Clermont City Council Workshop Transcript 6/16/26

2:25 We have a lot of athletes training here which is amazing. U the infrastructure has to catch up because the frequency is is outpacing no pun intended u the
2:34 infrastructure that's in place. Uh the growth is faster pace than the political initiatives. Uh, I would that came out when we did this meeting a year ago when
2:42 we kicked this off. I would say just in the things I've seen with the comprehensive plan coming up and the efforts of the city council and the mayor and city manager and staff and
2:51 parks and wreck, um, I can tell you I'm pretty confident it's on people's radar.
2:55 Now, uh, political pivot pivots and leadership changes. I want to make a statement on that one that this is very common. Um when whenever we go into a
3:04 city, you have term limits, you have leadership limits, and some of these initiatives are multi-year uh three years, 5 years, 10 years, 20
3:13 years. Uh you have different team teammates and team players coming in and out. So that's that's fairly normal. Uh the question is how do you leverage that
3:20 and be and be intentional uh as as we change? And then county collaboration and logistics to to promote Clermont.
3:29 Uh the county is handling obviously different cities. So there's a lot of opportunity there with its strength but also to making sure that Clermont
3:36 remains the diamond. Right? So uh those were a synopsis of the consistent messaging that we heard.
3:44 Uh our o overarching goal is to maximize quality of place, quality of life and economic impact to attract and retain talent. [clears throat]
3:51 So we want to make sure we keep the young upandcomers here. Uh we want to make sure that as businesses grow and
3:58 that as Clermont grows and you're looking at the comprehensive plan of in university expansion
4:05 [clears throat]
4:05 um economic workforce attraction you want to make sure that you're attracting you're doing initiatives that are quality of place driven so that people
4:13 want to move here they want to stay here and it's the right demographic and right talent [clears throat] pool that you're looking for. So we looked at three
4:21 areas. Uh vision which is identifying reimagined potential of your top assets in a nutshell without reading every one
4:28 of those words. That means we are looking at the top three things that you have already in place that with some modifications and tweaking can really
4:37 take you to the next level. Uh activation we're following the people and we're following the money. Where are they going? When are they going? How are
4:44 they going? Why are they going? And what does that mean for you? And does it align authentically with your ethos?
4:50 There's that word again, right? Uh and then parks and wreck. Uh your parks and wreck, I'll just say right now, is one of your most valuable tools. How do we
4:58 quantify that? How do we make sure we can all communicate that? And what are some things now based on your inventory versus what you could potentially expand
5:06 into that will really make a difference and elevate uh the city of Clermont.
5:13 So really with all those words, we're maximizing healthy connectivity. We're leveraging the the the ethos, the original culture of the city of
5:21 Clermont as it's evolving, making sure that we're activating sports and gatherings in the right way, [clears throat] mobility and access. How
5:29 do the people get around uh in a healthy way? And parks and wreck.
5:37 All right, we're going to start with movement and gathering. So these are broken into different categories. These are your sports events, your existing
5:44 sports um and festivals and the potential of of of what you have. So you can see right now obviously uh baseball,
5:51 softball, uh triathlon, track and field, um wakeboard, water sports, you have a gigantic motocross contingency here. I
6:00 don't know if you knew this, Ken Roxson just won the the national championship uh actually world championship in supercross. one of the probably in my
6:08 opinion if you haven't looked that up you should. One of the best stories of resilience. He almost had his arm amputated and came back and amazing guy.
6:15 So um rowing uh and you also have a big BMX contingency here. Uh so Haimey uh
6:22 who's I don't know if he's in the room uh is one of the coaches and brings in foreign Olympians but they can't train here because they're not a track. So
6:30 they go they go somewhere else but they live here. So again, goes back to the the relevance of of of uh what you have.
6:38 Um without going into too much detail on this, unless you need to, um I want you to look at the chart in the beginning, that big square. And what what we did
6:46 was we plotted out every month of the year in 2025. We pulled the data from sports and tourism to see how many
6:54 people showed up for what event, whether it was a festival or sport. Um and we ranked those. Then we took a look at what was the temperature and what was
7:03 your weather like. So as you can see as where we are right now May, June, July and that red line above as your temperature rises your events go down.
7:14 Um so you are heavy in spring, fall um and in summer months you kind of you kind of drop. Uh event specific impact.
7:23 Uh so if if you're not familiar with economic impact in the sports tourism world, they take your visitors, they can take a look at where they travel. Um the
7:31 data we use, you're going to hear me use a term called AI Placer. We do gigantic events and every city we have to do a
7:39 report to that city of how many people came, where did they come from. Uh it's it's pretty amazing what uh the
7:47 technology can do. So they can track income. uh they can't track specific names but they on the information on
7:54 your phone which is which is scary uh they can track the economic impact of all the people who visited what how much did they spend in that amount of time.
8:03 The other thing that we take a look at too, [clears throat] and this is something that I think would be great um for you to dive into. A lot of times in
8:10 the sports world, uh a city will say, "Okay, Shane, your cycling event was Friday through Sunday, and that's when we're looking at how many people were
8:18 here." And I always challenge that and I say, "Well, most of them arrived on Tuesday because they were warming up and practicing and some stayed." So, I think
8:26 your numbers are bigger than this. I can't prove it. Uh so, this is coming straight out of sports tourism. Uh we took a look at the uh got some
8:34 information from the national training center. So uh that team me teams are in here. Thank you so much. That really helps. Uh and then we took a look at
8:41 arts and the arts and rec center which had a huge amount of influx local. So lower spending but bigger volume. So
8:50 what you see on events uh and I'll kind of go through them real quick. You have national training center, soccer, fast pitch, the the weekends at the winery,
8:57 big number there. triathlon, uh, swimming, water polo, track and field, uh, and that list goes on. Here's where
9:05 it gets interesting. If you take a look at your top locations of where those activations happen, uh, National
9:12 Training Center, I think we probably all guessed that, right? Because it's it's it's built that way. Six 65,000 attendees.
9:21 Waterfront Park. [clears throat] So economic impact $7 million second highest the national training
9:29 facility and the attendees in this attendee number is going to be different than the park attendee number you're going to see later because this is tied
9:37 specifically to events. I'm going to show a second metric for parks waterfront park and it's going to be how
9:43 many people visited including events and just recreation. Um, so all in all, you have Arts and Rec Center right after that, 193,000 visitors last year.
9:54 Hancock Park 30,000, Lakeidge Winery, 39,000. Legends Way Ballfield 8,000, and Lake Louisa 2,000. And as you look at
10:04 that, you can start seeing where certain locations drive a lot of activation. Uh, certain locations have low activation,
10:11 but high spend rate because of people being attracted have higher incomes. So there's a lot of different ways you can manipulate this and take a look at this
10:19 as you are looking at um specific um uh metrics and strategies moving forward.
10:29 One of the things that uh you also have the potential of uh are new festivals. So these are aligned with your ethos.
10:38 Water action sports uh cycling um it's all right here. So, right off the bat, just in the world that I live in, uh I
10:47 know Iowa has the the Ragbr uh festival, which is a borderto border, huge festival. Guess what? You're right in
10:55 the middle of Florida. You are the perfect location. I think you should brand it. I think you should buy the copyright to be the mile in the middle.
11:03 Get creative. Arkansas, Bentonville. Um if you're familiar with mountain biking, they are called the mountain bike capital of the world. They trademark
11:12 that. that was a strategic marketing initiative. So you have something here that you can you can leverage. So you have you are naturally um aligned for
11:20 festivals. These are great in my opinion because you're not having to do big campaigns to build foundations and infrastructure and sewers. These are
11:28 things that are plug-and-play. Uh so that's something for you to consider. Um my world, this is a case study in Tulsa.
11:36 Uh we are we have the BMX uh headquarters there and the Grand Nationals. BMX in Oklahoma uh contributed half a billion dollars since
11:44 the 80s into that state in economic impact. Uh and just in the last, you know, four years, you can kind of see three to four years, we're at roughly
11:52 $60,000 uh just with events. Um we have three USA champ national championships,
12:00 qualifiers. We have,45 athletes from around the world coming in to train. And again, I'm going to say this. I live there. I can say this. It's Tulsa.
12:09 [laughter] You guys are Clermont, Florida, next to Orlando. So, just process this. Um, 5,300 uh new youth
12:16 riders on bicycles out of schools. Uh, these aren't even racers. These are kids getting on bikes. We serve an we have a RISE program, resiliency, inclusion,
12:24 social awareness, and education to serve underserved youth. Uh, Tulsa was the site of the largest race massacre against the black community. And this
12:32 program is based out of there. And it is it is going very well. uh 20 regional schools, 130 community events because uh it's multi-purpose and STEM education.
12:46 This was interesting. This is out of South Carolina. I put this case study up for you so you could see it. This was their world championship in 2024. That
12:53 highlighted number, that's a $43 million economic impact. That was for nine days.
12:59 So, um again, you're naturally aligned for things like this.
13:04 Um, also too with your foundations and your sports, one of the things I found is that the foundations within the sport really can drive uh sponsorship dollars.
13:14 So, as for all of you who are looking at sports, baseball, soccer, uh everything else, uh don't forget the foundation.
13:20 Corporations are more likely in my opinion for what I've seen to give to get kids on bikes and get them learning and off their screens and outside. uh
13:29 they love racing, they love cycling, but most of the time I'm seeing higher higher commitment letters or commitment numbers uh to the foundation.
13:38 So at as I finalize every little pocket, you're going to see four boards up here which kind of are highlights of
13:46 everything I said. So this board, board number one, uh kind of reiterates and repeats some of that. So you guys can take a look at this. We're going to
13:53 leave those here uh so you can soak those in.
14:00 Okay. Uh on to the second area, healthy connectivity. So this is creating safe and accessible trail network for all.
14:07 And I use the word for all. Really important. Uh love cycling. It's not just about cycling. It's about pedestrians. It's about talked about
14:15 mobility golf carts, right? Um a lot of this I think with the way things are going, especially electricity, mobility, uh we have to be thinking bigger. uh
14:22 case studies, a picture of New York, a picture of Copenhagen, of cities at um obviously they've been doing it a long time. Uh but they can that
14:31 infrastructure of separating uh cycling pedestrians from automobile traffic uh and using buffers, whether that's
14:38 landscape or hard barriers as concrete are are huge opportunities. One of the things that you will see is here in the
14:46 middle is the slide um and there's a bigger version of that right now.
14:52 I think Clermont is very fortunate because you have two arteries that essentially divide the city into a
14:59 quadrant. You have Hancock Road and the potential of what that could be. The South Lake Trail, which is already awesome, the potential to really kind of
15:08 ramp that up and make that a big experience uh for the mile in the middle for Clermont. Uh but Hancock Road being
15:14 a huge opportunity of of what what can happen uh as as you dive as you dive into that. So
15:24 when we took a look at the trails, there's three there's different compartments. Um I won't get into acronyms. Uh you've got NACTO, uh you've
15:31 got ASHTTO. These are national standards. Engineers, civil engineers look at planning bike lanes, traffic, and what that means. Um and we're again
15:40 we're talking about this is something to keep keep an open mind about. A triathlete is very different than a three-year-old. So, when we talk about
15:48 safe trails, even though I deal with a lot of Olympians, I'm always asking myself when I send one of my kids to the
15:55 grocery store on this trail. So, as you see, you might have a bike lane, but if the bike lane is next to 50 mph traffic
16:02 that it's a bike lane, but it's not a safe bike lane, right? So, uh I'm going to have Chad come up and talk a little bit
16:10 about some of the nerdy stuff in terms of the metrics. and I told him to keep it within 5 minutes, [laughter] but there's
16:18 140 pages of analysis if you want to dive into it. Um, before Chad starts, you can see the quadrants we're talking
16:26 about. Those thick blue lines are uh South Lake Trail and Hancock Road. Um, as we look at parks where those end and
16:34 where those terminate depending on which direction you're going, we really see Wellness Way uh down in the south as a huge opportunity, gigantic opportunity
16:41 for a future park and as a destination place. We see uh up north by Sugarloaf Mountain roughly in that area. Uh,
16:49 another area for a park um that could be used there. And the yellow the yellow um square or rectangles are the areas that
16:58 are already highly activated based on the the discussion we had before downtown Clermont obviously and and the the South Lake Trail uh and Waterfront
17:05 Park being one of them. And then there are circles there because we can't forget the schools. So Chad's going to
17:12 talk about two things. Hancock Road uh and why we focus on that. And then we're going to talk about the schools and why
17:20 those are important now, but they're also important later as you finish the comprehensive plan and go backwards and try to uh pull those in. So, all right,
17:28 Chad, don't don't make them sleep.
17:32 Thank you for that, Shane. Um, the big leadup. Um, let's see. What are we talking about here first? Uh, highway standards. So, I don't know if Shane
17:39 told you like ASTO. stands for American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials and NACTO is
17:47 National Association of Community and Transportation Officials. They're different in the way they look at things, but they're complimentary with
17:55 one another because they're both looking for safety for transportation, an intermixture of cycles, pedestrians, and cars.
18:05 Um, let me see what Oh, I got the thing right here. Um what we've done is looked at things in the perspective of
18:12 engineering but also how does that affect the safety of the users and what Shane was saying if you look at the you can this is all in the uh the appendix
18:21 in in the data so you can just look at this but it breaks it down into what the commonalities are what the differences are and how those are impacted and how you apply them.
18:30 This is another component we looked at when we did some grading on this uh on the entire length of Hancock Road. This is LTS and this is a function of ashtto.
18:40 And what it does is it gives you parameters to look at based on if you can see that desired width of lanes,
18:48 constrained widths, so like minimums, maximums, and then you get to an area where the blue is what they consider to
18:55 be a positive area. The purple is a good area and then red that's where you don't want to live. And so what we did was we
19:03 created a formula and I don't know if it shows there or not but it gets into the grading of things and how we've done a
19:10 blend between ashtto nacto and LTS come up with a grading system that becomes a weighted average across all elements along Hancock Road.
19:20 One of the parts that you need to look at is how are the lanes designed? If you look from left to right, you have A, which would be a full shared lane where
19:29 bikes and cars are living as one, and that's probably your most dangerous condition. B would be a shared pathway,
19:38 but it's divided by a painted line. C, which is a conventional bike lane, but it's more clearly isolated. And then you
19:47 have a condition on D, what it's a buffered bike lane where you have cars, an actual divided uh section that's
19:54 clearly marked for uh bicycles to drive on, and then you have a park condition.
19:59 And then the [clears throat] most extreme case would be probably more your urban conditions where you have a full uh automotive lane, ballards, and then
20:08 an isolated bike lane, which is probably your most safe condition.
20:12 And then Ashtto goes into looking at how does this impact the [clears throat] way you design a this would be like a the
20:21 one on the left is more of an urban condition where you have high levels of traffic. You have cross you know intersections where traffic's crossing
20:29 one another and that's giving you the parameters which you design by with what they call it boxed um isolation or box
20:36 cross traffic. And then the conditions down below on the lefth hand side are what we just talked about with clearly defined parking areas, bike paths, and
20:46 where the cars, excuse me, where the cars can go. And then it just kind of goes down in levels of severity where you get into minor minor intersections.
20:54 And then it just basically driveways or alleys where the the level of traffic is lower.
21:01 Let's see. Here's the what we use to grade that. I don't know if you can see that or not, but each each ASHTTO, NACTO, and LTS kind of comprise eight
21:08 core elements. And we each gave those kind of a numeric grade. And what we did was, if you can see the grid on the
21:16 bottom, each one of those elements, if it met the criteria, got a grade three, two, one, or zero. Same thing with LTS.
21:24 It was kind of an inverse relationship between go LTS, LT1 through four. But LT1 would be, let's say, if you're comfortable with your child riding their bike as a three-year-old on the road.
21:34 Level of four, you'd be like, "No, I wouldn't be. I'm not I wouldn't say I'm not really comfortable with that." So, um, and then NATO is looking at things
21:42 from a different perspective, but it's also weighted on a a numeric component.
21:46 And then the grades, we can see that they're given a letter grade from A to F. And I'm happy to report I only think
21:54 you had one area that was an F. But um Hancock Road, we looked at things from north to south with zone A through zone
22:03 E being areas that have been fully developed and have been in use for quite a while. Zone N and zone S are areas that are in
22:12 develop right now primarily by LAR. You have Sugar Sugarloaf Ridge and [clears throat]
22:20 Wellness um Ridge to the south. And then each of these a zones are broken up into the major intersections within those.
22:30 And those are your scores. So I don't know if you can see that, but zone A, it went from C's to B's. Zone B went primarily C's and B's.
22:40 C primarily B's and C's. And then when you start getting into zone, I can see that zone zone D here, that's where you
22:49 get into some of the older neighborhoods and things get squeezed down from multi-lane roads to one loan one road where you have a tighter ride of way.
22:58 That's when things started to get really challenging because you have cars battling with bicycles or pedestrians.
23:04 you have challenges with um sightelines, utilities, things that could become a challenge and those typically scored
23:12 lower and Fs and D's. And then when you get down to zone E, that's an area where it's not really fully developed yet. You
23:19 can see this, but you got get into zone E, you're looking at, you know, for about the first
23:26 quarter of it's paid and then it goes dirt road. So, it's it's in the process of being developed. schools.
23:35 Um, I know schools well. I I worked inside of a public school district in San Diego County for 10 years as a program manager and a project manager.
23:44 And safe routes to school was a big component of what we did.
23:48 [clears throat] Um, so we looked at this from the perspective of a protocol called A&B, which is access, network
23:55 safety, and behaviors. And so what that means is access to a site. Would you be willing
24:03 to let your child ride their bike or walk to the school?
24:07 Uh network safety. Does the roadway facilitate easy access for those kids to get to school or behaviors? Behavior is
24:14 more challenging because is the kid going to behave on his way to school or the people driving around the school are
24:21 their behaviors going to be com complimentary to a kid getting to school on you know safely?
24:28 um those were graded as well. And so it was an A, it was A, excuse me, [clears throat] A and B. And so we had specific criteria under each of those
24:36 elements and we gave those another weighted score as a way to kind of put some kind of numeric together where
24:43 you're not just making it very um um opinionated, let's say. Um
24:52 let's see. So your schools based on analysis and all the scores and how we got to those scores is in the appendices in the analysis. So your best schools
25:02 are your ne basically your neighborhood schools. Aelia M. Cole, Cypress Ridge Elementary and Westley Christian Academy. Are Cole I know is a new K through8 which was built just recently.
25:11 Correct. Uh Cypress Ridge is across the state and those are both supported by a strong network around there. you have low traffic volume, lower traffic volume, um lower speeds.
25:23 Tier B would be moderate conditions where you have [clears throat] um conditions where it's supportive of the
25:31 campus, but you still have maybe some things to work on. And then you get into tier C, tier D, and the final
25:38 distribution of grades. You have um one in the A range, the majority of are in the B range, and
25:46 then you have some that are still good, but they they show some areas where they could be using some work. I got it from here, buddy.
25:53 [clears throat]
25:54 A lot of numbers. [laughter] So, one of the things that I think it's important to see when you you're going to see this on Hancock Road in the schools, too. Uh as soon as you have
26:03 high-speed uh adjacent uh those those drive those grades down. So, uh, one of the things I know that are on a big
26:11 conversation here in Clermont is how do you get across some of these highways, uh, I want to encourage as you think
26:18 about pedestrian uh, overpasses and and cycling, they do not have to be stairs.
26:23 Uh, you can get really creative with those. Uh, so these are just some examples from around the world that go not only water, uh, they go over some
26:30 some of the freeways. So, um I do on our uh connectivity map, uh which you'll see here, we identify, uh some of the red
26:39 the bigger red dots are areas that are high priority of areas that we think, uh we need one obviously down in uh Wellness Way linking Lake Louisa.
26:48 There's a lot of activity there uh with with the cycling network. Um that's a very strong potential uh and you can see
26:55 some others uh spread around uh the the city as well. Um again on this we have those those grades and uh data up here.
27:05 We also have it broken down extremely detailed in in the report. All right the fun stuff the middle mile.
27:12 [laughter] Okay. So um one of the things as I go through this uh it is we are looking at really the that souththeast
27:22 corner to the northwest corner uh all the way down. So from Lake uh Hayawa Park uh all the way down over to where
27:30 the trail South Lake Trails juts back into the neighborhood. So u one of the things that we did was take a look at the the different proponents of what
27:38 what could be here and why. So I'm going to start with that uh kind of that north northwest corner. Uh the West Bank, it
27:46 needs a sense of arrival. Uh if this is going to be the mile in the middle, the South Lake Trail, if you guys are going to have a statewide bicycle um festival,
27:55 when people are coming heading east, when they hit that road, they want to know that they've arrived somewhere special. So there are a lot of amusement
28:02 parks around here, museums, amusement parks, they do experiential plans. They want to know what what do their people
28:10 and visitors feel the minute they arrive from the parking lot all the way through the park. So, you want them to know they've arrived somewhere special. Um,
28:18 there's a lot of lawn space there. I know it's swailed for water mitigation and storm water. Um, there are very creative ways you can do that. I'm going
28:26 to talk about this again a little bit with culverts and infilling those and developing on top, but leaving the culverts below does the same thing, but then you can access that. So, that West
28:35 Bank can really be mixed use as a flex space um commi commission [clears throat] local and national art.
28:42 put those in the water. You know, again, don't think just on the banks and, you know, try to try to break out those
28:50 pictures are from Lake Geneva. Um, some of the best places in the world are just doing things a little bit different that set off the the vibe and the ethos. Uh,
28:58 I know there's a dog park in Haywata Park. Um, I like another dog park here and the reason is for flex space. So, if you have a big event and you need to
29:07 move there, you you can move into that space pretty easily. Um, another thing too which goes on to the NRPA, the parks and recreation assessment. One of the
29:16 things that Clermont needs more of is ADA accessible fitness equipment.
29:20 They're very specific, not playground, ADA fitness equipment. So, um, so that's something that uh, what we recommend
29:28 here. And I know um, you've got some docs. Um, we're going to talk a little bit about more of that, but uh, I am really pushing for things we're seeing
29:36 in Europe, which are multi-purpose docks that are mixed use with pods and things like that. And you're going to see a photo of those here in a second. Victory
29:44 point. I think it really needs some shade. Um, you have a spillway that goes from the lake down into that water
29:52 treatment plant. That's beautiful. Uh, I've seen other cities use that and turn those into like um, lazy river for kids.
30:00 So, um, that whole area right there, uh, a retail, public private partnership for pods, small retail, stand up paddle boards, things like that would be amazing. Uh, and it would be awesome.
30:10 You've got a lawn there. I wanted to get in the water and said I couldn't.
30:14 So, [laughter] but it would be amazing that I think there's a lot of potential there for revitalizing that area.
30:22 um a string of pearls trail. You have a lot of beautiful things um within the city of Clermont and downtown. We
30:30 talked about that experiential plan. So when somebody comes to visit, not all of them are going to be cyclists going across Florida. Not all of them are
30:38 going to be training for triathlons like me. I used to travel with four kids, right? And one's on a balance bike. I've got my bike and we are going one mile an
30:46 hour maybe. Um I think you have an great opportunity. You have two wonderful anchors and a a string of ponds in
30:55 history that link those two where uh we mapped out and did a topo of a uh a family bike trail that you could
31:02 activate and you could make that a placemaking thing. You could bring it through down like different spots could be sponsored by different locations or if they're able to climb. There's one
31:11 hill. [laughter] You're not getting rid of that one, right? But if you can climb that one and they get on video, they get a free beer
31:18 somewhere. uh city of uh Greenville uh South Carolina does an amazing thing of place branding and kind of geocaching within their city. I really think this
31:26 is something where you can not only educate people on the history of of what makes Clermont unique, but uh it'll be a memory they'll they'll take back with
31:33 them because not all of them are going to jump on that trail and leave leave downtown.
31:38 Uh we talked a little bit about access and equity really um uh activating Lincoln Park. You got McKenna Park there. I was going off my memory. I
31:47 think it had 7,000 u visitors just within the the boundary of that park. Uh there's a mixeduse op um potential there
31:56 on the corner, which you'll see here in a second. Bishop Field, which I'm going to address really quickly, and I know some other people are going to address that in a lot more detail, but I'll I'll
32:03 share what I see. Um and then Sparkling Lake up there on the on the top, but Lincoln Park is rich with history. Uh,
32:10 and we just want to make sure that when we talk about access, it's accessible for all the winery. You saw that it was like in
32:18 the top three activation points. Um, I think you could make a pretty cool wine experience, cycling experience, linking that and tie that in with a festival, make it bigger.
32:29 We talked about uh strategic swailes.
32:31 Um, there you could use on this one area right now. It's a swell. Uh you can alternate uh and protect the views of
32:40 those residences there by doing one story with grass roof roof developments.
32:45 Um and areas where they're not impeding views, pop those up to to two stories.
32:50 And you can develop kind of a um restaurant retail vibe right there right on the trail and closer to the water. Uh
32:59 that's going to be um important. We're going to talk a little bit about funding and how do you do all this. Uh there's a lot of opportunities. This is one of the big ones I think of developing new
33:08 revenue for the parks and wreck uh um the parks and wreck department uh with property that they already have through
33:15 public private partnerships. This money can then be reinvested into things like Hancock Road and and other things.
33:22 Here's an example of those docks I was mentioning. This is in Copenhagen. Um they've got coffee shops, standup paddle board rentals, they've got small
33:30 offices, work centers, um skateboard ramps built into the dock. I don't know if our code will let us do that, but they do there. It's pretty cool. Um,
33:39 activate the water. Uh, so, uh, instead of putting the stages, if you can, uh, on the grass and taking up that realy where pedestrians and and vendors can be, uh, don't be afraid of the water.
33:50 Uh, put get that in there. All right, all you baseball softball fans in here, Bishop Legacy Field. So, um, I love the
33:58 history of this and and where what that meant. So, I know there's experts in here that are going to be talked about that, but really to celebrate the grassroots history of baseball. Uh,
34:07 preservation of the building and ethos of the era. So, I know there's a an existing building there. It' be really cool to to to keep that that flavor. Uh,
34:16 nurture their future champions. Uh, so that's either through connections of heroes with the sport or scouting, uh, economic development through training,
34:23 tournaments, and then educate and elevate. you can make this a case study of not only a downtown development but also if you're using the technology um
34:31 of of how that worked and how it then trained the legacy of of upandcomers um and then this is at uh created mixeduse
34:38 destination at McKenna Park. So just creating a community gathering places that eat, shop, sing, play, rest.
34:47 This is probably uh one of my favorite Oh, and I've got a a label in there. uh one of my favorite uh um ponds or lakes
34:55 right there. Uh so I think with the double uh reflection of of sparkling sparkling lake, did I say that right?
35:04 And adding a fountain in there, uh this could be a destination's point. Uh because you've already have that's one of the highest numbers of concentration
35:11 you have when we took a look at our AI placer data of people going on and off that boat dock.
35:18 Uh triathlon celebration art. This was something that uh I think Fred Sners's group had. They've been saving the medals from all the different um
35:26 triathlons that have been here in Clermont. There'd be a really cool place right there by Sparkling Water Lake. Um so, um I think that would be
35:34 one of those opportunities. You could again put that there or put it in the water.
35:38 Uh and then uh mixeduse parking. So, uh I think you all need a parking garage. I think it should be mixed use. Could they
35:46 don't have to be uh bland parking garages. And I also think the roof should be a green roof where you can activate it uh for other things like
35:54 events and and uh rent that out. Uh and this is the entry to the Olympic training facility in uh
36:02 San Diego. Chooa Vista, you have a whole list of champions. You could do something similar. I think this should
36:09 be on the or the east side as traffic is coming in or bike traffic is coming in off South Lake Trail entering that park right there across that intersection.
36:17 Sense of arrival. you've arrived at the middle mile.
36:21 Okay, I'm going to hit parks and wreck um real quick. This is a some more data driven, but I'm going to keep it really fast.
36:30 So, we're working with NRPA, which is the National Recreation and Park Association, and they they rank parks
36:37 based on two criteria. They have the seven dimensions of well-being. So, they break that into cultural, economic, emotional, environment, intellectual,
36:45 physical, and social. Um, each one of those have very specific areas and some of those you can measure, some some are
36:53 harder to measure. Um, this is something that's important that they want parks to make sure they're using as their guiding
36:59 principles. Um, they also have a document of in terms of how do you evaluate your your park, your use, and
37:07 the quality. What was interesting when I dove into that is that those two forms don't align. So you have seven dimensions of well-being, but then the
37:16 evaluation tool for to how you evaluate a park doesn't necessarily mesh. Uh so what we did was uh working with the the
37:23 leadership team at NRPA directly and it's pretty cool. Clermont is actually the first project to go through this and they're pretty excited. I met with them last week and they were asking if they
37:31 could get a copy of this and I said, "No, not yet. [laughter] I want to make sure you guys see this." Um but it's something that uh their their
37:39 demographics team um ha have not been considering and uh I think you all are going to be a case study here um in the
37:47 next few months but without me going through all of every single one of these things. We [clears throat] created a matrix and we use and thanks to Bryan and his team they've been very patient.
37:58 We've been digging into every park. How big are they? The activation number that I I referenced earlier. Um, do they have
38:05 picnic tables? Do they have an amphitheater? Do they have food? Do they have programs? What kind of programs?
38:09 Where are they held? Uh, is the park just on a piece of grass with trees or does it have a pier? Does it have nature trails? So we went through and created
38:18 this ranking system and then we took a look at uh other national studies and put a priority multi multiplier on top
38:26 of these and [clears throat] identified how your parks stack uh on a core using
38:32 this kind of hybrid matrix for NRPA. Uh so good news you guys parks are amazing.
38:40 Um so um I'll show you a quick synopsis of all those numbers.
38:46 When [clears throat] you look at activation right now, the the leading econom activation economic driver for all healthy gatherings, events,
38:54 programs, festivals, and accessible quality of life initiatives for all members of the community are your parks.
39:01 [clears throat] So NRPA uh their national kind of guideline is a like 10 acres of parkland per thousand
39:08 residents. You're at uh that's about 530 based on 5 or 53,000. Um, that's about
39:16 we're at around 360 acres. However, I put a note on here because you have so much water in terms of lakes and those parks above the lake with water access.
39:26 I think you've hit the spot. They don't address that and I'm I'm going to address it, but uh I I think you guys are heading in in in the right
39:35 direction. Um, in terms of your six most active parts in terms of the grade scale you saw earlier, Waterfront, Arts, Arts
39:43 and Rec Center, Hayawa, Park Pal, [laughter] I've learned to say that. Hancock Park,
39:50 and Lake Felter. Those are your your top six. Now, here's what's interesting. You have a score of B's. You have a couple
39:58 scores of C's. I want to make sure you understand what the difference is. When I looked at NRPA's requirements, if you if you had a
40:06 conservation and sustainability internal document that you practiced and that you taught, your score would go up. That's
40:14 one of their big ones, right? Um, and then nature access, that's another one.
40:18 So, you could have a park that's heavily active with sports and gets used a lot, but you might have a park that has the same thing, but they have access to
40:25 water and fishing and a canoe, so they get the higher score. So really the way an easy way to quick opportunity to jump these up is that conservation
40:34 sustainability protocol internal and then I kind of broke down arts and recreation center. We'll see here in a bit access to nature. You guys have a
40:42 lot of property over there. We're going to talk about that. Um Hayawa preserve this was interesting food. Now you might have food trucks
40:50 but they they talk about food. So, um, if you had a document that said, "This is how often food trucks are there, and
40:57 here's what they serve, um, and one of them is healthy," they look at things like that. So, um, again, very different type of ranking.
41:06 Um, here's your top 15 survey responses.
41:08 So, one of the things NRPA requires is that a survey goes out. Uh, so Bryan and the team were awesome. They they put this together and went out. So, um, more
41:18 pickle ball, raetball type, uh, facilities with shade and lighting. Uh, improve athletic fields and increase sports facilities overall. Increase
41:27 shade. You're going to hear the word shade a lot. Remember those summer months? We saw trees and green space.
41:32 Upgrade waterfront and lakefront amenities. Uh, expand trails. Uh, walking paths and bike connectivity, which we've talked about. Improve park
41:40 maintenance and infrastructure. Add more recreational programming and community activities. build additional indoor multi-purpose recreation facilities or
41:48 field houses where you have different sports and you can use it. Uh improve accessibility and convenience. Address recreation center and aquatic center
41:55 cost. Um I looked at that one. A lot of those came in from non-residents. So I just want to make sure I qualified uh what that was. Uh improve natural area
42:05 preservation, increase outdoor fitness opportunities, uh parking management, improve safety and enforcement. I looked
42:12 into that one as well. This was specific to the speed of ebikes on the trail. And then there was a comment about disruptive activity. I think those are
42:20 your teenagers, I'm guessing, right? Um and then add food and beverage options.
42:26 So, um pretty similar to some of the things you've seen what we talked about in parks and with waterfront park, arts and [clears throat] recreation
42:34 center. I think in terms of generating new revenue for the city, a huge public private partnership potential here. Uh
42:41 this is the existing site. I met with the team and and we walked through there and they they kind of talked a little bit about the vision of what this could
42:48 be. Um there's a lot of opportunity here where you can check off a lot of boxes, not just with revenue, but drive your overall parks and wreck um scores up. So
42:57 mixed use retail and lodging down on that embankment um indoor pickle ball or a similar use. Um there are people out
43:06 there who specialize in that. That big purple rectangle off to the west is your indoor fieldhouse. Um an Olympic pool.
43:13 That one came up also in in the um in the survey, but we talked about parking garages. You could do an Olympic pool with a raised parking garage that had
43:21 some offices, parking, and a green roof on top and [clears throat] um an indoor uh fieldhouse, which which I mentioned
43:29 there. So um and then expansion of some of the program spaces uh on the on the back side of that. So, um, parks and
43:37 wreck area, this I at the Ark Center, I think, is a huge opportunity for you all.
43:45 Okay, so I threw a lot at you. We're trying to keep it basic here. Maximize quality of place, quality of life, and economic impact to attract and retain talent.
43:55 I think these are your overarching priorities. And I'm just reminding you what we're seeing in terms of the importance of Clermont Parks and
44:02 Recreation. And it's when you combine that's a creative $21 million of economic impact in 2025. So phase one
44:10 fasttrack strategies. These are those festivals I was talking about. These are lowcost fast. That's economic impact you
44:17 can drive into some that's aligned with you that you already have. Those are your feast red bull action sports events. Um become the hub for the
44:26 statewide coast to coast bicycle festival. Continued investment in national bids rowing. Huge potential there. Mark's team gave us a great
44:33 breakdown of some of the events that they want to go after. Uh soccer, track and field, triathlon, baseball, softball, water polo, and future cycling
44:41 events. So, uh events and festivals phase two, generate new municipal revenue through capital improvements.
44:47 Develop mixeduse opportunities in existing parks. That's your Arcs and Rec Center, uh which we just talked about.
44:53 uh waterfront mixeduse development, your docks, that trailfront uh wine uh or dining and retail uh mixeduse parking
45:01 garage and then create new world-class mixeduse parks with major focus on wellness way area. So create public private partnership opportunities. One
45:09 of the things we heard a lot a high performance lab. Uh so I know that's been in discussion. Uh I believe it's um
45:17 a lot of people are thinking about it but that came up from u I I would say probably in over 60% of the conversations we had of and you kind of
45:26 ties into saying we want access to the national training center since we can't have that we want a high performance training lab. Um, I really think if you
45:33 went down on Wellness Way in terms of putting on that parks and wreck hat, urban planning activation, that area would be perfect for a hub where you
45:41 have a national cycling hub, a high performance training center, and you link everything together as an anchor.
45:47 Uh, phase three, using CUR revenue to bolster infrastructure necessary for the safe worldclass connectivity, Hancock Road, Wellness Way, and then strategic
45:56 pedestrian overpasses. Uh, create and leverage a sustainable young professional organization. So what I
46:03 mean by that is I is making sure that you have young professionals. This goes back to the the dynamics of government.
46:09 We have leaders rotating in and out. If you have young professionals that you want to keep and attract, you have to make sure they feel like you're making a
46:17 difference. Um just having them engage is not going to do it. They need to be on executive committees for your chamber, sports and tourism,
46:25 placemaking, branding, everything like that. So get them engaged, but then get them in leadership roles where they can voice and vote. Um, [clears throat]
46:33 and last one, leverage your champion and influencers and branding campaigns to attract target audiences. You have a lot of champions here with a lot of followers, a lot of heroes. Utilize
46:41 them. Utilize that. Make make Clermont have a vibe and a community that uh is like no other. These are smaller
46:49 recommendations. Um, so, uh, and and I think as I thought about this on the final report, I'll take all the recommendations within the report and
46:56 just make a comprehensive list so somebody can just go straight to straight to this. But, um, just top one consistent investment in parks and
47:04 wreck. Um, so Bryan's team, uh, let's keep digging into let's put that survey.
47:09 I'd leave that survey out for another year. I want to try to get to a thousand responses. That'd be great. And then kind of circle back, see where that is.
47:17 the shading strategies, uh, internal protocols for conservation and sustainability. It'll drive those scores up. Implement cultural and mentor-based
47:25 programming in parks. So, parks that are heavy in sports, just make sure you can check the box and say, "Hey, we have these type of festivals or classes and things like that. Make sure it's
47:34 diverse." Um, we'll update the seven dimensions of well-being with the NRPA matrix. And then um I really think and I
47:42 put this on the radar for NRPA's national conference in 2027. Uh think this would be a really cool panel to have up there in front of a bunch of people talk about the success that you
47:51 all have. Uh trails and connectivity. Um once the comprehensive plan is done, we've identified the arteries. Those in
47:59 my opinion have to be done realistically before or a portion of those have to be done. Um and then you have to figure out how to get all the neighborhoods that
48:07 we've identified on our map that don't connect to those connected to them. Um implement safe routes to school
48:15 protocols and all new educational design initiatives. So you guys any new schools coming up make sure that that is a requirement that they have to follow
48:22 that uh safety work with law I would work with law enforcement uh just as you talk about ebike on trails and just have
48:31 that conversation of how that works. I see this everywhere. Even at the even at the the National Training Facility, Olympic training facility in San Diego,
48:38 they got kids on ebikes come breaking in. Um, easy one, separate lanes between cyclists and pedestrians. Uh, you
48:47 consider widening the trails too if possible, especially with the flow that you have. Infrastructure. Um, there are
48:54 flexible traffic stansions. If you don't know what those are, it's kind of those things you see on the highway. If you hit it, they don't break, but they they make a noise. Um, thank Dan had sent me
49:03 something from Florida on a conference he went to. So, thank you for saying that. But those greatly reduce fatalities on your high-speed highways.
49:10 So, uh, they're not attractive. You can make them different colors, something, but at the same time, too, easily to put up and could save a life. Um, anticipate
49:20 weekly endurance training routines and all future road expansion strategies and comprehensive plans. A lot of runners, a lot of cyclists, they're they're not just on the trail, they're they're
49:28 getting on the roads. And again, leverage the local champions and heroes.
49:33 All right, I'm gonna stop talking. Um, that's a lot. We have a lot more data if you need it. There are boards here.
49:39 We're going to leave these boards here and um, if you want to take pens or markers or whatever, you can write on them any ideas and then Bryan, I'll circle back to you here in a week or so.
49:48 We'll take photos of it and make sure we implement it. But um, those are kind of a summary now that I've spewed all of everything we talked about at the
49:56 highlights. Any questions?
50:05 [laughter]
50:05 Sponsored by Red Bull.
50:09 [gasps]
50:10 All right. Um, mayor, I'll go ahead and unplug.
50:14 [laughter]
50:19 Yeah. So, right now you have a copy of this. I said like this is about 99%. I want to clean this up. Um, but yeah, I think by Friday of next week, I'll have
50:27 I'll also want to see if there's any comments on that, Bryan, and you'll get the full copy of that. But you do have the PDF of this now.
50:44 I'm expecting you to come back.
50:54 Yep.
50:55 Please keep it at [laughter] Yeah. Come on.
51:05 All right. So, my name is Michael Hawkson. I'm a local physical therapist and a trainer, small business owner. My office is actually downtown right here on Fourth Street.
51:14 Oh, sorry. Is that better? Yeah.
51:17 Okay. So, I moved here from New York 5 years ago. Fell in love with Clermont.
51:25 Choice of champions.
51:27 One thing I noticed because this is what I do for a living. I help people create the best version of themselves. So, through health, through movement and
51:34 through health. So, one thing I noticed was an elephant in the room is that we have some of the fastest human beings who reside and train here in Clermont.
51:43 And although we do have Olympic size tracks, it's exclusive for
51:49 the elite. And although not everybody has access to NTC or Marver or even some of the high schools because that's
51:57 really for our students, I would like to plant the seed if possible. What if there was a Olympic size public track? public meaning free
52:05 access to those aspiring heroes that want to train like the Olympians that train and reside here that maybe want to
52:15 blow off some steam. They work 9 to5 and they want a safe path in which they run instead of trying to run in the typical
52:22 areas. [snorts] a place where everybody all economic statuses, all walks of life, they can just go at
52:29 whatever given times rather than having to worry about access, time, membership, etc. So, one last thing I'd like to say is
52:38 because I deal with people improving their health is that if you have a healthy body, it helps with a healthy
52:45 healthy mind. People think clearer. if you have more people who have healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy community, not just our community, our
52:54 great state of Florida as well as the United States. So one little trickle effect can happen and it starts with each individual if there was somewhat of
53:03 a a more accessessible like if I was a trillionaire if I was the trillionaire honestly God Ghana's truth I would open
53:11 up not just one several Olympic size tracks or track and fields parks that have access so that anybody could do what they feel they're called to do.
53:22 Thank you.
53:23 You think track is the most impactful sport? Is that No, I think it's one of the most freely accessible because there's a lot of
53:30 runners and it would be more safe and they would able to have metrics to measure themselves, engage themselves.
53:37 And as far as other track and field events, um there might be other athletes that could be able to train within these
53:45 public parks because I know in New York there's quite a few that are free and it was the greatest part of growing up to have uh these these type of parks and a
53:54 lot of them were city parks or they were donated by um rich people to give back to the neighborhoods. But one of the
54:02 things I I noticed was it just brought everybody together and uh some of these type of parks would actually be able to
54:10 um um address a lot of the things that Shane was talking about. Okay. Thank you.
54:22 Yes, sir.
54:23 Hi. Uh my name is Aaron Blevens. I've been in the uh kind of the immediate area, a little bit in Groveland, a little bit in Clermont um for the last
54:31 probably 12 to 15 years. Um the most appealing part of that presentation to me was the expansion of the recreational buildings and public access buildings
54:39 that I think around the Clermont arc right now would be by far the best expansion of Clermont. I think because
54:46 we are clearly expanding homes uh by tenfold uh with the developments that are going on kind of all over the city.
54:52 those facilities are absolutely needed for the Clermont residents. I think as we if you guys look to expand and adopt
55:00 this idea of run these this building expansion that the focus is on the Clermont residents that need the facilities. Um I love the idea of
55:08 appealing to people to come in to our city and enjoy it for an for an event, but I think that the core focus of of the expansion needs to be about the
55:16 immediate Clermont residents. And I know that we draw lines of the city limits and the in the and the county limits. My address says Clermont,
55:24 Florida. I understand that I may not live directly in the city limits, but my address says Clermont. I represent Clermont. I want to be in Clermont.
55:30 There's I moved here for a reason. Uh the house that we particularly wanted ended up just outside of the city limits, but I consider myself as a member of Clermont. So I think it's
55:39 very important that if we expand and we continue to grow that the actually the point you made about the track and field go to one of these major universities
55:47 and copy what they're doing in their field houses. They have professional tracks that are banked. They have a indoor turf facility that where athletes
55:55 can work. Um we experience rain like if your kids play travel sports or they play any kind of outdoor sport. You know what it's like in the summer. It's a bit
56:03 of a coin toss going to practice. you don't know if you're running into 4 in of rain or if it's going to be 1,000°.
56:09 So, an indoor facility that's focused on Clermont residents would be, I think, a no-brainer for the city. It would print
56:16 money um as long as it's reasonable for the Clermont residents eventually when it will be utilized 100% of the time.
56:23 And I think that's probably the goal for the council is to create um facilities and utilities that are being 100% utilized, right? That gives everybody
56:31 the best use of the tax money that's coming in. So, I think the I think it was kind of a spot on on the expansion
56:39 of facilities and of things available to Clermont residents, but I just want to make sure that Clermont, the people in Clermont and the residents in
56:47 Clermont, like I know South Lake High School can't be on this map because it's not in Clermont, but you have so many residents of Clermont that go to South Lake High School, right? So, all of
56:55 these facilities kind of come into the whole community. I think that that's the direction of the focus here is the bike trails are great. We have a really nice
57:04 bike trail though, right? And we have we do a pretty good job in this town of sharing the bike lane. I don't know if the chief of police is here would agree to that, but we do a pretty good job of sharing the roadways already with bikes.
57:14 The parks and facilities growth, I think, is the number one thing that I hear from people in the area that they'd like to see more of.
57:21 Thank you.
57:32 Hello, my name is Anna Sinclair, 575 West Manola. It's been a while. Um, I just wanted to thank the team real quick. This is very exciting. Thank uh
57:40 the council. Uh, thank the staff and I know you mentioned the report was going to be like 90 pages. So, I just wanted to make sure that the nerdier side of
57:49 the public can access that. That will be me. Um, again, thank you very much for this. I'm particularly excited about the expansion of our greenways, especially
57:58 about safe routes to school. I firmly believe that when children have the opportunity to start their day uh with a little bit of exercise, just a 10-minute
58:05 walk or bike ride, they arrive ready to learn, they have lower rates of depression, anxiety, research shows this. So, I'm very excited that we as
58:12 Clermont, the choice of champions are going to be investing into this. And again, thank you very much for all the effort.
58:27 Um yeah, I'll just say a couple things that I loved in this presentation. Um the mixeduse development opportunity at
58:35 the Ark. Um you know, when I think about how Clermont's going to grow, you know, I know we there are some people that feel have a lot of big feelings about
58:43 that. We're going to grow and how we grow is what we can control better. And I think that's a huge opportunity site for accommodating growth in a way that
58:52 enhances quality of life for the people around and the people that would live um in a development like that. So I love all the activation being proposed there
59:00 uh including and filling with residences there as well. I love the middle mile concept. I think that just expands the
59:07 story um that we have with the coast to coast trail and it provides a lot of opportunities for a lot of different kinds of things as opposed to everything all in one thing.
59:17 uh expanding that out over our waterfront and bringing a lot more activation I think would be very um high impact and enjoyable. And then of course
59:26 the greenways, the trails, the expansion of that. That's a contributor to the health of our community, the safety of our community, um to transportation for
59:34 our community, and the proof is in the pudding. Economic development almost always follows great investment in um in
59:43 trail systems and networks. Um, so I love that, support that. I think just on a big picture, um, there's art and
59:52 science in this presentation, you know, uh, there's a lot of data and a lot of science behind it, but there's a lot of whimsy to it, you know, and these are
1:00:00 great. I appreciate the outside perspective and the creativity. Um, you know, obviously we're not going to be able to execute all of these things, but
1:00:07 to think outside of the box a little bit more about what is unique to Clermont, what fits our ethos and our vibe and what makes us so distinct. We have some
1:00:16 really, really remarkable things. Um, and so I appreciate the whimsy and I want to see us embrace some of that creative thinking um, and creative
1:00:24 solutions, you know, not shutting down ideas before we know um, what's really available. There's unique funding opportunities out there. there could be a private public partnership that
1:00:33 unlocks something. Uh, but sometimes I think we shut down creativity before it really even gets a chance to get started. Um, and so that would be my
1:00:41 request as we look at some of these. Um, and we kind of see what we want to chase first. Let's have an open mind and approach things creativ creatively.
1:00:55 Council, Mr. Mayor, how you doing, sir?
1:01:05 Good. My name is Bryan Davis. I'm a resident of Clermont. Been here for 25 years. Uh, live over on Hancock Road.
1:01:13 About 15 years ago, we sat in this very same room with the League of American Bicyclists and worked on an application to be recognized as a bicycle friendly community.
1:01:24 And in that time, we've discussed a lot of what that gentleman just mentioned up here pertaining to bike lanes.
1:01:34 And um I do own a business here in the city. I'm the Trek bicycle store over off Hancock. We've been in business now
1:01:41 21 years. Um moved out here, like I said, about 24 years ago. And I think there should be
1:01:49 some importance placed on connecting these trails with other areas of
1:01:57 interest within the city and county. um whether they're used for individuals to
1:02:06 commute to a bus stop or to say the Lynx uh car park area down on 27 just just south there a little bit of Hook Street.
1:02:18 And there was a lot of discussion at the time and when the league came back with their findings and the grade rating that we got and everything that it took us to
1:02:25 be recognized as a bicycle friendly community which we were. Um, but a lot of ca that came out of that was the fact that we lack that infrastructure that
1:02:34 allows people to go from one place on a bike trail to another place on a bike trail. And a lot of that has to do with
1:02:41 the bike lanes on our highways. I I can tell you I'm a cyclist. There's several other cyclists in the the room here. Our bike lanes are scary.
1:02:51 So those buffeted or those protected bike lanes are something that I really think we have to address as we see more
1:02:58 and more development in the community and why not put the burden of that on the developers.
1:03:05 Let them pay for that. My understanding is, and the county is not here today, but my understanding is like North Hancock when it started to progress
1:03:14 north, that all those communities that are being built in there, they applied for a
1:03:21 cut in the trail so that they could create an entrance to that community in the trail. And if you go out there and look at those entrances to those
1:03:30 communities, excuse me, my voice is fading a little bit. Um they they did just that. They put a cut
1:03:37 and created an entrance into the community and they put a concrete barrier in the middle of it so you stay to one side or the other of it, but
1:03:44 there's really no other way to get to that community. The the bike lanes on the roadways are what are required by
1:03:53 DOT at best. And then you've now mixed the trail into all of these
1:04:02 neighborhood access points. And the crossings themselves are kind of dangerous. Uh, one in particular,
1:04:10 um, oop, sorry. Um, just real quick. One in particular on North Hancock is right there where the new Publix is. When they
1:04:18 developed the Publix, they put a retaining wall in that completely obstructs the trail and the bike lane.
1:04:26 So cars coming out of that Publix can't see you. So there's got to be a little more interaction with the developers of what that kind of stuff's going to look
1:04:34 like. Uh I mean it's a dangerous intersection. It really is. I I am I implore you to maybe get in the car and drive out there someday and you'll see
1:04:43 exactly what I'm talking about. But it's the entrance to the new Publix off of 450 off of North Hancock that that I'm addressing.
1:04:50 Yeah. Yeah. Minnola. Yes, sir. And then you've we've got a great venue that's getting ready to open up there called Crooked Can. And man, that thing is
1:04:59 going to blow up. I I'm telling you right now, it's going to become a destination for a lot of people. So, we have to make it easier for those individuals to get there, whether it's on a bike lane or on a trail.
1:05:11 So, a lot of great information. I know council has a lot in front of them that they have to consider. I know the county is a very big part of that. Um
1:05:20 and we have to go through them sometimes to get what we want. Yes.
1:05:25 So I understand that. But um but yeah, just you know, just some considerations.
1:05:29 He he had a lot of great information in the presentation. I mean we we do we have a lot of great things in Clermont.
1:05:36 We are rich in things to do in Clermont. we just need to expand those and make them more accessible for
1:05:44 everybody. And I I think that's was his point in that presentation is that we lack some accessibility in a lot of
1:05:52 areas in the city when we're trying to get to those venues that we all love and cherish so much. So, thank you.
1:06:01 Anyone else?
1:06:12 Hi there. I'm David Santiago. I'm owner of uh Double Play training for baseball and softball here in Clermont. Um Miss
1:06:20 Allison here came up to us a couple weeks ago about, you know, revitalizing Bishop Field and I just fell in love
1:06:27 with the idea. Um I'm passing around some renderings.
1:06:34 Can I ask you to hold off on that if you're talking about Bishop Hill? Okay. You sure? All right.
1:06:42 You're gonna Okay. Okay.
1:06:45 Anything on the parks and trail bike trails and all I actually do. I actually do. I actually
1:06:53 do. Um with these bikes and trails, these kids on these ebikes, safety, safety, safety. I lost four
1:07:02 players this season because exceeding speeds and all that. So safety
1:07:24 Hey everyone. Uh my name's Herman Vannon Bogart. I'm with South Lake Little League. Um, we rent out pretty much year round, uh, the Park Pals, baseball
1:07:33 fields, West Park, and partially, uh, Bishop Field. Um, some of the things that the board and a lot of the parents
1:07:41 from the league just kind of want, uh, us to address is kind of the condition of the fields. Um, we have great communications with the parks and recck
1:07:49 department. It just seems like things kind of move slowly sometimes when uh you know it can be things like hey a
1:07:57 home plate's just sticking up too much or it's broken and then hey we still have games going we've got to do something quickly so kids don't get
1:08:05 injured which has happened right because of these things. So um yeah I don't know how we can speed up that process to help
1:08:14 repair the fields and get them to the condition that they need to be and even to upgrade them. And I think even South Lake Little League and just Little
1:08:22 League in general with all the grants that they have, we're we're willing to even split that cost with you guys to
1:08:29 help accelerate those improvements and to the aesthetic that you guys want and that he's talking about, right? To to
1:08:37 upgrade those facilities. So, like she was saying uh earlier, like, hey, be open, I think, uh to letting us help you
1:08:46 guys. I think sometimes you guys feel like, hey, you're going to have to take all the burden. Where's the money coming from? We're willing to help and little
1:08:54 league's willing to help as well. So, don't forget about us. Hey, we we we love you guys. Hey, the fields look great most of the time. Hey, but when
1:09:03 those things do occur, we need them quick quick fixes so the kids don't get hurt. So, how many kids do you have?
1:09:09 Uh, we have 425 families that uh Yeah, families. So, um, so probably
1:09:17 kid-wise, you know, who who knows? I mean, probably probably 450, 475, right?
1:09:23 A lot of them have two two kids per family, you know, whatever. So, yeah.
1:09:28 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, there's a there's a lot of families out there. We've even had to split our opening day because just there's not enough parking spaces,
1:09:36 right? So, our our league's grown from 250 or so families to 425. And it it just we're we're growing. We're bursting
1:09:44 at the seam. So any other facilities you guys can add? We've tried Groveland and you know many old we just there they
1:09:52 don't have space either, right? So that's a struggle with us. And then you know you you try to double double schedule a field. You know you can't
1:10:00 have T-ball kids going home at 10 o'clock at night. It's just not it's not an option. So the magic wand what would you suggest us that needs to happen?
1:10:11 Clermont baseball definitely. I mean, more facilities. There's got to be more space. There's more people.
1:10:18 Where would I put them? I haven't thought that far ahead. Uh I mean, yeah. I mean, but uh I mean, where the families coming from?
1:10:27 Like Oh. Oh, for our for for our leagues, we're getting people from all of South Lake County. Mascot, Groveland, uh Clermont, Minnola.
1:10:36 Yeah. Yeah. Winter Garden almost Davenport area. They're all they're all coming to that field and that area. Um and then we you know we play inner
1:10:45 league games versus Winter Garden, Apatha, uh Windmir, Dr. Phillips, they all come to play our older older kids in
1:10:53 older divisions. So we're getting people from all over. Um and just like I said, just a more steadily maintained
1:11:00 facility, right? I think that that's the biggest thing for us. Yeah.
1:11:07 When I left there for opening day in March, I wasn't happy with miles.
1:11:17 I asked my go the mounds. That's one of the things that I'm talking about. Yeah, the mounds
1:11:26 are bad. I mean, they're really bad. I mean, exposed rubber. I mean, we're trying to fill them in all the time, but at the same time, we try to do what
1:11:35 we can do, but then we kind of get some kickback from you guys. Hey, don't touch the fields. You know, you're going to cause another problem. So, we, you know, we're in between. We don't know what to
1:11:43 do. Should we help you fix it or not help you fix it? Like, and then we can't let it drag out where, like I said, safety becomes a problem, right? So,
1:11:51 we're kind of in the middle and we don't know where to go. So, if you guys, like I said, a more prompt repair would help
1:11:58 just kind of even all of that out. I think often meet with us.
1:12:03 Uh, we're just on a texting texting type of thing with Paige and Taylor sometimes. And we have meetings twice a
1:12:10 year um with them as well for our contracts, our year- round contracts and whatnot. But yeah, so quite a bit. Yeah.
1:12:19 So, just to let you know because Paige is watching, so she sent me a text Hi Paige.
1:12:27 Her answer is that she responds by the next day. She gets the she gets the field out there by the next day.
1:12:34 Whatever your request is. So listen, the mound's not going to stay perfect. They're fixing.
1:12:48 Yeah. Exactly. So that's still We don't want them touching the field, but that's Uh the safety of our kids is very important out there.
1:12:56 And I think at the council meeting when I came back, I asked to go out and look at them pitching miles and the batters.
1:13:02 Uh yeah.
1:13:07 Right. The reality is the crew does go out but play so it doesn't stay perfect, right? When
1:13:16 they play on it, they have 600 kids in a league.
1:13:20 It's played on all the time. Bryan, I understand it. I used to take care of fields. Part of my area is of in the military take care of fields. But what I
1:13:29 saw out there was a lack of lack of mainten that's this what almost six six inches
1:13:37 out of the ground and everything that that's very unsafe.
1:13:40 And when they sit in the battery box, they sitting in a hole plate and they sitting in a hole. That's kind of unsafe. So that's why I ask the council
1:13:49 that we go out and take a look at measure these kind of things are safety measures anytime [clears throat] safety is involved on
1:13:57 that site.
1:14:00 I went to Vola one year watch team and one of the first things I noticed something changing the infield to the
1:14:07 outfield had a big hump there. First thing I said is somebody gonna get hurt.
1:14:12 No. I think our chief of police got hurt. Well, he chief and they went across and got hurt because these kind of things on the field. You got to keep
1:14:21 keep them. You got to keep the bases in the ground.
1:14:28 I'm not I'm not against keeping it safe. I'm just I'm just saying the reality is we get the get the feedback. Yeah.
1:14:37 We send the crew out there. Crew handles it. But then the field played on it and if they play baseball, you know, right?
1:14:43 Start the game and the and the right it plays up to the pitcher number by the end of the game there's a there's a whole maybe need to look we need to look at
1:14:51 trying to go out here on daily basis or whatever and just keep a look at some kind of schedule you can look at
1:14:58 and I think a lot of it might I don't want Yeah. Yeah. I don't want this to drag out. I'm just saying I think a lot of it has to do with the material being used
1:15:06 as well. If if you have a have a light light clay that's very loose and you just put it in front of a rubber, it's going to disintegrate after one kid goes
1:15:15 up there and shakes his cleat. I mean, you have to put the right material in.
1:15:19 I don't want to go back and forth. I'm with him. I'm also a self.
1:15:22 I understand what you're saying. I live five minutes away from the park. I go to that park almost every day after they fix a field. It hasn't been one time
1:15:29 they recla that that happened. That that six week that we have that has nothing to do with one game overnight. That's a process
1:15:37 that's been going on. We got bases that come off all the time. That's not one day. Those fields have not been maintained. Holes in the outfield have
1:15:45 not been maintained. So, if they're telling you they're fixing it, you might want to come out and check it after you're doing because they're not. That's all.
1:15:52 I don't want to get out and take a look here because like I say, when I came back after the open
1:16:01 pitch out there in March, I think I let you all know very unsafe out there. I mean I walked up and look at the condition I didn't have to walk on the
1:16:09 field see totally totally well I understand what both what you were saying if it's you know spring
1:16:18 games will run 46 on the ball field and it's just you can
1:16:25 put in that's what they're referring to play the 8020 mixture you can put the mound clay in you can water it you can tamp it the next morning first person
1:16:34 goes out and plays and now you're stuck with the all day long until you conf again. It has to stay overnight and it's a whole process. But I wonder if as we go
1:16:43 through looking at this year's budget, I would be very interested. I saw that on like filter we have organic turf material which makes me happy. There's
1:16:51 NIH studies about turf that have always made me anti-turf. Um but now there's organic turf material that might help with some of these maintenance issues
1:17:00 and given our certain condition with some funds in reserves. There's we have some opportunity to maybe implement some long-term strategies that reduce
1:17:08 [clears throat] maintenance, don't increase cancer in our children, which I like, and allow for easier fixes, annual replacement of the pitching rubber,
1:17:16 things like that. So, I think that you're right, and I think that you're right, and I think that they're right.
1:17:23 And and the problem is the material, the system, and the process, but if you're trying to handle I've been out, my kids play. They play six days a week. Like
1:17:32 you just can't keep up with that for what three months is it?
1:17:42 It's technically like the end of January through May, but then we host all
1:17:51 the beginning of June. So really it's the end of June, all of July and the first maybe week of August that there's nothing.
1:18:01 start maybe a workshop with the lead to talk about what we can help with what we can
1:18:09 do material changes but oh I speak your language I know what you're doing
1:18:17 and I understand you work you have to go home every day every day
1:18:26 we play four days a night on our field every day we and everything.
1:18:34 But we don't want to. Yes, ma'am.
1:18:37 Oh, okay. Yes, sir.
1:18:47 Council, how you doing, Mayor? Uh Josh Castleman. Um I'm appreciate all you're doing. Um this is something that's this topic is very important to me. I'm
1:18:55 involved in uh Clermont Tri Club. Also coach soccer with South Lake High School and Clermont football club. Um so just a couple things I want to um bring up.
1:19:05 One is we talk about um designated bike lanes um for commuting, but I was going to mention Gabby. I think she just
1:19:13 stepped out. Did Gabby just leave? So Gabby's been here this for the meeting and she recently almost died in a hit and run. And one of the topics that we
1:19:21 don't talk about much is we talk about how important triathlon is to the community, endurance athletes. And if if you notice, one of the most contentious topics on social media obviously is
1:19:30 cyclists on the roads. And I think that's something that needs attention more than just the road. The cyclists that are out on the roads aren't just commuting to like grocery
1:19:38 store and stuff like that. There's a huge amount of cyclists that are training. And you can't you can't train on some of the mixeduse trails that we
1:19:47 have here. that's more of like a recreation commuting type of thing. So I think we need to at least consider a designated bike lane that's more like 10
1:19:56 15 mile loop maybe say leaving from waterfront park going out using some of the you know roadways that cyclists come
1:20:03 here for they people come from Miami South Florida I mean cyclists are coming here every weekend and they're to ride these hills
1:20:11 and you're getting all you know all this confrontation between the local you know motorists and and these people that are out here riding. So, we gota I think if
1:20:20 we can think about a designated bike lane that's intended for training, not just commuting, I think that's something that would be worthwhile and save lives,
1:20:27 too. Um, and that would take a little creativity. I think maybe go tying into maybe from Waterfront Park going up
1:20:35 Hancock, hit a couple hills because right now if you want to ride that in the triathlon community that's the main topic is how do we train safely and right now we're basically reduced to
1:20:43 Lake Louisa State Park. That's really it. if you want to ride outside safely and it's kind of like you can only do that, you know, it's a 10 mile loop and
1:20:51 it's full and we're doing that every day and even parts of that the road condition isn't great. So, just something to think about. Um the other
1:20:58 thing is um we've talked about the the parks um like soccer fields and I coached my club team at Park House
1:21:05 Pataha and this past season it was so uneven. the ground is so uneven,
1:21:12 it's you can't you can't play quality ball. And you tal in your in your presentation, you mentioned NTC brought in $6 million from tournaments and stuff
1:21:20 like that. And I I mean that part of the reason is because that playing service is so good. Um if we if we could have
1:21:27 more fields, higher quality fields taken care of where you can practice safely and and host tournaments, I think you could you could start doing a lot more
1:21:35 of that. But anyway, I just want to say thank you. This is great. I'm excited about it. And if there's anything, you know, we can do to help the spine concept.
1:21:45 I mean, all all this it sounds great.
1:21:48 It's it's a big it's it sounds like a big project, but I like I like the idea space. Is there opportunity there on
1:21:56 Hang or No, I think I mean I think so. I haven't like studied the maps. Um will you?
1:22:04 Absolutely. Absolutely. I I don't I don't ride on Hancock much. So, I mean, I'm downtown and then I train Lake Louisa. I haven't felt safe riding
1:22:12 anywhere else to be honest. So, I haven't spent much time on Hancock, but um yeah.
1:22:21 Okay. All right. Thank you everyone. Good afternoon. Thanks for being here.
1:22:30 Uh my name is Brennan Currill. I'm Clermont resident. Um I know Josh. I'm glad he came up and said something. And I don't want to be up here too long. I
1:22:38 just wanted to tag on to what he said because uh I'm a longtime triathlete. I used to come out here and ride 50 60 70
1:22:46 80 miles on a Saturday. Um I'm did Team USA for a number of world championships uh at the age group level. Um one thing
1:22:54 that he said about training with a dedicated loop, the people that come out here to train need to be able to ride 20 to 30 miles an hour on an average. So,
1:23:04 they're looking at doing that. You know, if you want to bring in the elites, they're riding 28, 30 plus miles an hour
1:23:12 for 100 miles um in a race, and they need to be able to do that. So, the the connecting trails that we have around
1:23:19 here, some spaces are good for for that that speed, that distance. Um other
1:23:26 places are not. The more recreational uh cyclists are worried about pets, children running out in front of them.
1:23:33 um just all of that stuff. So, if that's going to be a thought that I just wanted to add on to what he said is that you
1:23:40 need to be able to plan for 25 mph average uh on that. So, it's it's not, you know, just a local uh recreational
1:23:49 commute of 5 10 miles an hour. They're they're really trying to move um as far as being able to train goes. Um so, I
1:23:56 just wanted to add that. I thought that was important. at that speed with local roads. Why do you think there's so much conflict between the people in cars and
1:24:05 the people on bikes? You're going 30 miles an hour on a lot of our roads, cars should be going the same speed.
1:24:12 What What do you think is the cause of this?
1:24:14 Some of those roads that uh cyclists are going to use and ride 25 to 30 miles.
1:24:19 I'll hit 40 or even 50 miles an hour coming down Sugar Sugarloaf. Um maybe that's in excess of the speed. Um,
1:24:27 but uh to answer your to answer your question, some of those roads where cyclists are going to be averaging 25 30
1:24:34 mph, speed limits 40 or 45. So they're they're going to get angry. Um, everybody's in a hurry to go where they
1:24:41 want to go. Um, legally by the law, if there's not a a bike lane or a shoulder or if it's
1:24:49 obstructed or if there's gravel or sand in it, cyclists can't ride in that. And legally they can take the whole lane.
1:24:55 Um, and sometimes you get large groups of cyclists who will do that because it's safer to take the whole lane than it is to try and ride through those
1:25:04 obstructions through that dangerous, you know, and nobody wants to hit the road going 10 miles an hour, much less 20 m hour. Um, and so they do that and that
1:25:14 upsets people and some people just don't like the cyclists.
1:25:18 So, we all [clears throat] got to kind of try and learn to live together. But if if you really wanted to be forward thinking as far as embracing the cyclist
1:25:26 community and I have Team USA friends that come from Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania,
1:25:32 Washington, uh to to ride here and train here during the summers. So it's it's
1:25:39 yeah, in the summers. So, if you you look at the uh the I'm sorry I don't want to be up here longer than the time, but um if you look at the the last
1:25:48 Olympics um that was in Brazil, a lot of the Olympians came here to heat train in the summer before going down there. Um
1:25:57 so, uh there's a lot to what he said about temperatures and stuff like that.
1:26:01 your your average person doesn't want to be out there um in that type of weather really extending themselves, but there's people who will specifically come here
1:26:10 to train just for the heat in the summer.
1:26:12 Do you think that addressing training bicyclist is something that Clermont City reasonably can do or do you think
1:26:20 this is more a county issue like do we have enough space and roads in your experience and observation to be able to serve that or is it bigger than us?
1:26:29 Absolutely. I mean, I would go and do 8 miles of intervals on a 400 meter track.
1:26:36 So, while a 10 or 15 mile loop would be something that would be absolutely amazing, if you go over and look in Tampa, there's a Nathan Benderson Park
1:26:45 and it's it's closed off, there's no traffic in there. It's like a 1.5 maybe a 2 something mile loop around it,
1:26:54 or 2,000 ft long course. So, it's 4,000 ft. So, even if it's if if it were just something that were smaller, I think it
1:27:03 would get a whole lot of use if it was safe. And like I said, I mean, I started coming out here in 2006, 2007 doing
1:27:11 those extended bike rides. And I haven't felt safe riding on these roads probably since 2014, 2015 to be honest.
1:27:19 Bangkok if if it's I know that he said something in his uh presentation about physically separating it having some kind of
1:27:27 physical barrier separating the traffic from the bike lanes I think that makes everybody feel safer because if whether
1:27:34 or not it's somebody who who you know will buzz you or throw water bottles at you or honk at you or you know do
1:27:43 something like that on purpose even if there's something there. They're not going to do that. If it's somebody who's not paying attention because they're on their cell phone or eating or changing
1:27:51 their radio station or something like that, that a physical barrier is gonna make them be like, "Okay, I'm not going to do that right now." Something to pay
1:27:59 attention. If it saves one life, that's enough. Yes, sir.
1:28:07 Good afternoon, council. Uh my name is Adam Nvas. I am a Clermont city resident, business owner, and currently serving as the uh president of the
1:28:16 Clermont Girls Fast Pitch uh softball league. Um we also to the point of uh the gentleman that was representing um
1:28:24 little league have a lot of uh field maintenance. I do not want to harp on uh Bryan Paige or Taylor. I really feel
1:28:31 like they do a great job. I feel like it's maybe the next level and the step above. And Miss Strange, to your point, uh, when we talk about, you know,
1:28:39 budgeting, um, I do feel like it does make a whole lot of sense when Bryan and Paige explain that, hey, we're doing everything we can do in the limits of
1:28:48 our our our budget and what our, u contract with the field crew allows us, right? Um, we could probably complain enough, Bryan would probably have no
1:28:56 problem grabbing a rake and helping us out, but um, uh, we try not to. Um, [clears throat] obviously at Hancock Park, we have five fields. We have uh
1:29:05 there are uh three bullpins and they just get to beat beat to heck and back.
1:29:10 I I've got pictures actually on my phone um that I I was going to uh email to Paige. She's more than um you know willing to receive those and and try to
1:29:19 work those out. But I do think that might be the next level of you know something where they're handcuffed, right? if they're trying to
1:29:27 work inside of their budget uh and and make sure that they you know they're contractually I know the gentleman who who uh you know who does the fields too
1:29:35 and he's he's kind of very by the book as well so I get it nobody wants to work for free. Um I I think other than that
1:29:43 I'll be super brief because there was one other uh one other issue that I just wanted to address and I think it goes to kind of the same thing. Um Allison, I
1:29:51 think you and you know Chris Lindsay had spoke about uh like our spring season and uh you know how can we work together with you know spring games being there
1:29:59 but you know not starting the you know uh Clermont uh girls fast pitch softball league at a later date. The problem is if we keep pushing our date
1:30:07 out we become ineligible to participate in Babe Ruth Allstars because they're you know they're wanting us to have so many games um in before we can go play.
1:30:17 So, the problem is even though Allison and Chris kind of had that worked out, Bryan, I know you're still handcuffed by
1:30:24 the resources of what our field crew can do based on their contract, right? Um, again, they're not going to go out there and they're not going to work for free.
1:30:32 So, you know, at this point as a board, we've decided to kind of step away from Babe Ruth, sadly,
1:30:40 uh, and do an alternate, um, all-star experience, if you will, just because we, you know, our spring season can't start, you know, soon enough to get the
1:30:48 games that we need in. Um, but other than that, like I said, it's that's just, you know, hopefully what would be a a small request or something that
1:30:56 maybe you guys could look into. Um, other than that, Taylor's great, Paige is great. I don't just talk too much with Bryan, but when I do, he's always pleasant. Um, and that's pretty much it.
1:31:05 We love the love the park. We love the field. We love to take pride. Uh, we too are willing to help. Obviously, we understand the liability. I get it.
1:31:12 Somebody goes out there and trips on a rake or, you know, I I totally get it.
1:31:17 Um, I I've even offered to say, I I don't know if there's an additional insurance that we can, you know, purchase as a league that, you know, maybe covers us. um you know just you
1:31:25 know just to try to help out cuz we we obviously don't want to put that burden on the city. But we're more than willing to you know rake out a bullpen or something like that. But quite honestly
1:31:33 that's that's kind of the maintenance it needs almost after every uh you know every use. Right now it's a little worse where there's you know there's holes and
1:31:41 divots and you know if a girl rolls an ankle or something like that we don't you know we don't want that to happen. But um again very attentive to it.
1:31:49 They're they're they're great. I think the next step is just being bound contractually with, you know, what's inside that budget for us to work with.
1:31:55 If it's needing more than what we're thinking, you know, maybe I don't know.
1:31:58 It's hard. I know everybody comes up here and asks for money, [laughter] right? There's always so much to go around. So, we're trying to do what what
1:32:06 uh you know, what we can. Um I I think another thing real quick was obviously I know that I think the city is looking into um going with a separate kind of
1:32:14 you know, concessions vendor. Um and that may be a completely different topic. And while that's great, obviously the league did make some income and make
1:32:21 some money from that. And so, you know, the I think an issue that we're going to be facing is if we have to continue to increase dues, you know, we're going to
1:32:30 have some, you know, players are ineligible. And with that, uh, lost revenue, we are unable to, you know, offer scholarships or anything like
1:32:37 that, much less be able to chip in or help, um, like the little league may be able to. Unfortunately, we're getting to a point where we would be totally
1:32:46 relying on the the city and the resources of the um you know, city staff to help us with the fields and stuff like that. So,
1:32:55 those things. So, first part of the start of your season. Yep.
1:32:59 Issue isn't budgetary issue. It's a logistical issue is we have you know spring games going up
1:33:06 all day. Remember right after that meet these KSA all week. Yep.
1:33:11 So, there needs to be there still needs to be It's not a It's not a money thing. There's it's a time thing. Okay.
1:33:18 Where they have to be able to still maintain the field. Yeah.
1:33:20 And then the second thing we haven't gotten to the process of evaluating concession vendors and we've spoken
1:33:28 spoken to Chris and so he knows that our intention is to present to council that we would we know how much money that you guys you bring in. Yes, sir.
1:33:39 That we would still try to make you understood. No. And and that To your point, Bryan, that is that is extremely fair. You're right. I I was in I was a
1:33:46 part of that conversation uh at least the one that we had. I think you had, you know, asked if we had a budget amount of what we would do. And so that that's wonderful because we'd love to
1:33:53 extend Listen, if we have a surplus of money, what can we do with it, right? If we if we can't improve the cages, if we're not supposed to touch the bullpens, if we can't do anything, the
1:34:01 only thing we can do is put it back into the kids by offering scholarships, uh you know, maybe some better TE's and catchers equipment, different things like that. But, you know, a pile of money that that's a small portion of it.
1:34:12 Um and and I guess I I misunderstood. I I my understanding was um that because of the hours needed for the field crew
1:34:20 in order to flip the fields for spring games that they were contractually working over the amount of hours that they had a lot allotted or budgeted for
1:34:28 cuz cuz in order to start our season, we don't necessarily need the fields prepped, lined, drugged. We're just Yeah. We're just willing to get out
1:34:35 there on the clay. So the same hour that they would prep it if it's possible for them to do it maybe after us in the morning. And I know that's I I get what I'm asking.
1:34:45 Yeah. No, I get it. I get it. Well, I just feel like I I don't know. I mean, I I get what you're saying, but I've driven by Hancock Road at midnight and they're out there dragging. So, it's
1:34:53 like sleep's very convenient [laughter] for them when when when and if they can get it right. But, you know, I'm sure people in Kings Ridge probably have no
1:35:00 problem with you turning the lights off at midnight, but they're out there dragging the field. So, I completely get that. I completely understand that.
1:35:06 That's just our whole um you know, kind of conflict. Other than that, we are happy. You guys are doing an amazing job and we appreciate it. So, if we can fix that, we're great. Thank you. Thank you.
1:35:19 Anyone else? No one else.
1:35:25 Comment. Um I think we all very well aware of the fact that we don't have enough parks and
1:35:33 fields and everything here here in the city.
1:35:37 Yeah. No, this is sport and that's and people like being outside playing baseball and all these things throughout the year like I was when I grew up here
1:35:46 and I think that's one of the reason we two three years about three years ago or four maybe four years ago we saw talked
1:35:54 about trying to flip our fields to look as turf and I know they're big concern right now about artificial turf causing cancer and everything but I think
1:36:02 there's some of it out there that we can get away with they don't a lot of our pro athletes play on
1:36:10 synthetic third a lot of time these days. So uh what we did looking at that is just trying to save the city some
1:36:17 money even though it's going to cost uh us some little capital up front but uh we can use the fields year round. That's
1:36:26 one of the biggest problem we have with all our parks and softball fields and all this is the fact that we have to shut them down three four months out of
1:36:34 the year just make for purp. Okay. So, every time we shut down a field that
1:36:41 means somebody it's inconvenience and so by going to synthetic turf we can probably utilize the field year round
1:36:50 that'll help us in in one extract but still we still need more fields. So where do we go and put these where where is the land to put these fields in?
1:36:58 That's one of the reasons I've always always advocated for the city to buy the extra that's available out there. We
1:37:06 have land and inventory so we can do these type things. Right now when I first came there we had we had no
1:37:14 had no property here to do a lot of things. So we acquired some some things and we trying to do those pieces with so
1:37:22 on the ball field. Uh I just I really like that you just uh one of the things I noticed in your
1:37:31 presentation most of your slides and pictures and maps of everything was really outdated. Okay. Especially the one the arts and recreation center.
1:37:40 Okay.
1:37:41 I noticed that you had one area you talk about Olympic pool. Our police department take up all that area right now.
1:37:48 Okay.
1:37:50 You had it off over the side with all the pine trees. You had the and everything was showing the police department that's been out here. Are you able to find that?
1:37:58 Yeah, I think yeah the police department is on the north side of that. Um yeah, let me he was proposing about the south side.
1:38:06 Southside I saw stuff on the on the south side as well.
1:38:11 Uh the police department is covered with the legend.
1:38:14 So the police department is up here. Yeah, the police department
1:38:22 uh done parking here which I would like to see parking in there but also let's take in consideration we got them pickle ball
1:38:30 courts in there and everything too. So which they which they also I had asked well we need to put parking and when we
1:38:37 put them in there I was out for putting parking in there spending extra money to put parking and putting restrooms and everything out there which is one of the
1:38:45 things they come to the for right now is restroom. Uh when they out there, they have to run over to the arts and recreation center to try to use the
1:38:54 restroom. But when the arts and recreation center, they have no rest. So we need to maybe looking at put
1:39:01 as well pickle ball. Of course, I'm also getting complaints. I think I've had Mr.
1:39:06 B go up and talk with resends down about the noise.
1:39:12 I don't stud Black is complaining now about noise.
1:39:23 So we need and I I love the presentation. I like
1:39:34 all these things. I like to connect walkability and all this here. One of the things that keep popping out with me to me all the pres presentations I've
1:39:43 seen out of all the areas of PL a long time all the most walkable
1:39:51 walkable portion of this northwest part right here from highway 27 west
1:39:59 back north you know and as I drive around the city of every day
1:40:07 I don't see anybody as much as I see them walk in this area. I come downtown a lot of time and see some of the people
1:40:15 living in the area and I ask how they get up. They tell me to walk down here.
1:40:19 So, we have the people out here walk to the fact that a few years ago, a couple years ago, we started making sure we had sidewalks.
1:40:29 Yeah. [clears throat] And everything done a great job. public works have done a great job putting a lot of different
1:40:36 sidewalks in that area. A lot of people are utilizing but uh back trail there's no back trails on the road
1:40:45 of course arcade but uh that doesn't bother me because I grew up running these same streets.
1:40:54 Yep. uh used to have to run all these streets and training every every year for track and and football
1:41:03 blocks pit street high uh east back [snorts] up the solo street three four times a day coaches making we didn't
1:41:10 have course there wasn't much track I guess back long have
1:41:19 I am very concerned as I preaching counseling I'm very concerned feedback and the speed of the gun back. I think Mr.
1:41:29 Mr. Wall working on policy and everything to try to control some bike.
1:41:33 I heard one comment about speed on trail for ebikes. Bro, u
1:41:42 that's very concerning to me. If we if it was any way we can separate and have special lane for ebikes to do their
1:41:49 speed, I would love to have it. But right now it's very dangerous on our trails and everything because the speed
1:41:56 trails have a 15 mph speed limit and and when you got people out there walking people out wheelchairs and all the
1:42:04 walkers and everything that get to be very dangerous that's concern that's why lawyer and police department trying to
1:42:12 work on what we can do to try to keep it safe. Yeah. So I appreciate all that and
1:42:18 I would love to have that in anybody and you're right. We have fast zip code in the world.
1:42:26 [laughter]
1:42:27 Uh fast man in the world actually no longer have that. We can no longer claim that because Mr. Nor actually moved out
1:42:33 moved into Mount B. So now Oh my gosh. Okay. [laughter] Why is that? We used to be the home of the last four fastest men in the world.
1:42:44 Why aren't we anymore? Because they moved out.
1:42:48 They they found a new home and decided well no got married recently and I think he just purchased a new home. My understanding he moved to Mount B. I
1:42:57 thought they told me he was moving up into I think we still have a couple.
1:43:08 still living.
1:43:15 I think it's important we know why here and then why they leave because I think that helps us to make decisions.
1:43:23 Maybe it's a personal choice but something to do with the environment that exists here. Maybe not.
1:43:32 And one other question, another question. Just noted noted that it drops in in activity in July and August. Could
1:43:39 that be to the fact that the schools out most of the kids are out of town on vacation? [laughter] It it could be. We were I was
1:43:46 correlating it more towards Yeah, that's a good good point. Um the feedback I got was mainly weather. However, he's got a good point. You do have elite athletes.
1:43:55 Um that's a smaller group that come here and train purposely for that. Um yeah, a lot of our sport too did that as well in
1:44:02 BMX. But um yeah, it was more so the feedback of weather, heat, and then lack of shade at some those three.
1:44:10 Again, I guess being a native, you know, that don't bother me. I hear things about shade. Yeah, shade is good
1:44:18 sometimes, but we train outside the shade. They wouldn't allow us to be in the shade, right? [laughter] But I know times have changed and
1:44:26 everybody moved here and this is what they call what the sunshine state. So when you come you have to expect a lot of sun and everything but that
1:44:34 rule change and everything to have sh but I guess like I say old time guy that's
1:44:42 been here all my life working out there in in the heat and the sun everything doesn't bother I think I think though I predict there's
1:44:50 going to be some kind of app here in the future where we can sit there and pop a pin and populate this area and it'll tell you where everybody goes
1:44:57 during those months. Okay. I just I just hear you. Well, I do know a lot of people like myself
1:45:11 if you tell the heat. I'm sorry. I can't change.
1:45:22 Well, I think Mr. Mayor's point is that Disney, July, and August.
1:45:28 So tourists aren't citizens of Clermont ever. So whether we leave on vacation is irrelevant. It's it's why do we have so
1:45:36 many people coming in the spring and the fall and then we don't have people coming in the summer. And then in the tourism office, one of I don't know if Ryan talked to you about this, but one
1:45:45 of the things that we've really never as a county been able to track is the impact of track a lot of endurance sports training on our economy because
1:45:53 they're not coming and staying in hotels.
1:45:57 I That's something. It's just been kind of a we know it's here. We know it's been here, but we don't really know where they're going, where they're staying. [cough and clears throat]
1:46:05 And that's why the survey technology that you were using is helpful to be able to kind of track that. As the
1:46:12 mayor was talking, I thought, is there a scenario, and this is coming from a place of ignorance, is there a scenario where ebikes and road bikes for training could share a lane?
1:46:22 Oh, sure. I mean, and there's, you know, and for at least in my world, Personally, [clears throat] I categorize ebikes in two very
1:46:29 different buckets. You have ebikes that commute, mountain bike, ebikes. Th those based on all the other cities I work
1:46:37 with that that's not the group necessarily they they are focusing on.
1:46:41 It's more so your younger kids who have access to these ebikes then then they soup them up and then they're using the
1:46:48 bike trails. Right. So, um so we can stay on that. So, we're not talking about ebikes. We're talking about who are making the bikes faster
1:46:58 and then using them on trails where other ebike users are okay.
1:47:03 And and I would say that obviously there there is some overlap. You're going to have some of these ebikes moving pretty quickly. That that is a commuter, right?
1:47:09 For sure. Um the complaints in fact I got one after our parks and wreck uh
1:47:16 forum here that I typically hear are the younger kids unsupervised on ebikes hanging out late at night and they're
1:47:24 they're in a pack and they're going down a trail, right? So you you have both.
1:47:28 But back to your question, yes, I think if you have kind of a longdistance trail that's more specialized for high-speed training
1:47:35 that that lives in a perfect world there with because I'm also hearing And I don't know if you all are hearing the same, but I'm hearing a lot of elderly
1:47:43 people who are finding freedom with ebikes that they're able to correct. Y without having to feel like maybe they
1:47:51 feel like they're not comfortable driving the car, but the golf cart seems to be the two. That's what I'm hearing.
1:47:58 What are you hearing, Phil?
1:48:01 I mean, it was it was a whole It's funny that you brought this up. There was a whole big survey then about what's the biggest population that are buying
1:48:09 Teslas now and it's the over 80 people because of their ability not to have to drive at night because if it's full self
1:48:17 drive it's a phenomenal thing but I don't think 80 year olds or 70 are driving ebikes I would say they're driving they're driving like golf carts
1:48:25 and you know one of the things that we really need to address is is we have to develop the infra infrastructure for golf like whether it's you know we have
1:48:33 bike trails that you know the different track you know we have whatever you have to have an infrastructure for golf carts
1:48:42 to utilize efficiently I know we passed the the ordinance about allowing them in town but we need to have how do they get
1:48:49 [snorts] into the tech and you know if you don't have a way to do that I mean you know we talked about getting over 50
1:48:57 but that's even if you just have it in that in that quadrant you need to address these things how how golf carts been to the
1:49:05 conversation but I think e-mobil e I call that e-mobility because golf carts are certainly part of that scooters are part of that they have
1:49:14 the unicycles now that are a part of that that yeah so I think yeah I think that we are going to see a breakthrough of definitely in the trails but then
1:49:23 really a separation of uh speed uh and then use group so like before you had pedestrian and you had cycling he had a
1:49:31 great point you've got uh cycling that's high speeded training and in groups um that could also be your
1:49:38 your now your ebikes and and these other vehicles the golf cart might fall into that right but um it's also a compromise
1:49:46 because now all of a sudden you're having all these separate lanes for the same use so yeah so I almost think you have you you sectionalize pedestrian and
1:49:55 then you have your highspeed or whether that's e-mobility or that's wider you've got a golf cart and you have passing for
1:50:03 people cuz people at the higher speed are going to be either training or but what's the speed limit on your 25
1:50:11 about 25 which is the average of what he's saying average right on elite right so that that mile per hour speed range
1:50:18 they they live together um well I mean you know it gets
1:50:26 you get becomes wider and wider the thing that we would have you know as you We individualize we have a walking
1:50:34 trail, we have a bike trail, we have golf trail, we have two bike trails. I mean I I think we have to
1:50:42 to find you know we can't go all over the place. So you can do one thing at a time you know and I mean like I think it's important that we we get the trails
1:50:51 done first at least get that accomplished and then we have to also establish what we're going to do with ebike. Somebody said there was a
1:50:57 fatality either. So yeah. So I mean we, you know, everybody was a child at one time and everybody
1:51:06 likes to fool around and you know jump over things and do crazy things. But I think we're giving children now the ability to really not only damage
1:51:15 themselves but damage others. So we really have to get some kind of ordinance on this that we can control the situation before it gets out of hand.
1:51:24 But we're also talking about embracing encouraging people to embrace freedom, right?
1:51:29 Freedom of choice, freedom of, you know, financial, freedom of lifestyle. And so it sounds like rather than framing this
1:51:37 as a a tool conversation, perhaps we should be framing it as a speed
1:51:44 conversation. And I'm thinking for wilderness than their state there, but you know, there's no problem at Fort Wilderness.
1:51:52 the buses and the golf carts and the bikes, they all live on the same roads.
1:51:56 Like there's just no problem. That's why I said it's because the speed limit.
1:52:00 Well, not so much speed limit, but they also educated and trained in that area to respect each other when you go into
1:52:07 they have. That's why I think we got Bryan working with one of our EOS uh entrepreneurs who brought here to do
1:52:14 a training class and we try to try to do we're looking to try to do I don't know how far along we are with trying to do a
1:52:20 training class know safety with we had our young kids here yesterday for
1:52:28 example I'm going down uh I get to about four street there and I go through four street another car
1:52:36 ahead of me. It was a kid. This kid looked like to me he may have been maybe 10, 12 years old or something. Never
1:52:43 stopped at the stop sign at third. Just s right across, you know. He had a helmet on good. And of course, by the
1:52:50 time I got third street, I looked at it stop sign.
1:52:57 But I'm like, wait a minute. We we can't Mr. Van White check on some kids like up
1:53:04 and down the sidewalk here. I mean, it's all about training and educating our people how how we have to work together
1:53:11 and respect each each different uh depending on on on the trails and everything, but we got all shared. Okay.
1:53:19 Well, and you're also talking you mentioned downtown and we have to keep in mind I think and I think it's easy for us to forget is that historic
1:53:27 downtown was a grid pattern community. It was it was designed so that roads were slow and you could get
1:53:35 you could get about and you could walk places in theory could fall places.
1:53:39 Obviously back then we didn't have but the rest of the city was not built in a traditional road pattern and so I think
1:53:48 We're finishing our comprehensive plan and we're incorporating these concepts, creating space that emulates that grid
1:53:56 pattern, slow traffic environment where you know when you enter that space, I need to drive. I'm
1:54:03 coming in. I need to drive slow. Some kid on the golf cart might fall off the back. Like it just might happen. And we're looking out for each other in
1:54:12 those spaces. not forgetting this is a US highway and a state highway like you know 50 and 27 you know that's why I
1:54:20 like that you picked Hancock because I think Hancock at least it's a county road that we're talking about encouraging people to be on rather than
1:54:28 the state road and the highway I think that's all you've given us a lot
1:54:40 um thank you thank you Um, I guess my question is for more for staff. Um, because I I wasn't
1:54:47 real clear on what what outside of the presentation where this was going to be and I kept hearing we're at kind of that 30,000 view for the presentation today
1:54:57 and I appreciate that especially as the first time seeing it. Um, what is our process moving forward? How does this tie into the actual comprehensive plan?
1:55:05 Uh, are we going to do community workshops like we're doing with comprehensive plan to roll this out? Is this going to be a separate document
1:55:13 that we approve as a parks and recreation plan? Is it going to be incorporated into the comprehensive plan? Um because we've invested quite a
1:55:20 bit of time, energy, and and resources, money into this. What are we doing with it starting from this point forward?
1:55:33 I I'm asking staff. So I I I super I I co-supervised the city manager. So the question goes to city manager and I'll
1:55:41 let him decide who he wants to answer that question.
1:55:44 Well, I I don't know the full answer. I can tell you that a lot of comprehensive plans do have a parks and recreation element, but we haven't discussed entirely.
1:56:02 No, there hasn't been a robust discussion about it. The idea is that this this was since I've been here was
1:56:09 to help process. So they were encouraged
1:56:17 as far as specific efforts specific elements.
1:56:26 Well, I I can say this when it comes to the ball fields, a lot of the parts before you on staff and prime
1:56:33 administration, we we recognize problem fields and everything. So basically if you look at budgets and everything we've been uh setting our budgets to implement
1:56:42 some of the same things we talked about with our park and everything a lot of it we're not there and he gave
1:56:50 us a lot of information I think doing our budget process we can take pieces and part
1:56:57 up field that's one of my main concern is ball
1:57:04 field but we do not have enough ball And I app I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr.
1:57:08 Mayor. Going back to my question though with regard to process and moving forward and tying together.
1:57:15 We talked about we brought Shane on providing all this information and data to DPC because he's a specialist that they're not right.
1:57:24 And then they would take all that information and begin to compile that in their presentation. So, so correct me if
1:57:31 I'm wrong. I'm hearing that it'll be something will be incorporated from this into the comprehensive plan. So, it is a comprehensive comprehensive plan.
1:57:40 That was my understanding when we brought them on their understand.
1:57:44 Um, and then um I'm sorry. Yeah, please.
1:57:50 I think we still need to have a little bit more conversation about that. This level of detail is way more detail than
1:57:56 a typical comprehensive It will probably be generalized in the comprehensive plan that comprehensive plan will refer to a park master plan.
1:58:06 Well, I feel I guess I I would want my colleagues to weigh in on this, but I feel like if we're going to call it a master plan, that that should be
1:58:13 something that gets approved by the council as a master plan or it's a report that's a reference
1:58:20 report. Um and and it's we've taken no action to approve to say we will or we endorse or we support whatever you want
1:58:29 to call it and it's it's a reference document for the comprehensive plan whichever direction which yeah I just want to make sure we're clear on what we're going to do
1:58:37 with that because what I don't want to see happen and I think the gentleman um from uh the tre uh business um mentioned
1:58:48 you know we were the city was sitting here 11 years ago having conversations about this and I I didn't know that that
1:58:56 report existed. U and I don't know that I could probably find it relatively easily on our website to even reference
1:59:05 as a reference point to start this conversation. So the last thing I want to see happen is we have this fantastic
1:59:12 work that's done and then it just be kind of goes over here and it's not really addressed or looked at. And
1:59:21 that's why I want to make sure if if we're doing this, we're intentional with then how we incorporate it into what we
1:59:29 approve as a plan, whether it's separate or together. and how that gets incorporated into a capital improvements
1:59:36 program, a project management plan program, um a parks and rec uh department plan and those we have that
1:59:45 accountability to track that through uh is really is really kind of a guide there. What I'm thinking about the other thing I wanted to just confirm if I can
1:59:54 is that it sounds like the report still being polished and the presentation still being polished but that report and presentation will be turned over to city
2:00:04 administration that council will get those and to I think some of the speakers points that that will be
2:00:11 available for public on the website as well. I just want to confirm that that will be the case as we've done with the other
2:00:18 as soon as we can. PowerPoint's already been sent to all email. Okay.
2:00:23 So, it's a rather large 145.
2:00:30 [laughter]
2:00:30 Well, but I think though I think digging being able to to reference back and go back and you know how do you you know, you know, how do you know if that was one bite at a time? And so if you're
2:00:39 able to to look at five slides and then go back and look at five more, it allows you to kind of absorb it and and incorporate it as we go through rather
2:00:47 than here it is approve on Wednesday approve it on Tuesday and we will put a vote on the internet as well. Okay.
2:00:56 Thank you.
2:00:56 Let me let me just say I just noticed one other thing that you mentioned that I think we already working on is the youth council and everything.
2:01:05 Awesome.
2:01:06 I think last report I got we both be trying to bring that on in July.
2:01:09 It starts in September but it starts Yeah, there you go. [laughter]
2:01:21 I appreciate that. Amazing.
2:01:27 Mr. Mayor, if I could add one thing to Mr. Bane's point, so that this doesn't become something of the past like the last 11 years, I would
2:01:36 suggest to the council that we consider taking Mr.
2:01:40 company and put them in a continuous consulting role with us in some capacity to help us just continue to have these
2:01:48 conversations and invite his input. I think it's been invaluable. So, I don't want to see this just become something
2:01:56 that sits on the side of the counter either. So, I respect that point just for something consideration.
2:02:03 And you're right. is this report is so much more in depth than what we we did back 15 years ago because we was only focusing on I think it was only focusing
2:02:12 on bikes because bikes were becoming a big thing at the time. So they were trying to do black trails of course now with ebikes and course cars I I think I
2:02:22 cheered the council before I sit at home man and I see golf carts I see ebikes I see scooters I I I mean some of the
2:02:28 things I don't know what they are right there where I live I mean I see them all parks and everything
2:02:38 how much work would it take at this point to make let's just presume we adopted everything and I know that we would, but let's
2:02:46 presume it is. How much would it take to make this a master plan?
2:02:54 So, full trail connectivity focus focusing on Yeah. How far are we having a master plan for all the different elements that
2:03:01 you I [clears throat] think well kind of going back to Rick's point, there's there's two things we need. So, we have
2:03:08 we have hyperfocus on the priorities, right? Hancock South Lake Trail. you have a comprehensive plan that's going parallel with us and they're identifying
2:03:16 new uses and perhaps resoning and and infill projects. We [clears throat] would have to we can develop this, but
2:03:24 then we would also have to do a phase two, which I'd call because we would have to implement all the neighborhoods that then link the arteries to the new uses that are being identified.
2:03:35 Okay. So, a trail system master plan is a little further off. It's another another it's it's another phase.
2:03:41 But on the there are other elements that you suggested in your seven phases starting the young professionals the additional ball fields there were
2:03:50 things you said to go from B and C to A like those are things we can do without it seemed like those are that we could do tomorrow.
2:03:57 Correct. if we wanted to. Correct.
2:04:00 So, how about that kind of part the NRPA assessment that piece of it? How far is that from having a master plan?
2:04:08 So, NRPA I think um there's there's two things. If we did it independent of NRPA because we we've been trying to make
2:04:15 this a case study on a national level for them to say, hey, look at the way this city did this. I think that's another year because we have to get more
2:04:24 surveys. And Bryan, I don't want to I want to get your opinion, too. We need to get more feedback uh based on our timing. We got some feedback, but I
2:04:31 really want to get to a thousand. Um so that's one. Uh and then implementing NRPA and part of that process. So I
2:04:38 think that's probably a year plus or minus with everything. Um again, we'd also have to look at the comprehensive
2:04:45 plan as as that's evolving because we're going to see new things coming out of that, especially in that south wellness way area, north area. So yeah, there are
2:04:54 things on here which I call kind of quick reaction, quick fasttrack initiatives. You could start today. Um, and then there's one as you get further
2:05:02 down where they take a little bit longer. Hanok Road obviously is a long lead item.
2:05:06 Would you [snorts] be able as part of your final report to give us, I think Mr. Van's point, guidance on here are things you could do fiscal year 27.
2:05:16 Yes.
2:05:16 And and two of those things might be continue your trail study, continue your study, right? Like that and then in 28 adopt master plan.
2:05:26 Absolutely.
2:05:27 Right. Can you give us a timeline because we're all coming into budget 27 and we need to make informed decisions.
2:05:36 Um I'll say I'm not thrilled and doing all this work and saying, "Oh, let's wait until next year." Yeah.
2:05:41 Personally, um I'd like to take this and make the community better in fiscal year 27 if we can.
2:05:48 So can absolutely. Can you um can I be forwarded the comprehensive plan overall schedule and kind of those milestone
2:05:55 deliverables? If I have that, I can work because I I definitely want to feed that into as our process.
2:06:02 Yep. Perfect. Okay.
2:06:05 So, because you said next week, do you think?
2:06:07 Yeah, I can get that to you. I think so.
2:06:09 What I'll do is I'll submit that as we clean this up and final submitt. So as we go through the budget, Bryan, we can talk about okay, what's adopted in that?
2:06:20 Yeah. Does that clarification help you?
2:06:23 Yes. From a fiscal year 27 because we start that really in full earnest in a couple weeks. July one, I think, is when we get our budget.
2:06:31 That's perfect. Yeah, I can sess.
2:06:36 You'll have you'll have that. So yes, I think for the budget for some allocation of resources, even if we haven't identified exactly all projects yet, but
2:06:45 we've got concepts or theories of like how much we want to try to tackle in that first fiscal year or put in that
2:06:52 first the next iteration of the capital improvements uh plan, then we can start to make those allocations. And then I'm
2:07:01 I would be okay doing that without having approved quote unquote the official final report because that may be as either inclusion the compressive plan or as a preference.
2:07:12 Well, so you have that? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
2:07:14 I get that for I know last meeting we put one one item the felt no park we put it on hold and that's why I was saying I
2:07:23 felt like we would we shouldn't have put it on hold. We should have moved that uh project forward because we already budgeted for it this year and that's is
2:07:30 part of the plan that we set in place to try to upgrade our fields and of course next year. Um I don't I haven't looked
2:07:38 at his budget but I know he probably have in there another field we're looking to try to try to do next year and so we have to talk to Bryan and see
2:07:47 what all got I know talked the plan about trying to upgrade our field and and and get to where you trying to talk
2:07:54 to us about what our fields and everything but we are that's why I felt like we still need to move ahead with Fel Park now that we have the funds
2:08:02 there and it's already there and I think you got that got work there we can go ahead and get that one done
2:08:11 but I I like everything you got there and pretty much in total agree with pretty much everything there and it's
2:08:19 just just going to be a matter of back to what Bryan was asking it's going to be up this council up to us to decide how much and where we going to move everything to how far we going to go.
2:08:30 It's going to be up. I'm quite sure it's going to tie into the comprehensive plan somewhere. It's just up to us to count
2:08:37 what we want.
2:08:42 Can I just ask one quick question came to mind when the little league said that and I think softball also said that they
2:08:50 would fund it fun the maintenance. Can we Do we have an outside partnership and maintenance or is that is that just parks and recreation can do maintenance?
2:09:05 We want to pay for it. We're going to pay for new side.
2:09:08 I don't think I don't think be able to fun.
2:09:11 I'm just saying you know that's the impression I got when he said that. So and then like you know is that just shut down if they're not allowed
2:09:18 so financially I mean correct financially we can accept money what we don't want them to do is
2:09:27 they have their own I understand that so they they pay they give us a team
2:09:35 per fee per season right we're happy to accept money that was my understanding What else can we do to get this done?
2:09:46 And you know that really well like the already paid.
2:09:54 Can we get more money from Yeah, that's okay.
2:09:58 Maintenance isn't cheap. [laughter] Yeah, I mean it's actually fairly common with baseball fields with cities and counties that sometimes there's some buy
2:10:06 in even sometimes to maintain
2:10:26 Oh, I tell you [laughter] spring can't get in town. Yeah.
2:10:33 [laughter]
2:10:35 I mean, you brought it up, but softball [clears throat] together.
2:10:41 Thank you. So, but I know
2:10:50 525 minutes.
2:10:56 Hey, uh we already at 52.
2:11:04 [music]
2:11:38 I'm sorry about the little delay. I guess we having a little technical difficulty, but I think they got it all worked out now.
2:11:45 I don't hear. You don't hear? I can hear you.
2:11:47 I hear you right here, but I don't hear myself. Maybe I turn.
2:11:56 Yes, sir. If you all take a seat, please. How are you? I'm fine, sir. How about yourself?
2:12:04 Good, thanks. Good. Good. I'm here with Ben Group.
2:12:10 We started Bryan's request several months ago looking at Bishop Park field.
2:12:20 Oh, no. It's not now. Is it working? It's working. Okay.
2:12:25 So, we started several months ago looking at the Bishop Park field. Um and honestly in comparison to what you just saw with this uh all this detailed
2:12:34 information we're still at very early stages of trying to understand what ought to be done here. Uh our initial
2:12:41 approach give you some more audio there.
2:12:45 So I can stand anywhere here and talk now.
2:12:49 So, our initial approach was really looking at Bishop Park as perhaps just, you know, simply a renovation project to
2:12:56 kind of restore what was there or what has been there all of these years. Uh, so that's what you saw a month ago when
2:13:04 we were here uh when our renderings were presented at city council. Um, and following that meeting, I know Bryan had
2:13:12 some meetings uh with other folks and from the community and talked about maybe some some visioning for the park
2:13:19 and some additional features that might be added to it. Uh, so we went back and and kind of looked at those things.
2:13:27 Um, Bryan, can I just advance this or do I need to click on each file?
2:13:32 You have to I think you have to click on Okay. How do I get back there?
2:13:42 have to show me how to get there.
2:13:52 Okay. All right. Good.
2:13:55 Still these
2:14:08 so some of the input that was received last time. Um
2:14:17 let me go back to this I apologize. I don't know how to operate your system here.
2:14:26 So, um, some of the feedback that was received last time was enlarging the dugout space,
2:14:33 um, moving the restrooms adjacent to the grand to the, uh, the seating. We had,
2:14:40 in our original rendering, we had anticipated restrooms and a a small concession stand being located directly
2:14:48 under the seating. So, we've removed that for this iteration.
2:14:53 Um, oh, I see. I just got to go to the tab at the top. I got you. I'm used to using Blue Beam rather than Adobe. I'm sorry.
2:15:08 Go here. So, and then one of the other another one of the comments was that they wanted to try to keep the look of the existing structure similar to what
2:15:18 it is now. Well, right now it's painted block. So, you know, we wanted to try to do a little bit better than that. And and so what we were thinking is, you
2:15:26 know, architectural block here, you know, integrally colored, still kind of the same form factor if that's the desire of the city to keep that look.
2:15:35 Um, and you know, and then just try to dress that up some. So, uh, other comments included,
2:15:43 uh, maybe including a playground. So, we we have a space here for a playground.
2:15:50 Uh, and then also space for food trucks, which we thought could those could food trucks could happen either along on the
2:15:57 uh the street parking or we're showing them in here in the existing parking lot that's to the north of the field. Um, so
2:16:05 those were things we looked at. Uh, Bryan, I know the um AI generated image you provided us with, there was a lot of
2:16:14 other bells and whistles here too that you know, you can have there's got to be advertising or or sponsorship
2:16:21 opportunities that could be used along the the perimeter of the field. Um, that rendering also showed maybe some of the
2:16:29 something similar the existing city gateway features that you see uh throughout the city in the outfield. We
2:16:36 could do all of those things, but really what we focused on is trying to see if we could renovate the facility and get everything to fit where it needs to be
2:16:45 because, for example, the existing bleachers are actually over the the property line. They're outside the property line. So, we wanted to try to
2:16:53 reshape the grand stands a little bit so that those would be within the property line, you know, like it should be. Um, and then develop features from there.
2:17:03 So, we just finished these renderings I'm showing you just in the last, you know, yesterday. Basically, we still owe
2:17:10 you a construction budget. And what I would suggest doing, especially in light of what I saw this presentation,
2:17:18 um, you know, there's some good opportunities here, I think, for visioning what the next step is with this field, with this facility and where
2:17:25 it goes. So what I intend to do with our estimator is give you a budget that's going to have kind of an allocart list
2:17:33 of things. So in other words, here's the basic cost to renovate the grand stands, you know, build it so it's structurally
2:17:41 sound. Um get the the larger dugouts in, do the new restroom facilities, excuse me, do the new restroom facilities, and
2:17:50 then do like an allocart menu of cost like scoreboard. uh the rendering we saw the AI generated rendering showed a
2:17:57 scoreboard uh feature um and then some of the um you know maybe solid u
2:18:04 barriers that could have the sponsorship opportunities added to them as well. So there'd be kind of an escalating uh or
2:18:11 menu of costs that you could select from. Of course, there was another item that was talked about that' be a big cost item and I think it was mentioned
2:18:19 here a couple times this afternoon is doing artificial turf. that would be that would be a nice to have on this field. Um but that's going to come at a
2:18:28 large cost. So what we're going to do is create like I said we're going to create a budget for you that has an allocart list of improvements and then really the
2:18:37 next step is you know this is very rudimentary simple conceptual design right now. So what we want to go is
2:18:44 deeper into a concept design uh you know incorporate the features that you want to have uh based on the budget that you
2:18:52 have once you arrive at a budget um and then that'll determine how far you know how much or how little gets done on this field.
2:19:12 Are you suggesting tearing down buildings still? Yes.
2:19:17 I have I I can almost agree that that existing uh leeches and grand stand need
2:19:25 to go down. It's the same one there when four years old.
2:19:29 Well, yeah. When I when I first went to look at this facility and the fact that the upper section of the bleachers are
2:19:36 closed off due to safety concerns, that kind of told me all I need to know.
2:19:41 and and because the wood has not been maintained, but the fact that the concrete isn't good.
2:19:47 Well, beyond that, you have your existing restrooms that are underneath here. And if we're going to move all of that out there, there's we can certainly
2:19:55 look at the possibility of saving the shell of the building and then doing something with that.
2:20:05 I'll ask for what it would look like to the building that's there.
2:20:16 What was the findings on what we need to do to be able to not have to tear down structure?
2:20:26 I specifically asked us to ask our building inspector what we could do to not trigger ADA and not have to tear down structure.
2:20:36 Well, instruction [laughter] accessibility is going to be triggered.
2:20:42 Mr. Strange, but the fact that because of the historical village of a historic factor for me is to try to maintain the historical. Sure.
2:20:50 I also understand that because of breaches and I know those grand stands now, they all open underneath.
2:20:56 It's just dirt underneath. It's not even concrete. You can crawl all underneath them and you always have to do something with them. uh the restrooms to get the
2:21:05 ADA and everything. Yeah, they have to they have to come out because they the same.
2:21:10 You don't have to get ADA if you don't tear down the building. That's the point.
2:21:13 Yeah, that's well building. That's what makes it amazing. It's an 80y old baseball.
2:21:18 Well, now remember remember once uh uh if you don't do any renovation, you're right. We don't have to worry about 88.
2:21:25 But once we start renovating and doing that, which I guess I mean Mr. want to tell me how it fit into that uh ADA
2:21:33 scheme because I know the state the law basically state long as you're not renovating the building you don't have to comply with ADA. Okay. If was built
2:21:42 prior to 1989 I think it is but after that yeah you have to apply 88. So we need Mr. want to interpret that that law.
2:21:51 If if you if you were to leave the building as it is and just say we're going to replace the bleachers as a
2:21:58 maintenance item, right?
2:22:00 Uh I think I think if you even then you still would want to add some accessible seating there because as long as you're
2:22:09 going to touch it, you need to try to do what you can to improve it. But that but the dollar value required to do that or or the extent of the improvements may
2:22:17 not be as as extensive. So if you want to keep the shell and and you know that's something we could certainly look at. That's really kind of what you're
2:22:26 seeing here is just a new version of the same shell.
2:22:29 It's just a couple. I mean that's the problem is when I talked to the baseball players what they told me they wanted
2:22:35 was and talking to public works it was an opportunity to make this the entrance to downtown.
2:22:42 It's part of East Avenue. It's a complete It's an opportunity for us to say, "Welcome to Clermont
2:22:49 and to do an historic baseball concept on the outside. do, you know, you walk through the turn styles when you're
2:22:56 coming in and it's got this vintage vibe to it and and you can do the history of baseball and um you know, the way that
2:23:04 they described it to me is because of the way the outfield fence goes instead of having chain link and this is showing chain link fence with there's no shade.
2:23:14 There's no shade on the outside there.
2:23:16 There's no grandeur to this. This is papa's on the corner. You know, they were talking about let's make it kind of brick and iron looking fence on the
2:23:25 outside and you're coming in. But the one thing that was loud and clear is we have to turf this field. This field is unplayable. I hope the baseball people will tell me I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.
2:23:34 Nope, I got you. Okay. The the turf is unplayable and there's no point having grand stands for a field that you can't play on.
2:23:42 So, we we have to we have to take care of the playing surface first and foremost, but beyond anything. And it's
2:23:48 evident that this facility has been in disrepair. It's evident that the wood bleachers have not been maintained. This
2:23:56 isn't an issue of the buildings falling down. This is an issue of we have wood bleachers and we haven't maintained them for 40 years.
2:24:03 Well, you're right. They've never been maintained and that's, you know, we've been talking about doing something with it since I even before I was mayor, we
2:24:12 was talking about doing something with, you know, because it haven't been maintained. We haven't been putting any money in but it used to be maintained
2:24:19 very well few years ago when I first came back out of surprise when I first came back in 2000 well 29 1998
2:24:28 how good the condition of the field was but I guess that's still because it hadn't been that long before the high schools had stopped using it for base
2:24:36 high school baseball at that time it had just been a few years so so I thought we were going to see a new entrance to downtown talking about
2:24:44 making Easton walkable. And I mean, this to me is Well, he say it's preliminary. He say
2:24:51 it's preliminary. And I I thought it was kind of quick to be coming back because I think we just had this what about three weeks three about about a month or so ago and he coming back and I thought
2:25:00 it was a little quick for you to be coming back uh and everything. But uh I would like to hear what what gentlemen has to say and what they have to add and
2:25:08 what are unless you're uh after you finish.
2:25:13 No, I'm I'm Sorry, I I want I want to hear the input. I mean, you know, because that's I think that's
2:25:21 what needs to happen here. There needs to be a vision of what are we going to do with this field? How do we want it to be presented to the city? How's a city going to use it?
2:25:31 Uh, and I think that's what really needs to be developed and then we can do anything. It's easy for me to change to a picket fence on a rendering and and you get a whole different look.
2:25:41 It's a whole different budget number, too. So, we just got to decide what the vision is and how far we want to go with that.
2:25:48 And on that note, have we heard from that Orlando pro team with Major League Baseball? No, we didn't.
2:25:55 I'm not I'm in the league, right? Come on. Come on. Come on up.
2:26:00 You are you in a league? I know y'all used to play on Sunday morning. Mostly on Sunday morning.
2:26:05 I tell you what, I feel a lot better that I saw this the other presentation earlier. How you doing? I'm David. Good. uh kind of like
2:26:13 uh maybe did we forget about Bishop Fields a little bit? Um again, I'm David Santiago. Um I own Double Play um here
2:26:21 in Clermont. Uh we train uh anywhere from 8-year-olds all the way to 18 year olds. Um in baseball, we have people watching
2:26:28 in baseball. Uh and we have softball coaches as well at our facility. Uh right here on 50. Uh I've been
2:26:36 practicing at this field for the last four years through my facility. Uh but through Little League, I've been at this field for the last 10 years. Um it's the forgotten field. It's a forgotten gem.
2:26:48 Uh it's unfortunate. Uh as much as potential there is for this place, you know, I've passed around some
2:26:55 renderings. The turf field would be great. Um I play our turf fields in the weekends with my tournaments. We get
2:27:03 through the rain. Lightning. You can't do nothing about lightning, but we get through it with the rain. Uh if we didn't have the turf fields, we do play
2:27:11 tournaments at Natural Fields and we know when the rain comes we're done.
2:27:15 Okay. Uh the opportunity to continue that game is is out of question. Um in its present state right now, uh we're
2:27:24 planning to bring collegiate summer teams here, but I can't do that at this field. Okay. I would have to look at a
2:27:31 high school perhaps. Uh maybe maybe down in Davenport. They have turf complexes there. Uh, but I would love to bring a
2:27:39 collegiate summer team here. And with that, it brings teams coming from Coco, coming from New Smyrna. It brings all
2:27:46 that where we saw that our July and our August numbers kind of fell. Maybe we could bump those a little bit. Not a
2:27:53 whole lot, right? But a little bit. Uh, it brings also something new to Clermont that we haven't had or haven't had at all on the baseball side. You
2:28:02 know, we want to talk about we're the choice of champions. I would love for that to be true for baseball. You know, I think we're there for softball, having
2:28:10 NCC there, having collegiate championships there. You know, I don't see that happening with baseball side of things, but at least for up to, you
2:28:19 know, collegiate summer team, you know, maybe a semi-pro, I don't know. I'm got things working. But, you know, collegiate summer team, we could bring
2:28:26 that to Clermont. Uh, and if we have something to revitalize Bishop Field, we could definitely do that. Okay.
2:28:35 I I I I was looking through some of the diagrams here. Man, this this look good. I love it.
2:28:44 I I I I heard him say something about the scoreboard and I wrote down a note and I look at the scoreboard here.
2:28:49 What's cost of a scoreboard? Last time I really bought one some years ago, it was up in the 40 $50,000 range. A lot more
2:29:01 [laughter]
2:29:02 you want to put in it.
2:29:08 I know last but it did cost about 50 60,000.
2:29:16 Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. And this is um like a month ago when we heard about this. By the way, my name's Jorge Baskin. I'm the head coach at Real
2:29:24 Life and we do have a high school team that plays at Bishop. So, we this has been our home field uh for the past five years. Uh, and like coach Santiago said,
2:29:33 it's just unplayable. So, I think that phase one has to be the the surface. Um, turf would solve a lot of problems. You don't have to turf the whole field.
2:29:43 There's still a trend a lot of colleges just turf the infield. That's where the lot of the maintenance comes from. Um, so if you could, I mean, ballpark what
2:29:51 I've heard, 300 grand to turf an infield versus 1.2, 1.5 for the whole field, right? there's a lot of volume in the
2:29:58 outfield, but I would start there. Uh I am very partial if you could keep the structure that
2:30:07 would be huge. Uh we see what it could be right down the road. Leedsburg. Have you guys heard of Pat Thomas Stadium?
2:30:14 Unbelievable. We play them. We play Leburg High. We play First Academy. Um and then the the Leburg Lightning play
2:30:22 there. And to coach Santiago's point, there is a need to expand the collegiic lead care. They've actually asked, "Hey, would Bishop, if it gets renovated,
2:30:30 would there be a team?" Uh, and that does bring impact because you have kids that have to come stay here. Uh, you bring, you know, future major leaguers
2:30:38 maybe that play. It's kind of like the Cape Cod or the Alaska League. I played um I'm a Cubs fan. Played with uh some future Cubs and in my summer college
2:30:47 days uh down ours was in South America with athletes in action. But but I do think if we could, that's the only thing I would voice is there's a clubhouse in
2:30:55 there. I don't know if many of you know that there is an actual clubhouse inside Bishop. That would be a must to bring a collegiate team. We would love to use it
2:31:04 as a high school team. We don't have a a field at our high school. It helps bring a sense of community to have that clubhouse use. You know, Leburg, they use the clubhouse of Pat Thomas Stadium.
2:31:15 Uh so does First Academy. So um and then the maintenance. I think that I was talking to Bryan, which by the way, Bryan and and Taylor and Paige do an
2:31:23 amazing job. Um, but I think it should also be maintenance should be on the teams to use. That's part of like growing up. You know, in high school, we
2:31:30 had to do our own maintenance. Baseball, there's a reason why you maintain it in the middle of the game. They have to drag the field. They have to rake the the mounds. If we're somehow allowed and
2:31:39 empowered to do that, like even now, that's a quick win that we could do uh to do this. But I would say that the field surface has to be the first
2:31:47 priority. Uh, you know, and obviously there was patches done to the to the grandstand. I mean, it was falling apart. You know, my my family's up there
2:31:55 and, you know, you know, they stepped through there, stepped through it, you know, but uh if you could, you know, maybe eliminate the bathrooms to make
2:32:03 more locker room, more storage. That's another big thing. Storage. Baseball's become very tech, you know, you're you're bringing pitching machines in.
2:32:10 You're you know, and it'd be nice to keep those there for the teams like us, double play that use it primarily that we could, you know, keep some of that
2:32:18 equipment there. Um, but yeah, obviously I would love to keep the history of it if you could keep the shell of it. I mean, you know,
2:32:25 that's playing out on Sunday mornings now.
2:32:28 It's a men's league. It's a men's league. And that's another thing. There's that's a big that's a big deal.
2:32:32 It's a men's league that plays here, the plays at Sanford, the plays at uh Yeah, that's another, you know, and if you do turf, you could play more games.
2:32:40 And to coach Sate's point, um, the Central Florida is the mecca of travel baseball, collegiate baseball in the
2:32:48 spring, because I played up north in a small school in Kentucky. We would come down to Cape Coral to play to start the season. If you could put the money in
2:32:56 here, they would they could come and play some of their spring games here.
2:33:00 You know, you have D2 teams from up north, NIA schools. Uh, they would play here. They would play at Pat Thomas. It would create synergy to go around and be
2:33:08 like, "Hey, Bishop's being used by XYZ teams, college teams, and they'll bring money." I mean, they will bring the the finances. But I do think, yeah, the
2:33:17 buses, I mean, it it's uh it's something that And then the summer that collegiate league would be plugandplay. It really would that it is a thing. Leburg, they average a thousand uh fans every game.
2:33:29 It is a thing. So, uh but you would have to have again maintain the clubouses, expand the dugouts. I love the idea of
2:33:36 the of the concession stands outside of underneath it. Um I think that you know if you could preserve this the shell I'm not a GC guy but you know if you could
2:33:45 preserve that while rebuilding everything inside of it maybe you save some money there. So I do know they play on Sunday. Every
2:33:53 Sunday morning I found myself getting dressed and leaving the house early to talk to them. They're not they're not there. Oh wow. I leave early on my way to church. Yeah.
2:34:01 I keep saying I want to stop in to find out who they are. last couple of weeks I've been notic they've been playing through the night uh on weekdays yeah Monday Tuesday Wednesday nights
2:34:10 buses that's that's definitely his group yeah that and let me tell you that when we play there at home games at night I mean we'll average you know you know 150
2:34:19 people that grand stand it's popping I mean it really is it's it's a great thing and um you know if we could just maintain the charm but it definitely
2:34:28 needs a scoreboard too I even bought a scoreboard that we would bring in because it's almost like you know, especially high school baseball, sometimes the scores look like a football game. So, yeah.
2:34:38 Do you know anything about baseball grants?
2:34:41 There was um I don't want to go on record, but there is. Give us a lead.
2:34:46 Um I understand there's a vintage grant.
2:34:48 There's several grants and there's actually several major league scouts that live in Clermont City.
2:34:53 Uh and so, um there is grants and it's if you put in some, they put in some, but I do they do start, you know, and
2:35:01 and a lot of them is turf. they're doing turf because they know that the maintenance is such a big deal. So they um but uh there is a gentleman that that
2:35:10 we work with, Wilmer. Uh he's he's tapped in. He's more like little kid programs, but he's mentioned a lot of the grants. Uh I know real life at one point was looking at it for a field.
2:35:20 They they abandoned that, but there there's a grant out there. So yeah, you're welcome. Thanks.
2:35:27 Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Uh I guess what we uh I don't know what
2:35:33 y'all thought of. I don't know if you saw any of these and everything.
2:35:38 I did. Those were the ones I was referring to. Yeah.
2:35:41 Incorporate some of the I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hold on. Anyone else from the public want to comment on this before the council thing?
2:35:51 Is there any way to go back one slide or to the you want the field or the plan? the [clears throat] the plan.
2:36:06 Yeah.
2:36:07 [snorts]
2:36:10 Okay. Um so I already spoke on behalf of the the trail system and the um cycling
2:36:16 and all that stuff, but this whole plan actually means a whole lot to me because my house, if I may, that's my driver.
2:36:31 So, I'm actually here on behalf of the 10 houses that are all in back of Bishop Field and we all 100% support the field.
2:36:43 Um, we love having it there. We support the renovation of the field. Um, one thing that's concerning about this
2:36:49 specific plan, um, and that all of us in on Second Street right there, um, are concerned about is increasing the
2:36:58 traffic, increasing the cutthroughs, and decreasing our property values. Um, so those are three things that we
2:37:06 definitely are cautious about, spec specifically with this. I My wife and I do not want a turnin directly across the
2:37:15 street from our house. Um, if we could ren renovate this field, uh, renovate the existing footprint. Um, I know there
2:37:24 has been some talk about maybe, uh, adjusting the footprint of the field a little bit to accommodate collegiate
2:37:31 play, things like that, moving home base, whatever. That's all great. Um, it's definitely way overdue as far as
2:37:38 renovations go. I I don't think there were any repairs really made to it after the last hurricane. Um, so renovating
2:37:45 it, rejuvenating it, bringing in uh additional play, all sounds wonderful.
2:37:51 We as residents right there just want to be cautious of what whatever footprint actually means for our quality of life right there.
2:38:02 Well, I I can give you and that one of my concern when they first came to council, especially when they told about parking back there is the concern of the
2:38:09 residents back there. Um, of course then you my concern with carbs getting hit the baseball hitting car window back
2:38:16 there. So what are we going to put netting and everything we can protect that and I can tell you that I have a net used to be some netting along this side here.
2:38:26 I can tell you that every week or so I pull home run balls out of my front yard. Okay.
2:38:30 My dogs love them. They chew them up. I can't give them back but very expensive toys. Well, so I'm not sure the netting along the outfield
2:38:38 fence on that area is along Second Street. Are they gone? They torn down.
2:38:43 There's there's no netting there. No, it's just the chain link fence.
2:38:46 Well, we used to have heading over there to try to protect cars and everything back there.
2:38:52 But I hear your concern and that was my concern especially with the parking back there, balls coming back, lighting on
2:38:59 other things. address, especially hopefully the lighting don't disturb you all. Back in I do have a question because there's sometimes that those lights are on until after 11 p.m.
2:39:10 Um, and there's nothing going on. I don't know if they're on a timer or or not. But and I mean, and I'll be honest with you, I've been complaining about that for 20
2:39:18 years because I live I live up on the other hill on the other side cemetery and I'm coming home most nights and I'm seeing the lights on. Sometimes I'm sitting there almost at my house.
2:39:29 It's got to raise the power bill a little.
2:39:31 I come down. There's nobody there. So, I've been complaining before I was I was complaining about how much energy we wasted on empty field.
2:39:41 Not just that, but also uh park we have Kenny Park all our so we need to get a
2:39:49 in this day and age we need to get a hand because it's burning a lot.
2:39:55 Just just let us know. The lights are on an app so we can adjust those. So just let us know if you see a light you see
2:40:02 lights on on a field that's not being used and not being maintained. You can also call the ranger phone and they they have the ability to shut the lights off.
2:40:11 Okay. I'll I'll get that contact information from you. Thank you.
2:40:18 Okay. I'm not a sportsy girl at all, but what I do love that was said here is
2:40:25 treating this as an entrance to historic downtown. I when you said that I was like, "Oh, the topograph even the way the topography works on East Avenue, it
2:40:32 has you looking up towards this corner." Um, which is such an incredible opportunity. And then of course this is a historic field and a historic neighborhood.
2:40:42 Let's not let's not ruin it. Let's enhance it. Let's capitalize on that.
2:40:47 like that's such a such an asset and cities all the time they kind of throw that stuff away too fast and um I think there's just a really cool opportunity
2:40:56 here. Um it's trickier and harder and I wouldn't assume that it's cheaper. It might be but a lot of times restoration renovation isn't actually cheaper
2:41:04 because it's more complicated. Um but there could even be grants on that side of it too outside of the athletic part of it um if you treat the project and
2:41:13 approach the project that way. So that's all I'll say. Thank you.
2:41:18 And um have one more thing to add about safety. So one thing that we need and this could be a quick fix foul balls. So netting definitely. Yeah.
2:41:29 Um so this is a tricky.
2:41:31 So literally baseballs are running $12 a baseball. Okay.
2:41:37 I mean it's big. So if we're in a game there's foul balls going here all the time. I literally have like our JV guys.
2:41:44 You got like 12 year olds, 30 year olds, you know. middle school for us running across East Avenue to get baseballs. You know, we have cars yelling, "Hey, we
2:41:52 need baseballs. We need baseballs." Right? So, that's one thing. The netting. The other thing is a piece of equipment called it's called a a batter.
2:42:02 It's a batting case. It's movable. We have the space here to do that. Every park has those u you know, you go down
2:42:08 to down in P County, they have four of them. You know, uh we actually have one of those donated to us. I think I called was going to see if we could bring it
2:42:16 over. Somebody else took them up on that offer. But if we could have a batter there for practice, you bring it in. You probably see it in major league games
2:42:25 before where you you can't hit a foul ball basically. That's that's a neat. If we could do that and then the netting I mean it's
2:42:34 we we could use more. Right now there's only one right here. I mean make a double here and a double there. That's cages and
2:42:42 they cages and I think we talked about the council at the council cages pitching batting cages all
2:42:50 I just want to share part of the list that I shared with so grand and dugouts are the same as existing structures two
2:42:59 locker rooms under the grand stand new dugouts that are larger than the existing dugouts new restroom down the foul line areas for batting cages
2:43:08 playground food trucks um netting around the outfield and foul line fences moving home playing back and surfing the entire field.
2:43:16 Well, you don't have to ch the whole field that's.5 million. I understand.
2:43:22 But if you could just do the infield, that's where the wear and tear the majority is.
2:43:26 And and to be honest, the netting and the outfield bishop I mean my guys can play a huge part for baseball standards.
2:43:32 It's a pretty big part. really netting needs to be it's the foul. This is this is where and
2:43:40 you know you know that the especially down east avenue.
2:43:43 Understand if we if we do this and we and we make it right eventually they're going to be college players there going to be guys that are going there for
2:43:52 potentially pro triath. So this would be this would be 700 feet. So so it would be but there might be we might need it in right might need it in right field.
2:44:02 Oh yeah right field. Yes, definitely.
2:44:04 Yes, it's actually a shorter fence there. And I think the original, if I remember correctly, the original scoreboard used to be in right field.
2:44:11 So, right center.
2:44:13 Yeah. So, I mean, and we need a flag. We we stand up there. We bring in our own sound system. We do, you know, our national health anthem and we're like
2:44:21 staring at nowhere and it's it's actually there's a neighbor over here that has a flag and we stare at that one. Uh so, you know, that's that that's a quick fix. There's a flag pole, but we need we need a flag.
2:44:31 So, when I the Baseball scouts.
2:44:34 Yeah, they suggested two cages over here. Put two cages. Yes.
2:44:40 How many people? What is it? 40 for a college.
2:44:43 Um they're actually right now they reduce it 30. Thank you.
2:44:47 So it's not just bigger, it's 34, which is three of the standard bleachers, right? Because each bleacher
2:44:55 if you double the size of what it is now.
2:44:58 I have a team of 22. We know we're in there.
2:45:02 What they were looking at is this is a what do you call this to put the food trucks in here
2:45:11 with the playground and a gazebo with restrooms out here. This is what they said to me. I don't know
2:45:18 the gazebo out here. The idea is the families could be here.
2:45:24 Wow. So these are guys are scouts to understand. So they're saying they're going to recruit local kids and try them
2:45:30 out. So if this is a smart field, so you put a tech smart field system. Yeah.
2:45:36 So all the scouts would be in here during that that's another there's a and the are kind of you know they don't get to be where the scouts are.
2:45:44 That is that is something so the hit track system is something they're standardizing. You haven't seen those baseball ABS automatic balls and strikes they're $20,000.
2:45:56 If you do build it in there somewhere where you could house one and it can't be stolen because like even if we were to provide one if double play was we
2:46:03 went in on one together or if the city provided to make it a smart field if you put a hit tracks in there you need to secure it right
2:46:11 a way to secure it in the grand what do you think about that idea the cages on the one side and the family
2:46:19 area on the right side I I I mean I I still see I still No, no, I I I in competition I think you going to need them on both sides.
2:46:33 You definitely need two pull pits on both sides.
2:46:36 They said that and that's why we showed the play out that area because we knew now the families can't get in and now you're crossing the parking lot to get to the food trucks.
2:46:45 Well, there's still huge here. You can put the bull fence here and there's still crossway here. You can still have a This is really wide. That's really wide. It's really wide.
2:46:53 This bullpin right now there's two bullpens there on the right side which you cannot use. That's another issue because of maintenance.
2:47:02 Yes.
2:47:02 Because maintenance the way it's made was done wrong. What I was going to say is if you guys are going to invest in this.
2:47:09 This is coach Jones.
2:47:11 I am Joseph Marcato. I'm one of the coaches at Double Play. Can you say that in the back?
2:47:16 My name is Joseph Marcato. I'm one of the coaches at Double Play. I uh played minor league ball in Puerto Rico. I used to play in this field in the men's league. I've been coaching in South Lake, little league, Minnola, Groveland.
2:47:28 Um my son right now he's uh playing college ball. He's one of our coaches also. He was here earlier. He got bored.
2:47:35 He said, "Dad, they're not talking about the fields. I got to get out of here. you missed out.
2:47:39 So yeah, the thing is that um I've been traveling around to mostly new fields
2:47:47 and I see what they do and they look real nice, but when it comes as as a as a baseball player, there's always something
2:47:55 something that's missing. It was, you know, it's because I think that they don't ask an actual player like you were saying that you spoke to people.
2:48:04 We had a try out. We've been doing triyouts, MLB trials at our facility because we were trying to do them here,
2:48:11 but the mound was horrible. And we had a a major league player that he wanted to invest in fixing the mound himself. He
2:48:19 was going to pay for it because we had several tryyouts and we couldn't do it.
2:48:24 And the uh the uh the college league that that he was talking about, that's a big plus. You got teams from Tampa, St.
2:48:33 P U Jupiter right now the closest one now here central Florida is Leburg
2:48:40 and the field there the the the bleachers are concrete the dugouts are as wide as when you're sitting at those are the dugouts.
2:48:52 No you you're literally none of the kids sit in the dugout. Okay.
2:48:56 But they bring in fans and they do showcases and right now like you were saying um
2:49:04 the bullpens I the part about the food trucks I didn't understand that too much but right now you have the bullpens are not
2:49:14 here. The bullpens are right next to the right.
2:49:17 Well the dugouts right now are number five right? Yeah the bullpens are right here. There's no open vehicle.
2:49:25 So we'd still have room for like a family area inside the park.
2:49:30 And the idea of the food trucks was the the curb cut so you could drive the truck in. That was why and you could you could fence this off
2:49:38 because you're going to have the bullpen up here so the ball doesn't get by.
2:49:44 And the cages that you have here, you wouldn't be able to do them this way.
2:49:49 They would have to be the way they are now. You would have two on each side.
2:49:54 Um the categ team here,
2:50:03 they want to warm up instead of coming all the way over here. Yeah.
2:50:07 Yeah. The batting cages here. Nobody hits during the game.
2:50:12 So you could put the cages all on one side.
2:50:14 Yes. The cages over here. A bullpen over here. And the same thing somewhere, you know, around here. So that's the question is could you do all the cages on one side?
2:50:24 So you'll depend on both sides. So cages could be on one side. Yes. Yes.
2:50:29 And and you would need to leave room for that just beyond and there's room there for the batter's turtle. So we we can
2:50:35 bring it in because I mean right you thought about I remember
2:50:44 when I was playing here there was a gentleman living under what? Yes. like on purpose. Homeless. Homeless.
2:50:51 Yeah, he was living under there and he would come out.
2:50:55 No, he No, he would go into the the actual beaches underneath, as I said, underneath the
2:51:01 bleach. Just a little area. Go in and go underneath the bleaches. It's all open under there. Nobody is on your unless you're actually in the bleachers.
2:51:10 That's where the uh supposedly the equipment to chalk the lines and the maintenance. But what he was saying is I get it. surfing the whole thing
2:51:19 will be nice, but it's not Well, it is necessary because if you're going to have these big these really good players on the field, they're not
2:51:27 going to nobody's going to put their good player in the outfield on a on a field that's maintained at a recreational level.
2:51:37 Really good players on that field, then it has to field.
2:51:42 I mean, that would be great, but it's not like it's a main thing because there's several high schools right now Lake Bradley High School
2:51:50 only the infield startfield TNXL. Yeah, that's what they have.
2:51:55 Yeah, in in this case though, we don't have to do a lot of work on the outfield to get if you kept real turf.
2:52:03 It's going to be a lot of work having to be done out there because I know it's a lot of holes and everything in the outfield as well.
2:52:11 Turf and outfield.
2:52:14 I mean, and Our grand does a good good job of academy.
2:52:28 I'm just referring to a better player. Can I get you to come to the back?
2:52:34 Is the council open to because this is an interesting debate. We're on the same page and I'm finding it to be an interesting thing.
2:52:42 Is the Would the council ever be open to sort of management agreement for this facility, not dissimilar to the one that
2:52:51 we have for the rowing facility where there's a group of people. I mean, listen, baseball has experts. They have real facility experts. They have experts
2:52:59 beyond any measure of expert. They're the most statistically have somebody else.
2:53:05 Yeah. If we had if there was a group not dissimilar to the Roman facility where we had a relationship where someone else
2:53:14 managed the facility is that something the council would I'm not saying we're committing has ever been done before yes we do it with a club
2:53:22 yeah but I mean with baseball with maintaining team every major league organization in America is managed by a private team
2:53:30 maybe baseball teams do it every day I guess the question is if If we did that, I'm not saying we should or shouldn't. Right. I'm not saying we should.
2:53:38 If we did and how do we let other groups use that facility, right?
2:53:44 Yeah. I think that's that becomes the question.
2:53:46 It'd be a it'd be a corporate public use and essentially like if I would do it, I'm just saying this is what I do. I I I
2:53:55 rent out lanes in my facility. And then on top of that, we do tryyouts, we do uh
2:54:02 showcases, we do other things and we go out to the public that want to use these things. You know, they want these
2:54:09 services and essentially we are the we are the keeper of those facilities.
2:54:15 Does that okay that go your way? Go ahead.
2:54:19 Unless somebody else in the public want a close public comment and come back to council which you got the whole time. It
2:54:28 sure seemed that way. Um I I I'm really confused because I I thought this was going to be a
2:54:36 presentation on the future of Bishop Park. And this sounds like we're a working group. We're the committee that's putting together Bishop Park. And
2:54:44 that's I would that is not what I think the city council needs to be involved in. We could ask every single person in this room what Bishop Field should be
2:54:52 and we're going to get 30 different answers. So I think we haven't address.
2:54:58 What is Bishop Field? Is Bishop Field a recreational place for kids to go play baseball for low for the city of Clermont or is it a professional
2:55:06 combine place to to that that is that like sought after? But I don't think either one is bad, but we're we're like
2:55:15 going down this road of like top of the line everything and that's okay, but that I don't think that's the history of Bishop Field.
2:55:25 Can I address the bishop of the field, the history of Bishop Field has been a place for the kids of Clermont to play ball.
2:55:36 And and I don't know, I don't know if I'm comfortable saying the city needs to in its parks and recreation programs
2:55:45 provide a semi-proto facility without having that conversation with
2:55:53 the community. Like I don't I know that the general community feels feels that way about Bishop Field. I I I think we
2:56:01 we we we went down this road uh today of of you know a a a 10 or 12 million
2:56:10 dollar project a and wow that's that's a whole different thing than what came to us and
2:56:18 we said let's workshop and if that's the route we want to go great but man that is not what was kind
2:56:27 of presented as what today is going to be I feel like today was going to be a presentation of what was the parks
2:56:34 department after hearing from the council and city staff hearing from the council. They were going to present a plan and and if we're not ready for
2:56:43 that, that's okay. Then maybe we shouldn't be we shouldn't be dealing with this today. There needs to be a special committee of people that gets put together to get to get something to
2:56:52 the table to present to us. I just don't know that that u I I don't know. I just I feel like we were all over the board on this.
2:57:01 Right. I think what you're trying to say is is it is it a little league field or is it a professional field? Is it semi-professional? Can we outsource it
2:57:09 to people that really know how to run a professional field? Does the neighborhood want a professional field?
2:57:15 The additional parking that would be, you know, and concessions and things like that. I mean, it I think you're right. We we have to define what we want
2:57:23 with what it was in the past. What do we want to do in the future?
2:57:28 Let me let me give you the history. You guys somewhat incorrect about the history of Fish and Field. Fishfield has
2:57:35 always been a multi-use type field. I guess you can say semiro has always played there. Our kids have always played there. High school have played
2:57:42 there. College has played there. That has always been the history of Bishop Field. When I was a kid, we used to go down there on Wednesday nights and play
2:57:50 uh as Boy Scouts and everything. uh my little league some of my little league players we would practice there so it's
2:57:57 always been somewhat not just a little league field it's been a community field has always different all I think semi
2:58:06 coach uh as I said one one of the big thing with me growing up we used to have old negro baseball league that played in sight then uh remember it used to be I
2:58:15 don't know if you time right down on interstate 4 uh on the other side interstate 4 and 27 used to have a big baseball, huh?
2:58:24 Tinkerfield.
2:58:25 No, not Tina Field. There used to be a big in the ' 80s, 90s, I guess it was.
2:58:30 There was a big baseball complex down there called baseball.
2:58:33 They had all baseball and they would sometimes come some of them teams would sometime come up here. It was a semi-pro baseball team. Matter of fact, I even
2:58:41 put got a team together from my base from Mcde McNeel Air Force base. Of course, like I said, I was in that department. I
2:58:50 put a team together again uh to play in that league. I used to send a team to Mike Air Force Base. We used to play some of these semi-pro team and they
2:58:58 actually came up here and played Bishop Field once. So So in reality that field has always been forever and I think
2:59:06 that's what we trying to get back is preserve history. Like I said, I would like to preserve the history. It's very important for me to preserve the history
2:59:13 of the field and have it in good shape for anybody. If you're going to bring some college in here, economic impact
2:59:20 that's so without excluding the community. I think we all Yeah, the community is still there. I mean, like I say right now, I know it's
2:59:28 people out of community. I don't know where everybody be coming, but on Sunday morning, I'm on my way to church.
2:59:34 There's so many cars and people out there and even through the week nights, I've been seeing a few old guys down and all. I don't know where it all comes
2:59:41 from, but it's being very well utilized right. So, but Mr. I think to your point, it'd be great if there was a designated
2:59:48 committee to talk about what might this look like because honestly all you're really hearing here may sound overwhelming, but
2:59:55 what these gentlemen are describing is simply a baseball field. Like they're literally just saying these are the basic elements, the other stuff in the
3:00:03 architectural terms, that's what's overwhelming.
3:00:06 Well, yeah. But but I think also too, I mean, if you talk about historic significance of of Bishop Field,
3:00:13 Wrigley, uh, Soldierfield, Fenway, Lambo, what do they all have in common? Grass. And none
3:00:22 of them have turf. And and and turf, while easier to maintain or long-term viability,
3:00:30 it does change the historical significance or structure of that. And I think um there needs to be some
3:00:37 examination of that and some weight of that. The historical car character and value of it, the gateway for the city. I
3:00:44 I I think that's paramount to this whole conversation. Um you know, I'm seeing a
3:00:52 parking lot up here that uh my first initial reaction is heck to the no. Uh
3:00:58 because um unless it's grass, I I don't I don't want to see all that concrete
3:01:05 um up there. Um you know, and I think, you know, we I don't know. I I just feel like this wasn't really I'm not trying
3:01:14 to place blame. I'm not trying to be condescending. I'm really not. I'm just frustrated by the fact that I don't really feel like this was a workshop
3:01:23 that was presenting here's what we want to do, right? Uh it was a work session and and
3:01:31 and we really I feel like we just lacked direction on that conversation and we were just we were just starting to throw
3:01:38 everything out. Um and I I'm worried that now we're going to just be back the same spot again of hey we're here we're
3:01:46 the city council. We're going to give direction and go back and work this and and we I don't know why we really spent the last hour uh having this
3:01:55 conversation here. We're just not ready for the workshop. I'm okay with that. We're not.
3:01:58 Well, I think one thing that's good from this that you know frustration breakdown's an opportunity for a breakthrough and and so Bryan said look
3:02:05 we because he's right like with a a typical parks and rec department budget this field cannot be maintained to your point as a traditional baseball field.
3:02:14 He knows I grass player that's me all the way. But I can get there for the community sake, right? Like that's kind of where I'm at.
3:02:23 But if this I do think a way to This is a unique facility. This is not your standard baseball field. And some of the conversations I had with Mr.
3:02:34 Foreman, it was we could make it like multi-purpose. My opinion on it was this has been a baseball field for 80 years.
3:02:41 To your point, it has a unique place in in baseball history that is very important to many many Americans. And if I think the only way to not put Mr.
3:02:52 perform in an impossible situation but still accommodate the standard that you're describing and I do think this is
3:02:59 a visionary item is would we be willing to entertain a reasonable
3:03:06 proposal [snorts] for management at that facility because I believe this gentleman the gentleman who stood up at our last meeting I think there are
3:03:15 plenty of people in this community alone
3:03:16 [snorts]
3:03:17 who could come in and say I've got the resources this is what it might cost or these are the things we need from the city but we can maintain this and and
3:03:26 there are examples of that and if we're open to that then I think that it would be very significant and and responsible for us to say okay let's put together a
3:03:35 committee I could see a group coming through whether it's through Main Street and I don't know if they extend this far into the CRA I don't know how that works
3:03:43 but like for example or if it's a new nonprofit that's you know the friends of Bishop Field or something like that I can see that As a result, if there's the
3:03:52 passion in the community to take that responsibility and the accountability, you know, and we do have a history of doing that. If we say, "No, we don't want that. We want it to be big parks
3:04:00 and recreation." I will say to you, I would vote today, let's t it, and start there because it's unplayable right now.
3:04:07 And at least it would be playable. If we could tip, fix the wood, and be done with it, I'd be happy. And and but if we want to really say, "Hey, this is the
3:04:16 gateway to the city. We see this as a real opportunity." I do think workops would be beneficial and so I would be with you on that
3:04:24 completely and there's a whole there's a whole educational component of this that as the mayor was talking about the negro
3:04:31 league playing here there's a story to be told about this field there's education component that even someone who's not there for baseball who just
3:04:39 who who visits Clermont and realizes this is a historical historically significant
3:04:46 place that has plaques and for someone to be able to absorb that and take that
3:04:52 in is truly an opportunity that I feel like we absolutely have to take
3:05:00 advantage of if we're going to do work there um to to bring it up to something more than it is today. As as I stated
3:05:09 earlier, I I wasn't I was a little shocked to see it come back to us so soon, but I thought we gave more time than this because I one
3:05:17 of my concern in the council be will they be able to bring us some real positive looks within 30 days or so. How
3:05:24 much time you need? So, uh as he say, he's just getting in there.
3:05:29 workshop and I think one of the benefits of what we've done here today is the fact that we've thrown out a lot more ideas and things that he can go back and
3:05:37 now work with and I think that's what he was kind of looking for as well. He was kind of looking for some some guys what our expectations were as well.
3:05:46 I can I can I can sit in entertaining. I don't mind entertaining someone in management
3:05:53 field. If we put all this into it, this funding into it to bring it up to where we want it. Yeah. Why don't we have somebody because it is a lot. I'm going
3:06:00 be honest. We don't have the m manower to sit there and maintain this thing on a daily basis because it will be a lot of work to maintain especially if we end
3:06:09 up keeping real turf out there, you know. So, if it's real turf, [laughter] real ter I mean I mean in back to Mr.
3:06:18 big and then regular fields and all that they have ground maintenance crew that's out there
3:06:25 247 you know and everything maintain and I know we can't have that so we entertain some having somebody to
3:06:32 maintain course be great if you want to do that it can be and it can be economic impact of all the different people coming in to see how much how much how
3:06:41 much come I mean the only thing that you know the point about outsourcing it is then who
3:06:48 controls who can play there that that you know that company or the we relinquish our rights not necessarily [clears throat] subject
3:06:56 to whatever you come up with in the agreement you know we've done things where we share facilities subject to city events I mean there's options
3:07:06 we we write the contract and designate all that in so I mean that would probably be the best way to go this way we eliminate our
3:07:14 you know control of this but then you know you're outsourcing it to somebody else and then what happens in the event of that they're not you know
3:07:24 they let the bleaches you know then what recourse I guess we could put stipulations in to those we don't release we don't release our
3:07:33 responsibility and our control of it but I mean is that something that we have to do another workshop on or we can't obviously can't vote on anything
3:07:41 like that now maybe that can come at the next meeting and just say this is what we want to do to get the ball I I mean we keep on you know let's put this off
3:07:49 another time let's put why don't we make a decision obviously we can't make that decision now we can't do a vote now but maybe we can put that in and have
3:07:58 discussion on do we want to outsource it to get it done as rapidly as possible this way you know I don't know you know
3:08:05 do you have to put a I have maybe a radical idea what's that is given what we heard with APA and
3:08:13 where we're at in comp about. So if we do a formal committee, they're subject to sunshine and they
3:08:21 have to have formal meetings and it can as we've all experienced it can restrict the the beauty of the interaction amongst the group. However, the nice
3:08:29 thing about a formal committee is that there is formality to it. What if we were to form a parks and rec committee, a community committee to help us work
3:08:38 through kind of a lot of these issues about trails we talked about different facilities and if that committee take
3:08:46 on. We could say, "Look, we will definitely want you to address Bishop Field, but then everything related to what we saw today and bring us back some
3:08:54 recommendations which may or may not require another workshop, but at least a committee. I mean, a lot of the people in this room today, other people who weren't present
3:09:02 today have extraordinary experience and sports and facilities." Exactly. And so we've got so many people
3:09:10 in the how how do we do we want to say hey let's do a committee for Bishop Field alone which I would support or do we
3:09:16 want to consider overall recreation trails committee or something
3:09:26 is that you parks arts and w having a city a city parks arts and w
3:09:32 board I think we are beyond probably time for something like that uh because I I think that there are experts that
3:09:41 that are very passionate A and also very knowledgeable B about these subjects that they can work at that level at that
3:09:50 minut level that we don't necessarily always have that expertise and they are able to formulate the
3:09:59 actual presentation to come to the council level and be able to then approve that recommendation that's being made.
3:10:07 just like any other institution proposal. I think that's a great idea, not just for Bishop, but I know if we do this through the formal process that
3:10:16 call for commission, um I think there's some charter things associated with that. I think our charter does allow for
3:10:23 us to do work group or ad hoc. I I don't know the language that's in there. City attorney is shaking his head a little bit, but I think we have some ability.
3:10:31 Maybe that's the out we go to to move this forward right now. But then also How do we
3:10:38 do the logistics to formalize something for the long term because then whatever they let's assume
3:10:47 let's assume first of all do you like what you're hearing as a citizen I do I do it's a step forward okay so let's assume Mr.
3:10:57 who's on the committee representing baseball for example and he gets with a group and brings it to the parks board and makes a proposal well all those
3:11:06 people presuming you've got soccer pros and whiteboarding pros and all these different pros and they go well yeah that sounds great that makes a lot of
3:11:14 sense I don't want to manage that or I don't you know we can't do that like now we're getting other people who have similar experience who can analyze
3:11:22 before it comes to us can I make a suggestion So, we keep rather than do a a large parks and rec
3:11:31 commission because I because I've dealt with them before and they stay on there for years and years and what invariably happens and I'm
3:11:39 sorry to say people on the commission are you get five or seven people on a board
3:11:47 and they have their own agendas agendas and so they wind up they wind up
3:11:55 hurting as much as they are. So if you could keep it to a simple okay we have a
3:12:02 committee for Bishop Field people who are passionate about Bishop Field they have a meeting they have a group that's
3:12:09 passionate about our pal what goes on what that park looks like the group that's passionate about what what going
3:12:17 on in arts and recreation center high yes just keep it to a specific
3:12:24 subject the people who are specifically interested and knowledgeable in those subjects because if you make it a broad board
3:12:30 then it's kind of it's going to lose its effectiveness.
3:12:34 Yeah, it loses its effectiveness. That's one of the things I was sitting there thinking I don't have no problem with committed. I've dealt with him like you before and that's what it happened. You
3:12:41 get this person on here. I'm only worried about basketball. This person worried about softball. Let's worry about football and everything. But then when I broke them out and gave it to own
3:12:50 committee then the biggest complaint that we have to still worry about but it worked better by having each one of them on committee. Oh you giving this more
3:12:59 attention than you did this one you know. So it's always it's always something going but when I had the individual committees they work better.
3:13:06 Okay. And everything because I just always looked at their budgets and tried to make sure each one of them had the
3:13:13 same amount of money to spend the budget as effectively as they couldn't tell me.
3:13:19 I'm gitioned to come to us and tell us what you need.
3:13:28 I don't have a clear feeling about which one I think is better for committee. I hear what you're saying. I don't I don't have enough to get direction on
3:13:37 [clears throat] where I want to see it go. I would like to see a solution. I wouldn't even mind it being on the
3:13:44 agenda next meeting if everyone else feels I could do my research between now and then to have a formal opinion
3:13:50 if we were willing to say discuss and decide on whether to establish a committee or a board and we could make a
3:13:58 decision on the council. I would be okay with that. Where does everyone else think?
3:14:06 Do we have time to put it on the on the on for the next agenda? Yes. We only a week away. What's day two?
3:14:13 I mean, you know, it's my opinion that you can add items the day at the meeting. So, it's my opinion you can add items at the meeting. So, yes, there's
3:14:22 definitely he's tainted.
3:14:24 Okay. Well, I've always been told you got to do this two weeks advertising and it has to be advertised. The meeting The notice for the meeting has to be an
3:14:33 agenda has to come out so many days before the meeting as well. Well, no, it's the notice. I'm sorry.
3:14:39 That's our council rule. We have it in our council rules when that's true.
3:14:43 I think if I'm back to say, hey, everything on agenda has to be done on Tuesday before. Okay.
3:14:50 And that's why I'm asking that. Well, I want to [laughter] not to say I'm not saying that to say, hey, we may not be able to do it on the next council, but the one following.
3:15:00 Well, look, I mean, ultimately, you have full control over what you want to do.
3:15:06 Well, okay. Yeah, but that's fine. Want to put it on I have no problem.
3:15:11 Well, I won't be able to talk to you gentlemen about this between them. So, I'm very interested in the thoughts about the committee versus the board.
3:15:18 Mr. Peterson, Mr. B, what do you think about those ideas. I don't want to over complicate it, but I do want you notice we there's two different
3:15:27 things I'm hearing here. You want to have a a a company that's going to manage it, but who's going to build it?
3:15:33 The city's going to build it. Who's going to We don't even talk about the number on that. Would you say 20 million to get to complete the project?
3:15:41 Let me let me be clear. What I'm what I'm looking for is for certain it sounds like we're comfortable with at least a
3:15:49 group of people who are to make a recommendation to us for what it should look like. Yeah, absolutely.
3:15:54 And how it could be managed and if they say we're willing to manage it and we want it to be natural, I would be okay with that if they're willing to manage it and there's
3:16:02 probably some financial connection and that's fine. Those are details. But first, the question is how do we get the
3:16:09 people? Do we say there is a committee for Bishop Field alone or do we say actually you know we're talking about this big overarching plan for the city
3:16:18 are is it appropriate for us to have a committee of which Bishop Field is just or board of which Bishop Field is just
3:16:25 the first project that they're working on or maybe they're working on other multiple projects but we want Bishops come back sooner rather than later.
3:16:33 I think we should just do Bishop Field like Bryan said and and yeah just one and then if it doesn't work then you can dissolve. Yeah.
3:16:40 You know you're going to know you know if it gets into chaos then you know but if it comes that way it's these people are coming up great ideas. I never even
3:16:48 thought of that. You know, I I'll tell you, I don't know if it's a wrinkle or not, but the committee idea that you're talking about would be
3:16:56 subject to I think at this point I think we're far enough along that it go.
3:17:08 But Mr. W, he wasn't in here earlier, but he was talking about the ADA and I know uh state law basically if you
3:17:14 not if you don't renovate a building and It's not ADA standards. If you don't renovate uh certain renovation, you
3:17:23 don't have to apply to ADA. I don't know exactly.
3:17:26 You mean is it if if you haven't actually maintained it or Well, well, if it was like for example,
3:17:33 this facility was built pre8. Okay. So, it doesn't meet ADA standard. Now, how my question is how much can we do to before we have to meet ADA standards?
3:17:45 And for example, I got a problem with the voting center right now. I get all these complaints out the voting center and they saying, "Hey, they complaining and they went to everybody. I think they
3:17:54 been the rest of Wagner and and trying to make us have meet ADA standards, but we keep telling about we we don't have
3:18:02 to because it was built and fell with 1989 and they have never renovated the building. So they don't have to meet ADA standards.
3:18:10 So my question is this when we start renovating how much what can we do I know batting cages and all that
3:18:19 wouldn't play in the park but it's more or less the uh the grand stands and everything that's I'm not aware of an exemption for this for this park for the ADA.
3:18:28 So anything we do
3:18:31 [laughter]
3:18:32 yeah I mean I always want a caveat but I mean Yeah.
3:18:42 So, uh I just I know I missed the screen was talking about trying to avoid ADA and everything because they can be costly.
3:18:50 But, uh that's why I was saying what how much can we do without having to meet that that threshold.
3:18:59 I'm just going to say I feel uncomfortable looking I feel like we're looking for a
3:19:07 way to not comply to make a city facility accessible and I I have to
3:19:15 admit I don't like the way that makes me feel and I don't like hearing that.
3:19:18 Well, let me clarify for you what happened because I agree with you. I don't like it either.
3:19:22 Yeah. I I just It happened when I said, "Can we preserve this building?" Yeah. and it was well we have to when we
3:19:30 tear it down we have to build it in compliance with ADA. So my question was what is considered tearing down? Yeah. I don't have the answer. So now we're going down a rabbit hole that I did not
3:19:38 mean to trigger. So when we start Yeah. And I think and I think it's I think it's legit to ask a question just for information to totally but I I I
3:19:47 think that where we've gone with it is maybe this direction of aid how do we avoid it and that really worries me. And
3:19:57 I think um we're not we're not we're not being inclusive of our community when we when we talk about it that way. So I
3:20:05 think we just have to think about how we're saying that and how we're how we're addressing it. Um but I
3:20:12 m strange you asked about my opinion on on committee commission and I and I think that um you know there will always
3:20:20 be and notwithstanding the fact that it can be but there will always be the argument that boards and commissions
3:20:28 either slow down things or they're they're they're agenda driven. Um
3:20:34 but I'm of the philosophy that um five city council members are experts on
3:20:41 everything and um we have we again I'll keep saying you keep hear me say
3:20:48 Clermont's maturing city not just about growth it's about maturing and we have just bigger things that we're tackling
3:20:57 with our with our uh age and with our growth with our needs and wants and desires
3:21:04 with that comes the need to involve as many people possible in that process up front so that we get good feedback and
3:21:13 perspective before it comes to the ultimate decision making which for our city is the city council. Um and so I
3:21:20 will I will always heir on the side of a planning and zoning or a code enforcement or a parks and wreck a transportation story preservation.
3:21:33 I've got a list of 11 different ones that could be at some point some utilize. I'm not saying we have to have
3:21:39 them all, but I I think my my my starting point, my center is
3:21:46 we always should involve people who are in the community who are passionate and knowledgeable and connected to start
3:21:54 with the conversation. Um because I think like right now with planning and zoning, people who live in a neighborhood who have a development go
3:22:03 back to 7-Eleven and way the people on Runner Circle right there. they were here at PNC because it it it came up at
3:22:10 that level and they were able to voice that opinion. PNC weighed in and made a recommendation and then they were able to come to the council and I think same
3:22:17 with parks, you know, the folks who live Bishop Field, those 10 houses, 12 houses, they would have the opportunity to speak at a parks and rec board and be
3:22:26 able to give perspective on what was being recommended to the city council for action. And that's just another layer of transparency, information
3:22:34 gathering, involvement, engagement that I think is good for a city of our size as we go even larger. And if we can
3:22:41 start to get some of those systems in place and and really it comes down to the intentionality of the council making those appointments. It's up to us. We
3:22:50 don't like who we're appointing. They do have a term limit, right?
3:22:53 We make different appointments. Or we can even structure things to say like for parks and recck, we we must have one
3:23:00 water expert, one field sports expert, one, you know, and you can create. Now,
3:23:07 obviously that's come with caveats because you got to make sure you find people to do that.
3:23:11 But you can structure your board's commissions to be able to try to avoid some of those things, I think, uh, to do
3:23:18 that. But I I digress on Bishop Field and I apologize for that, but I wanted to answer your question. Um, I I do
3:23:25 think we have to give the folks who have been here today and that we've already kind of formally informally asked to be
3:23:34 a part a way to to continue to be a part and I think if we can do something with specifically to council member Peterson's point with Bishop Field and
3:23:42 get that going and get it up and running even as an ad hoc um and um be able to hash all that out
3:23:51 and bring it back either in a workshop or a city council meeting or community meeting public meeting and then we then take action on it. I don't think it has
3:23:58 to be long term. I think this could be done quickly.
3:24:01 So you like but I do like the committee for this because I think the iron is hot and we should start in terms of the community is there. It's
3:24:09 the knowledge is there. The conversation's there. Let's not delay it. I think we owe it to the folks who are passionately talked about this this field and the need for it and the role
3:24:18 of it in the community to do something now.
3:24:21 So do we feel comfortable directing staff to bring us a committee item at the next agenda so that can And how do
3:24:29 we appoint people at that point or is it not an appointed I think we I think uh if this city attorney can tell us what our ad hoc
3:24:38 process is in the charter I think there there is some language there that maybe talks about that.
3:24:42 It's in um chapter one of the code um and it basically or the admin chapter could be one or two but it says that the city council unless the charter says
3:24:51 otherwise can appoint committees and special things. Do we have Mr. W do we need to uh decide to have the committee
3:25:01 first before we have uh city staff go ahead and advertise the fact that we're looking for people for the committee? No.
3:25:08 So we can go ahead and have No, the city staff will answer to you if you're upset with the fact that they're advertising for No. Well, you know, so no, no, no. So
3:25:15 they they can go ahead like I can say we give direct go ahead and come up with a thing to
3:25:23 advertise for a committee and you want to say get all the name together like always they bring it back to us then we say we going to appoint so
3:25:31 if we if we put it on this meeting to approve the ad hoc and then to also advertise we have the one meeting in July at the end of July
3:25:38 that gives people a month to apply get the applications in get the information out and then we vote in July We're done. We've got the committee up and running for months.
3:25:48 Yep. And who's defining the number of members of committee etc. Is that going to be like
3:25:54 how do we define what what's is it I know like with our code enforcement board we required to have seven. Yeah.
3:26:02 These type of meetings are No, there's no your your code is very flexible on that. It doesn't have any requirements on on these type.
3:26:10 Could be three. Could be one. It actually could be one. So far what we've seen is we've had two professional baseball scouts, so ties to professional
3:26:17 baseball. We have one business owner who's also connected to the college level and we've had one high school
3:26:24 coach and we've had we've had a res and we've had who lives
3:26:32 in and we've had the local league and I think now you're talking about you
3:26:39 I say youth I mean 14 and then school and then college and pro business res that's six.
3:26:48 Yeah, but we I think we right now concerned we bishop field get the committee for bishop field. I think the committee should get these five people.
3:26:56 I think we should have seven because those six groups have already
3:27:04 I just fine with our boards where we have seven. We have a lot of trouble trying to fill seven person boards and everything.
3:27:16 [laughter]
3:27:22 If they committee only six people, that's fine. Yes.
3:27:29 Well, you have Yeah, that's exactly four.
3:27:38 Great.
3:27:43 [laughter]
3:27:44 I'm sitting here just y'all make me remember this. I used to have back this this kind of work I did.
3:27:54 That's fine. uh ran sports and all these kind of back fields and all
3:28:02 committees referee.
3:28:07 Yeah. No,
3:28:20 but it it can be fun, but it can be a lot of work. And I I sympathize with Bryan. I think you've been doing a pretty good job with everything.
3:28:27 Yeah. This is just bigger than a historic restoration like this.
3:28:32 Well, actually, actually I already I know we've been here almost four hours. Uh I mean it's time to go.
3:28:40 But one of the things I do want us to consider is maybe maybe looking at increasing our park correct department
3:28:47 because we are need more fields. I know staff over Okay, we'll try to keep up with
3:28:55 something, but that is maybe if they put it in the budget, we have that talk about I think that this process today helps us
3:29:03 start to establish a plan, a vision and a plan and the budget follows that. So, I think that there's still questions to
3:29:10 be answered, but so for for basically it's on feedback.
3:29:21 That's well they also have and I would say he can still he can give input to the committee once the committee formed with
3:29:30 the committee as well be great I think you all had real good discussion here today
3:29:37 starting to get direction that's what we need thank you well we done with baseball well we we had other anything other than
3:29:46 I just mentioned other for me was looking at increasing recreation department man.
3:29:52 The other was so you guys at the last meeting continued two items. It was park and the stage right here
3:29:59 and the idea was that there was continue to talk about here so that we can bring it back to the next meeting. Okay.
3:30:08 Well well like I say for me to close the park I know you sent me the figures saying it's not that much we be spending every year on state but then uh some
3:30:17 years we spend more and I get it. So the years that we spent more 22 and 23 were because we held
3:30:26 stage here for a while because it stayed through cookies and coal.
3:30:31 So that's what so last year when we just the platform it was 1640 now we build
3:30:37 the stage and by the way we were um recommended to receive a brand.
3:30:44 We don't know if we are awarded yet but we were recommended for it. city, but
3:30:52 there still will be production costs every time you use the stage. So that this is for a shell that will be wired,
3:31:00 but somebody's still going to have to bring a board and plug it in. So well, I'm I'm not looking for
3:31:07 maybe we have a sound to bring their own equipment.
3:31:11 So that's still so that's still going to exist. So it could be there won't be zero dollars.
3:31:17 a little less, but the platform for a light up last year was 1640. The stage that we brought for light up the year
3:31:23 before was 2,800. So that's So you're in that range between$2 and $3,000 a year to rent the
3:31:31 stage production costs or light. That's just light.
3:31:35 Just the light. Yeah. Uh well the stage one thing that I was up on that stage and I had trouble trying to move around.
3:31:44 It was very very But I mean I I was very afraid of people falling off because it was very and I think part of the intention with
3:31:52 the stage two is you know with the food trucks that Main Street has and farmers markets that that may have somebody who could set up,
3:32:01 you know, some sort of one band type of thing, you know, just something for community events that are downtown.
3:32:10 Yeah. Well, and I think that was the whole idea when we first started talking about this years ago because uh First Friday was actually using this as a
3:32:17 stage and we were trying to do this with with our events that we doing and we were trying to turn this into a little entertainment park.
3:32:26 Um so I think that's it. I personally I would like to see us still move forward
3:32:32 to trying to see what what what I think what you brought us it was like
3:32:40 hundred some thousand dollar just to do the study it wasund study it was8 for that was the
3:32:50 that that was a little that's the architect that's the expensive 2000
3:32:59 Don't worry about it till maybe next year. Well, I feel that way too.
3:33:04 For the sign. I thought that's not about 400,000.
3:33:08 Yeah. And and we've got the conversation on the agenda. I believe it's on the agenda next week about the parking garage at we have a large robust
3:33:17 schedule of things because we're only have one meeting in July.
3:33:22 So the the I guess it's DBC's propos they recommend And then we've got the question of
3:33:30 seventh street. I think we need to make that decision and that decision if city hall was chosen then the stage
3:33:38 might interfere with that. And so I tend to think I'm probably not going to be willing to move forward the stage right
3:33:46 now given that it was what I mean spend 10,000 get a stage then you won't fall off
3:33:54 [laughter]
3:33:54 get a better stage.
3:33:55 Um I know I've given a great deal of thought since our last meeting and I'm not quite ready to move forward with the stage given the potential for the
3:34:04 parking garage conversation but I am willing to move forward with Lake Felter. So that's where I'm at on those two
3:34:13 we vote to this meeting this coming. Uh yeah, I think where I stand today on
3:34:20 that will be to uh table again the city hall stage. Um but to take action on the
3:34:28 turf what was it cost to 680 and it's organic?
3:34:36 Well I I think 68 let's be honest 68 another 100 something. So it's going to be close to 800,000. I thought it was
3:34:45 no 68 with the because the original that took the
3:34:52 original I thought it was another 180 something
3:34:59 that's that's I know it's going to be over the long run we're going to save how much how much be costing us now to retund
3:35:09 we dug it up and reate that would be a couple hundred thousand We've been spending that every year.
3:35:16 Yeah, that's a that's but it's just the soccer.
3:35:23 Correct.
3:35:28 Soccer, but it's well, we started with the soccer field. That's our smallest soccer field. That's a field that we
3:35:36 never been able to get in good condition. Even when we put a bunch of plastic for very short amount of time.
3:35:43 Um soccer field as a turf field and we can talk about when we get to budget what we talked about today
3:35:50 in turf but um soccer fields are easier to maintain on turf um than baseball. But this is kind of like this is our first step into turf.
3:36:00 Yeah.
3:36:00 This is our first thing like let's get this in. Let's take some pressure off of hand and pal multipurpose fields and get
3:36:08 more people using this one and then we can expand from there once we get this one
3:36:16 and make sure lessons learned on this one so we know what do the next is there any sort of guarantee or warranty on because you said you have a
3:36:25 hard time keeping it like the sub I'm sorry the no it's not about the it's
3:36:32 not about the So on when you're maintaining because this is not but on soccer field it's very just like the goal.
3:36:45 When you're talking about baseball it's there's higher impact mounds and home plate and especially around first base
3:36:52 where there'll be pieces that will have to be replaced more regularly where soccer field for the most part you don't have to touch for 10 years.
3:37:02 We probably spend what on maintenance each year?
3:37:05 20 per field depending on the field 20 30,000.
3:37:09 So I mean just so that we're all being clear we'd spend about 300,000 on maintenance. We're spending 700,000 to
3:37:17 put turf in. So the turf, let's call it 400,000 on maintenance and let's say we replace the turf at some point. So
3:37:24 500,000 it's starting to get close to the same price. It's a little bit more for the turf. The turf turf happens to last 12 years kind of get turf.
3:37:36 So other thing about turf, we we we utilize the field year round instead of having to shut down three four months.
3:37:44 It ends up being kind of the same over but there's a there's a big I mean astro turf, you know, we're we're in Florida. Astro turf gets very very hot.
3:37:54 Depend.
3:37:55 Yeah, you can play you can play on artificial turf 365 days for 10 years.
3:38:04 It depends upon the turf, the type you use. And is that something? It gets hot.
3:38:14 It gets hot.
3:38:15 Personally, I like I like the real but it's a new new day, new time.
3:38:24 Anything else? So, are we going to bring this?
3:38:28 on the next it'll be on the next agenda. Okay.
3:38:32 To take action, but we going to go ahead and do we have to put the stage on.
3:38:40 Do you want me? Sorry, I don't understand. It's in the next agenda.
3:38:46 Can I table or pull it from the Yes. So, I'll pull it this one if you're
3:38:55 all in agreement and you all tell me you want to bring it back.
3:39:07 talking about bringing you back and just tape it. The next time we don't have to bring it on the table just pull it force.
3:39:18 So it will in fact we take the action. Well, it's whatever.
3:39:26 We don't have to we don't have to put a date on when we bring it back. And that's what I would ask Mr. W. Just pull it. We can just leave it there and wait for That's the way I view the resolution on his authority.
3:39:36 Okay, that's that's what I would ask Mr.
3:39:40 He's only allowed to do it once. like atce you know what I'll check that I mean
3:39:46 that's a good question which will be on agenda.
3:40:05 [laughter]
3:40:07 So I mean yeah you can obviously yeah keep it on right here agenda just
3:40:18 I think and then it just starts there's no
3:40:23 starting this is just a contracting so you want to just deny it
3:40:33 yeah well we this is on agenda is that all right we breaking back. We just Well, the eyes have it. Yes, sir.
3:40:41 Um I I I think there are like six people talking there about what to do. I think we just needed to to understand if we tabled it with a date.
3:40:55 I think we we have in our rules the city manager's ability to pull something from an agenda. It sounds like
3:41:04 we we may have thought it was for one meeting they need to do that but it's one time
3:41:12 is that that's my understanding I mean so I'll check it worse comes to worse I say worse come worse we leave it on
3:41:21 the agenda we just table it at that we just all understand that we're not going to probably and let the public know
3:41:28 we're not going to take any action the intent is not to take action the intent is to have it on the agenda to table it again and we'll just put a different date out there.
3:41:39 That way you're not in a jackpot because I do think it's important for our downtown community and our community at large to understand that it's not just
3:41:47 being sheld. It's just we're we're not going to take action yet until we have some other things in place and I think we owe it to them.
3:41:58 So maybe like a motion to postpone.
3:42:03 I think indefinitely. Why don't we just vote on it, kill it, and keep it keep
3:42:09 just kill it, you know, and move almost same thing in depth. You never know when it comes back. Whenever decide to bring it back, we'll bring it back.
3:42:20 Okay.
3:42:20 Just kill it and let people know where it's almost like doing the 15th year.
3:42:25 [laughter]
3:42:26 All right. All right. And so we Okay with that.
3:42:31 And I guess the Lake filter. Lake.
3:42:40 Okay. Anything else, Mr. Matt?
3:42:44 No, sir. [laughter] I've enjoyed the last four hours.
3:42:51 Well, it's been a it's been a fun four while you're writing everything. If there's nothing else, uh, meeting the jury