Present:

Chairman Carlton Henley (District 4)

Commissioner Randy Morris (District 2)(Late)

Commissioner Dick Van Der Weide (District 3)

Commissioner Daryl McLain (District 5)

County Manager Kevin Grace

County Attorney Robert McMillan

Deputy Clerk Carylon Cohen

Absent: Vice Chairman Grant Maloy (District 1)

Chairman Henley advised that Commissioner Morris should be present shortly; he attended a meeting with the City of Winter Springs, but is en route at this time. He also said Commissioner Maloy would not be present today.

Commissioner Morris entered the meeting at this time.

Chairman Henley stated this is a specially called meeting dealing with the November 7, 2000 Referendum. He said this is not a public hearing, but if any Commissioners have questions from anyone in the audience, those requests will be honored.

Colleen Rotella, Planner, addressed the Board to state today’s meeting is a follow-up to the September 26 BCC meeting

and is to establish priority projects for the upcoming November 7 Referendum completing the trails connection and to review a draft public information brochure for distribution to the registered voters.

Ginger Hoke, Trails Planner, addressed the Board to review the Referendum Preliminary Cost Breakdown information (received and filed) showing the Showcase Trails, Connector Trails, City/Area Trails and Natural Lands.

Chairman Henley said he thinks staff did a good job of indicating the connectivity within the neighborhoods and how many schools would be impacted by the plans.

Commissioner Morris advised that meetings were held recently on connectivity with Florida Power and this has been an on-going discussion for some years. He said Carolina Power & Light have now acquired Florida Power and they are showing a keen interest to open up a number of routes in the populated sections of Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Winter Springs, Oviedo, and Longwood. He said Carolina Power now has the County’s overlay map and the County should probably have an answer by March, 2001. He said this would add to the connectivity issue. These would be trails and wider size lots that reach the dense population centers where the County could not build a trail because of not having the right-of-way, and the County would be very grateful for that.

Commissioner Morris said the breakout for Natural Lands was done, but the Showcase Trails are really City Trails and this is shown on the chart but is not shown in the title headline. He said this is really one big trail system that affects the unincorporated and incorporated areas and then a percent of the money is going to natural lands. He said that’s the way this should be discussed. He also said he thinks it is important that the Cities have the information on the Historic and Proposed Trail Funding by Area (copy received and filed) which shows the amount of money already expended and proposed to be spent in the cities. Chairman Henley concurred that this is a good point and it would be well for staff to provide this information to the Cities along with the cost breakdown.

Motion by Commissioner Van Der Weide, seconded by Commissioner Morris, to approve the priority list as presented by staff.

Districts 2, 3, 4, and 5 voted AYE.

Upon discussion by Commissioner Morris on the need to have a phone number to call for more information on the brochure, Ms. Rotella said she would have the contact information printed larger on the brochure along with the web site information. Commissioner Morris directed staff to show the web site information on the backside of the brochure as well where there is blank space available.

Commissioner Morris said he believes the primary thing being sold is asking the voters to consider safety. He noted that Florida leads the nation in bicycle deaths with Central Florida showing poorly also. He said he would like to see on the front of the brochure, "Completing the trails connection for safety"; or Commissioner Van Der Weide suggested "providing safety for our citizens."

Commissioner Van Der Weide said staff could use a bigger piece of paper and maybe better quality and include all the information so it is bigger for the senior citizens to read. He stated if there were too much clutter on the brochure, the senior citizens wouldn’t be able nor want to read it. He recommended going with a larger sheet of paper and larger map.

Commissioner Morris said he thinks the staff is at a disadvantage in trying to work with the printers. He asked Commissioner Van Der Weide if he could work with staff on this project.

The consensus of the Board was to designate Commissioner Van Der Weide to work with staff on the printing of the brochure.

The consensus of the Board was to add wording on safety to the content of the brochure.

Ms. Hoke described how the web site would work with the use of photography of the trails. Some excerpts were shown to the Board.

Ms. Rotella said staff hopes to have the web site available next week. She discussed that a Speakers Bureau will be used with volunteers from the Trails Committee, and said the word is being spread for staff and the Trails representatives to be invited to make presentations.

Commissioner McLain stated that he is a boater and has GPS. He suggested staff publish the coordinates so that people can enter the number and go to the locations. Ms. Rotella stated staff could publish those.

Ms. Rotella also advised Commissioner Morris that beginning next week a ten-minute information spot on the referendum using the recorded virtual tour will be aired on TV and a 30-second public service announcement would be made. Whereupon, Commissioner Morris asked Mr. Grace to review that and make sure it is not advocacy information. Ms. Rotella further advised that there would be information displays in the Oviedo Voice, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Seminole Herald newspapers.

Upon inquiry by Chairman Henley, staff showed the location of the Oviedo Trailhead. Ms. Hoke stated she would find out what the start date is for this trailhead.

Commissioner Morris discussed with staff the letter from the City of Sanford regarding the Riverwalk Showcase Trail. Ms. Hoke stated to her, it was a reasonable request to make Riverwalk a showcase trail. She responded to Commissioner Van Der Weide that by listing Riverwalk as a showcase, it would not affect its funding and would have no detrimental affect on any other trail.

Commissioner Morris said he thinks the Board should grant the City of Sanford’s request. Ms. Rotella said Riverwalk does qualify as a showcase.

Commissioner McLain suggested alphabetizing on the brochure the Neighborhood/City Trails listed as #5-#13 and indicate they are alphabetized, so people do not think they are shown in priority.

Chairman Henley stated he received information (copy received and filed) from an Executive Committee meeting of Metroplan last Friday afternoon reviewing the status of roads on projects and the financial situation. He said Metroplan is about $6 billion behind and the Committee spent quite a bit of time trying to explore the possibility of other revenues. He said there will be a number of projects dropped and he doesn’t know the impact on this phase of the trail, but it doesn’t look good. Commissioner Morris stated when this issue comes back, Chairman Henley needs to "put his foot down" because Seminole County fought to get parity and now they are going to take the core out of the parity. Chairman Henley stated he would have Mr. Grace share this information packet with the Board so that when this comes back, he wants input from the full Board.

Motion by Commissioner McLain, seconded by Commissioner Van Der Weide, to make the Sanford Trail a Showcase Trail.

Districts 2, 3, 4, and 5 voted AYE.

Mr. Grace thanked the Board for coming together on such a short notice.

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There being no further business to come before the Board, the Chairman declared the meeting adjourned at 11:24 a.m., this same date.

ATTEST________________________Clerk_____________________Chairman

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