Comments from the Town Manager

COMMENTS FROM THE TOWN MANAGER

AUGUST 1, 2026

I am proud to continue as your Town Manager and really enjoy my position here. There are some very fine people in the town and most of you are serious about working toward making this a better place to live. That is my aim as we proceed through another year of positive progress in our lovely small town. We must all pull together and work toward the betterment of all and forget about some of this petty jealousness going around that is making enemies of former friends.

I want to especially appreciate the loyalty and dependability of our small cadre of employees who work so hard and really have the improvement of the town in their best interest. Most of you do not know how much they do and never complain.

As we start preparing for the new budget to be effective October 1, 2026, we will have to really look at our operations and although we cannot cut much more, we will have to continue to operate with bare minimum expenses where we can and attempt to find additional labor when and where possible. With the State of Florida attempting to cut property taxes even more, and with no additional revenue streams available to replace them, you might have to see more services reduced. We cannot operate a town with the small amount of taxes we have, along with the water and sewer operations, unless we have adequate fees and revenue streams to continue to pay our outstanding loans from years ago and prepare for much needed repairs. We have had to raise the sanitation fees by the amount the contractor charged the town, and we are working on the water and sewer fees for the next five (5) years, which will be effective October 1, 2026. The town applies for every grant we can but not all of them are funded, or if so, the money does not come for three or four years after the grants are approved, thereby causing the cost to be more expensive than when the grant was applied for, resulting in the town having to go back and ask for more funding to complete the project.

If you can volunteer to assist with working and cleaning up our parks and playgrounds, that would help tremendously. I want to thank those that walk our streets and carry bags to pick up trash and debris along the rights-of-way. Your efforts do not go unnoticed and thank you.

Again, thank you for your support and my office is open to both positive and negative comments and recommendations on how we can be more effective with your $$$.

LEE GARNER, TOWN MANAGER