Village Community Development District No. 2 Town Hall (2024-10-24)

Check, check, check Test District two. You recognize you're here. Thank you so much for being here and, uh, just overwhelmed so many people we have here tonight. Thank you for your interest. We're happy to do this down hall. It's your, it's your meeting, not ours. So, before we get started, how many veterans do we have in a room? Raise your hand. We got a punch. Let's give 'em a big old shout for our veterans Because of you, ladies and gentlemen, we have the opportunity of being here tonight. You know, we've done a group of veterans that are in our armed forces today, around the world, may be your grandson, grandson, niece, nephew, friend. And they're keeping us safe here. And we want to thank them for their service to their country. And, you know, there's a group of veterans who gave their all for their country. They're not. They're here in our national cemeteries here and around the world. I'll tell you a quick story. If I've had the opportunity to travel internationally, and I'll never forget one of the international cemeteries, can't remember exactly where it was, but kinda like a knoll, we parked and we went up the top of that. Noel got there. It brought tears to your eyes. All you could see was a sea of white crosses as far as you could see, said by God. They gave, they're all for their country, and that's who we really owe it to. And I, you guys and gentlemen are here tonight, are our, our veterans around the world are departed veterans. Join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. In a moment of silence. My pleasure. Bless America. Amen. You know, many of you, how, how many of you ever been to one of our meetings, our monthly CDT two meetings? Raise your hand. Oh, fair amount. But a lot of you haven't had that, uh, pleasure being here. So before I get started, I'm Bart's owner. I'm the chairman of the board. I've been, I've been on the board for 12 years now. And, uh, I'll tell you my personally, so I decided not to run again this year because I kind of believe in, in term limits. I've got, I've accomplished a lot in the 12 years I've been here. I'm proud of my service to, to the cdd two at, uh, time for new Blood to take over. And so I did not run this year. So we're gonna have a new member starting in December. And I wish him, him or her the best of luck. I'm not sure who it is yet. So I've been in the villages for a little over 20 years and, uh, tell you a quick story. Why, why I got interested in the board. 'cause we all hear these crazy rumors around you. Oh, you heard they're gonna do this. I heard the most outlandish rumor one day. I said, you gotta be kidding. Who thought? Well, I heard a really, really good authority. Come on. No, really, really? I can't tell funny press the guy. He said, yeah, I heard from the starter at Glenbrook. And I go, that's it. And that was the finding moment says, you know, I gotta get involved and find out what really is going on. And, and so it's been a real pleasure to serve on the board, and I thank you for giving me that opportunity. I'd like for you to meet the rest of the board. Let's start the far end. Thank you so much. I wanna start the far end with Dennis. If you could tell a little bit about himself and why he's here. Thanks, mark. Hi, I am Dennis Richards. Uh, I've been on the board for about two and a half years. I was appointed to fill a, an expired term. Uh, I have since or will be reelected here in this election. I'll take a new four year term, beginning in December. Um, originally bought in 2016, lived as a snowbird for four years and have lived here full-time for the past four years. I've lived in both Alhambra and Santo Domingo and have enjoyed my, uh, tenure on the board and look forward to a new term beginning in December. Okay. Tom Swearers. Uh, I live in Santiago. Uh, been here for about 12 and a half years, live in the same home. Moved here from the Chicago Land area, and I've been on the board for about three and a half years now. And I have my s in two more years. I, I won't start campaigning yet, but, uh, I plan on running again. Um, I, I, I'm also the one who, uh, does the monthly q and a meetings. So if any of you, if, if you're not receiving my emails on a monthly basis, Tommy, get a little closer. Mike, please, if you're not receiving my emails on a monthly basis, let me know your email, because I like to add you to my database. I've got about 1700 homes on my database, but I'm missing about 2000 or something like that. Uh, and, um, anyway, and yes, that's, uh, my picture in the paper this morning on the, uh, with the red Corvette. That was yesterday. I encourage you to go to his, uh, monthly q and a meetings. He does great, great topics. Last month he had the sheriff and, and great, what's going on with the sheriff and all different stuff. So it's great opportunity to find things are going on. It gives you an opportunity to raise the concerns you have, and Tom always brings it back to the board of what's going on. So, thank you. Jimmy, go ahead. Hey, Jim Conti originally from, uh, Philadelphia. Born and raised, actually in South Philadelphia. Was a snowbird for, uh, five years. I lived in, uh, Villa at esa. And, uh, we, when I retired, we decided to move down here permanently, and that's when we bought a house in, uh, San Dominic. So, uh, when I moved there, uh, I was, uh, a per permanent, permanent resident. I have spent a little over two years on the board and looking forward to the rest of my time on here. And thank you very much. Jim Polone, uh, from, originally from South Philly, uh, moved, moved to the villages, bought a Home in the villages in 2000 and moved down there primarily in 2011. Uh, most of my career has been with the beverage industry. I was executive vp, uh, that was in charge of major projects and, uh, playing upfits and, uh, uh, been on the board now for almost eight years. Uh, seen a lot of things come and go. Seen, heard, heard a lot of opinions, seen a lot of people that, that come. I've prepared a little talk. I don't know if you you want to sit through it, but, uh, mo most of the, most of the time the meetings that are here are structured that everybody can attend at all times. This was a, was is a good meeting or the first meeting that we had for a town hall style type meeting because people can, can really voice their opinion or they can really say what, what is on their mind or ha have, have something that we don't have that input at, at the regular meetings. And, and, uh, uh, basically that I, that's what makes things happen here is, is, is what, what the residents feel and their input and, and how they do. If I could take a minute, it wouldn't bother you to, to read this. You got 31 seconds. Okay. Attending, attending nearly every district meeting, respective district two residents ignore district two meetings unless there is an issue directly affecting a specific street or neighborhood where they reside. Maybe is the meeting time or degree of importance of the issues. Ultimately the outcome of a remedy. If there is a decision by district two, supervisor will affect all residents at one point or another. Since presidents are set there set, they could change or re restate rules for de restrictions and covenants that were originally established by the developer or the village management and been in place for many years. It's important that respected residents attend all district two meetings. So all residents have some input or voice and opinion on all issues that affect each other. Each resident in district two rules are set by the developer as areas are developed to install and maintain harmony in each different village, thus maintain that area as developed in district two. Now, mostly is the cost of maintaining status quo since there's virtually no current development, number one, regularly scheduled. District meetings as scheduled are the second Friday of each month at 9:30 AM and have virtually no attendance from District two residents only if there is respective issues affecting specific residents may maybe the time schedule is a problem, but everybody should be interested in where they live and have a significant investment. There are some issues that are presented to District two board supervisors for the first time that require immediate vote by supervisor with little, if any research of these issues, supervisor are not allowed to visit sites in violation or discuss which alleged violator circumstances of the violation. Only follow rules as written. District two board of supervisor must have most supervi must have most supervisors conclude remedy for alleged violations. Sometimes issues are tabled at meetings for the next meeting or late later dates until more need needed. Research is accomplished by the deed compliance department, legal research and evaluation and communication with District Architectural Review Committee. Some issues are settled at specific annual meetings according to the rules and regulations as provided for regular village developments within District two with a consensus of supervisors. Number three, there are ongoing monthly meetings that take place chair by only one district two supervisors. That is no authority to settle. Ongoing issues, often including in these meetings, are other individuals that have no authority or standing in district two that put forth their opinion to influence residents thinking these meetings should not settle any pending issue. Since a single supervisor cannot settle any issue with, without plurality of all supervisors at formal meetings to remedy any issue. Not that they, these seating, these meetings have little substance since attending chair. Supers cannot use these discussions at regular district two meetings. Residents should bring issues for discussion to regular meetings. So district two residents, this is your chance to get involved in what is happening in our community. Ask questions, voice your opinion, plan of future improvements, and most of all, protect your investment. What is planned will, will bring to future. Thank you. Thank you Jimmy. Uh, we have three very important people also, whether it's in the room. And I'd like to take a quick moment because there's what, they're the folks that really make this all of the villages. Hum. I'd like to introduce Carrie, tell him about yourself very quickly. She's an assistant district manager. Yes, sir. Uh, good evening. My name is Carrie Duckett. I am the Deputy District Manager. Um, I've been with the district for 16 years and I help manage all of the depart or all of the districts north of 4 66. So, um, district two is one that I had the pleasure of attending all of the meetings and providing support to, um, in addition to some of the newer districts south of State Road 44, um, some of the departments that I help manage and oversee include recreation and parks, golf operations, customer service, communication, and community standards. So everything de compliance or architectural review. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help. Good, thank you. Uh, Jen. Hello. Jennifer Farlow, district Clerk. I've been with the district 17 years. The clerk's office provides the, uh, support services to the 27 plus boards and committees. Thank you. In the back of the room, we have Mr. Bruce Brown, who is, uh, also a district, uh, assistant district manager. He was, he's been with us many, many years. What, how many years you been with us Bruce? Only four. Only four. It seemed like forever, but you've done good work. He originally was doing property management and done such a good job. And so I think we've elevated him to, uh, and everybody's doing a marvelous job. It it, you, you don't see it. But, uh, if you ever have an inter interaction with these folks, they get things done. And that's, that's just all unimportant. Okay. So how we're gonna run the meeting here. Uh, it's your meeting. Anything you wanna talk about, any issues you wanna raise? Only I ask you to respect the time limits. So we're gonna ask you to come up to the podium, speak into the microphone, state your name, your address, and you've got three minutes to talk about whatever you wanna talk about. Okay. Who wants to go first? Do I hear her hand up over here? Come on, young lady. Name, address. And there you go. Are you looking for hot date or something, or what? My name is Anna McDonald. I live on 1426 Segovia Place. And my main issue is about the, um, Could we shut cell phones off? Please? Shut that off. Everybody else turn 'em off on silent. Go ahead. Okay. About the, uh, light fixtures that you wanna replace Are the, the, the lamp motion? Yeah. Okay. Now, Did you already make a commitment that we're, we're gonna be doing this? Or is this just a negotiation right now? That's my first question. The, let me answer best. I know how it's, it's, SECO has proposed to us to sell us the existing, and Tom is more, knows more about this than anybody. I'll let him speak to the issue. But anyway, we don't have as many lamp posts in, in our district as other districts do it and are primarily in the bill of neighborhoods. SECO has proposed to sell these to us, but it appears to be a, a very unreasonable high cost. So we're going back in negotiations, no final decisions we made, whether we wanna buy 'em, whether we want to put our own up. We've got many options and no conclusion have been made up to this Jun Juncture. That was my first question. Do I have A, do you comment? You, lemme me expand. Yeah. Uh, the, uh, that is correct. There's no decisions made. We, the board is only approved moving forward to do the next step. Uh, what I have been doing, I'm sort of one that's heading up the project. First of all, we have 82 light poles, and they're both, they're all in patio villas and Courtyard villas. Compare that to districts 4, 5, 6, all the way up. They have an average of about seven to 900 light poles. And they're all concrete expensive. Ours are fiberglass and old. Uh, I have looked at the options of buying light poles all 82 and having to put in just really ballpark estimates are that if we buy these light poles, install 'em with LED fixtures and trying to figure out how much it's gonna cost to put 'em in and electricity. My estimate is that there's a payback of about five to seven or eight years, which means that over five or seven or eight years, we would pay what we would pay for those light poles. That's what, what we would be paying to seco energy. And beyond that, then they don't cost much at all. So if it is advantageous for us to do it, other districts don't have the same issue. But we fortunately have it is an easier issue for us. Uh, I'm setting up a meeting next week with, uh, Mike Harris. So we, we have a, a gentleman who lives in district four, who's been in the industry for about, uh, 30 years. He's helping out to do some specs and, uh, so we're just taking a step at a time and, um, seeing where we go. Okay. Good. Gotcha. Yeah, go ahead, Jamie. It's from, from, from these meetings, pre previous meetings, we have till April of next year to make a decision on what, what we're going to do with the light bulbs, whether we keep 'em, replace 'em or do away with 'em, the, the residents are going to pay for it. So it's a question of how much are you going to pay? It's you, you don't have to be Einstein. It, it's a just a plus of mine. It's a arithmetic thing. It's how much is it going to cost and what is it going to benefit the residents with? We sold where cco, uh, got that great, uh, uh, money and we were thinking maybe there'll be dropping the price and everything else. And there was a mention in your, um, the information that you sent out about getting rid of sun, the lamp post. And for a person that walks in the morning at five o'clock, I could tell you right now, there isn't enough lights in the villages. Mm-hmm. There are some very dark spots, and I would not really go for eliminating any lights. Yeah. But right now, there's absolutely no plans on eliminating anything. The only thought would be that if, if I had 500 people coming up and say, I don't need all those light poles, maybe we change our mind. But right now we're looking strictly at your replacement. Anybody else who's next in the back room back, way back. My question is, no sir. Ma'am, come up here at the podium please. Just, just for the benefit of the audience. These are recorded as, uh, public meetings. So we do have to have you at the microphone. It's not that we want you to have to get up and down, but in order to capture it on the recording, you have to be at the Microphone. Well, that's a good exercise. Well, that too, Sir. Name, address, and your issue. Three minutes. Jim Wick. Jim Wick, W-I-C-H-T 28 32 Virgos Drive. Um, my question is, is that you started out that CCO is having, uh, the price is out of con, you know, is too much. Where do you come with the conclusion that the price that they're asking is too much? Uh, I can probably respond to that. Uh, our rent for the last several years for the light poles, including electricity, was somewhere around $5,200 annually. Uh, the proposed, uh, going forward now, the first year, it's only half of it. After the first year, our rent will be including utilities, electricity, and so on, close to 40,000. Uh, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that, you know, that after five years, you, you pay about 200 grand for cco. If five years you pay 200,000 to buy your light poles and put 'em in, which is probably high. And after that, for the next 35 years or so, they don't cost much. So that was sort of the analysis that we're making. But, uh, yeah. Okay. I just wanna know what the baseline was for kind of the decision. Seemed like they guys charge overcharging and we got, we got a total that can save some money. Yeah. Why, why we're going somewhat slowly is that, you know, right. Uh, CCO has been the recipient of a hundred, a hundred million dollars. You know, my guess is that we're not gonna see any of that. But, uh, but if we do, you know, then we re-look at our numbers and then we reassess it at that time. But, uh, it is not like we're in a huge hurry, but, so we're trying to do it, you know, it was just, just the initial opportunity to buy in that first blush seemed like a a lot of money. An outrageous amount of money. Yeah. And that's where we had the op and we got to labor to figure this out. So we're anything else, sir? No, I just wanted to Yep. You guys feel comfortable as far as the baseline that at this point we don't have an answer terms, it's too much, but we have some alterna It appears it appears to be too much, and in anything you want to do, you might want to negotiate it, but you seem they, it seemed outta a line too. Money think open for some negotiations or they just playing hardball? Pardon me? Is CCO open for negotiations? Are they playing hardball? No. No. There is no, it's, here's your price bill. Okay. They gotta leave it. So that gives us the opportunity to do other, other options. All right. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. So thing I want to tell you is that when I look across our board, in particular, this young lady's Nick, I think we've done a pretty good job of managing the money that we've had. We've had, uh, we, we've been fortunate in some of the things that we haven't had to pay for, but, uh, we've done a pretty good job managing the money. And which reflects in your annual maintenance fee, which appears on your tax statement. So there's some other districts. It's got outta line. Ma'am, go ahead. My name is Lou Bowen, 1128 Santa Cruz Drive, village of San Leandro. Um, I'm very unhappy that you're deciding to do something with the lights. I walk in that village every morning at six 15 and right now right at the corner, there is a light out. And let me tell you, it is very, very dark. So if you take the lights away, it's not gonna be Very dark. Ma'am, we're not taking the lights away. Let me be very clear. We're not taking the lights. No, and and you bring up a very good point because I, I learned this lesson personally, myself in my neighborhood, some lights out and I go, how do we get these back on? Every pole has a number on it, right? So all you gotta do is call seco. I already reported call seco and Report. Report. I already did. And they didn't do anything about it. Not yet. They said it's gonna take about, which I understand because we had the hurricane. Yeah, but I mean, okay. So you've done the, the right thing. Right now we're not, we have, there's zero plans to cut. Any lights. Good. There is no plan to do that, but that's how you solve a light that's out. Okay. Okay. Thanks Mark. Hey, mark, may I make something comment there? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Uh, uh, a quick comment real fast. Um, sort, sort of previous gentleman who said about the overcharges with cco. Uh, you have, you have to remember, you know, at CCOs business, I don't represent cco. That's their wires. They provide the alleged. So CCO does have a, have a good say. Number two, I wanna also say, again, we're not getting rid of any poles. We are looking at our options and we're waiting to hear what Seco wants to charge us for the polls. Whether it be better because the polls have to be checked out. If they're, if they're worth it, we're gonna make a decision whether you're gonna buy the polls or get new polls. But what we're trying to do is, everybody heard about how much Chico's charging. We're trying to see what's best for the district and where we can save the most money. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, ma'am. Just one more quick, one more comment. All, all of the light poles on city streets within district two are the streets that are owned by the county. Those are not our light poles, so they're not part of our numbers. Those are all controlled and maintained by county of Sumter County. Ma'am, please, your name, address, and your issue please. Barb Jacks 1312 Trinidad Court in Santiago. Um, two quick question. Um, is the district putting liens on homes that are, have not been paid, um, penalties for architectural review committee issues? And two, what's going on with the Alhambra pond? Two issues? Let me answer the first one for you. Uh, to, to clarify, it's not a, it is, it is deed compliance issues. And so what happens is a fine is assessed and some people choose to ignore those. And we, with counsel now, we've worked out a, a program that they put a lien on against that property. So that if and when it gets sold, then we get, we get some money out of it. It without us putting a lien in that property. If the prop, and there's many of the properties where the residents have been deceased, it just sits there. The bank has got it, and then it gets sold. And we have no, and, you know, no interest. Some of these fines have been significant dollars. So we do put a lien on it once we can't collect it, and then we'll get it someday when the property is transferred. Okay. So we're doing that. Yes. Um, and if I recall, this is the second time, and I don't know, maybe five or so years that the Hambra pond has had a leak. Yes. And, and that issue, I, I raised that one initially 'cause I, or well, there's a, there's a sink hole in the middle of the thing, and I, I, I'm not sure who I discussed it, what, but it appears they, they were on it immediately, but it appeared that that hole had, for the sake of a better term, healed itself. So there's no me, uh, nothing to do about it. Where the, before we spent several hundred thousand dollars kept filling up these holes. But this hole seems to have healed itself. The pond is still retaining, but we're watching it. And so we're staying keeping on top of it. Is this going to be a recurring problem, Ma'am? I have no idea. I mean, should they move The pond? I don't know. Well, you see, no, the, the pond is there for a purpose, but you know, I, it's not, we can't predict when you're gonna have the next sink hole. So we're, you know, we, we we're obligated to fix them. This one heal itself. So it's, we're stable. We've got water in there. Yeah. Bruce, can you come up and address that issue please? Bruce brought assistant district manager. Sir, wait a minute. I'm here about senior. That's okay. After he's done, timing is good. Bruce Brown, assistant district manager. So that's basin two, three. We're talking about the, uh, resident who just talked about is correct. It's been about six years since there was a, uh, failure at that basin. Uh, less than that, but whatever, according to my stats, six years. But I, you, whatever you live near it, so you know better than me. But, um, it has five depressions in it right now. It started with two in the center. It's opened up to five. It's too wet to repair, so we need to let it dry out. So once it dries out, we'll go in there and do some geological, uh, inspection and testing of it, and we will make repairs. Thank you. Yes, sir. So now we're gonna let that pond drain. We need, we need that pond, so we need to keep it working. The, the conclusion is it's a little bit more sign serious than we had originally thought a couple weeks ago. Sir, name and address please. Uh, Patrick Buckley. 1403 Carillo Street. Right. And, uh, he might have just answered it. My, I I'm just here to ask the question of where do we go on, um, on a question asking for resolution to, uh, a situation. I wanna be careful with my words. I'm not a geological engineer. I'm not a structural engineer. We have a home on Figueroa Street. It, uh, has a hole that has opened up, um, on the side of the house. The hole is 12 feet, seven inches deep. It's 18 feet wide, and it's 14 feet across. Uh, we've marked it. It doesn't seem to be moving. And we're measuring it every day with a, a laser. And it seems to be sitting at 12 feet, seven inches. Um, again, I'm kelp with my language. The neighbor, uh, called the fire department. Fire department came out. They have condemned the home. The owner is way out of country and unreachable. So I guess, uh, as neighbors, um, we're just kind of wondering maybe is there something we could do? I, I'm assuming they most probably have that basic, uh, insurance that, that all of us have, which is the catastrophic ground collapse insurance. But maybe is there a way we could find out who to reach for, for that action to take place? I, I would imagine somebody's gonna need to reach out to a geological and to a structural engineer, have them coordinate what they want to do and, but we just don't know where to go with Yeah, It's on private, it's on private property. So it's not district issue. Deal with, and, uh, and you've made a statement though. I I, I think that sinkhole insurance, that that rider to your is not on every policy. You gotta make sure that you have it when There's two different things. There's catastrophic ground collapse and there's sinkhole. They're not the same whatever you are. Right. Well, Whatever. Yeah, I say it ably. I mean, you gotta make sure it is on your policy, Correct. Yeah. But, but the way it works is catastrophic ground collapse. If the regulating body of the county deems the house uninhabitable, right. That insurance policy kicks in. If it's merely cracks or the window no longer closed or something like that, then you're using sinkhole. Correct. Two different, anyway, my question is where do we go? Who do we call? What should we do? So Mr. Chair, the county is aware of this and has, um, to our knowledge deemed the house is, um, uninhabitable. So they have, I would assume, be working with a homeowner moving forward. But Sumter County is the one that, that you would have to work With. So Sumter County, we should reach Sumter County. Yes, sir. Okay. And, and in your question, which is a good one, uh, it, you said, well, it's on someone's private property. It, it has moved enough to be considered on the neighbor's property. So should they, maybe since we don't have contact with that owner, should we use the neighbor to contact Sum County and have them ask I guess The, the, as far as we're understanding the county is in the process of trying to contact the homeowner. I don't know if they have been able to. Okay. But certainly if their neighbor has, it seems to be going on their property, I would certainly probably have them reach out to the county as well. Okay. Okay. Very good. Okay. So it sounds like they're already doing something and Yes, sir. Okay. And should we follow up anyway? I guess? I mean, you can just for your own peace of mind. Okay. I, I'm not sure exactly what they'll tell you, but it, it doesn't hurt to call 'em. Okay, Great. Thank you. Thank very, Thank all. Thank you, ma'am. Name, address, and your issue please. I won't give you my weight. Just drop dead. Gorgeous. Right. Joanne Underwood, 24 12 Tamarindo Drive. Um, my question is some intersections that's very difficult to see cars coming when you go up to the drive up to go to the mailbox on Tamarindo, right at the gate area, there's a lot of shrubs, a lot of stuff that you can't see cars coming and you have to pull out almost halfway into the intersection to see a car coming. And I've had a slam on my brakes without hitting someone. And it's in two different areas that this has happened to me. Um, and I don't know who to call as far as overgrown. Well that's, we call that line of sight, that's the technical term for, it's a line of sight. I can't see where I'm going. Right. Mr. Brown, could you address that please? And, and if Mr. Chair, if you don't mind, I can No, Carrie can do it. Nevermind. So we, um, the, the proper place would be to notify the district. Uh, the best way is through our website, district gov.org. You can report any type of issue through there. We'll send somebody out. I've already, as the clerk has noted what you just told us. So we'll get somebody out there. If it's district property, we will take care of the line of sight issue. If it's private property, we'll contact the homeowner and ask them to, or if it's county right of way, we would contact the county. So if you just tell us, we'll figure out who to deal with it and we'll take care of it. Okay. Yeah, I can respond to that too. If it's on the, if it's on, uh, village Village property and it's a safety issue, they'll be out there asap. I've done that. I think there's been an accident already on one of the intersections. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody didn't, they pulled out and, uh, the golf cart was coming and someone got hit. I remember about two, three years ago I talked with Bruce Brown about something and you know, that next afternoon it was done. So if it's a safety issue, those are real, those are problems. They, they will take care of that right away. Thank you for your time and all your volunteering. Thank You ma'am. Sir, your name, address, and your issue please? Ted Ableson 1624 Duran Drive in Alhambra. Um, as far as the, uh, CCO goes with the lights, just to, just to make sure I understand, CCO owns, and we rent those or lease whatever terminology you want to use those light poles, correct? Correct. You're discussing, trying to figure out which is the best option that for you to do. So, if your decision, and you haven't made one yet, I understand that if your decision is to replace those light poles, is CECO gonna charge you to remove them? We don't know that yet. Don't know yet. We don't know that. Or you don't know if they'll charge you to remove it? We, we haven't got to that juncture to decide. That's the detail of, of the, I will tell you that I, that the lease agreements that I have, the copies of the lease agreements are very short and the only thing they require is a 60 day written notice. But it has nothing to do. It's nothing, it's silent with regard to, you know, the cost of removal. But I would presume that there might be something that we have to negotiate if it gets to that point. Okay. I was just looking to see all you do that you're doing average in rough numbers. I was just curious if that was a number that needed to be added to whatever you were coming up with part as part of it. Make comment. Okay. Thank you sir. Before you, uh, go anywhere. There's a reason earlier that Tom said it's going to take a while because like I said to the gentleman in the back, uh, I don't represent cco, right? But CCO owns the poles. Seco owns the wire, that's part of CCOs grade. So we do not, if we've, we do not know what we're exactly is gonna take place. We do not know if CCOs gonna remove the poles, whether we're gonna buy the poles, whether gonna produce, these are a lot of stones that aren't turned over yet. We're in the process. Even though as Tom said that though, you know, we're looking into the polls and, you know, for getting a price and buy and all this other stuff. But there's a lot of things before you can do that. As you just say, the polls, who's gonna remove the poles, who's gonna make the connection the secret allow us to do it. So there's a lot more than just out buying a pole and dropping a pole in the spot. So that's why I said Seco has a lot of power. Right. So, you know, today, thank, thank, thank God we got the Jimmy. Go ahead, sir. Sir, excuse me one second. Carrie, you're, you're, you're involved in negotiation with Seco. Could you explain what precipitated that, that, that, the, uh, issue with the light poles? Sure. So, um, as was stated earlier, we do not own any of the light poles within the villages. Um, they are owned by, the majority of them are owned by cco. And then we pay one fee, um, for them to have electric with it, um, maintenance lease of the poles, essentially with everything included the lease charge. We were notified by seaco right before our budget season that it was going to go up significantly, um, for all areas within the villages. So it wasn't just district two, it was all residential districts, commercial districts, the county, um, all of their area light leases were going to go up significantly after much conversation. Um, they had a meeting and invited every supervisor with all of the boards to attend. They agreed to only charge 50% of the increase this fiscal year as of October 1st. And then they would charge the remaining 50% next fiscal year, October 1st of next year to better allow for budgeting purposes. Um, in the meantime, the district board started asking if there were other options. Um, district two and District seven specifically have directed staff and their district council to start having, excuse me, researching and having conversations as to alternatives. Could we buy the poles and then pay somebody else to maintain them and then just have CCO provide the light? Could we take out the poles and put something new in? Could we require CCO to take out the poles and have something new put in? Um, could we do it in-house? Do we have another company come in? So those are all of the things that staff and district council are working on right now. Um, they're in, in the meantime, again, probably about two weeks ago we received correspondence from CCO that they received a hundred million dollars grant and that they were going to knew a new cost study to determine if those additional revenues from that grant would impact the cost of area light leasing. So it is our hope that with that grant money, they will say that that additional 50% that we were going to charge you as of October 1st is no longer necessary and we are going to be able to hold our costs as they are. Um, some of the cost increased from what CCO said is that the normal light users, the residential properties, commercial properties were in fact carrying the cost of the area light users and that they had not increased the cost that they should have. Combined that with the cost of converting all of them to LED was why the increase was needed. So it is staff, um, hope that as of, um, we, we were told about March, April, we would have another meeting with them to determine if that a hundred million dollars grant would impact the cost of leasing. It is staff's hope that certainly they would say they don't need the additional 50%. Not to say that the districts will say, okay, that's great. We're going to stay with you. But it's just another option to consider. Um, but at this point, CCO has not offered to sell the polls. CCO has not said this is what it's gonna cost to buy the polls. What CCO said was, if you want to buy the polls district, then you have to do three things. You have to have a valuation, which means you have to hire a company to come in and determine how much these poll are worth. Number two, you, we have to have board approval. So CCOs board would have to approve it, and then you would also have to have approval from the USCA. Um, they would require approval of that based on all of that valuation. So I just wanna make sure you understand that residents did not, I'm sorry, CCO did not offer anything to a district. They just simply said, if you are interested in buying the poles, this is what you have to do. Which is similar to if a district were going to buy a utility or buy any type of utility infrastructure. That is what a government is required to do, is to go through that valuation process. So that is similar to what would be done with any type of utility. May I make a quick comment? Just everybody knows the districts one, two, and three, we don't have too many light bulbs. They're all fiberglass, they're old. Uh, fiberglass has a life of about 25 years. And guess what? These light poles are about 28 years old to replace these light poles just to go, I believe just go to the, go to the internet and Google light pole cost. I can buy a replacement just off the price list for about 600 bucks a light pole. To give you an example of just, just the pole itself. So the, the probability of seco wanting to sell us the light pole for some huge amount of money would, they're probably dealt with anything. And matter of fact, they should probably pay us to take 'em out. Well, the good news is that the number of poles in district two are relatively small to other districts. Eight, two, excuse me, Tom. Yeah. Relative to other districts. So yes, we will have some financial impact not near as much as other districts. So that's a, and the other thing I just wanna mention, it's a great job, Carrie just did. This is why we have such a great staff that support us here. Thank you, Carrie. Can I, sir, go ahead. Name, address and your issue please. Yeah. Yes. Uh, my name is John Afflic and we live at 1312 Gaucho way place that usually has all that Christmas stuff up at this time of year. Are you the one, uh, not one of them, but what's happening on our street that is mirrored across the villages? We've had a number, unfortunately, of great friends die who contributed so much to doing all the work. And so we're a bit strapped this year and, uh, we have some new people moving into the neighborhood. But the reason I'm here is, uh, I'm here to, to speak on behalf of the LD Ablo Pond. Uh, I was a professor and coach 42 years at Binghamton University in upstate New York, and have a real interest in birdwatching and environment. And I've always loved that lake. Uh, it's, it's dear to both my wife and I and all our kids that visit and what we feel has happened in the last two years, I would say that hasn't been cared for like it had been in the past. Like when you enter el uh, enter the lake area, you can feel that nice cool breeze coming in. But now there seems to be tremendous amount of algae and, uh, clogging up of the pond. And all ponds really try to become land eventually, and it needs to be addressed. And I heard maybe you have, someone told me, your assistant said maybe you have a new contract on the care of the pond, but it's just, uh, I I wanna commend all of you for the wonderful job you have been doing all these years. My 20 years have no complaints and uh, maybe I should have been more involved, but I think you do a wonderful job. But I just, it's just kind of a heads up to check out the pond yourself and see if we can't do a better job with it, because I think you could really lose a wonderful asset And that we don't want To do. Okay, thanks very much. I I, I, can I say something? Yeah, go ahead, sir. I, I think that, sir, I sir, I think the last, at, at the last meeting, I'm sorry, at the last meeting, they, they were gonna put carp in those ponds that to eat the algae up. Is that correct? Can you Repeat that ma'am? Is this the pond on Enrique? Okay. Yeah. So this, this was discussed at the last, um, district one meeting and we are adding carp. Um, I don't believe we have it yet, but we have 'em on order. So carp will be added in addition. District one has asked us to look at the cost of doing additional, um, both chemicals and some type of scooping it off the top. I I don't remember the name of it. Um, technical. There, there are, they scuba right off the top. There are challenges, um, not only with that pond, but ponds across the villages we're finding are becoming, um, it's called mechanical harvesting. Thank you Bruce. Um, there we're finding trouble with the ponds and the, um, the plant Hydra with the hydra becoming immune to the chemicals. So we are looking, our cross creek is a contractor that we've had for about a year. Um, they are looking at a different chemical to use on the hydra. What happens is they kill the hydrilla, it floats up, becomes algae, and then it's that nasty mess on the top. That's what we're looking at, mechanical harvesting out of the lake. Um, but right now that is very expensive and it can cause other issues. If you try to get the hydra out and you break it up, but you don't get all of it, it comes back times 10. So we are looking at ulterior alternative options, but for now, we're hoping the carp will help short term and then coming to the board with prices for long term. Well, well, I, I appreciate all of that. And, uh, I do know things can be expensive and chemicals today are, they're under the gun, you know, we can't use too much of this, too much of that, but it needs to be addressed. And just a side story. So wonderful lady, her name is Linda. I walk with her in the pool. Tremendous athlete. Many of you who are familiar here will see her walking with her two dogs back and forth on Ricky, like with her dogs. And sometimes her husband helps her out. And she's a real environmentalist. And one day you had the fire department here because someone's dog went out into that pond and didn't, couldn't come back in or didn't want to, or it was the cocker spaniel was not just Linda's dog and she went out and swam the length of your pond. Our pond. Okay. And Sheva said to me, John, you know, in the middle of that pond's actually warm. Now she's risking her life. And I, and I hate to report that. I think we have two alligators. Okay. So maybe she didn't know she would've done it anyhow. And the, the fire department was here, and I know they do a great job and everything, but they had a boat, but somehow the boat didn't get in the water. And long and short of it, the dog was saved. And Linda gets a big assist. Thank you, Linda. Okay. Thank you sir. That time. Thank you sir. OO one thing, sir, you know, with, with the hot summer we had, it's, and it water warms up it's ideal incubating temperature. You might look at anything, anything grows in there. I know, I know. It is true. But, uh, if you go back, I heard maybe you have a new contract on it two years ago. If you go back before two years, you have a wonderful, wonderful pond. Yeah, A lake really with a breeze coming off and everything. And I would, I would really speak to the people who are now trying to care for it. I know that chemicals, there's a lot of excuses. Yeah. There, there's, there there's a limit on how much chemicals we can use. Yeah, I know. And so there's so much regulations we have to deal with with this. We're doing the best we can. You know, we're, we're trying to, yeah, I'm not, I don't mean to be behave. I know you're not, but I just, I just saying we're, we're, we're on top of the issue. We've got carp coming in here. We got the try to get the hydraulic taken care of. Thank you, sir. I really thank you all for the job You do because it's outstanding. They bought. Thanks sir. Just a brief note, if the crab do their job and is, and they no longer needed, I'm gonna sponsor a fishing tournament, Jim? Yeah, sir. If I, if I could add to that and get an update, stay on top that and get updates to that. Uh, I want to send you down the wrong pad. That's the district one problem. That's not, so you would get more information from district one at their meeting about the pond or contacting the villages. And Mrs. Duckett said and gave you all the information. We would not be up to date on that because it's, it's a, it's not, it's in district one. So it's actually, I hate to say it that way, but it's like their problem. Well, let's hand it off to somebody else, huh? Well, well, yeah, well, no, no, but that's, I I said procedurally, that's the reality. The dis the districts are responsible. The, the geography just within the district. That one sits out of it, but we're, we're aware of it, we're taken care of. Ma'am, please, Cindy Walton 2 9 1 7 Pancho Way. I live on the turtle property. We're hearing a lot of rumors that they're going to either move the turtles or do something and we just wanna know what's going on. Go gopher turtle to I probably the one, I, first of all, I, I, I don't recall ever talking to anybody about removing the turtles, but I have, I have raised the issue about, uh, the turtles because they seem to be more frequently getting under fences and things like that. I, I stood out in someone's backyard about several months ago, and I think within about 25 feet in a radius I counted about nine turtles. So there's probably about a, there's gotta be at least a thousand turtles. Carrie, can you address that please? Tortoises, Tom, let's carry address. We're, we're Not removing any of them. That we heard that rumor too, but no, we're not removing any of them. Correct. That's all I needed To know. Thank you ma'am. Sir, name, address and your issue please. Hi everyone. My bill row 1515 Dory Lane. Uh, I have three questions and I'll ask all three if I remember 'em by the end. So first one, uh, I understand villages that the government's moving village business and moving down to Braidwood or Brownwood, yeah. Are we still gonna be able to do business at Sumer Landing or do we have to venture across the border at 4 66 8? We will have a satellite office at Lake Sumter Landing. So you'll either be able to go to La Hacienda or Laha or uh, lake Sumter Landing, But all the basic things, it, it was part of that announcement that what they did say, because the district is expanding so much personal. I understand, but they, but part of that announcement did say we were, it will maintain a satellite office in Sumter Landing. So you'll be able to go Sumter Landing and, and Oh, we bought the house three years ago. Pardon me. We bought the house three years ago. People tried to talk us into going south of a highway 'cause they said that'll be the middle of five years. So No, I understand. I'm very happy. Yeah, so it's you, you'll be second question. Unfortunately, been a number of months since I've been able to attend any of the, uh, meetings. And I know it used to be a very hot item, you know, it was talked about by our district and all of the districts about people putting property up for sale, uh, that had deed deed violations to 'em, had no notice to people. Has anything been done about that? I, uh, let me address, I may be wrong, but I don't think there's much we can do about it. It, it's, uh, it, it, it's an issue of disclosures when you do sell a property and you have to disclose certain things. But whether it's a deed restriction thing, I, I think they can do whatever they want to do and unfortunately they don't. But I think that's part of, that's part of the buying on the buying side of it, doing your due diligence as well. That'd be a, I mean, if I were buying a piece of property, that'd be one of the issues. I'd ask my realtor, tell me about any liens or violations on this piece of property. So we know that what we're buying. But as far as the disclosure by the seller, I don't believe that's a requirement. Oh, it seems like the biggest problem comes up with people with our, our R-C-A-R-C. Yeah. A RC violation. And even though that you're wrong, you don't, but, uh, I know when we came in, I was fat, dumb, and happy and had no idea what a RC was. We just got lucky and didn't have any. Yeah. Okay. And, uh, the last I guess is more of a rumor. Uh, I keep hearing rumors that we're going to take all the guards out of the, out of the, uh, entrance entranceways on north of 4 66 and make them all automatic or something. Anything to that? No, No. Thank you. Got that answer right? No ma'am, go ahead. My name Is BJ Howard. You're welcome to pull that microphone down. So he, there You go. My name, my name is BJ Howard. I live at 2136 Margarita Drive. I've lived there for 26 years and three months and two weeks. And How many hours in seconds you got in there And five hours Lake? Uh, lake El Santiago. Some years ago I did call up to complain about how bad the lake was getting and she said, oh, you mean Lake Santiago? I thought it was a retention pond myself. I lived on a lake in Miami. But anyways, it is Lake Santiago and it has a fountain that shoots up. And, um, up until a couple years ago, all these years, the lake has been beautiful and I've had three or four different types of ducks and birds and everything around in my backyard. 'cause my uh, uh, kitchen is a huge window that looks right on the hard man's tee off of, of l Diablo golf course as they hit the ball. And I looked right over to the lake and it has been terrible in two years. In the last year or so, it was covered with something all the way across it. There's been no birds, nothing is around there anymore. No ducks, no birds. And for all the visitors that are coming here and playing golf, that is, I mean, I have to look at it every day, but it's so disgusting. It looks, and it smells at our CD meeting of this past, uh, uh, month. Somebody even said that the odor is real bad. I don't get to play golf anymore, so I'm not that close to it. And they said it really smells. And, uh, so I just wanted to add that too with about the legs. It has not been taken care of. Nobody. I remember that they used to pull, put back up a boat and, and somebody would be in a boat and whatever they were doing. But the lake has always been beautiful up until in this past year. It's been horrible. And we'd have to look at it, that's all. So, Mr. Chair, like I said, unfortunately this is kind of a common theme that you'll hear throughout the villages right now. So we are going out for proposal to get, um, costs on doing additional work with those. In addition, we have been having regular meetings with Cross Creek to contractor, but I can have DPM look at this, um, area specifically and then follow up with the board on an email. Good. Thank you. She has made it very important. She'll follow up with the board. I really encourage you to come to our board meetings. It's the third, uh, second, second Friday of the month at nine 30 right here in this room. Not if you got a complaint, but just come on, listen to what's going on because it's so important as I start out. The reason why I got on the board is 'cause I'm stupid. Rumor, rumor, there's all kinds of rumors going around. So come here and you can hear what's really going on and, and address the issue if you want to. So I really encourage you. Take an hour outta your time. Second Friday of the month, sir. Again, my name is Jim Wick, 28 32 Burgos Drive. My question is, uh, who is responsible for roadway resurfacing? Um, I know, simple question On car on Carlo. I mean, it's, well, the simple question. Okay. The district has responsible for the roads in illa neighborhoods. In what, what neighborhoods? The bill of neighborhoods, Villa neighborhoods. That's the only roads that the district, all the other roads are county roads. So it's a Sumter County issue on the roads? Except the villa. Except Bill, the bill of neighborhoods. Yes, that's correct. Okay. Then who takes care of the villa neighborhoods? The V is responsible for our, our district is, we are district. Okay. So if, if you have a issue as far, who do I talk to about the district as far as resurfacing? You have, are you living in Villa neighborhood, sir? Yes. Okay. There's a, on the website, district gov.org, there's a CIP plan at capital improvement plan that has all of the villa units listed and when they are scheduled for milli overlay or resurfacing, if you don't want to do that, you can, um, call the, the district or speak with Mr. Brown after the meeting and he could pull it up and tell you when it's scheduled. Perfect. Thank You. I encourage you to go on, there's a, there's a wealth of information in district.dot gov of all kinds of topics. So if you're a little bit computer savvy, I encourage you to go do a roll around and you can see how this place is run, the things that are going on. So, wealth of information. I encourage you to, ma'am, go ahead. Yes. My name is Sandy Harris. We live at 2 9 0 7 Ponchos and the other lady brought up about the turtles. Um, I don't rather I address it here or address it to the board meeting. I brought it up in May to the board meeting and nothing's been done. Uh, the turtles has got, I don't, whether it's the turtle's property or just the, the ground behind us or not, but we have big holes down around our foundation that it, and now it's getting to be more than my property. It's going down our whole street where the ground is breaking away. I'm worried about it damaging a wall and we don't know who to address, do we, uh, because no one board member or someone came down and look at, oh yeah, you have a problem, but it's not our problem. What do we do about it? So, Um, we, we did have our environmentalists go out there and look because we are limited on what we're allowed to do because it's a preserve and they are a protected species. Right. Um, I don't, I don't have the information off the top of my head about what the plan on was moving forward. Um, but this is another one. We will update the board and it has been brought up at a board meeting. So we will attach it to their agenda. So if you can't make it to the next meeting, if you visit the district two website and click on the agenda, we will have the update attached to their agenda for you. Yeah, we're all concerned with the wall and all of our s are wobbly and stuff because of this. Gary, you gonna put it on our meeting for, or Jennifer next week? Or is that too late or too late or Early? It's not too late. We can still do that, so we'll, we'll attach it to old business. Yeah. So ma'am, please board meeting, plan on being here a week from Thur week from Friday, second Friday, nine 30 in this room. We, we will have it on that Jennifer discussion. Sounds Good. Thank you. Anybody else up here? Uh, just a quick comment. I won't get into it now, but if anybody has any interest in the plan for the next two years with regard to Sumter County Road resurfacing, I have some information here. I'll stay after the meeting's over and be glad to share it with you, sir. Uh, my name is, uh, ed Laverty. Uh, I've been here since 2004. Address, please address. Oh 1 3 0 8 RA Dondo. And it took me a long line, long time to spell that directly. You wanna, you wanna take a crack at it, sir? I'm still learning. Anyway. Uh, I've been here since 2004 permanently, and I live on, uh, like I said, adobo Drive. And I've talked to Tom Reers several times about the turtles in the backyard. I was surprised to find out that we own the turtles. Uh, those are Tom swears words. Yep. But is that correct, Tom? Well, somebody has that. We own District two owns that preserve. And I presume that if there's an animal there, we own it. I would. Okay. Would guess, but, but it's, it's actually maintained by the Florida Department of Agriculture or something. No, no. We maintain that. So we, we mow it. We actually have people that mow that have to go to a special class to make sure that they know how to trim the grass without killing the animals and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Well, well we talked about it, in my opinion, since I've been there, it's a lot more stakes in that preserve. Each stake, uh, marks that hole or, or burrow, if you will. Correct. And I believe that is overpopulated and they're digging under our, our property, et cetera. They can go 200 feet horizontally, underground, and 50 feet down. And I, I had a, a worker at the, at my house a couple years ago, and he was, uh, doing some work in the backyard, basically doing the hedges. And he actually fell into one of those tunnels. Waist deep, waist deep. And that would've been my problem for liability because he was working on my property anyway. Uh, I think something should be done about the population there. I I'm not saying euthanizing or anything like that, but maybe they ought to be moved out. They have a population limit. I mean, we we're only allowed 150 people here in this room. How many, what's the maximum are, are suggest Are you suggesting we have a adopt a turtle banter something? Excuse me. Well, I, I don't know what I'm saying, but this No, I I I make light of what you're saying, but I understand the issue, sir. Well, I, I, I, I'm really concerned about it. All my neighbors on every download drive face that way, face West Terry will address. They're all worried about it. Our, Our environmentalists breed love Dennis and Associates. They do manage the turtle preserve and the population of the turtles. Um, I'll tell you, if they have to be moved, it has to be permitted and it's very expensive. But it is being monitored through our environmentalist, um, the turtle population. 'cause there are a lot more stakes than there were 10 years ago. But, but again, if if we have to move them, if we have to move them, it's a very expensive and it has to be permitted. Well, that doesn't answer the question. If there, if it's overpopulated, something has to be done about it, BDA will tell us, Maybe we can sterilize 'em. I, I don't know what the answer is. So, BDA will tell us if they're overpopulated and tell us if we have to do that. At this point, they're just monitoring and they have not indicated that it's time to take any action. You know how to make turtle soup. I, I did get complaints. It tastes very good. By the way. I did get complaints from a resident who lives along there that a fox was eating the turtles. So pick, pick your poison. I, I get calls both ways. No, I I don't think there are any foxes there. We're working on it. You're working on it. Well, as, as Carrie just indicated, we've got, we're doing or they're setting it to see, uh, if, if I'll follow up with something else. Yeah. Would you please excuse me? I said please follow up. Okay. Uh, concerning the roads, uh, as soon as those roads were retarded or resurfaced, who's got that cell phone? Shut it off, please. A few years ago. Thank you. Uh, a few, a few years ago. The roads were resurfaced. Please find it. I know, I understand. But, and, uh, well, anyway, it didn't last very long. Tom can bear me out on that. Within a few weeks it was starting to gravel up and it's really terrible. Now I don't know what the solution is. Can anyone tell me right now when it's gonna be retarded? And will it be like some of the parking lots in, in some of the areas? They're resurfaced beautifully, but not our roads. I'll make a real re I I'll be here after the meeting to talk about more detail.