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[Captioner present] Mayor: [Roll Call] I Conference and there was myself and the deputy mayor and James and we presented at the conference and it was well received from everyone in attendance as well we received two awards again so I'm competing with my husband. He has eight of these awards and so I am trying to just rack them up but last year if you recall we want to when we this year we brought home two and they are sitting right there on the dais. One was for outstanding housing projects which was our home, the new home program that we started this year. And the other was for planning studies for the study that we did for the Hotel. We had a great time at the conference and it was well received and we are ecstatic to keep winning awards because we are an award winning Lake Wales. >> By the way, those awards are covered in this little brochure. >> Yes they are in this book and we actually submitted for two more, although we didn't win those two, they are mentioned in the book as well. We are just trying to make a difference. Especially when it comes to CRA. Up next we have our finance director who will go over the amendment number one to our budget, Dorothy Abbott. >> Our annual budget amendment. We have until the end of November to get the two ordinances back. In the finance department, we are still closing out the year we still have invoices coming in from -- we have to use professional judgment -- in about three weeks so we have adjustments to the revenue and what I did on that, the description beside it [Low audio] whether it went up or went down or whatever it might have been. And then also on the expenditures which are scheduled, again, I tried to determine which department or divisions might need a budget amendment and also what category was causing that budget amendment. If it was personnel cost or for operating costs and stuff like that, there was a large adjustment, which is just a time of difference. It talks about the raise grant and that's only because that grant did not fully -- the expenditures didn't necessarily happen in the grant didn't come in but that's a timing difference. We will get that in the future. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. -- I just want >> I just want to note for the record that (Indistinct) is here. >> Thanks Dorothy. Up next we have our Parks and Rec director. >> This is the trail. >> So the first item I have is a agreement extension so what this is doing is giving us another year on the current agreement that we have to finish the Tower Boulevard trail. It's just expanding the grant one year. >> Any questions? >> And then the second item I have, this is the renovations of the James P Olson Community Center restrooms. This is the men's and women's restroom in the front lobby area and the ones in the back so if you've been there recently you know that they are in need of some renovation. >> This is good news. I'm glad to see this finally come forward. >> I have recently spoken to residents and they are really not happy with the Austin Center. With the renovations and then things like that. Of course they're comparing them to other cities so I don't like to compare us to anyone so I'm really happy to see that we're starting to do these renovations and that type of thing. Also ask them to please please sit with me for proposal. Your office is open call and make an appointment. For the citizens comment if they see something that could be better come up please let us know and we'll work with them. >> Any questions? >> Thank you Stephanie. Up next we will hear from Amanda Lumenick our airport director. She's not in person. She is feeling under the weather but is joining us virtually. Amanda can you hear us? >> Can you hear me? >> Take it away. >> So sorry I couldn't be there in person. I didn't want to come and share my sickness with you as much as I love all of you guys. So it looks like a lot on the agenda that I have which is always how it works out when I lose my voice. It's really not that much though so the first thing, number six is to authorize resolution 2026-17 to terminate a grant with dot. They sent us this money really early in the stages of this project when they had extra money and this project is not going to go through this year. FFA wants to do some more studies first before they submit their portion of it so we're just terminating this grant for now it'll probably be next year when this particular project takes place which is just expanding one of the aprons out there at the airport. >> So are we sending the money back? >> They actually don't send the money, they just authorize a grant and then they give us the money as we submit invoices. >> Gotcha, thank you. >> They didn't actually give us any money comments I was just a grant agreement with the not NFAA and then as we send invoices they reimburse us for them. So the next three items are actually all pertaining to the same project. Our Awas and beacon is getting replaced and we are we already finished the design phase which you probably remember earlier in the year, this is the construction phase of the project that is taking place now. So number seven is to approve resolution 2026-17 for an agreement with dot. We already have the agreement from them on the design phase but they've added an additional $23,000 to the agreement. This covers the extra cost involved. >> What's an Awos? >> Awos is a weather system. It's a tower that's out there that provides weather information to pilots and people on the ground as well and ours is very outdated and half of it doesn't even work anymore so we have to rely on bartow's weather a lot for our pilots. This will replace our entire weather system and the beacon, like the rotating beacon so they can see at night. So that first one is just a dot agreement and then number eight is the contract agreement with HL Prewett. We already did the award to bid earlier this year that went to commission to award the bid to HR L Prewett and so this is just authorizing their contract. To construct the A and the beacon in the amount Of 423,000, if you see under fiscal impact at the bottom dot is paying -- and then the last part of this project is number nine. Which is a task order number eight withholding Tanner and associates and this is our engineers. They are providing professional services like they do for all of our projects for the construction portion of this AWS and beacon. That portion is $43,140. Dot will cover 2157 and FAA will cover 40,983. I did realize under background I put authorizing the agreement with Florida Department of Transportation. I'll fix that to say agreement with Tanner and associates but everything else on there is correct. And I think that is all so do you have any questions about any of those for me? >> I have a question on item six. It says that the project under further studies. What does that mean? >> So the FAA want, one to submit a project to them, even if they accept it and preliminary, it goes to their bigger bosses and when they look at it and they see that they don't think enough studies were done to instead of expanding the apron, maybe building a bigger apron somewhere else on the airport, which we didn't do because we don't have a space to build a bigger apron, they still want you to do those studies ahead of time to show them that this is the best space because that apron that would be expanded isn't necessarily going to allow for more parking of airplanes, and it's going to allow for bigger aircraft to park up there by the building. So in their eyes, if they're going to help with a project, they want to maximize the money that they're giving you so they want to make sure that an apron and a different location is not better than just expanding the one we have. >> And so that is an expensive, covers or is that something one of these other entities cover? >> FAA is supposed to be covering that. We haven't submitted a grant to them yet. For them to approve. We just found this out in a meeting a month ago. We were under the impression until about a month ago that they were going to pay for the project and then all of a sudden they decided they weren't. >> Any other questions? Thank you Amanda, I hope you feel better soon. >> Thank you. >> The next item that we have on the agenda is going to be covered by Captain Stephanie Gawrych in regards to the break room renovation. >> Hi I'm Stephanie Gorg. [Low audio] >> Can put the microphone down? >> We're recommending a renovation from our current break room to a kitchen. This budgeted under capital improvement funds. We budgeted 60,000 and the quote came in at 54.975. >> Any questions? >> So you will be able to cook good healthy food instead of just heating something up. >> That is the plan. >> Perfect. >> Thanks Stephanie. And the next few items will be covered by our Public Works Director Sarah Kirkman. >> The first item is the adoption of resolution 2025-32. This one was kind of an oversight on my part. I bought the wastewater and reclaimed water master plan before the commission some months back at a workshop and then you had some time to look over it as well we were finishing up things with the engineer. And then once we got a final draft, I was supposed to bring it back before the Commission for adoption and I thought I had already done that. So this is just doing a little backtracking and doing a little housekeeping. This is so that we can go ahead and give that master plan about it. With the master plan basically shows us that it kind of gives us ideas for our capital improvement projects. It looks at our current infrastructure it looks at the growth, it looks at what areas may need a different maintenance, what areas may need expansion and so we use this master plan as kind of like our guidebook as we populate future budgets. Does anyone have any questions? All right. Number 12 is the water bid for the annual generator maintenance repair and load bank testing contract. Every three years we go out for bid for a generator maintenance maintenance services. This year was that time for us to go back out to do that. We received about 7 or 8 submittals from different firms and it came back in with the best pricing overall so this is to award annual contract to Shabbat services for our generator maintenance. That covers all the generators in the city. They come out and they do the PMS. They do the load banking if there's any repairs required, they give us the pricing and then they also do the repairs. >> Have reused the bat >> No Ma'am we have not. But then I also saw where they bid and they won the generator installation for this building as well, so Sarah had called the other and she verified the references and so forth so we felt a little bit better about it going with them, even though we had not worked with them before. They actually came in with a better pricing. Does anyone have any other questions? Number 14 is the delinquent utility bill services contract. I believe a few meetings ago there was some discussion with the finance director about how we were collecting delinquent bills and if we had a bill collection company on service with us. At that time we had not so we went back out, we called around to some of the previous companies that submitted previous bids, some of them were still in business, some were not. As a result we ended up going with Penn Credit. When I got with the finance director, she had indicated that we used them before and so she felt good basically enter into an agreement with them again. The way they get paid, because if you see in the financial fiscal impact section, it basically says that they only get paid if they collect funds for us. They get I believe it was 25%. So if they don't collect anything, then we don't pay them. A lot of the ways that we bring in or we retrieve some of these delinquent bills is if they come back to town, they want to connect services someplace else. We always do a name search to see if there's any outstanding bills for that particular individual. If we find their name and it comes up with a past due bill, we basically will verify all of the other information just to make sure we have the right individual. If we do, we basically will set up a payment arrangement for the individual, or they are required to pay whatever their past due is upfront prior to getting new services. >> How does this relate to the work that we do ensuring code compliance? Is this to code compliance at all? >> No Ma'am, this is strictly for utility billing. It's for when people close their water accounts and they leave outstanding balances, that's a deposit didn't cover, this is a way for us to an additional avenue for us to be able to collect the past two bills. >> So if they don't pay up, when they are contacted by this bill collection agency, do we have any remedies that we can use? >> We do what we do now. If they come back in town come if they try to get service again, we do a name search. If their name comes up, we verify all of their additional information, driver's license, sometimes social, verify that we have the right person, and if we ensure that we have the right person, then we collect it that way as well. >> I have a question. So is this something that will go on a person's credit report after it goes to a collection agency or is this something not part of that? >> Then I'm not sure of but in past, I have not seen that happen. I don't know if anything has changed with that but I know in the past it has not. >> So this would be a proactive way of collecting it our funds essentially. No one on staff currently does. >> Only when they come back. >> So it's like a passive. >> Yes. And when I checked with the finance director, she had indicated previously when we used this company we basically were collecting more when they were trying to get reservist than we were getting from the collection agency. But it just gives us another avenue to at least be able to try a. >> So we'll do both is what I'm hearing. Thank you. >> Did we skip over 13? >> I'm sorry. >> It's only $2.24 million. >> Number 13 is the award bid for the sewer basin three improvement. This one has come before the commission and its various stages. The first time it came before the commission was when we did the award to a contractor to go in and basically TB all of the existing gravity sewer and sewer basin three area. He gave us the videos, we refused them, and we basically identified that needed the repair. Then we came back to do the engineering with the to get the plans for engineering and then we also came back for funding with SRS. Now we've gone out to bid and we received about eight bids that ranged from about 2.2 to about as high as 5 million. What is the name of this company? Vortex Services was the lowest responsive bidder. Just to give you a little bit of background on vortex, we have used them in the past. We were surprised at the response that we got for the bid. Like I said, we had eight bidders and they were all really competitive because they were close in cost. I've also attached a copy of the bid tabulation which kind of shows you how everyone bid and where they ranked. Again, vortex was the lowest responsive bidders that's why we were requesting to award the bid to force the tech services for the repairs on Sewer Basin number three. >> What was the last time we did work like this? How long has it been do you have any idea? Has it been awhile? >> To my knowledge, this was the first time. And it's basically one of those things as part of our operating permit, we are required to inspect so many feet, a percentage of your system and so we felt like this was a good first start. When we did the TB what we actually did sewer basin one through three but to fund everything all at once, the engineer was estimating somewhere around 10 million so we kind of broke it up. Sewer Basin three was the smallest so that is why we chose to do that one first. As you see, if I mentioned in the memo, it even came in lower than the engineer's estimate. So what we're going to do because it came in about $1 million less than what we already got approved from SRF, we're going to go back to SRF to see if we can include some of the sewer basin into this project as well being that they have already approved the funds and it's the same type of project. >> And vortex vortex checks out? >> Yes, we use them before to make emergency repairs where they've come in and they flood line some cracked sewer lines for us or they come in where we identified where we may have had some sinking in the road and we went out we found out that the lines were cracked or they were taking in sand. Vortex came in and suit lined them lines for us. >> So essentially this is really critical infrastructure that needs to be done as we grow especially. >> This is mainly for the older section of town. This is for the gravity tour that has already been in the ground 30, 40, 50 years and it's at the end of life. And slip lining is really the most cost effective way to repair the gravity sewer lines. Then is anyone else have any questions? >> The older neighborhood thanks to you. >> And then number 15, this item is to replace two submersible pumps in the lift patient 21 which is actually the lift station that is on Pump Road that faces, it's kind of across the street from Walmart, that's one of our bigger stations and we are having some issues with those pumps so we want to go ahead and get them replaced before they basically shut down on us. If they shut down, it wouldn't be good, it kind of brings everything from the East and getting it back to the wastewater plant and so we want to just attack that before we have a bigger issue. Does anyone else have any questions? >> Thanks Sarah. Up next we have some second readings by our Growth Management director, Adam Autumn Coachella. >> Thank you. So all four of these are associated with the same project and this is the second reading but it's been a couple of months so I'll show you the map again. This is annexation large scale comprehensive plan amendment to assign 193 acres of land into future land use designation of I and industrial and a zoning map amendment to assign 193 acres of land and zoning designation of I-1 industrial. And as a reminder, we are south of 60, we are on the Western edge of town. This is the location map for the property. This was approved at first reading on August 18th that you all approved this at first reading. So you'll see four entrances was associated with this and in order and you will have the annexation ordinance, second reading, future land use map amendment reading second reading, zoning map second reading, and associated with this will we created this as a fourth ordinance that you have before you. We created a code section for parcel specific land use conditions and this is a tool for us to utilize when we have a property coming in for annexation land use and zoning, that's another site link or proposed, but it's to add additional conditions above and beyond the standard underlying zoning to make sure that we have some additional conditions in place for how it will be developed in the future. That is the first fourth ordinance before you. >> And you don't have a developer that's wanting to develop? >> Not that I know of. I'm working with a landowner at this time. Any questions? >> Thank you. And now we'll go to Commission comments. >> Number 20. >> I'm sorry. >> Number 20. I'm moving to fast, I was on a roll. Number 20 we have Jose Lozada. Presenting, sorry about that. >> So pretty much -- it was approved at the last meeting the first reading and these are just amendments to Downtown Historical District enhancement. >> Can you just sort of summarize what the changes are. It's pretty much you guys adopted the downtown Enhanced maintenance standards so we've implemented some things that were not working so we went back to the drawing board and took those things out to kind of make it a little bit more business oriented and easier for business to operate their. We kept it kind of more maintenance standard wise. They particularly the tinted windows is the biggest change on it so the first ordinance was restrictive, transparency visibility and we have taken that away so that is no longer a requirement to remove tinted windows. >> Remind me, is this historic overlay that now goes across Central Avenue? Or it it include that? >> It's just parking Stuart mostly. >> Appreciate it thank you. Now we move to Commissioner comments and I'll start with the commissioner Williams. No comments. Commissioner >> Yes, I didn't worry about bringing germs in. This is a long issue for me. Just wanted to comment that I talked to several businesses recently. I've gathered a few stories. This is not third party. It's party to party. We are losing businesses downtown. They're leaving after 30 years or so. They're not happy with Lake Wales. They also some didn't come. They just let things fester unfortunately. I think it's important that we, I know we have a new EDC person and she's getting her feet wet, but we need to be more business friendly and maybe perhaps we could do a business forum, open house, some type of thing to bring in different people that have businesses or want to open businesses and that type of thing. It's not a happy conversation for me but they're being in the business community, you did get to hear these stories. There have been some positive things as well with major some new employees so that's exciting to hear. There's a little bit of relief but I'm also talking to businesses and telling them that we have codes and we have ordinances and you need to read them and quit bumping up against the city when you have an opportunity to do something right, just do it right. We have an office, you can come sit with the people here. So I think that message is also getting out because that's important to. If you have a business in the city of Lake Wells, you also need to follow ordinances and follow code so in all of that I hope that maybe we can do something for some business relief. We also have an opportunity for a new -- which is not having to do with the city necessarily, but the chamber has an opportunity to attract someone now for their leadership so I hope that we go out on a search committee. Mr. Offord has taken the position and in Pensacola to be closer to family and I wish him all the best and I'm excited that we will have BBC in house and our chamber can go after this these businesses that was announced at the gala and I think that is a net positive for everyone and that's all I have. >> Mr. Gillespie. >> I want to second with Commissioner Miller said. Being really open and receptive to new businesses and point to encourage them, that is great if we can do that and I hadn't realized that Skip Alfred was leaving. So I guess that puts us right in the middle of the recruiting effort. Are we looking for another person to fill that role? >> The chamber has is its own entity so they have a board of directors so they will be reaching out now for the attraction of the new person. >> So it's really a chamber. It's not a city responsibility. I just want to rave about the pioneer days celebration that we had this past weekend. The lady that was named pioneer of the year was so gracious and her husband was so positive when he talked about all the things that she had done. She really has been a very civic minded person. So that was that was a nice beginning I personally had my family join me on Sunday for the second day of the celebration. And I'd like to again commend the people who did the planning. The food trucks were wonderful. There were a whole bunch of them and the booths were really nice. My son and his family and I took the the tour there's a tour that they offer of the city where they point out all the different kinds of architecture, the different houses display. I did that tour once before too but there's a lot to learn about it and I'm not an aficionado of architecture. I think it is interesting that we have so many classical buildings here in Lake Wales that typify the types of architecture that were in use at that time, the time the city was going up. It's very interesting. Again, thank you to all the volunteers, it takes a lot of volunteers to do this to run the wagon and man all of the, clean up is mostly the volunteers need to do is to be sure that garbage and stuff is cleaned up and they did an excellent job as usual. To me that was a high point, certainly want to do that again next year. That's all I have. >> Very nice. I do want to, I appreciate the work that was done on pioneer days. It was a great weekend of pioneer of the year is one of my favorite people here in in Lake Wales Nancy Turnquist, just the epitome of grace and kindness and action and emotion and love the Turnquist family for a long time here and so it was a great honor to bestow upon her and I agree with Commissioner Gillespie, she received it with the grace that she pretty much lives her life by and so that was wonderful to witness and watch. I kind of glad the mayor had another -- I'm kind of glad the mayor's daughter was getting married so I could fill in for him because it was wonderful to be there for that. Appreciated the invitation to the Fra conference last week and I really appreciated the response that we got from our panel discussion. I thought it was very well received and of course it's always great to win awards and for the staff particularly to win awards for all of their hard work. There's a lot of interest in Lake Wales. What's going on here to speak to Commissioner Miller's downtown business. I think we all knew with where we are headed, there's going to be a certain amount of tension that's going to be experienced and I think we are seeing that tension. >> That's not it. It's different. >> Okay come on all right. But there is tension between what we're doing and what has been for sure and we are I think still on the right path here. I believe we are going to have to encourage anyone who is currently in downtown if they want to stay the course, to see where downtown is headed. There are going to be additional standards that we have put in place and I agree with Commissioner Miller, we don't want to create confrontation, that's not why we did this, so we hope everyone will do the right thing. I completely agree with that. But as we saw -- I point back to Robin Gibson's presentation and we had this before. In the 1970s. Downtown transitioned once before. It created tension and opportunity. I think there's always going to be that and so I would encourage anyone who is experiencing ill feelings toward the city, to talk to us, to communicate with us, to not just allow the frustration to fester. We are looking for collaboration, not confrontation here. But we have to know what we can do to help. My only pushback on any of it is if you think that your city doesn't believe in downtown, we put an enormous amount of money, public money in that to prove that we do so it's not a matter of not caring, it's not a matter of not spending money and not investing. But we have to have collaboration between each other to figure out where the problems are and I welcome any business owners from downtown to come to these meetings and be on the record with this stuff. It's important that your voice is heard and your voice will be heard just going back to even the adoption of the enhanced maintenance standards. There were very few business owners who showed up, if any, to give us any input and so we were doing it based upon what we understood from organizations that represented. That organization that represented downtown business centers which is Main Street and I think Main Street is very helpful in that. We're responding to the changes that need to be made here. Jose is like he's here giving us feedback on what is working and what's not working and so we are doing our work to do this. Again, I invite business owners to come and let us know what exactly we're doing wrong here because I don't know that I completely understand so that invitation is open and hopefully people are watching and that can get extended to them. I'm not opposed to opening up and doing a business forum for new businesses and current businesses I'm going to be real curious as to who shows up if we do something like that because there's going to be an awful lot of work and planning going into that and I would hope if you did something like that, people would take advantage of it but these meetings are happening every other week. I understand people are busy and they've got lives and they've got businesses to run, but I'm also not seeing a whole lot of contact even outside of these meetings. Anyway, invite all of that feedback. I hope business owners will take us up on that because we literally have put millions of dollars into downtown to see it thrive and flourish and we want that to happen for not just the city of Lake Wells, but for individual businesses as well. That's all. With that, we are adjourned. (gavel bangs)
Agenda - 10/28/2026
CITY OF LAKE WALES CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING
Official Agenda October 28, 2026 2:00 p.m.
City Administration Building Commission Chambers 201 W. Central Avenue Lake Wales, FL 33853
1. CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL
2. City Manager Comments
3. ORDINANCE 2026-40, FY25’26 Budget Amendment #1, 1st Reading The City Commission will consider approval of the first amendment of FY 25'26 Budget that was adopted on September 16, 2025. Documents: Memo - Ordinance 2026-40 Budget Amendment FY 25-26 - No 1.pdf ORDINANCE 2026-40 Budget Amendment FY 25-26.pdf 003 - Exhibit A and B - FY 25-26.pdf
4. Recreation Trails Program Grant – Tower Boulevard – Agreement Extension The City is requesting approval of an amendment to the Tower Boulevard trail grant agreement extending the agreement period through March 7, 2028. Documents: Memo - Tower Trail Grant Agreement Extention Agenda.pdf T2423_Amendment 1_ Ready for Signature.pdf
5. James P. Austin Community Center Restroom Renovations The City is requesting approval of the SEMCO Construction, Inc. proposal in the amount of $65,639.71 to renovate the four restrooms at the James P. Austin Community Center. Documents: JPA Restroom Reno Agenda Memo.pdf COLW Austin Center Mens and Womens Restrooms.pdf
6. RESOLUTION 2026-16 Termination of Public Transportation Grant Agreement- Expand FBO Apron The City Commission will consider authorizing Resolution 2026-16 for the termination of the public transportation grant agreement with FDOT for the Expansion of FBO Apron at the Lake Wales Municipal Airport. Documents: Termination Memo.pdf Resolution 2026-16 Termination of FDOT Grant FBO Apron.pdf X07_G3O88_444616-1_FBO Apron Expansion_PTGA Termination.pdf
7. RESOLUTION 2026-17, Public Transportation Grant Agreement G3H56 The City Commission will consider approving Resolution 2026-17, authorizing an amendment to an agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to provide funding for AWOS & Beacon Installation at the Lake Wales Municipal Airport. Documents: FDOT Memo Resolution 2026-17.pdf Resolution 2026-17 FDOT Grant AWOS.pdf X07_G3H56_455461-1_AWOS Beacon_AM 1_Draft for Execution.pdf
8. Contract Agreement with H.L. Pruitt Corporation for Installation of AWOS & Beacon The City Commission will consider authorizing a contract agreement with H.L. Pruitt Corporation for the Installation of the AWOS & Beacon project at the Lake Wales Municipal Airport. Documents: Memo for HL Pruitt Contract.pdf X07 - AWOS and Beacon Project Manual.pdf
9. Task Order #8 with Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, Inc. The City Commission will consider approving Task Order #8, with Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, Inc. for the professional services pertaining to the construction of AWOS-III and Airport Rotating Beacon. Documents: Memo-HTA-Task Order 8.pdf AWOSBeacon_CA_TaskOrder Hoyle Tanner.pdf
10. Breakroom renovation Staff recommends approval to complete a budgeted renovation of the existing breakroom at police headquarters. Documents: Commission Memo- Breakroom Renovation 2026.pdf Semco Breakroom Renovation.pdf
11. Adoption of Resolution-2025-32 Wastewater and Reclaimed Water Adoption of Resolution-2025-32 Wastewater and Reclaimed Water Master Utility Plan Documents: Agenda_Memo_Resolution_2025-32 Wastewater Utility Plan.pdf RESOLUTION 2025-32 Wastewater Utility Master Plan.pdf
12. Award of Bid – Annual Generator Maintenance, Repair, and Load Bank Testing Services Consideration of awarding Invitation to Bid (ITB) #26-18 to Zabatt Engine Services for annual generator preventative maintenance, repair, and load bank testing services for the City of Lake Wales' portable and stationary generators. Documents: Agenda_Memo_Annual Agreement for Generator Maintenance 26-18.rev1.pdf Generator Maintance Repair Bid Tab 26-18.pdf Annual Agreement for Generator Maintenance 26-18.pdf
13. Award of ITB #26-11 – City of Lake Wales Sewer Basin 3 Rehabilitation Consideration of awarding Invitation to Bid (ITB) #26-11 for the City of Lake Wales Sewer Basin 3 Rehabilitation project to Vortex Services, LLC, in the amount of $2,273,956.00. Documents: Agenda Memo Liftstation_3_Sewershed_Rehab.pdf Bid Comparison - Lift Station 3 Sewershed Rehab.pdf Memo TO AWARD.pdf ITB 26-11 Bid Tab.pdf
14. Delinquent Utility Bill Collection Services Contract Consideration of a Collection Services Contract with Penn Credit Corporation to provide debt collection services for delinquent utility accounts and other eligible debts owed to the City of Lake Wales on a contingency-fee basis. Documents: Agenda_Memo_Debt_Collection_Services.rev1.pdf Penn Credit - Contract - 9.23.26.pdf
15. Replacement of Two 50-HP Submersible Pumps at Lift Station No. 21 (Rural King) Staff requests City Commission approval to expend $56,630.00 to Barney's Pumps, Inc. for the replacement of two 50-horsepower submersible pumps at Lift Station No. 21 (Rural King) to maintain the reliability and efficiency of the City's wastewater collection system. Documents: Agenda Memo Pump replacement LS 21.pdf Barneys pumps quote.pdf Sole Source letter.pdf
16. ORDINANCE 2026-29 Annexation SR 60 Industrial - 2nd Reading and Public Hearing Request for approval by City Commission to annex 193 +/- acres of land, and to amend the Future Land Use Map and Zoning Map to assign industrial land use and zoning designations. Documents: CC MEMO SR 60 Industrial Annex, FLUM, and Zoning 11.3.2026 2nd R.pdf ORDINANCE 2026-29 Annexation SR 60 Industrial.pdf
17. ORDINANCE 2026-25 Future Land Use Map Amendment SR 60 Ind -2nd Reading and Public Hearing Request for approval by City Commission to annex 193 +/- acres of land, and to amend the Future Land Use Map and Zoning Map to assign industrial land use and zoning designations. Documents: CC MEMO SR 60 Industrial Annex, FLUM, and Zoning 11.3.2026 2nd R.pdf ORDINANCE 2026-25 FLUM SR 60 Industrial.pdf
18. ORDINANCE 2026-26 Zoning Map Amendment SR 60 Ind - 2nd Reading and Public Hearing Request for approval by City Commission to annex 193 +/- acres of land, and to amend the Future Land Use Map and Zoning Map to assign industrial land use and zoning designations. Documents: CC MEMO SR 60 Industrial Annex, FLUM, and Zoning 11.3.2026 2nd R.pdf ORDINANCE 2026-26 Zoning SR 60 Industrial.pdf
19. ORDINANCE 2026-28, Amendments to Chapter 23 Land Development Regulations, creating Section 23-406 Parcel Specific Land Use Conditions, and applying conditions to parcels of land - 2nd Reading and PUBLIC HEARING Request to create Section 23-406 Parcel Specific Land Use Conditions (PSLUC) and apply conditions to parcels of land. Documents: CC MEMO ORD 2026-28 Creating Sec 23-406 PSLUC 11.3.2026 2nd R.pdf ORDINANCE 2026-28 New Section 23-406 PSLUC.pdf
20. ORDINANCE 2026-39 – Amending Ch 12 Division 5 Downtown Historic Overlay District – Enhanced Maintenance Standards – 2nd Reading and Public Hearing The proposed ordinance amends certain provision of the Downtown Historic Overlay District Enhanced Maintenance Standards, originally adopted under Ordinance 2026-20. The amendments are intended to clarify existing requirements, refine maintenance standards, and provide greater flexibility to property and business owners while preserving the intent of the ordinance. Documents: ORDINANCE 2026-39 - CC MEMO AGENDA (11-03-26).pdf ORDINANCE 2026-39 - Amending Ch 12 Div 5 Minimium Maintenance Standards.pdf
21. CITY COMMISSION AND MAYOR COMMENTS
22. ADJOURN
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[Captioner present] Mayor: [Roll Call] I Conference and there was myself and the deputy mayor and James and we presented at the conference and it was well received from everyone in attendance as well we received two awards again so I'm competing with my husband. He has eight of these awards and so I am trying to just rack them up but last year if you recall we want to when we this year we brought home two and they are sitting right there on the dais. One was for outstanding housing projects which was our home, the new home program that we started this year. And the other was for planning studies for the study that we did for the Hotel. We had a great time at the conference and it was well received and we are ecstatic to keep winning awards because we are an award winning Lake Wales. >> By the way, those awards are covered in this little brochure. >> Yes they are in this book and we actually submitted for two more, although we didn't win those two, they are mentioned in the book as well. We are just trying to make a difference. Especially when it comes to CRA. Up next we have our finance director who will go over the amendment number one to our budget, Dorothy Abbott. >> Our annual budget amendment. We have until the end of November to get the two ordinances back. In the finance department, we are still closing out the year we still have invoices coming in from -- we have to use professional judgment -- in about three weeks so we have adjustments to the revenue and what I did on that, the description beside it [Low audio] whether it went up or went down or whatever it might have been. And then also on the expenditures which are scheduled, again, I tried to determine which department or divisions might need a budget amendment and also what category was causing that budget amendment. If it was personnel cost or for operating costs and stuff like that, there was a large adjustment, which is just a time of difference. It talks about the raise grant and that's only because that grant did not fully -- the expenditures didn't necessarily happen in the grant didn't come in but that's a timing difference. We will get that in the future. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. -- I just want >> I just want to note for the record that (Indistinct) is here. >> Thanks Dorothy. Up next we have our Parks and Rec director. >> This is the trail. >> So the first item I have is a agreement extension so what this is doing is giving us another year on the current agreement that we have to finish the Tower Boulevard trail. It's just expanding the grant one year. >> Any questions? >> And then the second item I have, this is the renovations of the James P Olson Community Center restrooms. This is the men's and women's restroom in the front lobby area and the ones in the back so if you've been there recently you know that they are in need of some renovation. >> This is good news. I'm glad to see this finally come forward. >> I have recently spoken to residents and they are really not happy with the Austin Center. With the renovations and then things like that. Of course they're comparing them to other cities so I don't like to compare us to anyone so I'm really happy to see that we're starting to do these renovations and that type of thing. Also ask them to please please sit with me for proposal. Your office is open call and make an appointment. For the citizens comment if they see something that could be better come up please let us know and we'll work with them. >> Any questions? >> Thank you Stephanie. Up next we will hear from Amanda Lumenick our airport director. She's not in person. She is feeling under the weather but is joining us virtually. Amanda can you hear us? >> Can you hear me? >> Take it away. >> So sorry I couldn't be there in person. I didn't want to come and share my sickness with you as much as I love all of you guys. So it looks like a lot on the agenda that I have which is always how it works out when I lose my voice. It's really not that much though so the first thing, number six is to authorize resolution 2026-17 to terminate a grant with dot. They sent us this money really early in the stages of this project when they had extra money and this project is not going to go through this year. FFA wants to do some more studies first before they submit their portion of it so we're just terminating this grant for now it'll probably be next year when this particular project takes place which is just expanding one of the aprons out there at the airport. >> So are we sending the money back? >> They actually don't send the money, they just authorize a grant and then they give us the money as we submit invoices. >> Gotcha, thank you. >> They didn't actually give us any money comments I was just a grant agreement with the not NFAA and then as we send invoices they reimburse us for them. So the next three items are actually all pertaining to the same project. Our Awas and beacon is getting replaced and we are we already finished the design phase which you probably remember earlier in the year, this is the construction phase of the project that is taking place now. So number seven is to approve resolution 2026-17 for an agreement with dot. We already have the agreement from them on the design phase but they've added an additional $23,000 to the agreement. This covers the extra cost involved. >> What's an Awos? >> Awos is a weather system. It's a tower that's out there that provides weather information to pilots and people on the ground as well and ours is very outdated and half of it doesn't even work anymore so we have to rely on bartow's weather a lot for our pilots. This will replace our entire weather system and the beacon, like the rotating beacon so they can see at night. So that first one is just a dot agreement and then number eight is the contract agreement with HL Prewett. We already did the award to bid earlier this year that went to commission to award the bid to HR L Prewett and so this is just authorizing their contract. To construct the A and the beacon in the amount Of 423,000, if you see under fiscal impact at the bottom dot is paying -- and then the last part of this project is number nine. Which is a task order number eight withholding Tanner and associates and this is our engineers. They are providing professional services like they do for all of our projects for the construction portion of this AWS and beacon. That portion is $43,140. Dot will cover 2157 and FAA will cover 40,983. I did realize under background I put authorizing the agreement with Florida Department of Transportation. I'll fix that to say agreement with Tanner and associates but everything else on there is correct. And I think that is all so do you have any questions about any of those for me? >> I have a question on item six. It says that the project under further studies. What does that mean? >> So the FAA want, one to submit a project to them, even if they accept it and preliminary, it goes to their bigger bosses and when they look at it and they see that they don't think enough studies were done to instead of expanding the apron, maybe building a bigger apron somewhere else on the airport, which we didn't do because we don't have a space to build a bigger apron, they still want you to do those studies ahead of time to show them that this is the best space because that apron that would be expanded isn't necessarily going to allow for more parking of airplanes, and it's going to allow for bigger aircraft to park up there by the building. So in their eyes, if they're going to help with a project, they want to maximize the money that they're giving you so they want to make sure that an apron and a different location is not better than just expanding the one we have. >> And so that is an expensive, covers or is that something one of these other entities cover? >> FAA is supposed to be covering that. We haven't submitted a grant to them yet. For them to approve. We just found this out in a meeting a month ago. We were under the impression until about a month ago that they were going to pay for the project and then all of a sudden they decided they weren't. >> Any other questions? Thank you Amanda, I hope you feel better soon. >> Thank you. >> The next item that we have on the agenda is going to be covered by Captain Stephanie Gawrych in regards to the break room renovation. >> Hi I'm Stephanie Gorg. [Low audio] >> Can put the microphone down? >> We're recommending a renovation from our current break room to a kitchen. This budgeted under capital improvement funds. We budgeted 60,000 and the quote came in at 54.975. >> Any questions? >> So you will be able to cook good healthy food instead of just heating something up. >> That is the plan. >> Perfect. >> Thanks Stephanie. And the next few items will be covered by our Public Works Director Sarah Kirkman. >> The first item is the adoption of resolution 2025-32. This one was kind of an oversight on my part. I bought the wastewater and reclaimed water master plan before the commission some months back at a workshop and then you had some time to look over it as well we were finishing up things with the engineer. And then once we got a final draft, I was supposed to bring it back before the Commission for adoption and I thought I had already done that. So this is just doing a little backtracking and doing a little housekeeping. This is so that we can go ahead and give that master plan about it. With the master plan basically shows us that it kind of gives us ideas for our capital improvement projects. It looks at our current infrastructure it looks at the growth, it looks at what areas may need a different maintenance, what areas may need expansion and so we use this master plan as kind of like our guidebook as we populate future budgets. Does anyone have any questions? All right. Number 12 is the water bid for the annual generator maintenance repair and load bank testing contract. Every three years we go out for bid for a generator maintenance maintenance services. This year was that time for us to go back out to do that. We received about 7 or 8 submittals from different firms and it came back in with the best pricing overall so this is to award annual contract to Shabbat services for our generator maintenance. That covers all the generators in the city. They come out and they do the PMS. They do the load banking if there's any repairs required, they give us the pricing and then they also do the repairs. >> Have reused the bat >> No Ma'am we have not. But then I also saw where they bid and they won the generator installation for this building as well, so Sarah had called the other and she verified the references and so forth so we felt a little bit better about it going with them, even though we had not worked with them before. They actually came in with a better pricing. Does anyone have any other questions? Number 14 is the delinquent utility bill services contract. I believe a few meetings ago there was some discussion with the finance director about how we were collecting delinquent bills and if we had a bill collection company on service with us. At that time we had not so we went back out, we called around to some of the previous companies that submitted previous bids, some of them were still in business, some were not. As a result we ended up going with Penn Credit. When I got with the finance director, she had indicated that we used them before and so she felt good basically enter into an agreement with them again. The way they get paid, because if you see in the financial fiscal impact section, it basically says that they only get paid if they collect funds for us. They get I believe it was 25%. So if they don't collect anything, then we don't pay them. A lot of the ways that we bring in or we retrieve some of these delinquent bills is if they come back to town, they want to connect services someplace else. We always do a name search to see if there's any outstanding bills for that particular individual. If we find their name and it comes up with a past due bill, we basically will verify all of the other information just to make sure we have the right individual. If we do, we basically will set up a payment arrangement for the individual, or they are required to pay whatever their past due is upfront prior to getting new services. >> How does this relate to the work that we do ensuring code compliance? Is this to code compliance at all? >> No Ma'am, this is strictly for utility billing. It's for when people close their water accounts and they leave outstanding balances, that's a deposit didn't cover, this is a way for us to an additional avenue for us to be able to collect the past two bills. >> So if they don't pay up, when they are contacted by this bill collection agency, do we have any remedies that we can use? >> We do what we do now. If they come back in town come if they try to get service again, we do a name search. If their name comes up, we verify all of their additional information, driver's license, sometimes social, verify that we have the right person, and if we ensure that we have the right person, then we collect it that way as well. >> I have a question. So is this something that will go on a person's credit report after it goes to a collection agency or is this something not part of that? >> Then I'm not sure of but in past, I have not seen that happen. I don't know if anything has changed with that but I know in the past it has not. >> So this would be a proactive way of collecting it our funds essentially. No one on staff currently does. >> Only when they come back. >> So it's like a passive. >> Yes. And when I checked with the finance director, she had indicated previously when we used this company we basically were collecting more when they were trying to get reservist than we were getting from the collection agency. But it just gives us another avenue to at least be able to try a. >> So we'll do both is what I'm hearing. Thank you. >> Did we skip over 13? >> I'm sorry. >> It's only $2.24 million. >> Number 13 is the award bid for the sewer basin three improvement. This one has come before the commission and its various stages. The first time it came before the commission was when we did the award to a contractor to go in and basically TB all of the existing gravity sewer and sewer basin three area. He gave us the videos, we refused them, and we basically identified that needed the repair. Then we came back to do the engineering with the to get the plans for engineering and then we also came back for funding with SRS. Now we've gone out to bid and we received about eight bids that ranged from about 2.2 to about as high as 5 million. What is the name of this company? Vortex Services was the lowest responsive bidder. Just to give you a little bit of background on vortex, we have used them in the past. We were surprised at the response that we got for the bid. Like I said, we had eight bidders and they were all really competitive because they were close in cost. I've also attached a copy of the bid tabulation which kind of shows you how everyone bid and where they ranked. Again, vortex was the lowest responsive bidders that's why we were requesting to award the bid to force the tech services for the repairs on Sewer Basin number three. >> What was the last time we did work like this? How long has it been do you have any idea? Has it been awhile? >> To my knowledge, this was the first time. And it's basically one of those things as part of our operating permit, we are required to inspect so many feet, a percentage of your system and so we felt like this was a good first start. When we did the TB what we actually did sewer basin one through three but to fund everything all at once, the engineer was estimating somewhere around 10 million so we kind of broke it up. Sewer Basin three was the smallest so that is why we chose to do that one first. As you see, if I mentioned in the memo, it even came in lower than the engineer's estimate. So what we're going to do because it came in about $1 million less than what we already got approved from SRF, we're going to go back to SRF to see if we can include some of the sewer basin into this project as well being that they have already approved the funds and it's the same type of project. >> And vortex vortex checks out? >> Yes, we use them before to make emergency repairs where they've come in and they flood line some cracked sewer lines for us or they come in where we identified where we may have had some sinking in the road and we went out we found out that the lines were cracked or they were taking in sand. Vortex came in and suit lined them lines for us. >> So essentially this is really critical infrastructure that needs to be done as we grow especially. >> This is mainly for the older section of town. This is for the gravity tour that has already been in the ground 30, 40, 50 years and it's at the end of life. And slip lining is really the most cost effective way to repair the gravity sewer lines. Then is anyone else have any questions? >> The older neighborhood thanks to you. >> And then number 15, this item is to replace two submersible pumps in the lift patient 21 which is actually the lift station that is on Pump Road that faces, it's kind of across the street from Walmart, that's one of our bigger stations and we are having some issues with those pumps so we want to go ahead and get them replaced before they basically shut down on us. If they shut down, it wouldn't be good, it kind of brings everything from the East and getting it back to the wastewater plant and so we want to just attack that before we have a bigger issue. Does anyone else have any questions? >> Thanks Sarah. Up next we have some second readings by our Growth Management director, Adam Autumn Coachella. >> Thank you. So all four of these are associated with the same project and this is the second reading but it's been a couple of months so I'll show you the map again. This is annexation large scale comprehensive plan amendment to assign 193 acres of land into future land use designation of I and industrial and a zoning map amendment to assign 193 acres of land and zoning designation of I-1 industrial. And as a reminder, we are south of 60, we are on the Western edge of town. This is the location map for the property. This was approved at first reading on August 18th that you all approved this at first reading. So you'll see four entrances was associated with this and in order and you will have the annexation ordinance, second reading, future land use map amendment reading second reading, zoning map second reading, and associated with this will we created this as a fourth ordinance that you have before you. We created a code section for parcel specific land use conditions and this is a tool for us to utilize when we have a property coming in for annexation land use and zoning, that's another site link or proposed, but it's to add additional conditions above and beyond the standard underlying zoning to make sure that we have some additional conditions in place for how it will be developed in the future. That is the first fourth ordinance before you. >> And you don't have a developer that's wanting to develop? >> Not that I know of. I'm working with a landowner at this time. Any questions? >> Thank you. And now we'll go to Commission comments. >> Number 20. >> I'm sorry. >> Number 20. I'm moving to fast, I was on a roll. Number 20 we have Jose Lozada. Presenting, sorry about that. >> So pretty much -- it was approved at the last meeting the first reading and these are just amendments to Downtown Historical District enhancement. >> Can you just sort of summarize what the changes are. It's pretty much you guys adopted the downtown Enhanced maintenance standards so we've implemented some things that were not working so we went back to the drawing board and took those things out to kind of make it a little bit more business oriented and easier for business to operate their. We kept it kind of more maintenance standard wise. They particularly the tinted windows is the biggest change on it so the first ordinance was restrictive, transparency visibility and we have taken that away so that is no longer a requirement to remove tinted windows. >> Remind me, is this historic overlay that now goes across Central Avenue? Or it it include that? >> It's just parking Stuart mostly. >> Appreciate it thank you. Now we move to Commissioner comments and I'll start with the commissioner Williams. No comments. Commissioner >> Yes, I didn't worry about bringing germs in. This is a long issue for me. Just wanted to comment that I talked to several businesses recently. I've gathered a few stories. This is not third party. It's party to party. We are losing businesses downtown. They're leaving after 30 years or so. They're not happy with Lake Wales. They also some didn't come. They just let things fester unfortunately. I think it's important that we, I know we have a new EDC person and she's getting her feet wet, but we need to be more business friendly and maybe perhaps we could do a business forum, open house, some type of thing to bring in different people that have businesses or want to open businesses and that type of thing. It's not a happy conversation for me but they're being in the business community, you did get to hear these stories. There have been some positive things as well with major some new employees so that's exciting to hear. There's a little bit of relief but I'm also talking to businesses and telling them that we have codes and we have ordinances and you need to read them and quit bumping up against the city when you have an opportunity to do something right, just do it right. We have an office, you can come sit with the people here. So I think that message is also getting out because that's important to. If you have a business in the city of Lake Wells, you also need to follow ordinances and follow code so in all of that I hope that maybe we can do something for some business relief. We also have an opportunity for a new -- which is not having to do with the city necessarily, but the chamber has an opportunity to attract someone now for their leadership so I hope that we go out on a search committee. Mr. Offord has taken the position and in Pensacola to be closer to family and I wish him all the best and I'm excited that we will have BBC in house and our chamber can go after this these businesses that was announced at the gala and I think that is a net positive for everyone and that's all I have. >> Mr. Gillespie. >> I want to second with Commissioner Miller said. Being really open and receptive to new businesses and point to encourage them, that is great if we can do that and I hadn't realized that Skip Alfred was leaving. So I guess that puts us right in the middle of the recruiting effort. Are we looking for another person to fill that role? >> The chamber has is its own entity so they have a board of directors so they will be reaching out now for the attraction of the new person. >> So it's really a chamber. It's not a city responsibility. I just want to rave about the pioneer days celebration that we had this past weekend. The lady that was named pioneer of the year was so gracious and her husband was so positive when he talked about all the things that she had done. She really has been a very civic minded person. So that was that was a nice beginning I personally had my family join me on Sunday for the second day of the celebration. And I'd like to again commend the people who did the planning. The food trucks were wonderful. There were a whole bunch of them and the booths were really nice. My son and his family and I took the the tour there's a tour that they offer of the city where they point out all the different kinds of architecture, the different houses di
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