is looking west. The site's on the left. This is the entrance into the Sun Air community. This is standing on Watkins looking north. The site would be on the left again here. This is standing on Watkins looking south. You see the driveway into the site on the right. In terms of impact assessment, it's in a utility enclave area, so it doesn't have the full complement of services, but it's not anticipated to impact our schools. The Poinciana Community Park is not too far away. Sheriff's response times are between 11 and 35 minutes, depending on the priority level of the emergency. Fire and EMS is on Watkins Road to the north. Again, it's provided by water services by the county, and sewer is septic, and there is no concurrency issues or capacity issues with transportation. Staff recommends approval as well. The request does provide for the operational expansion of the property. It doesn't say if this is granted, the applicant walks the next day and starts implementing this. And to do that, for any structure and expansions, that does require a level two review to be submitted to us. But the applicant has to do some steps on her part, which is to research what the state permit requirements are going to be for her structure, what changes she's going to have to make internally. It might mean new building permits to change in the structure on the inside, septic tank issues that may need to change. This is an area of the county where the enhanced septic systems are now required. So those are some research items she has to do if this is adopted today. Staff does not feel it would have a negative impact on public services. Staff feels it's consistent with the location criteria for institutional, consistent with the land development code, and I'll stand for any questions. Any questions? Not at this time, once we hear the case. All right. What about the applicant? Would they like to come up? Shonda, I'll go ahead and ask, then, while she's coming up, changes to the exterior of this home. Is that coming after the fact? If we approve this and she will determine whether or not there are actual modifications to the home itself, or will it remain the appearance of a single-family home as it does today? It's not required to remain if it's adopted because it's got the institutional land use. But she's got a range of options that for the medium group, for the large group home or the larger group home, depending on what's required, she may only want to add one or two patients. She might not want to add the full 14 or the next level. But that's a decision that she'd have to make and come back to us. But as far as staff's concerned, we feel the parcel and the size is appropriate for those next-level uses. Thank you. Yes. Could you state your name and address, please, ma'am? Yes, sir. My name is Julia Moran. And my address is 5500 Watkins, Rory, Hanks City, Florida, 33844. We were just wanting to know if you had anything to say or not. If you don't, we'll move on. I think that's it. No. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. You're welcome. All right. I have a question. I don't know if you mentioned it or if I missed it. What kind of group home is this? We don't ask those questions because we're not allowed. It's not relevant for our review. For the law. The actual occupancy of who occupies it will really just stay away from because you get into a fair housing issue. And you say that the square footage of this home is adequate to serve up to 14 people. Is that what I heard you say? Polk County is not the licensure for the number of people that are taken care of in the home. So that question is only answered by the licensing agency. I thought I heard you say that you thought it was appropriate. The size of the home was appropriate for up to 14 people. The size of the property is appropriate for institutional for the other uses that are permitted in institutional. I wasn't getting to the square footage of the structure because there's so many other layers of information that have to go into that that is not something we have at this stage. I guess to answer the commissioner's question, correct me if I'm wrong, but if they do get this, approve this, they would be allowed under a level one or level two review of a group home up to seven to 14 residents. Correct. I believe that's what the commissioner is asking. Well, if they get approval, they can knock it down and build a nursing home. Correct. Yeah. All right. Anyone else? Again, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to come forward and speak on this matter, now is the time to do it. State your name and address, and you'll be given three minutes. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Move for approval. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Motion carries. Moving on. Good morning, commissioners. For the record, Mark Bennett with Land Development, presenting LDC-PAL 2024-17. This is Stewart Property, Thornhill Road, CPA. As far as notice requirements, 38 mailers were sent on June 18th. Two boards were reposted on June 17th. Legal ad published in the Lakeland Winter Haven Sun on the 23rd. We did receive one email in opposition back at the transmittal hearing, which was conducted back in May. Planning Commission did recommend approval of the initial request. Staff recommends approval, and since the transmittal hearing, this application was sent to the Florida Department of Commerce, and we received no objections. This is level four review, and this is the adoption hearing, because this is a large-scale plan amendment. The revised request here is to change 158 acres from agriculture, residential, rural, ARR, to residential low, and from rural development area to urban growth area. You can see the maps there, the general location of the property, south of Fullon Hill Road, west of Spirit Lake Road, and Lake Hancock is to the west. I'll go through a couple slides here to sort of explain the different iterations that this request has gone through and a summary of where we're at today. This is the entire parcel that was originally considered. This is the current development area, the rural area in green, the urban growth area in, I guess you'd call it purple. This is the proposed development area change, all of it going to urban growth area. This is the current designation on the land use map, white being ARR, yellow being residential low. This is the proposal that was recommended by staff and approved by Planning Commission. This was presented to the board back in May, and in May at the transmittal hearing, the board approved only residential low for the entire parcel. So to summarize, oh, somehow I need to show, let's do, here, let's do the, somehow my slide got hidden here. I wanted to show this one because this is, the one on the left is current, the one on the right is what's proposed. I'll go through these other slides just for a quick overview, y'all have seen the site before. Floodplain map, wetlands, aerial photos showing the property. This is a ground view of the eastern portion of the site, same. This is looking down Fussell Lane, which is on the west side of the site, west of where the parkway is going. And then I took a couple pictures last week to show the bridge under construction, and you can see a vehicle there to sort of give you a reference point in terms of size and height and what have you. So, impact, as far as impacts, we'll, of course, review those at time we get a binding site plan. There is some potential in a worst case situation that there may be impacts on the road network, but other than that, we don't anticipate any impacts on infrastructure at this time. To summarize, this is an area that's planned for, you know, urban development, areas urbanizing, character area will change with the parkway. Given the fact that it is urbanizing, we consider the request to be compatible and consistent with the land development code and comprehensive plan. So, with that, I'll stand for any questions. Any questions? Mr. Brazel. So, we're going from AOR to residential low. You showed the slide in rural development area to urban. Where's the slide on that? Here's the from and to for the land use. Okay. And here's the from and to for the development areas. Thanks. Yep. Anyone else? You're good. Does the applicant want to come up? Mr. Allen. Good morning, commissioners, for the record. Bart Allen. I'm a land use attorney with the Peterson and Myers Law Firm. My address is 225 East Lemon Street, Lakeland, Florida. I am here this morning on behalf of the applicant and property owner, the Stewart sisters. And with me this morning, I have Ms. Crosland Stewart, who's been a very good client and made many trips to these hearings. So, we appreciate her attendance and appreciate all of her input. I also have Jason Alleygood from the Kimley Horn Engineering Firm, who's been involved in this project from the get-go. So, I'd spent a fair amount of time at our transmittal hearing going through a PowerPoint presentation and kind of going through a lot of those exhibits. And given that there's a fair number of folks in the audience, unless necessary, I'll just kind of rely on some of the staff's presentation, because I think staff's really summed up what we're doing here, which is this site in and of itself is today a 326-acre parcel. It's been bifurcated by the implementation of the Central Pope Parkway expansion. And that's had a number of different impacts and a number of different influences on this particular area. One, they put a 300-foot restricted highway that's elevated right through the middle of this historically agricultural piece of property, which just that in and of itself dynamically changes the feel of the property. But it's also had a number of, in and of itself, a number of wetland impacts, a lot of direct wetland impacts, secondary impacts that begin to affect how this site is functioning and working. And we can go into more detail and have some slides on that if necessary. But at the end of the day, it's urbanizing this area in an area that's urbanized over time already. There's just in this slide, for instance, on the screen, there's four approved plan developments that have occurred going all the way back to early 2000s, ranging in densities from two and a half dwelling units an acre to over four dwelling units an acre. And that would be this property right here just off of the edge. There was a plan development that was approved there right immediately across the street. And immediately right here, we just renewed that PD back in 2024 at over four dwelling units an acre. So you've seen a tremendous amount of growth coming toward this piece of property. You've got the infrastructure in place, the water, the utilities. And that's why it's now appropriate to go to the residential low and the urban growth boundaries, which, as you can see from the slide here on the screen, is surrounding us on all sides. With the exception, the only areas that are not in urban growth are the areas that are owned by the Water Management District and Fees Simple as part of the flood protection and water storage projects that went on earlier this decade and century relative to Lake Hancock and some of the cleanup efforts and water and minimum flows in the Peace Creek. From our western edge, we have 3,000 feet between us and the lake's edge, based on the Google measurements that I've done on the Peach property. So with that, looking at the urban growth boundary, this is entirely consistent with what's around us. And looking at the future land use map, and that's not the right one. With this one, residential low surrounding this particular Peach property on essentially all sides, with the exception of the preserved areas to the west. So with that, this was approved on Transmittal. So there were no comments from the Department of Commerce. We believe we've made no changes to our request since that time, and we would request a favorable vote this morning on adoption of this large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. All right. Any questions for Mark? All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to come forward and speak on this matter, please come forward and state your name and address. And we'll be given three minutes. I have a signed up, a Daniel Bence. Are you Daniel? Well, did you sign him? Did you, well, let him come first? The ones that signed up, we'll get to, and then we'll get to you as soon as he's done. Okay, sir. I'm Daniel Bence, 1630 Bed Lane. That little blue line is where I live. That entire little straight blue line is my long, narrow piece of property. That butts up to the end of it. And I would like to know, as y'all keep passing all this, what they intend to put there, how many houses an acre, and what they're going to do about all the water. Because that's a wet area. I mean, if you don't live there, you don't know it. But that entire place has got ditches cut all through it that they're talking about. So when they go in there and they develop it, where's all that water going? We already have flooding problems there to start with. Not to mention traffic on Thornhill is terrible. I mean, I'm opposed to it. But, you know, I know that there's nothing I can say or do that's going to change y'all's minds. Because they're going to get their way. Because they're rich and powerful people. That's all I have to say. Thank you, sir. All right. I have a, nope, that was it on that. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. I believe that was the only one I had signed up. Sir, would you like to come forward and state your name and address? Please, sir, and you have three minutes. My name is John Daly. I live at 6019 Country Walk Lane, which is just up and to the right of all of this. And just to reiterate what he was saying, how dense is it going to be? How many people are going to be in there? And the effect on traffic on Thornhill Road. If you've been on that road, you know. Will it be widened? Will infrastructure help with that? Sewer lines? Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Good morning. I live at 216 Stembridge Road in Lake Wales. And what is your name, ma'am? Oh, I'm so sorry. I am Jennifer Castro. I just would like to comment that I know that it said only 168 children may be attending schools. But I just wanted everyone to keep in mind that our schools are very high capacity. Ma'am, you're at the wrong time, right? Yeah. Yep. Our schools are very high capacity. I think she's speaking on this here. Yes, yes, yes. Oh. I'm talking about. I'm talking about. Oh, okay. Sorry. My bad, ma'am. My bad. Yes. I'm so sorry. Okay. No, it said that the capacity would be 168 children. But I'm a school teacher in Polk County and our schools are brimming. So something like this could really impact your schools. And I just would like you to keep in mind that the children that do attend those schools already have a right to a great education without increased class sizes. And a lot of development means that more schools have to be built, and that doesn't tend to happen. So I just wanted you to know how I felt about that as a school teacher. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else like to speak on this? My name is Kerry Purcell, 4703 Thornhill Road, and I have two major concerns about this development. One is I live right on Thornhill, and my property butts up to the property on Thornhill Road. And I know some of you drive that road. It's a dangerous road right now. There are semis just fly up and down the road, and I don't know why we have so many semis. I don't think the new parkway extension is really going to help that, but Thornhill Road is a dangerous road, making a left turn. I've seen accidents, taking my garbage out to the end of the road. And two, now that they have this elevated road they're putting through, I think it's going to make the water damage even worse. I mean, my property butts up to a bayhead behind my house, and it, during hurricanes or flooding, it floods. And I don't know where all this water is going to go, and I know it goes into Lake Hancock, and that's the headwaters for the Peace River. But those are my two main concerns. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Seeing none, we will close the public hearing and bring it back. Bart, do you have anything you'd like to say? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be relatively brief. Touch on a couple of these issues, water being one of them. We recognize water retention is required. We are at a future land use stage here as development is considered for the site. All of those issues will be addressed through the Level 2 process, through our ERP permitting process, as well as other regulatory agencies. And that will come as part of the Level 2 with Water Management District and everything and that like. As part of the condemnation case, as it relates to how water is being handled today with the implementation of this elevated roadway, drainage and culverts and underpasses under the road construction are already being implemented and put in place. I was on site two weeks ago, and you can see those improvements that are already in the ground today. And that was part of the design and part of the permitting for that roadway. Not too dissimilar to some of the things that were approved earlier this morning relative to 557, that road had floodplain impacts. That road had wetland impacts that were all mitigated for, that were all addressed as part of the permitting process for the road. So those are in place. Those would be accounted for in any future design for any future development that may happen on this site. Now, I don't think I've made it through a public hearing when I've represented the Stewart family, where I haven't had to say this. And this isn't just with Crosland. I also have the pleasure of representing the J.K. Stewart side on certain things. But the Stewart's aren't, the Stewart's are not developers. So Ms. Stewart is not the developer of this site. When a developer comes forward, and that could be tomorrow, that could be 10 years from now, I don't know, they'll have to deal with those issues. They'll deal with that during the Level 2 process, which will also address all the other items that we talked about. Traffic will be addressed at Level 2. There'll be traffic studies to determine what improvements need to be made, either to Thornhill Road or to access for the site. Those all get done during the formal transportation analysis, as well as schools. The preliminary analysis and the staff report says that there is capacity in the schools today for projected students from this site. at max development potential. And we don't know whether this will come in at an R01 or through a PD or things of that nature sometime down the line. But even looking at it in a most conservative approach, at the highest level of potential development on the site, there is capacity in the schools for those issues. So I think that kind of was really the list of the notes that I made from the public comment. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. We've got a staff recommendation of approval. The staff and the DRC have found that this request is consistent with your comprehensive plan. They found it to be compatible with the area. Looking at the surrounding areas, Yes, that's what I meant to do. This is the slide that I want. Thank you. But even looking at the areas that were from the folks that we're talking about, that part of this piece of property is already residential low. So we're not changing anything adjacent to the folks in that area off Helen Road, things like that. This is all really more to the south. And then this little piece to the east. So we're really not having any significant change as it relates to what could be developed on those areas today. So with that, I will stand for any questions. I appreciate your time this morning. We appreciate all of staff's work and efforts to get to this point. We would request a favorable vote adopting this proposed large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. Any questions? Seeing none, we will make a motion that we approve. LDC-PAL 2024-17. I'll second that. We've got a motion to second. Any further discussion? I just have one comment. I brought this up maybe two years ago, maybe not that far back, to close Thornhill to truck traffic. And I fully intend the day that the Central Polk Parkway opens to bring it back up because it will not be appropriate for semis to be utilizing that road. I agree with you on that. And I would agree that probably right now a lot of the semis that are going up and down the road, not all of them by any means, but you've seen an increase due to the construction of the Polk Parkway. Most of the mini wheelers. All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Good morning. I'm a little rusty at this. You've had Scott up here so long, and I've just about forgotten how to operate this stuff. So anyway, Wade Allen, your real estate services director. And basically, we have the county has received a petition from Ray Hassan, president of Dynamic Dream Studios, to vacate a portion of deeded right away as described in deed book 559 at page 493 of the public records of Polk County. This is a 1937 deed. The subject right away lies in Section 35, Township 28 South, Range 26 East. A portion of the right away was previously vacated in 1976, leaving an isolated portion of the original right away with no evidence that the remainder of the right away has ever been vacated and does not appear to have been previously used as a county road. The petitioner owns all the property adjacent to the north of the proposed vacation area. And vacating the right away will remove the public interest and subjury and allow the petitioner to assemble it with their current property and any future development plans that they may have. Central Florida, excuse me, the appropriate utilities, along with the appropriate county divisions, have reviewed this request, and they have no objection. Received one objection from the property owner to the west here. The adjacent property owner is Ledfeather. It's a gun and ammunition store, retail store. The proposed vacation has no negative impact on this particular property, nor does it impact the access. As you can see, back in 1973, that was the portion that was vacated this roadway. You can also see that this deeded right away that came to us in 1937 never connected to Overlook Drive as it currently stands. So the objection at that time, I think, was just a misunderstanding that they didn't understand that it wasn't a strip that they were going to get any right away off of because they'd already gotten their right away. Pardon the expression. It had been assembled into their property back in 1973. I'm sorry, excuse me, 76. Staff recommends the board adopt a resolution to vacate the remainder portion of the deeded right away as described in the previously mentioned deed book and as more fully described in the legal description contained in the petition and resolution attached here, too, just reminding you that we were actually not aware of this. A survey by the property owner revealed this. It wasn't even on the property appraiser as you see it today. And basically, the property appraiser put it on there. We've also confirmed that if your action today, and once we've re-advertised and recorded this information, all of the assemblage will happen just like it did in 76. It'll go to the adjacent property owner. So I'll stand for any questions you might have. Any questions? Seeing none, we'll open a public hearing. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to speak on this matter, come forward and state your name and address, and we'll give you three minutes. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Move for approval. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Good morning. For the record, I'm Amy Gregory, Traffic Manager in the Roads and Drainage Division. And before you this morning is a public hearing to consider adoption of a resolution to allow the placement of two traffic calming devices or speed humps on Harney Street in the Alturas area. Harney Street lying between Reynolds Road and the Dead End East is classified a local residential road, 20 feet wide, 668 feet long, with a posted speed limit of 20 miles an hour. Upon receiving requests for traffic calming, staff collected speed and volume data and reviewed the crash history. And with an 85th percentile speed of 30 miles an hour and an average daily traffic of 90 vehicles, Harney Street met the board's traffic calming policy criteria for speed and volume. Staff subsequently distributed ballots to the homeowners with property fronting Harney Street, and we received the required 80% favorable response from yes votes and from non-votes per the board's policy. Staff also distributed ballots to the homeowners whose access is through Harney Street, and we received the required 50% favorable response from yes votes and from non-votes per the board's policy. On June 3rd, 2025, a hearing date of July 15th, 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 two speed humps along Harney Street. And I'll stand for any questions. Any questions? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you wish to speak on this matter, please come forward and state your name and address. Thank you, sir. My name's Charles Hicks. I live at 2620 Reynolds Road in Bartow, out in Alturas area. We have three school buses that come out there every day, twice a day. That tells you how many children are out there. I watch people fly up and down Reynolds Road 70, 80 miles an hour every day. I'm just waiting for somebody to get smashed. And I sure would help a lot if y'all would put some speed bumps, not just on Harney Road, all the way down Reynolds Road, because everybody uses it as a thoroughfare. And they're leaving from that end to go one mile to that end, just so they don't have to go out to the main road and go all the way around. And they're endangering the lives of our children and our grandchildren. And I don't like it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. I also had somebody sign up. Robin Barnes. My name's Robin Barnes. I live at 2780 Janie Lane. That's right off of Harney. I agree with the gentleman about Reynolds Road. It's just ridiculous. And we got a tree that's almost out in the road there, too. Oh, Reynolds Road while they're doing this. But I do disagree and oppose the idea of putting the speed bumps on that small road, two of them, not one, but two of them. Now, we don't have that many people out there. And, yes, there are a lot of children in the Reynoldsville area. But I think there is one disabled child. My heart goes out to the family. But I've never seen that child out in the yard. We have the majority of the children in our neighborhood are already teenagers. They're not on that road. They've got more important things to do, especially inside. You know? So we have a few, very few younger children. And most of them are on my road. You know? They come down my area. Every now and then they may go out there. But they're very respectful of the traffic when they hear or see a car coming. Now, I have a low-lying car that I plan on that lasted me the rest of my life that I recently bought. This is going to destroy my vehicle. But more importantly to me, I have two properties behind and the property I live on. I have two on Holly Lane. I have an aunt and uncle that lives on Holly Lane. My aunt is disabled that she cannot because she's had both hips broken, you know, and she has COPD. We have to watch her very closely. And, yes, I have been known that if they need me, I'm going to get around there fast because it's an emergency or they wouldn't call me. But outside of that, I obey every single law. I even stop at the stop signs at night. In fact, nobody's on the road at all, you know, because it's a good way of keeping me in line when I'm in the city. But if – and please feel this. If my aunt and uncle were to have an emergency and they're older than I am and we'll just say I'm closing in on 70 here. But if they had an emergency and they had to go over there, it would cause her more distress going over speed bumps than it would if she just – you know, if even with an ambulance, it's a lot of distress for her. She only leaves her home when she has to go to the doctor. That's the only time. And my uncle has a bad heart. Meanwhile, he's going to have a heart attack worrying about her while she's in pain, you know. But the whole thing is, too, this is going to – this little bit of money, it's going to cost Polk County, but it's going to spend taxes sky high and I'm all limited, you know. But if we're going to spend the money, let's see what we can do about getting a way out of there. We're all dead-end roads there. When a hurricane comes around, you know, if a tree falls and we've had it happen, that we can't even get off our own property to go to the doctor in case of the emergency. All right, ma'am. Well, we thank you very much. We do appreciate it. Yeah, and, you know, you understand what I'm saying, you know, because Harney Road – Yes, ma'am. There used to be a road coming in on Harney that would go all the way around and come the other way. Well, somebody bought the property on both sides of that road that's off of my road, and now it's blocked off. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate your comments. And also behind that. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. You have a good day. Thank you very much. And I do appreciate your time. Yes. Anyone else like to speak on this matter? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. I just have a question. All right. For Amy. How long – I mean, is this road 500 feet long? 668 feet long. It's just short, dead-end road, but it meets the policy guidelines. I mean, it meets the policy. I get that because we just have that established for the whole county. Does it make sense to you? I mean, how fast can you go in 600 feet? At least 30 miles an hour. Yeah. Depends on what you're driving. Yeah. Well, I get that, too. We're good, sir. Thank you. I guarantee you. I agree with you. There's some hot rods, maybe. But yes, sir. Thank you. I mean, one car going 70 miles an hour once, I mean, in my mind, doesn't – The 85th percentile is a statistic. So 85 percent of the traffic is going at or below 30 miles an hour. And so 15 percent of the traffic is going faster than that regularly. Yeah. We had to send out – We sent out ballots. We got a lot of non-responses, but it's, again, a non-response – That's our policy. That's our policy. Yeah, that's our policy. And then to get to spend $10,000 on two-speed bumps on 600 feet of road, I don't know. This one doesn't make any sense. Usually, these speed bumps are pretty cut and dry. You know, it's a cut through. This is a dead-end street. If you've got one guy that's causing all this problem, that needs to be addressed a different way. I don't think speed bumps on 600 feet of road make sense to me. All right. Anyone else? Becky? Just to refresh my memory, what was the initiation of this? It came from a resident. I don't have the requester, but all of our speed hump initiatives are initiated by a resident. All right. Anyone else? Martha? All right. My question would be, is, again, going along with what Bill's saying, we're looking at two. Are we required to put two in for that distance? Could we reduce it to one, being as that we have? Obviously, a resident who has requested this, we see that there is some concern. We probably could. We look at where we can place them, like right in the middle of that segment of road. There's a driveway, so, you know, we don't want to have it 500 feet and leave. I mean, so we could probably find a place to put one, but we thought that two worked best with the driveways on the road. Well, I think you probably could find a place if we decided to vote on putting one in instead of two. Absolutely would. That's what I thought. Mr. Chair, I do have, I think, I think placing the speed bumps in this road is appropriate. The distance is not the fact. The fact is how people are driving, and there are some concerns with children, teenagers. I don't care. I think this is appropriate. We've approved other areas, and because of the concern of the citizens, I think we owe that to this area. All right. Everybody done? All right. We need a motion. One way or the other. Motion that we approve the speed bumps location and all the calming devices on the Harney Street. It's kind of quiet. I don't have a second. So we don't have a second. Fail through. Yeah, lack a second. All right. So I would like to make a motion that we place at least one speed hump on this road to address the concerns of the citizens, but we reduce it to one on this road. Correct. Correct. So my motion died? Is that what you're saying? Yes, it died. Come on, guys. So we have a new motion for one speed hump. We have a new motion to put one speed hump on the road. We have a second on that. I'll second that. You don't have to give up your chair. Never mind. Yeah. Okay. So we don't have a second on that, so I have to withdraw my second. Yes. Okay. We have a motion and no second. Looks like so that fails also. Right. So if there's no other motions, then it's undive for lack of any type of... Yeah. So we're done with that. It fails. All right. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to general public comments. I have a list of people here that have signed up. This goes first, correct? Yes. Okay. All right. We'll go to order on what we're going to be talking about here. So first one I have here is a Mr. Lowry. I'm here to talk about 628 Hobson Road. I got into cold and billing violations after I wouldn't sell my house to the cold person. After that, she condemned my house. I had to get it out of condemnation. I remember working on my house now, but I'm held up because I can't get permits even though I can do the work myself. That's where I'm at now. I can do the work myself, but I got to pay a contractor $3,000 to $5,000 just to put a signature on it, even though I'm doing the work. I have a problem with it. I feel like I'm being extorted. Well, sir, I don't believe that's the situation, but I seen you talking to Mr. Dunn. He gave me some directions where I need to go, but I would have never had this problem had they left me alone. All right, sir. That's what I got going on. I just think it's wrong, and I'm going to fight, and that's what I do. I've got my electric put in. I cannot get my lights turned on because I don't have the co-building permits to do that. I just want my permits so I can fix my house. Yes, sir. That's all I want. All right, sir. Thank you. As I know, they trespassed my property. They went inside. They found everything she could find that wrong with it, and then she sent me all these building violations. The house was built in 48. I was born in that house. All of a sudden, I'm trying to fix it because I gave it to my parents once I bought it so they could get money to live because their retirement, we were fruit pickers. We didn't get no retirement. Got nothing, so I worked for them, and now I got to pay everybody else. My sister and them decided to sectionate it. It's a mess. Thank you, sir. All right. Mr. Whedon? Yes, sir. It's actually Dr. Whedon, but you can call me, Bob. Okay, Bob. Dr. Robert Whedon, 8631 Ringe Road, Polk City. So last time I was here on June 3rd, we talked about the drastic need for a more feral, friendly animal ordinance in Polk County. We talked about the woefully low live outcome rate in Polk County. Surrounding counties have fared much better. Why is this? The obvious answer is the lack of support in Polk County for the humane and effective management of feral and free-roaming cats, known more broadly as community cats. But you said we were speaking to the wrong people. You said this was Grady's problem. Respectfully, I disagree. The Polk County Board of County Commissioners is the governing body in Polk County, Florida, and according to the Polk County Charter, as amended on November 5th, 2024, in Article 2, Paragraph 2.8, Powers, subparagraph 2, it states, adopt such ordinances as may be necessary to carry out both county and municipal powers and purposes. Ladies and gentlemen, Honorable Polk County Commissioners, it is you, and you alone, who have the power to adopt or amend county ordinances. I'm here today to ask you, why won't you do that? Why will you not embrace the scientific evidence that TNVR is more humane? Why will you not embrace the peer-reviewed evidence that TNVR is more effective? Why will you not embrace the overwhelming evidence that TNVR will save Polk County money? Why won't you? I've already sent you a template for an amended animal ordinance that embraces and supports TNVR and the county. I stand ready to assist you in promulgating a new, effective, and humane animal ordinance. My credentials to assist you include more than 40 years as a veterinarian, 25 of which have been devoted to the humane and effective management of community cats. Prior to retiring and moving to Polk County in 2019, I was a clinical assistant professor and the service head of shelter medicine at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, and have authored textbook chapters on animal population control and rabies prevention. It is past time for Polk County to join the 21st century and embrace evidence-based, humane, and effective management of community cats in our county. Why won't you? Right. Thank you, sir. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to say this. I know this is a very emotional deal for y'all, so we've got a lot of people to go through. I know y'all are happy and sad at times, but let's kind of try to keep it down for us, and we'll keep it down for you so we can move along and get this done. Ms. Richards, are you here? Oh, excuse me. Sit down, Ms. Richards, for a minute. Ms. Bywater. She was added late on that because she wasn't on my regular agenda deal. Sorry, ma'am. Go ahead. My name is Becky Bywater. I live on Brookwood Drive in South Lakeland. Yeah, bring your mic down, ma'am, so we can hear you. Thank you. My name is Becky Bywater. I live on Brookwood Drive in South Lakeland. For over 40 years, I have volunteered many hours in financial aid to animal shelters. I watched the last meeting on TV in June as three months ago, I broke my leg and my ankle in three places. I'm telling you this because my volunteer hours have been regulated to office work, answering the phone, and returning phone calls. I wanted to speak to you today and give you my firsthand experience and reality of what happens on a daily basis. On a Monday morning, there are over 60 messages left on the voicemail. I am not exaggerating. On a regular day, there can be 20 to 30. Approximately 50% of those start or end with the words, I need to surrender. The causes are many. It could be death, illness, divorce, moving. Yesterday, I had a call from a young lady crying that her husband had gotten drunk on Sunday and beat she and her children up. How sad is this? This lady had called many shelters, and they all have the same answer. They're full. Some calls are asked to pick up strays on the street or roaming in backyards from backyard breeders who have no need for them anymore, and they will just take them and dump them. Dumping is a huge problem in our county. Many say they have called other shelters, and there is nowhere. So you take this one shelter, and you multiply that by the shelters in this county, and you have to understand the severity and the reality of what we are facing here. Sometimes I feel like, I'm sorry, I'm off script here. I feel like you're looking at me like a blank page, but that is not the case. The root cause of our problem is overbreeding. You cannot adopt your way out of this problem. We need, number one, we need a spay and neuter voucher program. This is not new to you. You've heard it before. We need ordinances on backyard breeders. We need ordinances on people who abuse animals. Dexter's law was just passed not so long ago. I'm sure you probably heard, hopefully, and remember that one. We need to educate the public. If you go to the Polk County Animal Control website, as I did this morning. I'm sorry I'm over time, but I just want to make this note. Okay. Do you know what comes up first? It comes up, adopt an animal with a cute little woman and a cute little dog. And you know what? The second thing it says, do you want to donate to Polk County Animal Control? Seriously? All right. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it very much. All right. Cassandra Richards. One more note. I'm sorry. We are too. Ma'am, we got a lot of people have to speak here, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Ms. Richards. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Cassandra Richards, 2357 Freelander Road. First, I want to say welcome by Commissioner Wilson. Hope you had a wonderful vacation. Also, I'm still waiting on my speed humps. Whoever's talking about speed humps on Arnie Road, can't adopt no more cats. I have two cats. I'm happy with those two cats. They cost me a lot of money. So, I just want to say a thought that ran across my mind dealing with femur and this hurricane season. I know years ago they used to have sirens that warns you about tornadoes and different things. And we are going backwards. I look at Texas and what happened and a lot of people didn't get information in time and the children that have drowned. Are we considering going back to the sirens? We don't have a basement to run into, you know, so we need to get that information quickly. I'm a proactive person, not a reactive person. I don't want to react once it starts. I like to have things placed in an order because my grandfather always taught me it's better to have and don't need than to need and don't have. So, that's my thought on that. I'd be glad when I get my speed humps. We're working on it. I can hardly wait because they're flying, they're flying, they're flying. And like I say, sometimes I feel like getting in my car flying behind them and say, hey, slow down when you come through here. They wouldn't do it anymore if you did that. Also, I know I shouldn't talk to the audience, but I just want to say, get your supplies in order, your batteries. This is critical. We are in a hurricane season. They're not getting slower. They're getting faster. The water dropping more. We need to come together as a county and take care of one another. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Deborah Joseph. Hello. Hi, again. I brought the pictures. I'm sorry to cry, but that's him now. He's 14 years old. And that first picture there, that was when he was tethered for those eight years that I told you about the last time. And what I'm begging and asking you to, and I appreciate you hearing me, is I see this every day on a daily basis of the dogs that's tied up with no shelter, no food, no water. And they can't help me. They can't get off the chains. And I had to call Bartow police the other day because over across the street from my community, they had this dog tied up to a house. It had no water, no shelter, no nothing in the direct heat. And it was just, you know, gasping for the breath. And they, I called them and they did go there and they made the guy take it, you know, to a cooler area. But I'm asking you, please, if there's anything, any kind of ordinance, even if it's just one, you know, where they only tie them up when they have to use the bathroom and stuff and put them back in. I know a lot of people don't have fencing, but this is really terrible in Polk County. It's awful. And I just ask y'all to please, if there's anything you could do about that, I would really be grateful. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Patricia, Jack Wes. Hope I got close to that. There's so many different ways to say it. Jakes, Jax, or Jacques. Patty Jakes, 378 Inverary Drive, Auburndale, Florida. I come before you today to share the story of a longtime Mulberry resident. Her name is Miss Cecilia Jennings. She was born there in the house that she lives in. Miss Jennings has lived in that same house for decades and has lovingly cared for a group of cats on her property. Recently, she was cited by the city, and actually was an angry neighbor that is a dog lover, doesn't like cats, and is now facing fines of $25 per day starting July 28th, not for neglect or abuse, but for feeding the very cats she has looked after for years. To be clear, there is no provision in the city ordinance that prohibits feeding cats. Yet, Miss Jennings is being penalized for showing compassion in most jurisdictions to withhold food from an animal would be considered cruelty or neglect. But here, the law seems to suggest the opposite. In an attempt to comply, Miss Jennings actually reached out to Polk Animal Control to surrender the cats. However, because she's cared for them for so long, the county now considers them for her personal property and refuses to assist. Now, she also contacted local SPCA, which unfortunately turned her away because they have no space. So, now she's trapped, being told she cannot feed the cats, yet no agency will help her responsibly re-home them. She reports that the cats are now scavenging through garbage cans in desperation. In effect, the city is ordering her to let these animals starve. Is this truly the direction we want to take as a county? Instead of punishing residents who are trying to do the right thing, we should be offering solutions such as accessible spay and neuter programs and partnerships with rescue organizations that already do this work on the ground, which I'm part of. But we have no money. That's the problem. One such organization, the Street Cat Project, has made incredible strides in reducing the stray population through trap, neuter, return, and adoption efforts. Yet, we receive no support from the county. When will our leadership acknowledge this growing crisis? How many cats must suffer? How many must starve or be euthanized before real action is taken? We are not asking for the impossible. We are asking for compassion, for resources, and for a plan. We just really desperately need a spay-neuter and a trap-neuter-release program. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, ma'am. Kay Bork. Hope I got close to that. Please come forward and state your name and address, ma'am, and you'll be given three minutes. All right. 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 appreciate it. Animal welfare in Pope County is at a breaking point. Pope County continues to grow. We heard some of that this morning with the different new offices. The pet overpopulation issue continues to worsen with no requirement to spay and neuter pets, no comprehensive program to manage the community cats, allowing backyard breeders, and allowing pet stores to sell puppy mill animals. The pet overpopulation issue is the root cause of the issues at Pope County Animal Control. There are hundreds of individuals in Pope County who work tirelessly trying to change this narrative. They take in and care for as many of those as who have been abused and abandoned as they can with the knowledge that the need is just too great. It's kind of like the story of the guy who was walking on the beach one morning. He saw a bunch of starfish had been washed up on the beach, and he saw one guy down the beach, and he was taking one starfish at a time, and he was throwing it back in the ocean. And he walked up to the guy, and he said, why are you doing that? You know you're not going to make any difference. And the guy picked up another one, and he said, I'm going to make a difference in this one's life, and he threw it back in. Well, that's what these people in Pope County are doing every day. They're picking up one or five or ten and making a difference in those lives. But we believe that the narrative can change. We all can change that narrative. But Pope County needs your leadership in this. The way to make that difference is to make a wholesale change to the animal welfare narrative in Pope County. This is through changed ordinances and policies and programs that have been presented to you already. You have Dr. Whedon who has requested to help you. You have others who have requested to help. We all stand here wanting to help you figure out what these ordinances should be and how to put these policies and programs in place and how to implement them. We are never going to rescue, adopt, or kill our way out of this crisis. And although reform at the animal services area is imperative, we must also address that root cause, which is that unchecked pet population. We understand that the Board of County Commissioners has many voices competing for attention and that we're just one of those voices. At times, it may be difficult to know what next steps to make to create this change. But one thing I do know is that if we continue to keep doing the same things we've been doing, this pet overpopulation issue is just going to worsen. I've noted that the Board has a number of committees, advisory boards, that provide input or information to the Commission. The ordinances and policy changes that have been requested are all part of a comprehensive animal welfare strategy. And several of the people that spoke today and have offered their help could be part of an animal welfare advisory committee. You all could set that up and invite folks in it from the animal control group, from some of these folks, from the rescue organizations throughout the committee. I implore you to take action today. Thank you, ma'am. Diane Schaffer. Good morning. Diane Schaffer, 3657 Tiger Eye Court, Mulberry, Florida. I just want to give you a scenario. A kitten, a small kitten found along the side of the street is picked up by an individual who can't keep that kitten. That person has an allergy. Or maybe the husband, you know, is a dog lover and they have a dog and that won't get along. What do they do? What does that person do? All of the shelters in Polk County are completely full. There's no place to bring that kitten. So what's going to happen with that kitten? It's going to end up at Polk County Animal Control. What are they going to do with that kitten? Most likely, euthanize it. Why? Because there's no place to put the kitten. We are so desperate, so absolutely desperate, that we implement a policy in this county that people can go and bring their kittens or cats in and get them spayed and neutered. It really has to be done. It is getting out of control. I converted a garage into a shelter to help these beautiful kittens and cats. I cannot bring them anywhere in Polk County. I mean, some people have adopted them out, but there's no large shelter that will take them because they're on overload. They have no space. So I have to drive hours. I have to drive to Sarasota. Sometimes I have to drive to Venice to bring these kittens and cats so they have a way of getting adopted out. So I am pleading that all of you look at this. This problem is absolutely out of control. I operate two companies. I'm a businesswoman, and yet I find time to do this because I feel we have a need. I feel we have a strong need to help our animals in Polk County. So please listen to all of us. We're all here to help. We need your help as well. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Sarah Lynn Smith. Ma'am, when you do come up, everybody, please state your name and address so we have it on recording also. My name is Sarah Lynn Smith. I live at 4740 Highlands Place Circle in Lakeland. I'm here again to talk to you about the situation with the animals in Polk County. Today I'd like to address about the current process at Polk County Animal Control, as we understand it, regard free-roaming cats. If the public calls about a free-roaming cat in their neighborhood, animal control will deliver a trap for you to trap the cats. Once trapped, you contact them again, and they will schedule a pickup. Reports say that it takes anywhere from one day to seven days for them to come back for the cat. Leaving the trap cats in the heat without access to food or water for up to a week. They will even take it if the cat is ear-tipped, which means the cat has already been neutered and vaccinated. So they will still take that cat. The director of animal control that I spoke to in a meeting in March, Gordon Shearer, says the cats are then brought to the animal control if they are still alive after being in the trap for seven days. And they're allowed time to decompress wherein they are assessed as feral or friendly. So if they're stressed to the max and they are hissing, they are now deemed feral. We don't believe this process happens as reports have come in that trap cats are euthanized in the truck or upon arrival with no assessment. If they're deemed feral, they are ultimately killed. No hold time is needed at animal control. So if your house cat gets out, like Commissioner Scott's did this past month, it is trapped by a neighbor and is deemed feral because it's shy or scared, it can be killed immediately. Alleged friendly cats are held for the stray hold and then put up for adoption. As of today, though, there are only 44 cats listed on the adoption page of poke animal control. So in the first six months of 2025, there were 3,830 cats taken in as stray, 20 cats taken in as confiscated, 126 cats taken in as confiscated. That's a total of 3,976 cats entered animal control. 1,943 were adopted out. So that leaves over 2,000 cats left and only 44 are friendly enough for adoption. If that is indeed true, why not spay or neuter those deemed feral and put them back where they are trapped to live lives? Every neighborhood in Polk County has at least one and usually many street cat feeders. Those 1,900 plus release fixed cats would increase the live release rate of the shelter to over 90%. And that is what we are trying to get, 90% no kill. So if you had a TNR program, Polk County would meet the 90% no kill that all the other counties around us does. Thank you, ma'am. Patricia Kirby. Patricia Kirby, 1111 Spencer Avenue, Clearwater, Florida, 33756. First of all, thank you all for hearing us today. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate you having open minds for what everyone is saying here. They are very passionate people. So I got involved with this because I happened to drive by. I saw your shelter. I was here on a little church visit. And I drove by your shelter. And I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm going to stop in at the shelter. And there was this cute little black kitten in the cage. Well, first of all, they made me leave my purse and camera in the car. And I was kind of surprised by that. But I got escorted in. And I saw this cute little black kitten. The kitten was in its litter box and did not look good. And I said, that kitten looks sick. And I said, can I do a meet and greet with that one? And they said, sure. So I did a meet and greet. It was so cute. I held it in my lap. It looked depressed. Got it purring after about 30 minutes. And then I said, you know, can I foster or adopt this one? And she said, no, it's not at weight yet. It doesn't weigh enough to be spayed or neutered. No, you can't. I said, well, can it go to a shelter foster? And she said, we only have one. They said, the shelter foster is full. One shelter foster. And that's it. So I left. And I kept calling every single day to check on that kitten. A few days later, I got no more answers. And I found out, not by phone, but by email. I had to email you that the kitten was dead. Of course, I was distraught. I want to say this. So I started volunteering with animal rescue as a shelter volunteer at HCAS. That's the Hillsborough County Animal Services. When their live outcome rate was 35%, that was in 2013. Actually started it 2010. It's 16% cat live outcome rate. Only 16% made it out alive. When I started, it was 35%. I took photos. I did bios of the animals. We tried to implement all these new programs. By 2014, it was 72%. That's in one year, live outcome. Now it is 95% in 2024. So I'm actually a resident of Pinellas County. We have implemented a ton of different programs that help these programs save money, and they save lives. And they bring up the opinion of everybody in the community, of the animals, and of you guys. And it is a county commission issue. It really is. The employees at the shelter at Polk County said to me, face to face, I will put my hand on a lie detector test or a Bible, whatever you want. They said, sheriff, the sheriff hates animals. You can shake your head. I'm not kidding you. And I don't make stuff up. I'm an ordained minister. I don't mess with stuff like that. That is not my deal. But I want to say to you, you can change this by changing the policies. You need shelter foster volunteers for sick and underweight animals. You need a TNR program. Pinellas County did this. You can talk to our former director, Doug Brightwell. He's wonderful. They saved tons of lives. It was an incredible success. Still is a success. They partnered with Rescue for this. You need to create rescue partnerships. You need great photos and a personality bio of every animal. You need a barn or working cat program. You need a discounted spay, neuter, voucher program. And you need colony caregivers in allowing people to care for their community cats. And you need a longer hold time to decompress the scared animals. Lastly, I want to say I'm not here as like a foreigner to your county. I'm a bloodline direct relative to Adam Putnam. And I am here representing the animals. And I appreciate you. Please, please, please make the changes to help these animals. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Jennifer Castro. Jennifer Castro. Oh, see it. Good morning again. Good morning. This is Jennifer Castro. And I'm at 216 Stembridge Road, Lake Wales. So, yes, the common theme is pet overpopulation is an issue. In this county in 2023, 14.7% of families were below poverty level, which would put that at 1 in 10 households. I can't really imagine what it looks like today with the increased inflation, but I'm sure it's not better. Affordable options just aren't there. What tends to happen is people don't look for animals. Animals look for them. These animals are looking for people that are kind. They're starving. They're hungry. And they find people. I'm a cat magnet myself. I'm a magnet for rescues. So, what happens is these people take them in. They obviously feel very compassionate towards them, but they either have a lot of animals already that they may be caring for, or it's a situation where they just can't afford to go get that $250 spay or neuter done. So, they go, well, you know, we've always had animals, and they have babies, so so what? But the so what means we have a shelter full of animals. So, it's not really irresponsibility as much as it's affordability, and that's why all these programs that people are mentioning are so important, and that's why Hillsborough has done such a good job with trying to bring those programs to the people who need them. For the animals that get to the shelter, there is a very critical thing that doesn't happen here, which is there isn't a list of the most urgent and needed animals to leave the shelter. This could be, of course, in a way of prioritizing those who are behavior issues and seniors, and this could also be animals are going to be euthanized because they've been longer term. A lot of times when animals are going up for euthanasia, and that includes kittens that come in at 3 p.m. and are going to be killed at 5, only rescue partners are available with information. Otherwise, if you're not a rescue partner with the shelter, you don't have that information. So, it would help that the public knows who's going up, who's on critical need, in order to save those animals and get them out. A lot of times when people feel the pressure of, oh, there's going to be a death happening, people actually step up to foster with the rescues. So, helping those animals get out is really, it really needs to be part of what we're trying to do so that the euthanasia rate goes down. Lastly, I just want you to know that, you know, I feel like there's a big lack of pet knowledge in our community, and I know that you can't have that in a school. You can't teach kids that, but I think that we have to show the community what pet ownership looks like, and the programs would definitely help that. Thank you for your time. Thank you, ma'am. Ashley, I'm going to really butcher this, was Pity. Was Pity. Yeah, from Spruce Creek Drive. Good morning. Please state your name and address when you get started, and you'll have three minutes, ma'am. Good morning. My name is Ashley Wussapity, 3811 Spruce Creek Drive in Lakeland. So, good morning, commissioners, county management, and members of the viewing audience. I come before you today to recognize and honor the outstanding work of Polk County's Veterans Services Department. They are not a division that seeks attention, rather shies away from it, outside of the veterans circle. But their quiet impact is deeply felt throughout the community. As a United States Marine, honor, courage, commitment, those are our core values that defined our ethos from the very beginning. These values are not just words, but rather the foundation of a Marine's character, and should guide all our actions in all situations. So, honor, living with integrity, and ethical conduct. Courage, the mental, moral, and physical strength to do what's right, even when it's hard. And commitment, dedication to mission, to each other, and to excellence. Sometimes, even to our own fault. These values don't fade when our service ends. They remain a compass, guiding us as we continue to the communities we strive to serve. The communities we live and serve. I was medically separated early in my military career because of permanent injuries to my legs and feet. Since I never had the honor of serving my full contract, nowhere near it, actually, I never felt worthy to apply for benefits reserved specifically for veterans. Never thought to check the veterans box when applying for a position where using veterans preference was available. Never applied for VA benefits to help with care for my disability. Never felt as if I earned any of it. Was deserving of any of it. And then, as it was destined to be, I met a Polk County veteran services officer while I was working a hiring event. My world has never been the same. While I am sure any veteran services officer I met would have done the same, it was a specific veteran services officer that reminded me I, too, voluntarily took the oath of enlistment. And while my body deceived me and my military career was cut short, it didn't make me any less of a Marine. Navigating the process for veterans benefits is overwhelming and very confusing. But our veteran services officers, they're here to help. They do this work for free and with no strings attached, and sometimes to the detriment of their own mental health. Last week, after 20 years, I finally received my disability rating and the benefits that came along with it. And now, thanks to my veteran services officer, I'm working to correct an inaccuracy on my DD-214. One of the veteran services officers caught that error that I never even noticed, which is going to open doors to my educational benefits as I start my master's program next month. Funds that will help me keep learning, hopefully become a better leader in the community, I'm honored to serve. God's timing is impeccable. So thank you for your time and allowing me to share this with you guys today. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Chairman, I've got to say, we do have an outstanding veteran services office. There's a handful of employees in there, and they go above and beyond the call of duty. And one other comment, they are also critically in need of volunteers for the veterans' court services as well. So if there's any veterans out there to assist in that, that would be great. All right. Stephanie Widener. Please come forward, Ms. Widener, and give your name and address, and you'll be given three minutes. You got my name right. Good morning. Stephanie Widener, 9055 Hickory Walk, Haines City, Florida. Commissioner Wilson and other commissioners in attendance today, you were just considering a $5,000 for one speed hump requested by a resident, actually $10,000. I appreciate their concern for the safety of their kids and residents on that road. You now have over hundreds of residents requesting a low-cost, comprehensive spay and neuter program, not just for the TNVR, but also for residents. There are many senior citizens in our community, and as stated previously, there are many people that are struggling but have pets. Maybe they got the pet and are now struggling and cannot see spending the money it takes to spay and neuter. That is a huge expense. And so I would ask you to please consider this a speed hump, if you will, to slow the growth of excess pets, to help animal control with getting those that they have adopted instead of having to euthanize them. And Commissioner Wilson, last time you said, I'm going to paraphrase, I had it written down, but I'm sorry, if it saves the county money, we will do it. You were talking about a different subject. However, there is overwhelming evidence from other counties, from professionals, from people who have spoken here, who have been involved in other TNVR programs, low-cost spay and neuter programs. There is overwhelming evidence, statistics, everything you need to make this happen. You can approve the money. We do pay taxes. There are probably thousands of people that cannot come here because they are actually working, making money to provide and also to take care of their pets. So you said it. I'm going to hold you to your word. I hope this commission will see that we are very, we are representative of multiple people, multiple voters. And I have shared this on my Facebook with people who could not attend the meeting. I've shared the meeting link. I think there are more people here in spirit than you know. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Charlotte Bernhardt. Bernhardt. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Charlotte Bernhardt. I live in 611 Fairway Court, Plant City, Florida. First of all, I just want to start by saying that I am a public civil servant. I come from a long line of public civil servants. My own father served this country for 20 years. He, unfortunately, is a statistic of a soldier's suicide, but I like to think that he gave his life for this country and couldn't transition. I'm here to talk about, and it's not easy for me because I have so much respect for our fellow civil servants and our government. But I'm here to discuss some concerns. Just starting out, in 2019, Eve Wissenthal of Street Cats of Polk County made a petition on change.org that was sent to you guys, basically asking for, I believe it was lowering the euthanasia rate in TNR. There are 79,379 signatures to that petition. Last year, in July of 2025, I, myself, when I became aware of what was happening in my neighboring Polk County, did a petition, demand new leadership transparency TNR, lower kill rate in Polk County animal shelter. Okay. I organized two peaceful protests. I had over 50-something cats pulled from a shelter. I started a rescue. I am also a school teacher, public school teacher. I teach biology. I'm here to read into the record my concerns regarding First Amendment violations due to petition, protest, censorship, and potential retaliation, as was explained to me by potential legal counsel. Here are my four talking points. Retaliation against petitioning and peaceful protests. The First Amendment protects the right to petition the government for redress or grievances. I lawfully organized, submitted a petition in combination with EVE's. It's over 79,000 signatures, and a peaceful protest was done. Two, viewpoint discrimination on official social media. County officials, the sheriff's office, for starters, county officials appear to have blocked residents' Facebooks for voicing criticism. It's related to the petition and protest. When a public official uses social media page to conduct government business, courts have wrote it, becomes a designated public forum. And blocking critics from engaging there is viewpoint discrimination, which is unconstitutional. This is according to the Knight's First Amendment Institute versus Trump in 2019, where a federal court ruled president violated that First Amendment by removing people from his Twitter account. Talking point number three, retaliatory camera ban in a public shelter. After the petition and protest was exposed and it garnered media attention, there was a public ban for camera. Importantly, cameras were previously allowed and only banned after the group exposed this. This is, according to a government federal court, not allowed. In public spaces, cameras have to be allowed. The last point, suppression instead of accountability. I think that's all for me. My time is here. I just wanted to read that into the record. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Mr. Abercumby. All right. Anyone else like to come up and speak? Seeing none. All right, sir. You've already been up one time, haven't you, sir? Yeah. That's not on this case, though. Not on this case. Oh, okay. Not during this time. Thank you. Make sure we fill out a card. He fills out a card. Yes. Okay. All right, sir. Not a problem. Again, John Daly, 1619 Country Walk Lane, Winter Heaven. You know, it's just listening to all this, watching you guys, you know, everybody's saying a lot of very important things. Probably some of you guys are going, they're going, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. But basically, this is a very important thing. And I've rescued probably over 100 cats on my own dime, spent thousands of dollars trying to make a, you know, a difference. I have six of my own. Foster fails. I couldn't get anybody to take them. But I can't do anymore. I'm retired. I got a bad back. I just can't do it. You guys need to do it. Grady Judd needs to do it. If you got a soul, we got to do this. Can't kick the can down the road, you know. People are passionate. We love our animals. You can't have Polk County reputation dragged through the mud because of this. The TV station's already on it. It's not going to go away. It'll get worse. If you keep kicking the can down the road and you don't do anything, another TV station's going to show up and another one. And if you all make national, good luck. Thank you. Everybody was good till the last one. Anybody have anything to say? Okay. Well, I think that winds us up. We thank everybody for today. Meeting is adjourned.