Village Community Development District No. 7

I called the Order District seven board meeting four, July 17th. Uh, let me see. Wow. Missed you last month. You guys changed the meeting? Did they? Got some there, don't they? Thanks. Thanks. Thanks for coming. I, I appreciate it. Uh, let's do it. Uh, pledge allegiance, and then we'll have a moment of silence right at the P of ance. Please, please stand. I pledge. Allegiance is flag of the United States of America. And do the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible. Justice for all. Please be seated. I just noticed that, uh, I'll just do a, a roll call. I see, uh, present. I see you. I love him. Uh, Joan, Joan Ann is, uh, not here, obviously. So there's four of us. Uh, we got a quantum, so we'll have our meeting. Uh, let's move on to, um, moment of science. We did lists, uh, meetings. I appreciate everybody coming, which there isn't many. Anybody in the audience has anything that's not on the agenda? Any subject item, how you feel? Please come up, Show and tell. Leno, Arizona 1634 Marigold Lane. And I just wanted to give you a quick update on the postal office. And this was the package I picked up. Yes. Yesterday, the day before I went to go to the mailbox, the mail carrier was still in the back room, but not ours. And the package was already gone. And, um, when I went to the post office, there were four other people with tickets in line. And now the post office is requiring that, that you show your driver's license, which stops people from sending, like if your neighbor can't drive. So I just wanted to let you know, and then I'm aware that there's a new postmaster and perhaps the new postmaster could go back to allowing the mail carriers to at least leave the packages there if people say, leave them, you know, in the building. Because like I said, I, I must have just missed my mail carrier by about 10 minutes. But she had already taken the package back, so I just wanted to give you an update. I know things are moving, but No, you know, I, you know, this, this is like, this like a soap opera. Just don't go away, you know? Uh, it's going off for like six, seven months. And honestly, once again, we repeat ourselves. I do not have that problem in Hemingway. I do. My wife gets a lot of stuff. I mean, she spends money, but, holy Christ. But the bottom line is we don't have that problem. And I get, I bet you every two days I get something with it. And never, once ever, in the six, 17 years I've been in the building, had to go out of our Hemingway mailbox. Never. I never, I don't understand it. I just don't understand it now. Well, we're in Duval and we're a little bit Yeah, well, on, obviously we went. We, I I don't think the, we got anything back, uh, from did we ever get anything back from the post office saying that this is gonna be resolved? Did they look into It's gone on for at least six, seven months, maybe longer? No. And that's why the congressional inquiry was opened, and they did respond to the initial congressional inquiry, but they claimed an exemption. Um, so that original inquiry has been escalated. Um, and I did speak to the representative, um, from Congressman Webster's office, and I shared this, um, with Ms. Donna, that they are still encouraging individuals to submit because volume brings attention to those items. Um, but there is a new postmaster. Um, I do have the contact information for her, and I do intend on reaching out to, um, relay the original information that was not responded to from the previous postmaster. Um, so I'm gonna go backwards a little bit, but the congressional inquiry is still open, unfortunately. That's not a quick process. Yeah. But treat me, and my concern said this, I may have said this eight, 10 times every time the subject comes up. And thank you for being, you know, so aggressive on this. But why is it only seems like, I know it happens, some happens to other post office, other, uh, villages, uh, but it doesn't happen in Hemingway. So that tells me that it's not the problem with what's going on. It's the problem with the people working there. Okay. Obviously the people in charge of Duval, am I correct, Duval? Mm-hmm. Um, are taking their job a little more serious than they should or making up new rules? Because why isn't it consistent? Why isn't, is it done anywhere else? And after a damn year between me and you, I honestly, the post master must not be doing this job. 'cause I remember the guys that were gonna look into it, and we, you know, this going on for a long time that I never once. And literally every, every other day my wife gets something to look. Sometimes they bring it to the house still in Hemingway. These people, you gotta go, you gotta go. Uh, there's something wrong and they can't look into it. I'll be, honestly, somebody's not doing their job. The, the issue comes, a lot of people get their medication via the mail where it's, you know, more important that, you know, that they, you know, expose, you know, over a weekend, you can't get there. And so, you know, those are the people that I really have tried to pressure into submitting, you know, um, an online request to the Congressmen. So I'll continue to do that. But, um, it was just amazing, especially, you know, that I was still there. You know, they were still there and I couldn't pick up my package 'cause it was already gone. And, you know, we used to have that thing where we, if we signed off, they would keep the packages there, which was at least a stopgap. But, um, but that didn't too. So it's getting worse instead of better. So let me keep complaining. Maybe one day you have to go to, uh, Ocala to pick up the other mail. I'm being sarcastic. 'cause how long is this going on? Honestly, over, It'll be a year in August. Oh yeah. What the hell? Yeah. Now, are these packages, any of 'em being marked as having been delivered, Been delivered? No, it's, this one says seven four. Um, No, I mean, email notification saying it's been delivered. Um, not that I have seen, or not that anybody has Was I had a problem myself with it. And, uh, basically it's a falsification of government documents saying that that has been delivered. And what I did was I said to hell with local people and just filed a complaint up in DC and it got resolved very quickly. I remember early on that, you know, I looked into that and I couldn't find anything where I had or someone had a delivered slip. So it up to what that definition being delivered. I hear you saying, because delivery could be to the post of the, the main post office and not, not our post office. You know, I think it's to our post office. Yeah, Yeah. I know, but I know you just, Just kind of a, a screwy question to throw out there, would this have anything to do with the American with Disabilities Act where they're forcing, uh, senior citizens maybe with disabilities of having to go beyond where they would normally pick up their mail and forcing them to make a trip? You know, You know where you saying Good point. I'm where some, where some of 'em can't drive or whatever the case is. Another nice angle. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I'm unsure of that. I can add that to the congressional inquiry. But again, the, on the federal side, unfortunately, these tend not to move extremely quickly because they, they're waiting on the response from the federal agencies into the inquiry. I can certainly add that to it. Um, I don't know that it would extend so far as, as long as the location for pickup is accessible, you know, that the facility itself is accessible for pickup. Um, but again, I'm going to reach out to the new postmaster that just came to my attention within this last week, um, and see if there's any opportunity to open dialogue up with them, because it is a different postmaster from who we originally dealt with, Brenda, since, since we've been reaching out, it got worse. I mean, that's, I mean, common sense. I'm not the brides guy in the world, but between me and you, these people are not doing a great job. How can we complain for a year? And it got worse. They had a procedure where Alicia signed your name and they held your package as you were telling me. They even did away, away with that. So let's keep complaining. Maybe she won't get a mail at all. I mean, I told thank you. You were walking inundated. Uh, they're gonna stop delivering mail completely. Yeah. I mean, we're going backwards. So every time we complain she's like, we're going backwards. Um, And No, I like the idea. You, you, you, you, you, uh, obviously made a complaint to Washington. Mm-hmm. No kidding. Just one thing and I'll move on. If for any reason I would, um, be a help if you met, met with the supervisor, I'd be happy to, you know, come with you so that she can hear firsthand Yeah. The offer. No, thank you. And I, I'll keep in touch Okay. With that. Yeah. Thank you. God bless you for working so hard on this. Really unreal. Brittany, when you say there's a new postmaster you're talking about at the Lady Lake post office, Right? Yes. At the, at the local, at the Lady Lake post office. There is a new postmaster. Are they government or a contractor? I would have to assume that they are employed by the USPS as the last one was, but that's outside of our scope. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's amazing how more we complain the worse it gets. Yeah. We're doing a good job. Let's move on. And nobody else in the audience got anything? Nothing. Okay, let's move on. Thanks. Okay. Um, we have an agenda. Law enforcement obviously is, uh, he's not here, so They are not, so we'll communicate with them and we'll add that to next month. Okay. Beautiful. Uh, consent agenda. A motion to approve the consent agenda is a motion to approve all recomme recommendation and actions. All matters on the consent agenda are considered routine and no discussion is required unless desired by board supervisors or pub, uh, members of the public. Uh, on it, we have approval of minutes. Um, and, uh, project wide, let's do each one, uh, separately. Approve. No, we can do 'em together, right? All agenda? Yes. The consent is one Motion. E. Exactly. Okay. So we got, uh, approve a minutes project wide monthly invoice and termination of agreement. It ITB 24. B oh 24 for cut patch asphalt repair service with Tristate Asphalt Corporation. Do I have a, uh, motion move to approve? And second, I'll second. Any, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any disapprove? Opposed? Okay, thank you. New business, we have legal fees. Um, let's, let's do the legal fees first. Okay. Um, I have, uh, legal fees for, uh, the month last month. Lemme see what month it was. It was for May, and the legal fees were, hold on, lemme give a total $3,568. I noticed a lot of that was because of the, uh, the, uh, solar, obviously there's a lot of discussion on the solar. Obviously, once we, uh, get that resolved, uh, legal fees hopefully will go down. It, it's, it's at least about half our bill. So, um, any, uh, any questions on that? On a legal fee? Okay. Move to approve. Do I get a second? Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Yes. Thank you. Okay, let's do, uh, next one is mental, uh, metal roof and courtyard. Villa roofs. Yes. Show and tell. Mr. Armstrong will make that show and tell, Not a show and tell You either got promoted or they fired you. What happened? Could be one of the, you got the box. You got a box. You ready to go? It's my moving inbox. So, good morning Board, Matt Armstrong Community standards. So In community standards, we've come to a point where materials for architectural reasons for homes, um, are becoming discontinued specifically in roofing. So we're finding out that, for example, uh, haw Sheik and Desert Tan, by their respective manufacturer, they've discontinued those color selections and a lot of the villages have homes with those colors on it. And your architectural review manuals, it states that you must use the original color at the time of construction or something that closely resembles that color. Well, on the Architectural Review Committee, that's caused somewhat of a bit of a tension because they're so bent on, it has to be the one that original construction. And did you go out and find this manufacturer? Did you go out and find this roof supplier or, um, roofing company that may have just have a stock pile of inventory in their warehouse that didn't come from the manufacturer, but they just bought surplus? Did you contact every roofing company in Florida that they may have it? And so it's putting a lot of burden on the homeowner to try and match a color that no longer is being manufactured. And also, I don't think a lot of folks wanna put on a discontinued color, even if it is sitting in a roofer company's raining, um, warehouse. Because in three years, if you have a hurricane and loose shingles, where are you gonna find replacement shingles for those colors? You're probably not. 'cause it's been discontinued. So what we want to do is bring back language for your architectural review manual that's gonna kind of relieve some of that issue that we're seeing where we're not gonna be asking for the exact original color. Because again, even a color, they're gonna say it's Han Shake. Well, with a different manufacturer, it may be Desert Brown, they may use a different name altogether, but it matches somewhat in color. So what we want to do is bring back language for your arc manual that says you can use, uh, something that, like a color that matches as close as possible or within the hue range of that color. So if it's like a brown and you have a little bit of a lighter brown, that's gonna be okay. Or if it's a little bit of a darker brown, it's okay. It, it's for the aesthetics of the community. And what we've found also in reviewing your deed restrictions is that the de restrictions don't state that you have to have a color. It doesn't say it has to be the one at the time of original color. So in homes you don't have that stipulation. In patio villages you don't have that stipulation. But in Courtyard vs you do, it's strictly for aesthetic purposes when the comm, when that villa was originally constructed, but the deed restrictions don't state it has to be the same color time of original construction. So that's what we're kind of working with, with interpreting your restrictions. Understand that someone maybe bought a home in a, in a courtyard villa because they liked all the roofs matched and it kind of was aesthetically pleasing and they liked that look and appeal and that's why they moved in. So we're trying to cater to the people that moved in for that purpose. The changing of the times where the color's no longer available. And also kind of work within your d restrictions at the same time. And we'll work with your legal counsel to make sure that the language is appropriate. And we actually have some sample pictures that I wanted to show you of currently of what we're dealing with within some of these villa units. So this is the Bonita Villas. And as soon as it loads, we're gonna see a kind of like a, a beginning picture satellite image and then where we're at within the past two years, uh, with these color selections. And while that's loading, I can always, okay, so, um, again, this is a satellite image. So again, there may be cloud cover, there may be, um, an older picture, but you can, you can see that the colors where this was taken, this is about a 2019 satellite image. They're all relatively the same. If you scroll down, you see how it looks today. There's, there's a patchwork of different colors already existing, but it's somewhat within a color scheme that's relatively close to each other. There are some outliers in there, but this is what we're kind of running into right now where folks are trying to match as best as possible. 'cause original colors are no longer available. If you go to the next one, which is the Grove Villas, same, same concept. You can see where it's kind of a darker gray amongst all of them. If you scroll down, you now have variations of gray throughout the community. So it's already happening and we're just trying to get it into where, as an example, right now as it's written, if someone called in can go back, if someone called in those lighter gray homes, we may have a violation issue that we'd have to address with someone who just put a roof on. And that's what a 12, $15,000 job we, and we were actually dealing with that in another district right now. And so that's what we're trying to get ahead of and, and not have those types of issues. The other component is metal roofs. Your architectural review manual already states that you're allowed to have metal roofs, but that's just very broad because we're now having more metal roofing companies pop up with different designs and styles and what things look like. And so, um, we're gonna try to define the types of metal roofs that we want to look at aesthetically for our community and districts one through four, their deed restrictions specifically state it must be a shingle or tile look. And your deed restrictions, it just says you need architectural approval. It doesn't give a style or design that j roof has to be. So we want to, so if someone doesn't go out there and get a wood panel looking metal roof, 'cause they like that, that island look all of a sudden popping up through the community. So what we wanna do is add language where, um, you already see these types of roofs. So this is a stand in seam example that we have here. What a stand in seam roof would look like. Um, I do not have a sample of that with me 'cause that'd be a very large piece of sample to try to deal with. And then in my box here, These are metal shingles and this is what a metal shingle would look like. And so it gives a shingle like appearance. So within the community where you have shingle roofs, this is an asphalt shingle, but it is metal. So these are the types of things that we would like to introduce as opportunities because the insurance companies are, have changed kind of what they're doing. And there's a more of a demand that we're recognizing for folks are questioning metal roofs. And according to your deed restrictions, they're not prohibited. It just says you need arc approval for any changes to your property. And we already allow metal roofs within, we just wanna define it for your art committee members because they've requested further guidance on what to look for and what they should be approving on within your districts from, from what you've seen, do they have the same array of colors that you would find in an as asphalt shingles that they're seeing in, are you gonna have, excuse me, a problem getting within that hue variance? We will not have issues within the hue variances. The, the colors themselves, for example, this one is called Old Hickory. It has like a brown color to it. So we have that with, with match. This one is the natural slate. It has that gray, there's a, there's a darker black one in here. There's actually, um, there's a green one. I did not get the green sample. 'cause I don't think we have any green roots to my knowledge, uh, within some of these communities. So, um, but I and my research, no, I did not see where we would have an issue within hue range variations. And this would actually match. There aren't as many color selections in the metal roofs right now. Um, they do have a tile look for like the terracotta that would be more for like your district one who had that Spanish theme, things like that. So they're able to match those types of things. Okay. Question for you Matt. Uh, do we have any idea how the insurance companies are going to interpret metal versus the asphalt as, you know what I'm trying to say? Um, I mean, replace a cement Say Right. Replace at 15 years. Yeah, I, we, we do not know how the insurance company will treat a metal roof versus a a, an asphalt shingle roof. And it comes to replacement requirements. We, I, I don't know. And also, uh, do you need to have, uh, lightning rods on the top with the metal That, uh, I do not know if you need lightning rods. Uh, you, you're more than welcome to install lightning rods that does not require architectural approval. No, I understand. I just don't know if metal roofs, if they attract lightning. I mean, you know, big metal roof should have a nice attraction for a lightning. So I, I don't know. I just don't know the rules on it. I know I did. Good point. When I did my roof, I did check into, uh, metal versus asphalt just for the, and the metal ones were like twice expensive. Correct. Um, and I, so anyway, I'm just curious to, yeah, it seems like metal will be a good way to go, but maybe not. I don't know. The scientific, um, study that's been done on whether or not metal roofs attract lightning. Alright, Good enough. Yeah. Yeah. You, a couple couple questions on you didn't metal roofs and caught yard bills and patio villages a little different. Uh, you wanna allow metal roofs on courtyard villages, Correct? Yes. Okay. On on shingles. Asal shingles, you could get the same color. 'cause this is a problem that's going on for years. You get the same color and it could be a different lot number and it'll be a different color. Okay. So technically metal rules won't have that problem 'cause it's easy to match paint, then you can match paint, it'll make fade, but you can match. But with, with, with, um, asphalt, you're gonna have this problem no matter what you do because next you get the same color and then the, you get the next, you get a lot of, uh, shera of, um, asphalt roof and you order it the next day and you got a different lot. It could be the same color when you get, it's a different color. Okay. Now you, you're aware of that obviously. Mm-hmm. So what that's gonna happen, well, my point is, you're gonna have this problem no matter what. It's a continuous problem. So somehow you're gonna have to make the wording and the language to combat that problem. And that's what we want to do. Yeah. Uh, but so don't be, don't be misconstrued that if you get the same color, it's gonna match. It's the lot number that matches the color on just not on metal when it comes to the asphalt. You just, and so that's why our wording has gotta be specific that it doesn't do that. And that would, uh, this would allow that hue range, which is what the a RC is looking for. Yeah. Because right now the challenge is if they cannot do an exact match, they're hesitant to approve it. And we don't want to be in the position of restricting progress, especially when it comes to roofing and insurance and everything else. And Correct. How to allow them to move forward. And so they're looking for this guidance in the a RC manual as their rule book to say this is an acceptable hue range. Yeah. You combat that. You got the U range, you're gonna have to make it broader. The language is gonna gonna have, you're gonna have to allow different, uh, colors within that color. 'cause it's going to, it's gonna change anyway. You know, like, like I get, I get one, let's say I get brown. The next door neighbor gets brown. It's gonna be a different shade of brown, even if it's the same number, the same, uh, color. Mm-hmm. It's gonna, when it comes to asphalt, it, it changes. Uh, this is the problem for years. And there are houses as you know, and you're right, it's almost triple the price for metal. And district five and maybe even district six has, um, designer homes with metal roofs. They had to actually, they were built with metal, as you're aware. Mm-hmm. Uh, but it's very expensive. But that was a good point about the, uh, being, uh, you know, the shot, the electricity. Yeah. Yeah. I got actually, uh, the material of your roof has no bearing on the likelihood of lightning strike. Okay. What matters? More factors like the building height than its surroundings. Okay. So it doesn't matter if it's metal or not. Doesn't matter. That's good. Who says ai? You read it. It doesn't make logical ai. I'll say I, I, I grew up in Jamaica for three years and they were all metal roofs. And I don't recall lightning having to worry about lightning strikes when, when we were living there. Actually, metal's a good conductor of electricity versus, and it's not gonna catch on fire. Yeah. The only thing I would add, good conductor, the roof doesn't catch that fire, but they'll inside your house does because it, electricity. And In the weak spot, Residents do have to get a permit to do a roof and the permit are inspected. So if there's any type of regulation that's gonna be part of the permitting and inspection process on Correct. What's required? Metal roof, Florida sun. Oh. Why should that concern me? Aren't those attics gonna get rather hot? I believe you're talking about installation. They have probably underlayments that they work with when it comes to helping with that. Again, that would be more on the in install side, But if you price them, it's a range. Outrageous. Are you Getting a lot of requests? Yes. We are getting more and more requests from metal roofs. Yes. No Kidding. Wow. Because they lasts longer. They obviously, I think the life of a metal roof could be, uh, 40, 50 years. Am I correct? Mm-hmm. If the resident's going to live that long. Yeah. But they don't think that everybody thinks they're, You know, the Other thing too is if you have a roof and you got some tree cover, are the metal ones, I don't think are gonna have mold build up on 'em. Like you can get on the asphalt ones if, you know, depending on how the shading is and that stuff. So it'd be really easy to clean a metal roof. I would think it just power wash it off. Yeah. But when it rain, I don't know. I'm not in that distance. Yeah. When it rains out, you gotta turn your TV up a little warmer because it's loud as hell. Or hell, We got noise ordinance. I was, I was wondering about how noisy it is. I wasn't sure. Yeah. You never worked in a warehouse going w Well, I've been inside, like in, when it starts raining and it it's thunderous in there. Holy. They got all metal roof. Yeah. I'm sorry. Basically, I think we need to, uh, approve or make some sort of motion to approve metal roofs for the, uh, fellows. Just, just, if you would like to see language brought back for your next month's meeting, just say yes, we'd like to see it. I'll work with your legal counsel and then we'll prepare it for something that you would, would approve or tweak or however you want us to do. So we got, we need, we we're gonna approve the language on color and on metal roofs. Yeah. That's what it'll bring to us. Correct. All right. We'll bring something back next month. Aw, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Great job as always, man. Yeah. Don't forget your roof. Thank God for Amazon. Okay, we got that. Uh oh. It is a big one. The biggie. It's the biggie. Good morning board. Melissa Shar purchasing. Uh, yes. This item bring, uh, provides the board the board with information regarding the status of the district seven Solar Street lighting RFP 25 P dash 0 1 9 rebid and seeks, uh, board direction. Just to give a brief overview, um, at the board's direction, staff issued, uh, the request for proposal 25 p dash 0 1 9 for Solar Street Lighting in February of 2025. Uh, at your April 17th meeting, the board approved a motion for staff to reject all those proposals submitted to the solicitation in accordance with the district policy and rules, the RFP provisions and Florida law. As the two responsive, uh, proponents were, their scores were too low and the proposals did not demonstrate the quality of work that the district was looking for. Um, ultimately these, for these two reasons, the board directed staff to revise the scope of work and rebid the RFP on May, uh, 22nd. Staff reissued, RFP 25 p dash 0 1 9 rebid for Solar Street, uh, lighting. Three vendors submitted proposals and two vendors were deemed responsive and responsible. The selection committee met on July 10th to score and rank the two proponents according to the criteria in the RFP. Following the review of this information, staff put together, uh, several discussion points for the board today. Number one, the board may choose to hold a workshop on July 28th, 2025, uh, for vendor presentations to further, uh, discuss this project. I believe that date has already been scheduled with the time and location. Uh, the board may direct. Number two, the board may direct staff to include this item on the August, uh, regular board meeting agenda. Either in addition to or in lieu of the July workshop, uh, for formal direction to proceed with the highest ranked respondent and authorize legal counsel to negotiate a contract with that, um, proponent. Uh, and then a third option would be for the board may reject all proposals within the district's procurement rules and policies and Florida law. If the board determines, uh, the proposed costs are too high, uh, the, or if the board determines it is otherwise in the district's best interest to do so. For the reasons of not having enough responsive proposals for a competitive solicitation, uh, or the scores are so low to indicate the, uh, ranked proposals do not demonstrate the quality of work that the district is looking for. Or for a third option of, um, when an existing, or we may have an existing arrangement for a more financially advantageous, um, route on procuring these services. If decided to reject all proposals. The board would then need to decide whether to, uh, issue another solicitation for work at this time. And I can go into some more, um, details if we decide to go that route. Okay. Melissa, if, if we opt to go with July 28th, we don't have to make the decision at that point, we could still then schedule it for a, a specific item on our August agenda to either give, you know, the approval to proceed or not. Or even maybe then go back and revert to option three or, or whatever the case is, right? That's Correct, yes. Yes. The workshop, there would be no formal, uh, decision made. Okay. It would just be for review and discussion purposes and it would need to come back to a regular board meeting for formal direction. My, I guess my take and I guess, we'll, we will go around, I would think let's seeing how we do have that, that meeting scheduled. And it's gonna require a little bit of homework on our part to educate ourselves to ask some intelligent questions upon the presentation. But I would like to see the, the July 28th mm-hmm. Meeting go forward. Let us ask some questions to at least keep this, keep, keep rolling the boat kind of deal. 'cause I don't wanna, you know, keep pushing this back. And I think Supervisor Lap has some, uh, one point that might, you know, be an impetus to keep, keep going on this thing. Yeah, Yeah. According to, uh, information I have, our new big beautiful bill is going to sunset the, uh, tax credit for solar and projects need to be started by June of 26th and completed by December 31st of 27. Otherwise, that solar credit will go away and the price is gonna skyrocket. I don't know if skyrockets a good turn, but it's gonna go up. How Much Is that credit, Steve? Do you know? I don't know. I Think it's 20%. Is it 20%? Yeah, I, I think it is. 'cause I had a a, a solar light put in and um, they had a little, uh, you could put a fan. Oh no. A night light. You put a night light in it if you installed the night light. 'cause the night light was solar. The whole thing qualified for the solar tax credited 20%. I don't Did you put it in it, it cost you, it was like, uh, 25 bucks to put in the, the nightlight and, and I got, you know, the whole thing. I got like, uh, you know, 80 or $90 tax credit or something. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was well worth it financially to me personally. When you talking about whole, and when you talk about the numbers that we're talking about that that's gonna make a big difference. Is there a max on the amount? I wonder there's a couple of, uh, questions. Is there amount a max on that, uh, release that you're getting? Like it could be a it 10,000, It would be the vendor getting the the Yeah, it, it would be the vendor getting the tax credit though. Filing That's Built into the current bids. Exactly. We gotta, we gotta make sure it is, you know. No, it is. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mr. Chairman, that's what I'll, I'll work and with Ms. Meni to review that because we, we are tax exempt. Yeah. Um, so I don't know that there is, I I just wanna ensure that there's the expectation of regardless of the timeframe for it sun setting, um, that the expectation of would we receive that benefit because we're already tax exempt. But that's another good point. Or possibly a It applies I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Because the, you're looking at a, both bids are looking at a lease system, you're not actually purchasing it. So I'm not sure if that, uh, taxes them status would, uh, be covered. And again, that I don't know. It's worth asking. May maybe our attorney has an idea. Yeah. That could be a talking point in negotiations as well. Yeah. Knowing that they're going to get that to bring our copy. At Least that's my thought. Let's proceed with the 28th. That'd be my cents. I got one other, I know we came, this is a question on the bid and I talked to Brittany about this when I obviously read, uh, and Brittany knows, I don't mean to beat the source of death, but I see that Duke energy obviously was not accepted. And soon as I saw Duke Energy right away, I said, man, that's great. They're not too far away. They already give, uh, they already do part of the villages 'cause they're in the north part of villages and some on the south now I think. But definitely on the north part. And obviously I'm worried about the warranty. I'm worried about, uh, duke Energy most likely won't go bankrupt, most likely will, will always be around and warranties mean nothing if the company does not exist. So if the company goes bankrupt, your warranty, your mouth just so you know what to do with that. So I'm and, and I'm worried about that, you know, and then when I saw that it was taken out of, 'cause it was taken out for, I thought was a minor thing. They asked for something in the contract, I mean in the proposal, which they didn't provide, but it did say they would provide it at a certain time and that was the reason why they were taken out. To me it's a gray area. I honestly felt, and of course we always could rebid, you know, we may rebid anyway, but to keep, um, duke energy out a company that does it, that's in the area that was really caught my attention and especially we disregarded them because of a really, I think a gray area where they said they would give that we asked for a certain item, a certain protection, and they said they would provide that paperwork at a another time. Um, I the only, and I talked to Brittany about it and Brittany said we always could rebid, but I wish it was a way we could. Yeah. Yeah. I, I wish it was a way we could have added them in. I know. It's, it's a good, they do it for a living. I mean, they're not, you know, you know. Yeah. So that falls other, other, Other companies do too. Yeah. Yeah. But Duke Energy's right down the street and you know, they hear, and you look at the experience of 30 years, 40 years, you know, I'm not trying to, you know, I'm just saying, you know, it is, it's, that's the company that I would love to see. I don't know what the prices are and get into it. But the, that's the, what what's the, What's the procurement side of that answer? What, So they, they did not submit a bid bond and that was a requirement and that was the same application to the first round. First round, yeah. Of why some respondents were not qualified to move on to the evaluation period. Um, our recommendation would be that if you do rebid, that you remove the bid bond requirement. And I don't do this again. No. So it unfortunately that was a challenge for some of the respondents, um, that we've learned. The second, uh, rebid, we still saw the same issue. So that would be staff's recommendation. Um, there is a risk. We've determined that it would be somewhat minimal, um, with respect to the, 'cause the bid bond is not the performance bond. The bid bond just ensures that the pricing is held. Yeah. Um, for the, uh, submission to potential award. Um, however that would be staff's recommendation that if you elect to rebid that you remove that requirement. 'cause that has proven to, um, restrict competition. Yeah. But the bid bond, they did reference saying they would give it to you at a certain period of time. But they did, they did address it. Yeah. Okay. Now I'm not just billing me. I have, I know. Well then what's, what's the, does counsel have mic Michelle have a, a thought on that, would that be considered complying that they said that they would provide it at a later date? Not, not in the most technical terms, no. It has to be submitted at the time the bid is Submitted. Okay. Thank you for the Requirements. Yes. On the first round of Bidding companies were rejected based on that same thing. Yeah. So now you got, you're setting up for a protest. Yeah, I know. Again, you have to look at what what the bid bond protects. Yeah. Okay. That's protecting you. That, I mean this may take, it could take a month or two legal work to work with an agreement with these contracts if you choose to go with one. And at the very end, negotiations don't go through and they leave. We we're left with nothing where a bid bond, we would be able to collect money from them Yeah. For not coming through with an award. Okay. Okay. So getting that after later, that wouldn't protect, we wouldn't get anything, wouldn't be the point of it. Okay. I'm still, I'm still for July 28th, the lease here from the two, uh, vendors that are still in the running. I agree. I, I agree with going with the 28th, but I, I still think there are way too many open gray areas in, in one of these bids I saw specifically it was called out. I don't recall on the other one if I saw it where they didn't include the cost of removal of anything. And I think that one of our issues that, you know, I'm gonna generalize here 'cause I don't know much about this stuff, but I think most of these installs that they're doing are like big parking lots. There's not a lot of obstructions here to put in and put this in. We got all these trees, we got a lot of stuff that's going to block, it's gonna cause you to move things to different places. And they specifically said it didn't include the removal of existing to me, that could be it expensive as install. I mean to install something, it's usually a lot easier than to remove and retrofit. So I don't, I don't not sure that any company can remove a third company's Yeah. 'cause isn't this CCOs issue to remove the, well, whatever Well, we don't have clear, we don't have clear answer on that. I don't believe do. Right, Right. You know, so I No that, but that is generally correct in that the existing lighting poles are CCOs property. So we would have to work with CCO to remove in the event that the board would like to move forward with, um, in installation of new lighting poles proposed by, um, the, the current vendors. Didn't we have that under we kind of direction supposed to Start On That. Yeah, that's what I was going Brittany did. Remember we were supposed to approach that and, and of course we gotta deal with SE l uh, oh by the way, did you know you bill one up a dollar 30 a month? Uh, forget about the 600%. They raised the dollar 30 a month on your, on your electric bill. $50 more. Just another fee. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No, they raised, they raised the actual price of electric a dollar 30 a Month, but Yeah. But didn't we A day right. I'm sorry it a monthly day. We did get yes. We we did get, um, confirmation from, um, Tracy, who's one of the councils over at cco. Um, their, uh, current estimate for cough for removal of the lighting pole is, um, approximately $250,000 and their, um, cost and their proposed cost estimate for purchase by the district, uh, would be a total of $637 and 629 and change. How, how did it land that we still have to pay to have them remove their property? We believe that the renewable cost was based on the, uh, relocation costs. Um, we have not app tion with the demand letter yet just to ensure that we're preserve preserving the most flexibility for the board just based on the responses that we've received. Um, did not think it was strategically advantageous to, um, legally pressed at this time, given we do have information by Tracy that, you know, the, they, they have given us an estimate so that that is their position at this time. Um, And Michelle, we never addressed, in fact, if I remember talking to Mike about that, we never went back with a proposal saying we're not gonna pay it or we're gonna negotiate what it costs. We never we're at the point where it's on hold until we do something because that's an outrageous amount. Correct. We haven't gotten back to 'em with any definitive position. Again, because we're still still in the exploratory phase on the RFP side of things. Um, we did not necessarily want to make decisions on the end. I, well I think, I think we need to, because in theory we could be a month away from making a thumbs up or thumbs down decision on, on this. So I think that's paramount that we at least know exactly what we're facing Totally in the, in the way of cost. Yeah. Should we clear this up? Knowing exactly what it would cost us? I mean, before we even, you know, it's part of the whole amount of money we gotta pay. Uh, what do you think? When should this be addressed? Well, you do have estimates that say that that is what they're willing to charge. So I think we can go by those estimates at this time in making the decision to whether we're gonna move forward with a different vendor for a total new installation, which you do have the estimate for removal from. Then I think what Hello? I'm sorry. Sorry. Somehow a mute button was, sorry, someone on a mute button was press. I think what we don't want to do currently without having made any decisions on whether we will go with an alternate vendor or not, is to ask them to take a definitive position on what, on whether the relocation cost is in fact removal cost. 'cause then that gives them the opportunity to go back and amend and or propose, you know, amendments to, to clarify that. So by, by by the wording in the, in the agreement between us, the district and cco, is that obviously we're obligated for them to remove their material. Is that that has been established, that's your opinion. We, I was under, it's their material. They move it on for no cost. Um, they may disagree, but what's your legal opinion? Do we have an argument where we have to actually pay for them to remove their material, Michelle, Or we can just, or we can just let, let them stay on our property and you know, ask them to come collect. Um, but, but the, the whole issue hinges on, on the different interpretation of whether the relocation for convenience of a member, which the CDD is a member of the CCO cooperative is in fact applicable to the relocation. And so we ha we have not pressed them yet to give us a definitive legal answer on that. Because again, we don't have a a we don't have for direction on whether you are moving forward on Well, when you read, when you Removing those or not When you read the agreement, what did, what's your conclusion? Are we responsible or not? Or is this something that's just not addressed at all? It's a gray area. It's a gray area. It, it, it's not, their interpretation is that it is addressed by the relocation cost. They're liberally interpreting that to say that also applies to remove. We could argue that it does not and that, but again, it's a gray area, Don't you? We need to hear black and white from you not a gray area. And our position, correct me if I'm wrong please, is that they need to get their property off of our property at no cost. Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ragni, if I can just step in. So I I think when the timeline or the sequence of events is that You don't wanna put yourself in the position where you're, you're forcing CCO on something that we don't have another resolution to support. So we don't, if we don't, if I think for the flow of events, you're gonna have your July 28th workshop with the two ranked proposals. If you elect to bring that back to your August workshop, you're going to have to authorize staff through your attorney to negotiate with said vendor. If you elect to move forward with them, I think your, your highest level of exposure on the CCO side is the 250,000. Mm-hmm. Because that's what they've set. That's the, that's the worst case scenario. Worst. But you also are gonna potentially have to look at financing this solution, which is not gonna be done in a, uh, bonds or bank loans. You know, depending on the type of financing available is not going to be a, uh, month turnaround process. Mm-hmm. Um, and I can let Ms. Ragni speak to the, the typical timeline for, I know this would potentially be a lower amount, but still a consideration on how you're going to fund this type of capital improvement if you elect to move forward at your August meeting. I would think that's when you authorize legal to have those difficult direct discussions with CCO to reduce your highest level of exposure from 250,000 down. Mm-hmm. The, the plat generally the cco the infrastructure is not explicitly on district property. They have easements reserved for their infrastructure on the plat. Mm-hmm. So it's, they're within their electrical easements, utility easements with their infrastructure not directly on district seven property. So that's another consideration all also not knowing with the, the vendors, and I think this would be a question for the presentation, is would they consider doing a one for one if, are they going to place streetlights where an existing streetlight is with the concrete footer and everything else? Or do they intend on placing them in different locations? So I think that's contingent upon how CCO does their removal and whether or not you utilize what's left or you have a different location for the light. So I think those are all unknowns right now. But I, I don't know that you would want to, um, have that demand sort of conversation with CCO until you know that you're moving forward with this RFP selection and just factor in that 250,000 is worst case. You know, I'm getting a little concerned and I know we are, you know, um, the cost of all this. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm getting, I'm getting very concerned. Absolutely. Should be. And, and, and you know, it, it, maybe it might be cheaper to pay the 600% on the damn lights we have than do this. And, and I, I know it is a tough time to bring this up, but that's what happens when thing changes and you don't have anything in common, anything in cement. We don't know how much it actually gonna be until we don't know. Yeah. And like you said, you gotta get a point. This is gonna be an outrageous amount and overall, I don't know, we're saving money. Look at the easement that easement is based upon CCO having that, uh, those poles, if CCO does not have those poles authorized to be there, that easement for them goes away. They do have underground, and I'm not defending cco, but they do, they explained that they have underground, um, like junction points Yes. And connections for how their entire system operates. So there still could be infrastructure within the easement. Um, I just think that you have to make the decision on your proposals and have that kind of dictate what the next step is on the direct conversations with CCO on bringing that expense down. But you, but Brittany, you know, the problem is, and honestly it's all about money. Obviously you are trying to obviously CCO raised the 600% approximately and we're trying to, uh, go solar. 'cause it might be, it should be cheaper in the long run. Obviously I don't know about that anymore 'cause we have no foundation to judge. We don't know what's gonna cost us. So we're gonna go through this whole expense and, and not this a lot of money, but half our bill just last month was on this subject and this is going on for months. So for a bill mean for all, uh, uh, legal bill. Yeah. A legal bill. So it seems to me this, this is gonna be, this may be cheaper just to pay the $600 and just let the seco do it. I mean it continue what we're doing, honestly, I this is, we don't know. We don't know what the, how much it's gonna come. Like not yet. So that's why I think we gotta go through the effort. So we, and take a look at and, and take a look at what it is gonna be costing us, you know, and ask the questions on, on July. And we use that price of that SL gaze to remove it as a foundation of what it's gonna cost us for now it may be cheaper, right? It's not gonna be more hopefully, but it may be it. I'm a little worried about the cost and I'm a lot worried about the cost. We may be doing this in plain US hate to be rude just for nothing. Just to get information. It's very costly just to get information. Well, there's nothing preventing CCO in two years. Jacking is up another 600%. That's my concern. Yeah, that's true. Um, I just, I think we could need to do the workshop 'cause we'll get Yeah, we'll get some more clarification and some answers good or bad. We'll get more, um, to some degree. You know what, I, I read these things and I've given it a lot of thought and to some degree I think maybe we're a little too far ahead of the curve on this stuff. 'cause I think the solar should become more and more popular as we go forward in time. Should become more and more cost effective as we go forward in time. I say should be, I don't know anything for sure. Um, but it, it is a very pricey undertaking here with the question, real questionable payback. Yeah. Because when we do this, we know 10 years down the road the the batteries are going on these things, even if there's a warranty, who knows if the company's around Fair point. Um, but, and then 25 years, I think they all say the fixtures start to, they're gone. So you're gonna have to repay all this stuff in which we're gonna have to pay the cost anyway. Even if we stay with cco, they're, they replace their lights and everything like that. But I, I, I don't know, it just seems to me like, uh, maybe we're, we're too far in front of this thing at this point. I think we ought to continue to try and get some information. But then after the 28th, I think we need to decide, okay, put a fork in this thing. What direction are we going? Yeah, yeah. Because we don't know what they're, you're right, we've got legal fees are gonna go on forever in this thing then, then all of a sudden we decide to do and there's a bond out there all, you know, somebody's gotta pay that bond. It's gonna be the residents. Yeah. Honestly. And and being so vague on what the price is gonna be, how much, and dealing with Seco is not obviously, uh, I wish we had d so I wish there was more competition because what happened with, with this, with Seco, there's no competition, you know? Right. So, you know, you either buy it from them or you don't have electricity, you know, um, it, it, it scares me. Yeah. And even with these two proposals, there's millions of dollars differences between the two of them. Yeah. Um, and it's still, there's still a lot of open unended or uh, open unanswered questions all associated with cost. Yeah. You know, cost, cost, cost. Yeah. So let's have the next meeting as Ed said, I think we'll move on and get more information. And then there's gotta be a time where we need some cement numbers, numbers in cement, knowing what's gonna be I know, and this is gonna be, uh, it may be cheaper just to say what we're doing. Yeah. I mean, even, even if we quote unquote get cement numbers from the vendors and everything, the question is still, are the vendors gonna be there in five years, two years, 10 years, 20 years? I can tell you, hey, I guarantee you I'm gonna be here for the next 30 years. I, you know, that's a false guarantee. Oh yeah. But I can write it down. Okay. So let's get some, some direction. What do you want to do? I, I wanna go ahead and, uh, excuse me, proceed for the 28th and, and do some homework. I agree. I agree. Alright. Okay. And just some suggestions on when we do the presentations after, in our case, our staff do a selection committee and then they wanna do presentations with it just to keep it structured. We allow each proponent who's coming in limited time that's equal to each other. Uh, if you could submit questions to us, I'd like to give that to them ahead of time so they're prepared in their presentation to answer all of your questions in there too. Get as much, um, information out of you or, um, that you are seeking during their presentation. Uh, so you could just email those to me or Brittany and I will send it to them ahead of time for them to prepare. And when we schedule that time, and obviously When they, when they answer our questions, that that, uh, will create more questions by us, obviously. And, uh, this could be kind of length, you're right. Well, there's only two vendors. Yeah. You know, But just so they're prepared. Sometimes, you know, they come in, they give you all your, their bells and whistles and we don't really care about that. We won't have to target in on the specific questions that you have from their, their packet. So again, we'll give that to them and, um, let them know if they need to touch on these items. And again, you can ask questions after the presentation. Okay. And so they're gonna be required to be there on a, our scheduled date. Yeah. I will reach out to them. I will let them know, uh, who you know, who will go first, what time they need to be here, and the amount of time they have. And I will submit your questions to them to include that. Okay. So we gotta give questions to, you know, obviously there's gonna be follow up questions. 'cause obviously my question is Oh, absolutely. When they start to talk, you're gonna have more and more questions. Mm-hmm. And we do, we can have provide you with a worksheet's, pretty simple, but just so you can get your, your scores or make your comments as they're speaking. And then you can have those discussion points when you discuss after, afterwards. It's just a simple sheet. How much time are you thinking that we would often, I'm not sure how much time you set aside for the room, but that, that's up to the board to determine. I would just suggest being equal. Obviously they know they each have an hour, they each have 30 minutes. Well, Thank God it's only two of them. It's been long days when we do this. Yeah. We've had four or five that we've done. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, we'll feed off of the, um, and I'll work with Ms. Ragone, but we previously worked with Mr. Eckard on the request for information, which was a very time driven, um, setup where it allowed them, I believe, 15 to 20 minutes for their presentation. And then there was a period of question and answers for both the board and the vendor. Um, so we'll, we'll work through that structure just to ensure that each has a set amount of time for each presentation In this process. Like you said, it is a, it's gonna be a long process. I don't, I I don't, I don't see six months from now, we're still talking about this. Uh, You know, We can't, we gotta have a decision before then. Yeah, Yeah. I don't think it's gonna happen. Yeah. We've gotta make up our mind. You know, I don't think it's gonna happen. It took us six months to get a decision just to find out what it take, how much money it's gonna take for SECO to take it down. And they end up giving the price of half a million. I don't buy that fee for Seco to take it Down. I'm just saying that this process is, I think's gonna be much longer than we think, than I think. Yeah. What'd you think, ed? I, I, it it's gonna be what it is, but I think we gotta, we gotta keep going to make a, make a decision. I think it's incumbent Upon us. We embarked on this path. Let's, Let's finish it. Yeah. CCO is gonna have to replace quite a few of those poles just over the next few years regardless. And everything's gotta go over to, uh, LED regardless. So to have them turn around and jack our writes up because they have to do all of this, all of a sudden, that wouldn't surprise me in the least. It Only came in town. What are you gonna do? That's what we're looking to do. Yeah. Okay. Now What time do we Start on the 28th? Eighth Eight. Am the 28th in the same room? Yeah. Okay. So we'll send out the reminder and then looking at the calendar, um, if you have general questions in mind, if you could submit those by the 23rd, that would be next Wednesday. Uh, that would allow enough time to get them over to the vendor so they have an idea of what the expectation is for the presentation. Okay. If everybody has five or 10 questions, they'll be here an hour and a half just talking about that. Then you have follow up. You know what, Schedule two hours for it. Yeah. Who knows. It is what it is. Yeah. Well, we gotta get everything answered. You gotta be able to make an informed decision. It's very tough to make an informed decision when you don't have the details that you need. You know, you don't have your own, you know, it's all about money. We're only doing it for one reason. It's about the money. Absolutely. But we're not doing it to be environmentally correct. Yeah, sure. Oh, alright. I think, yeah, we have direction. Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh Boy. Okay, so we don't know what we don't know. Yeah. Okay. All business. Uh, Brittany, what do you think? Yeah, So we, we covered quite a few items. Mm-hmm. I actually believe all of the items. Um, we discussed the RFP, we discussed the, um, communication with CCO regarding pole removal. Um, we discussed the postal delivery concerns. And then the last item is that the board did request the Eastport and Middleton Middleton downtown project wide improvement agreements. And those were emailed to the board on June 16th. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. To the supervisor on the board. I don't know if you read that, but, uh, yeah. There, yeah, there is some differences mm-hmm. In, in that. And even with the, uh, well, we gotta get to the cap, but the, even with the a HC, they, what I read is they had the agreement with the, uh, villages was in 2008. It was, uh, uh, redone. Uh, but ours, the wording in our agreement with PA and the new PA is a little different. You know, uh, maybe one day were addressed that, you know. Okay. Anything else, Brittany? Uh, no. That concludes old business. Okay. Should we, uh, list the, uh, issue with the post office here? It, it's included on there. It's the second. I don't have my glasses on. Oh, oh, The third, The third item down. Yeah. Next time I'll put my glasses on. Okay. Okay. Uh, financial statement, uh, information only. You have nothing on that, right? We good? Uh, I got, I got a quick question on that. Go. Do we, do you have any info or where we stand on getting reimbursed from FEMA for the costs on hurricane, the debris removal? So all expenses have been submitted and there are, um, RPAs, which are the request for public assistance that are outstanding. Um, it is moving through the process. Um, but we do not have reimbursement yet. We've seen some projects, um, that have just now started to get obligated. Um, we have not seen any issues. It's just going through the process and the volume of claims that FEMA is working through. How much is our claim? Do do we know? I I imagine you do. I don't know if I do. I will email that information out. We have a detailed spreadsheet