Charlotte County Speaks-09-16-25-hr1

Tuesday 09/16/25 Hour 1. With Punta Gorda City Councilwoman Melissa Lockhart.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Giggyy gaety giggity good.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Do you suffer from compulsive US technologica overloaditis? Symptoms include
continuous scrolling and yelling at your smart speaker like it's
a real family.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Member coming through loud and clear.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Then ask your doctor about Disconnect it All the first
once a day tablet that helps you gently pride the
smartphone out of your hand and also reminds you that
grass is in fact still a thing. Disconnect it all,
try putting down your phone and going outside. Side effects
may include fresh air, eye contact, and remembering simpler days,
like when your phone only made phone calls.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
This is not headline news. Today is National Sit with
US Stranger Day? Come on, do you want to be
human trafficked? The who announced their final concert will be
October first. That'll free them up to work their side
hustle as Halloween skeletons.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
It's been thirty years.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Since Drew Barrymore flashed David Letterman. Now if she wanted
to do it again, she wouldn't have to lift her
shirt so high. And a new study shows being too
thin can be deadlier than being overweight, although results may
be flawed. All the thin people in this study were
heavy meth users. This is not headline news.

Speaker 5 (01:21):
Who wake up the cup.

Speaker 6 (01:41):
Cannot joy cab.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Sal cab, cab cab.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
In this present crisis.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is
the problem.

Speaker 7 (02:29):
This is Charlotte County Speaks. Your chance to let your
voice be heard on local, state, and national which ues
and now broadcasting live from a dumpy little warehouse behind
a taco bell. The host of Charlotte County Speaks Can love.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Joy News Radio fifteen eighty and one hundred point nine FM,
Wccfradio dot com on the iHeartRadio app. This is Charlotte
County Speaks. I'm Ken Lovejoy. Good morning, ten after nine
on this Tuesday. Phone lines are open nine four one

(03:09):
two zero six fifteen eighty toll free eight eight eight
four four one fifteen eighty. Email address cc speaks at
live dot com And if you miss a show, head
to our homepage or the app, scroll to the podcast
section and that's where we are. Wow. Just heard it.
Robert Redford dead at the age of eighty nine, passed

(03:33):
in his sleep. The best way to go in my
humble opinion, but just man, just go down the list
of movies. I mean with Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid
The Sting. Both those, me and my cousin both went

(03:55):
to see the Fox Theater in Spokane when we was
just wee chillin's and then Jeremiah Johnson awesome movie. Damn
just a whole bunch of them. Awesome actor, great impact
on Hollywood, Sundance Film Festival, independent director as well. Yeah, well,

(04:21):
we bit of a lefty, but not as hardcore psycho
as they are today. But God rest his soul. Robert
Redford dead at the age of eighty nine. Man two
six fifteen eighty, toll Free eight eight eight four four,
one of fifteen eighty. So what are we celebrating today? Well,

(04:42):
if you're into the avocado, I'm not really into just
the avocado. It's got to be guacamole. So I will
celebrate National Guacamole Day, National Working Parents Day, Working Grandparents,
National IT Professionals Day. Okay, I guess you need them,

(05:09):
National step Family Day. Who doesn't have one or two
of those? National Plato Day? They still make the playto
National Plato Day, National Voter Registration Day, Register correctly, won't
you please save the nation?

Speaker 8 (05:33):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Here we go, Here we go. This, This is definitely
worth celebrating National cinnamon Raisin bread Day. That's worthy of celebration,
right there. Huh, step family Day. I know everybody got
one of them these days two six fifteen eighty, toll

(05:55):
free eight eight eight four four one fifteen eighty. So
bottom of the hour have incumbent Melissa Lockhart on the show,
candidate for upcoming re election in November, and the Puntagorda
City council race in the meantime, What do we got here?

(06:20):
Modern day stressors that didn't exist back in the day.
There's too many. I mean, don't you just want to
go back to the.

Speaker 9 (06:30):
Seventies every once in a while, wouldn't it be nice,
wouldn't it be Cyber criminals didn't exist back in the day,
a lot more ways for bad actors to gain to
your personal information than there used to be.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And these are things that boomers and gen xers are
talking about, modern stressors that didn't exist back in the day.
All of social media, it's become a cesspool. Huh. You
just want to go to the Dodo page and just
watch puppies because the rest of it just sucks, just

(07:11):
nothing but chaos and a bunch of lion freak shows
and people celebrating death. Not fun, not as fun as
it used to be. People didn't have a camera in
their pocket all the damn time. Public filming rather invasive.
In fact, it prevents people from doing good because they're

(07:32):
instead of getting involved and maybe you know, knocking out
the hooligan who's roughing up people and stuff like that,
they're filming it instead a deep fakes yeah, oh sh yeah.
AI is going to be destroying the arts. Sad thing.

(07:59):
Music is going to be dead for regular artists in
about five years. It was on Bill Maher. Yeah, if
Bill Maher, if you saw it's you know it's true. Hey,
let's run on down the road for some relief under
the tongue with some tincture from your CBD store at
Puntagord to Port Charlotte. Jim Harrington, Jim, what's going on, buddy?

Speaker 10 (08:20):
And good morning? I beg you to talk to you.
You know what, we never have planned this, you can
verify in the seven years we've been doing this, we've
never had a script. We've never planned it. But that
segue was personal because I have notes here on anxiety,
which is you know, part of the political arena, part
of the AI arena, part of just the Internet. The
global Internet that we're dealing with now is causing so

(08:42):
much anxiety for people. Yeah, and that's probably aside from pain.
And when I say anxiety, I also want to parlay
sleep in their sleeping anxiety always go together. I never
hear one without the other. And in the pastory exactly
what you said or the gummies under the tongue. They
triggered the end of cannabinoid receptors in the brain when

(09:02):
those nerve endings in the brain overly act when they're
triggered by who knows what external internal forces that trigger
those nerve a needs go from zero to ten. I
know cannabinoid receptors fueled by the CBD send a message
and calm down those nerve endings so you don't have
that anxiety. Like for me, for me to do this
show for seven years, Ken and I don't think we've

(09:23):
barely talked about this even privately. I have a terrible
time speaking in public. I've never liked it. I did
it my whole career. I spoken large groups of people.
I spoke in large groups of doctors when I was
a hospital at and Oh my gosh, I was so nervous.
And I really feel like the last eight years the
CBD has really helped me because it's still it's still

(09:45):
uncomfortable to do it, but I'm much better at it
than I was twenty years ago. And I feel like
it's attributed directly to the CBD because I've been doing
the Teaster twice a day every day for eight years now.
So segue is always man, you always come throughful man.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I appreciate it, well, thank you. So what else is
going on at store?

Speaker 10 (10:07):
You know, we've been we've been see the summer is
usually our slowest time, but we had really good May, June, July,
and August, September. So far is doing well. It's doing good.
You know, it's not where we want it to be.
It's not like it is and you know during the
snowbird season. But yeah, everything's going here a the top
of them cream it's still selling like crazy. The sleep
gummies are selling well, of course they're anxiety gummies. And

(10:30):
the tinsures always do well. The other things are going good.
Everything's good. Just my life now this time of the year, kid,
as you know, as always, I mean here a college
football is one of those two. So there's there's not
a lot in between. And of course Marty boy, you
know my puppy.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Indeed, Man, can you believe Georgia last Saturday? I could?
I mean, I go, I'm leaving for Vesani. I checked
the score, twenty one seven. I'm like, oh, Georgia ain't
doing too good. They pull it out at the end.
That to me, that was that was pretty amazing that
they were able to pull that off.

Speaker 10 (11:06):
That was a good game. I mean, it was a
it was a dog fight, no pun intended. You know
the Smoky and Uga. It was a dog fight the
whole game. And you know those are two heavy hitters. Man,
that's that's hard. Five game the game. It's sad that
someone has to lose.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, as long as it's not your team, right.

Speaker 10 (11:26):
Well, my team dismantled South Florida. You saw Miami. Yeah,
just I mean, they just took over. And I felt
bad because that dude, I really like South Florida.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
And they had such a good game the week before year.
They had such a good game the week before you
thought they were going to at least show up. They
they got slaughtered.

Speaker 10 (11:44):
I'm not sad. I don't say this because Miami is
my team, but they are solid all pre aspects of
the ball. Their defense, that Danes junior number four, that
defensive end, even Animal Fletcher. They're running back what he
ran on Saturday night for one hundred and twenty yards.
But college game days in my me this week min
he's playing the forty Gators at seven point thirty and
college game Day is brought casting highs from Miami.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
So that's gonna be good. That's gonna be fun. And folks,
you know, if you're suffering the arthritis, you've got other
muscle aches and pains. I highly suggest you get down
to your CBD store. Punicgord to Port Charlotte, talk to
Jim and get some of that CDB pain cream. That
stuff works. It just does. The under the tongue tincture

(12:29):
is we talked about, gives you overall wellness. They've got
water soluble droplets. If you've got digestive issues, they've got
tinctures and treats for the pets and yourself as well,
lotions bath bombs for the ladies. It's all right there
your CBD store, Punic Gord to Port Charlotte. In the
Schoolhouse Square, just down King's Highway, open Monday through Saturday,

(12:50):
ten to three. Jim will always accommodate outside appointments if necessary,
and as always free shipping and delivery. So you know,
there's no reason you shouldn't give it try. All you
have to do is give Jim acol nine four one
five eight seven nine zero two nine five eight seven
nine zero two nine for your CBD store punic or
to Port Charlotte get out neither.

Speaker 11 (13:11):
Get you off some of that goods.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, do it, just telling you the stuff works. It does,
so there all right.

Speaker 10 (13:22):
If it didn't work with another lasted eight years, so
then we got to be doing something.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
But yeah, yeah, really.

Speaker 10 (13:28):
I got to be clicking somewhere.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, and it does. It just does you know, And
that that little jar paane cream is gonna last you
probably six months, so it's it's well worth the investment.
It's well worth your time to go give it a try.
Jim will give you a dab of it just to
just to test drive it, and nine times out of
ten you're gonna buy it. So do yourself a favor.

(13:51):
It'll help. It might not get you off the opioids,
but it will give you a reason to not use
as many and that's a good thing right there. So
maybe go give that stuff a try and see what
it can do for you your CBD store upon a
quarder Port, Charlotte. All right, Jim, we'll we'll talk to
again real soon. Have a great week. Stay safe. Keep

(14:12):
your head on a swivel. There's freaks among us out there.

Speaker 10 (14:16):
We'll freaks out. Keep your head on a swivel, no doubt. Man,
it's a crazy world.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
All right, buddy, we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 7 (14:23):
All right, thank you?

Speaker 5 (14:25):
Are you listening to me?

Speaker 7 (14:26):
Hey, guys that just push buttons all day, they have
no chemistry.

Speaker 11 (14:30):
At Oh, this cycle of jerks has to end.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
You seriously should run with this.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
Is this saying anything?

Speaker 11 (14:35):
Let's go ahead and Tterraes station.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Let's go to the bit bavn't picked.

Speaker 7 (14:37):
I don't understand or as Jus says.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
We'll be right back with Charlotte County Speaks News Radio
fifteen eighty WCCs.

Speaker 12 (14:47):
In light of all the events that have been taking
place over the past several weeks, with all of the violence,
got a lot of news social media, regular news telling
you what's going on.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I'm going to tell you what is.

Speaker 7 (15:00):
Not going on.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Let me tell you what hasn't happened.

Speaker 13 (15:04):
Well, we haven't had any foot lockers burnt to the ground,
have we. We haven't had any walmarts turned into rubble.
We haven't had any city centers taken over by Turning
Point USA and turned into an absolute disaster zone.

Speaker 10 (15:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (15:25):
I don't think any Gucci shops have had their windows
smashed up? Shall I go on? Are you you're getting
my drift here again? To watch the lunatic left out
there with their equating various different things.

Speaker 10 (15:44):
You can't do it?

Speaker 12 (15:45):
Watchdog on Wall Street dot com.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Mmm, let's see him on the other fund nine.

Speaker 14 (16:17):
You can't walk just like me. Let's shot him on
the other fun You can't walk just like you. Yeah,

(16:37):
I can't walk in there and talking.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
You said this just like me.

Speaker 15 (16:49):
I'll put your hand in another col nither you can
feel just like you? Yeah, what's hand in another barn?

Speaker 10 (17:06):
You can?

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Field does not me no longer that exime g.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
Saying does not med.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine f m
w C CF nine thirty on a Tuesday, one lines
open nine four one two zero six fifteen eighty toll
free eight eight eight four four one, fifteen eighty like
a welcome to the studio Punta Gorda City council woman.
It's Melissa Lockhart. Ladies and gentlemen. How are you doing?

Speaker 11 (18:09):
Good morning?

Speaker 4 (18:09):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Now what district are you? I'm the District five, District five, say,
and you've got an election coming up November November fourth, fourth,
So what's going on? How you doing?

Speaker 11 (18:20):
I'm doing great.

Speaker 16 (18:22):
As far as the election on November fourth, I think
the biggest thing is, yes, I'm in District five, but
there are five council members.

Speaker 11 (18:29):
We all service the whole city, so you're at large.

Speaker 16 (18:32):
Absolutely, So I think the biggest misnomer is that, yes,
I would like to vote for you, but you're not
in my district. Everybody in the city upon a Gordon,
just like the county. Absolutely awesome.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, so tell us about why did you initially get involved.

Speaker 11 (18:48):
Yeah, that's a great story.

Speaker 16 (18:49):
So back in twenty twenty one, I knew the Nancy Prafkey,
who was in District five seat at the time, and
she was telling me that she might be getting ready
to retire and that she really wanted somebody to be
in that seat that had a strong voice that was
dedicated to the community, and she kind of encouraged me
to start getting involved. She had me involved with some
city functions like the city manager selection and the one

(19:12):
percent sales tax, and I really started getting involved in
paying attention. And so when she announced her retirement for
the seat, I decided it was time to step up,
and so I stepped up and started serving in twenty
twenty one.

Speaker 11 (19:25):
They are two year two year terms and so I
am now running for reelection for the next two year term.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
So what do you think some of your major accomplishments
were during your first term.

Speaker 16 (19:38):
Well, I think the biggest thing is being involved in
the community, listening to what the community needs. I mean,
we went came right out I started serving, We came
out of COVID. So I think the biggest thing was
trying to battle the inflation that the city had. Even
though our property values were going up the same time,
inflation was counterbalancing that, and really trying to have a

(19:58):
balanced budget where we could they need to offer the
services that the community is expecting, but at the same
time trying to keep our tax base as low as possible.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
How much debt are you guys racking up or do
you have any?

Speaker 16 (20:11):
And we have a balanced budget actually for the first
time in twenty years. I believe we have a reserve
at what the national standard should be at sixteen percent
for our reserves. For a long time, the city was
only really looking one year ahead or maybe two years.
So back in about that twenty twenty one time the
city started looking five years at a five year perform
and I think that really changed to be able to

(20:33):
see that one year may look great, but year two
doesn't look great. So what do we need to do
to really make sure we have stability through the whole,
you know, for their whole five years.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Sure, I see that dredging is becoming an issue. It's
all around the county, but in Pontagorda in the Isles
as well. What's going on with that? Well, basically, don't
they already pay like it? Don't people in PGI already
pay an assessment.

Speaker 16 (20:56):
For dress yees. So if you're in PGI, you have
a canal maintenance assessment. That's for your sea wall maintenance
and any other things that need to be involved with
your seaball maintenance. Same thing with BSI. But what's happened
in PGI is the lots are being bought out. They're
almost a capacity, and so right now to go in
and do your sea wall maintenance or anything else that
needs to be done maintenance wise, they will use an

(21:18):
empty lot and they'll stage there and they'll go ahead
and put you know, their barge in and what they
need to do, and they do the work. We're running
out of lots, so the question is what are we
going to do when those lots are gone?

Speaker 11 (21:29):
And what are we going to do this a lot?

Speaker 16 (21:31):
Well, we could, but so far I haven't heard really
any citizen that would want a permanent staging area on
their you know, next door to them, because it was
it would well not necessarily that, but I don't know
that I would. You know, if I buy a beautiful
lot in PGI and then I have next door to me,
you know, you have to put a six foot fence
up and you have equipment sitting there all the time,
continuously work being done.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
I don't doubt if that allows you to have your
boat right there. I mean because without without, without dredging,
those canals are going to fill in and correct.

Speaker 16 (22:02):
Unfortunately, it's it's it's it's one of those you know,
let's let's put it this way. The canals would never
be dredged. You know, they were dredged back in the
day before a lot of EPA and you know, environmental
protection was in. So now the question is we want
to dredge somewhere and there's a concern of an environmental impact.
The good news is with the EPA, there's mitigation now
where there wasn't back then. So if we have to

(22:24):
dredge somewhere and there's an environmental impact, it requires us
to mitigate that somewhere else.

Speaker 11 (22:29):
And that's kind of where we're at.

Speaker 16 (22:30):
So the last conversation we had is that we're going
to ask the governor to take a look at this
site to see if either you know, the state has
any other options for US Army Corps of Engineers can
look at it to see where we can go, because
we do need a future for the residents and PGI
to be able to maintain those those sea walls.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
All right, Uh, what's the deal with the helicopter, the Hui.

Speaker 11 (22:53):
Yeah, so a little bit of history to that, Well.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Isn't there already one? There's already one over at the
Military Heritage Museum.

Speaker 11 (23:00):
Yeah, so a little bit of history to that is.

Speaker 16 (23:02):
I think that was back when I first got on
council as well, there was a thought of possibly putting
a hue at Veterans Park. It was discussed and ultimately
at that time it was decided it would wouldn't be
placed there and the Military Heritage Museum and I'm not
sure if they bought it or what the deal was,
but basically the hue is now there. There are talks
that there is a group that would like to bring

(23:24):
another huie and maybe possibly purchase it and put it
back at Veterans Park. We had a good meeting about it. Unfortunately,
at least from my standpoint, I wanted to table that
conversation until the city could get together with this group
to make sure that they have the insurance that's necessary,
all the eyes dotted. You know, who's going to have
liability for it, How's it going to be in a hurricane?

(23:47):
You know, how's it what's it going to sit on?
So we tabled that conversation so they could have a
meeting with the city to get all that information together
and then come back to us.

Speaker 11 (23:57):
So right now it's kind of on hold.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Right So what else is going on that you feel
that you would like to accomplish in your second term
if re elected.

Speaker 16 (24:05):
Well, I mean, I'm just looking. I love serving the city.
I've been here for twenty seven years. I have two
local businesses that I've started and employed people in town,
and I really feel like I have you know, two
year terms. You're when you go for your first two years,
you're just learning, Yeah, you know what's going on in
the city and how things work. And then by the
time you get through that first two years, you're already

(24:27):
up for another two years. So I really would like
to continue the work that I've done. I advocate for
listening to the community to you know, making sure our
downtown is going to continue to thrive. Obviously, we have
taken a huge hit downtown, and I don't believe in
sprawling growth, but I do believe in infill and that's
filling in the lots we have. And I really believe

(24:49):
that our downtown we have to support our businesses. We
have to somehow try to bring in other businesses that
fit with our community. I mean, I know nobody wants
to lose that small town feel, and I believe we
can have it all but we need to get some
of these lots filled in with a little bit of
more commercial and just have these families stay here. We
have where a lot of families may start here, they

(25:12):
grow up, but as soon as they leave, they're gone
and they don't come back. And I would really like
to see, you know, a thriving downtown for future generations.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
What city with city marketplaces. I mean, we've been talking
about this, We've.

Speaker 11 (25:22):
Been talking about that forever and years now.

Speaker 16 (25:25):
Yeah, you know, realistically, obviously it's privately owned, and I
know that for a while there is a project that
was presented to the city that possibly could be for development.
I don't know where that stands right now, but you know,
I think that again, the biggest misnomer is well, why
can't the city buy it? Well, I guess the city could,

(25:46):
but it's a lot of money. And remember any real
estate the city purchases has to be used for a
public purpose. So we would then have to have a plan,
right and shrops yes, correct, So if we you know,
some people said, well maybe when the city hall conversation
was coming up, by the land and put a city
hall there and make it, you know, kind of the
center of the city. I'm not against that either, it's

(26:06):
just monetarily does the city have it, and do we
have the means to do that all that building that
would be necessary on that you know, on that land,
and what.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
About you know, this whole live local thing, which I
think is just kind of a rewording of the fifteen
minute city deal is the density people are complaining about
density on.

Speaker 11 (26:29):
That live local has. It's it's evolved, it's ever changing.

Speaker 16 (26:33):
I haven't even seen it even discussed really at all
anywhere in our city. There's been some people that have said, well,
if you you know, had allowed that fifty density, we
could have had lived local anywhere. And that's just not
the case. Number One, it has to be building per building.
So if it's within one mile and you have the
Justice Center that you know, is one hundred and fifteen feet,
you can't just put something in marketplace that's one hundred

(26:55):
and fifteen unless it's another government or building. So it
has to be municipality, but for municipality or residents or
for residential And there's also the caveat of the affordable living.
You know, forty percent of it has to be affordable living.
So there's there's a lot of layers to live local.
It's not that easy to accomplish. And I haven't even
heard it really discussed at all in town.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Good what about all the uh, the zoning and you
guys went through that.

Speaker 11 (27:24):
Whole you're probably talking about land development.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Land Development regulation DRS. Yeah, that's another sh that's still ongoing.

Speaker 11 (27:32):
Well, yes and no.

Speaker 16 (27:34):
So we had land development regulations, had been looked at
and had been in the process of being changed in
Tweaked since twenty nineteen, twenty twenty four, they were finalized
and they were basically put into place. And what did
that allow, Well, it allowed a little bit more height
downtown and I know that was a concern for a

(27:55):
lot of people. Though after we saw the flooding that occurred,
I think most people now agree that height is not
necessarily a bad thing. You can mitigate flooding because you're
basically just going to have people parking underneath a building
and you're going to go up a little higher. We're
not going to have skyscrapers and even take marketplace. It
was going to be a wedding cake effect where right
on Marion you can only put forty feet But then

(28:16):
as you go back in that property. It could be
up to you know, with mitigation, you could have one
hundred foot building.

Speaker 11 (28:22):
So these were some of the.

Speaker 16 (28:23):
Concerns that I think some people that just had got
onto council had. Then you have the governor and the
state kind of preempting and putting SB two fifty into place,
and SB two to fifty was put in. I think
it was a unintentional consequence where what they were trying
to do is make sure that people that were devastated
were able to rebuild, and local government didn't say, well,

(28:43):
we don't like the way you built, so we're going
to have you change it. Problem is it was gray,
it wasn't very well defined.

Speaker 11 (28:49):
And what happened is you had, in my opinion, that's
all right, someboddy.

Speaker 16 (28:55):
That you know, uh went ahead and they found a
loophole and they said, well, you know, if SB two
fifty he was in place during twenty twenty four, then
you should have never allowed that to happen. We had
four opinions of attorneys, of course, we had four different
opinions from four different attorneys, and ultimately I did not
vote for it, but some voted to repeal the whole document. Ever,

(29:15):
since twenty nineteen, which basically took us back to two
thousand and four at this point. So whatever we had process,
we had made, our progress is been taken off the table.

Speaker 11 (29:25):
Now.

Speaker 16 (29:25):
I think that we're looking at there's municipalities that are
starting to sue the state for the SB two fifty
and saying that it really wasn't legal to begin with.

Speaker 11 (29:33):
Is that going to bring back a land development regulations?

Speaker 16 (29:35):
I don't know, but as it stands right now, we
won't be able to really redo our land development regulations
and go through that process again.

Speaker 11 (29:43):
T twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Well yeah, wow, I'll bet that concerns some people.

Speaker 16 (29:48):
I guess it depends on the where you sit, right
you know, as far as I was concerned, I think
that it would have brought in some more development, but
good development.

Speaker 11 (29:57):
I think that.

Speaker 16 (30:00):
We've now because let's face it, construction costs have gone up.
So if you don't change your development regulations since you know,
two thousand and four whatnot, they're outdated, and if you
don't have a developer that can make some type of
return on investment, they're just not going to come.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
True. What's the deal with the best Western What are.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
We hearing on that.

Speaker 11 (30:18):
Well, obviously the hotel's down. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 16 (30:23):
With our code, they are required to mitigate that property
right away, whether it is pull up all the concrete
and put saw down until they decide to redevelop or
bring us a development on the table. You know, if
they said, okay, we tore it down, but here's a development,
then you know, they can leave the spot the way
it is for a while until that goes through the process,

(30:43):
or they can repave it and make it as an
active parking lot. Obviously, as most people can see, none
of that's happened yet. We are working with the owner.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Now he hasn't sold it, and he does then I'm
aware of he still plans on redeveloping.

Speaker 11 (30:58):
And again I haven't heard much from that.

Speaker 16 (31:00):
You know, for a while there was rumors spreading, but
I don't have anything definitive right now. My biggest concern
is it it doesn't look good right.

Speaker 11 (31:07):
You come into our city and it looks terrible. So
I want it mitigated.

Speaker 16 (31:11):
It needs to be cleaned up, and so if they
are going to develop, then I would have no problem
giving them some leeway on that.

Speaker 11 (31:17):
But I haven't not seen anything. Nothing's been brought to
the city. Let's put that way.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Where where does the city stand on taxation right now?
Property taxes?

Speaker 16 (31:26):
So right now we're going through a budget and for
the first time in about twelve years, we're actually rolling
the militarrate back. It hasn't been rolled back, it's been
staying flat for many years. And we're able to do that.
We're only able to do that because we went through
so much work and got those reserves back to where
they should be a couple of years ago. Now again,

(31:48):
we're actually going to be reducing the milage rate. Yes,
so we're going to reduce So we're going to roll
back the milge rate. It was three point ninety five
last year. It's going to be three point eight eighty
six in that area. So it will save residents some money.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
But property values have still increased.

Speaker 16 (32:03):
Property values have come back. That's still increased. But we
have a lot of other things on our table too.
So again, reducing it for one year looks great, but
we really have to be careful that. Looking at that
five years, you can see though because of that, we
are dipping into some of our reserves. And again, what
I think a lot of people don't look at when
they look at their taxes and they look at their

(32:24):
trim notices. We have Charlotte County and we have City
of Punta Gorda, and City of Punta Gorda is not
nearly the bulk of what you're really you're paying tax on,
which is Charlotte County. So for instance, last year, we
kept the military at three point ninety five and a
lot of people said, well, we should have rolled that back.
To put it in perspective, if you had a million
dollar assessed home that year, your Punta Gorda taxes would

(32:49):
have increased by one hundred dollars, and one hundred dollars
to me, is worth it to keep the services that
we have. We have the best police department, fire department,
hands down, we have you know, public works. We have
all these services that service our city that residents are expected,
you know, they want to have those services.

Speaker 11 (33:07):
So it's more perspective.

Speaker 16 (33:09):
You have to look at your trim notice and understand
what's coming from Pantagrda and what's coming from Charlotte County
because they're two different types.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, we got to take a quick break and we'll
be right back with more on News Radio fifteen eighty.

Speaker 5 (33:21):
He's an idiot.

Speaker 10 (33:22):
Parents are probably idiots too, Ken.

Speaker 11 (33:24):
Love Joy and Charlotte County Speaks.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Will be right back on news radio fifteen eighty WCCF.

Speaker 8 (33:31):
Have you been to a hotel? This is how they work.
They have about one hundred people staying there, and they
put one nineteen year old in charge of the whole operation.
That shit is nineteen okay. If he gets a phone
call from his buddy during his shift and his buddy says, hey,
I met these two girls and they have some beers,

(33:52):
he will quit right there.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
He won't know it.

Speaker 8 (33:56):
Sometimes I'll get to a hotel late, like I don't know,
ten o'clock, and I'll walk in. There's nobody there, nobody
at the front desk, no sign of anybody. It's like
Walgreens at night. But it's more concerning because I plan
on being unconscious in this establishment. One time I came
downstairs and I go to the front desk. I'm like, Hey,
there's something wrong in my room. Can I talk to

(34:17):
the manager?

Speaker 7 (34:18):
Sure?

Speaker 8 (34:19):
The manager does not work at night, really, because you
guys are sort of in the business of night, like
that is why you.

Speaker 11 (34:27):
Exists primarily for the night.

Speaker 8 (34:30):
Hotels and lighthouses.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
It's night, it's not.

Speaker 8 (34:34):
I have an email that says I've booked.

Speaker 13 (34:35):
A three night Say.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
No. News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM WCCF,
Charlotte County speaks nine fifty two. On this Tuesday, we're
here with Melissa Lockhart. She is the District five incumbent

(35:02):
Canada for the City upon Aguerda, coming up for reelection
in November. It was a splash pad. I mean, that
was really kind of cool when it got put in,
but a lot of issues with it recently, storms and whatnot.

Speaker 16 (35:16):
I feel like we've talked about splash pad since I
started on council, which was about twenty twenty one. And again,
you know, the bottom line is, had we not had
storms and some other things that have happened, it would
have been up and running. But it is the bane
of my existence right now and I look forward every
day to see it opened. Obviously, we did a couple
things when it first started. We bought the equipment to

(35:37):
Stuart because we saw the inflation that was happening. We
knew that was going to push the cost of this
pad up, so we kind of mitigated that. But at
the same time just getting it up and running between
all the storms. Frankly, it just wasn't a priority. At
some point, we need to get the lights on, we
need to get a roads back, and so our public
works works so hard and they're still short staffed. That

(36:00):
is one thing I pushed for, and we were able
to get them to be able to put in the
budget to hire four or five more people. I think
that's going to make a big difference, and so they're
going to be able to get work done quicker. But
you know, at the same time, there's optics. If you
had people working on the splash pads right after a
storm where we're trying to get our roads clear, obviously

(36:21):
you have to prioritize what we're going to do.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Sure, I would imagine that the bane of your existence
would be the water meters.

Speaker 16 (36:28):
That's definitely been been a problem too. We had a
really good conversation last council meeting. We had a pilot
program out there. Our utilities director has been working really
hard to find a solution to what we're going to do.
And I think another misnomer is the meters worked the
actual where the water passes through, they worked.

Speaker 11 (36:46):
What failed was the technology to give that data to
the city.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
A lot of people being overcharged, Yes and no.

Speaker 16 (36:54):
So it was not necessarily overcharging because again the meter
actually worked. The problem was there was estimated bills that
came from this. So if the data is not being transmitted,
your meters sitting there being you know, just waiting to
be read. So the city, to try to mitigate and
figure out what to do in the meantime, would estimate
your bill, just like FPO. So you might have got

(37:15):
an estimated bill for eighty dollars. Well maybe you really
used one hundred dollars, but you got that eighty dollars estimate.
Three months later, we have a human go out there,
put eyes on that meter, and now you're owing another
two or three hundred. But now you're getting hit with
that bill all at once, and that's very upsetting. I
totally understood that. What the city did do, which I
think actually saved some consumers money, is we didn't charge

(37:38):
based on tiers. We charged everybody the lowest tier, knowing
that if we're estimating your bill, we can't tell you know,
when you get that big bill, we're not going to
allow it to be pushed in that upper tier. So
at the end of the day, we have decided to
go with a new technology that is going to again
help transmit this data. The meters were working, it was
getting that data.

Speaker 11 (37:59):
To the s that we had the issue.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay, and how much is that going to Well.

Speaker 16 (38:04):
It's all rolled in, so obviously we just had a
huge conversation about upping utility rates that is rolled in there.
You know, it could be it's going to be at
least ten million dollars, could be ten to eight by
the time we're done to get the technology to fit
the meter. Some of the actual brass meters are at
end of life. That just happens, so we're going to
replace those as well, and then hopefully we'll never have to,

(38:26):
you know, worry about this again. It was simply technology
was was sold to a lot of municipalities in Florida that,
in my opinion, that technology was not conducive to our environment.
I also said in the last council meeting that I
want to look into litigation against that company that did
sell us that technology because I think that we got

(38:47):
the roll end of that deal and it needs to
be looked into.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
All Right, Now, outside of politics, you're a business owner
I am, and what do you think? What's your what's
your opinion of the current state of un A or
business community. How do you think it's doing.

Speaker 16 (39:02):
I think we're hurting. I think that we have lots
of great people that are in this city. I see
lots of people being supported by a residence, but we
have a very high snowboard population and what I see, Yes,
seasons have gotten longer, I've noticed, which is great. But
at the same time, when I see friends that are

(39:24):
working in the service industry counting their drawers at seven
o'clock at night in June and trying to figure out
how they're going to make their rent, we need to
somehow support that. And the only way we're going to
do that is to a obviously change of demographics, which
I've been here twenty seven years and hasn't changed that much,
or you know, trying to have people that want to

(39:47):
come into our city no matter what day, whether it's
an off season or season, and enjoy our amenities.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
How do you think season is going to be? And
do you guys, how's tourism with helping facilitate that? Do
they facilitate do any advertising in the off season? For
the city upon a goorder.

Speaker 16 (40:07):
We don't have a tourism bureau. You know, the county
actually has somebody debt.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
They don't give you, help you at all.

Speaker 11 (40:13):
It doesn't know that.

Speaker 16 (40:14):
It's not that they don't help, but at the same time,
they are concentrating on Charlotte County as a whole. Now,
obviously if a business says I want to be in
the city limits, they will work with them.

Speaker 11 (40:23):
I would like to personally see.

Speaker 16 (40:25):
You know, we have a city manager that's just been
promoted now and because she was the assistant city manager.
Now I'm assuming that position is going to be filled,
and I had even said in a council meeting, I
would like that position to be filled. That is a
marketing slash business development position, and that person needs to
be available to not only market our beautiful city, but

(40:46):
also be available to have those conversations with businesses and
say why are you not coming here, why are you
going across the bridge, or what can we do to
have you come into our city limits.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Flooding again, big issue, big issue, and it you know,
as much as people talk about it, there's only so
much that realistically.

Speaker 11 (41:05):
Can be done, and you have to look at it
both ways.

Speaker 16 (41:08):
You have storm surge that none of us have ever
seen in this city, and let's hope we never see
it again. There just isn't anything we're going to be
able to do to mitigate the destruction that happened with that.
But we do have a problem with what I call
summertime flooding. You get those driving rains, you know, the
storm water can't get them off the streets quick enough,
and then you have some people downtown that we had

(41:29):
to shut those roads down. So we just went ahead
and funded a flood study. You know, government loves to
study everything, but we do have to do a flood study.
And what it's going to open up for us is
when that study is done, it is going to allow
Tallahassee to give us grants to fix our issues. So
it's an eighteen month study, but it's going to be
in different phases and so hopefully as those phases come,

(41:51):
we can identify those problems and find solutions.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Okay, give us your thirty second elevator speech on why
we should the people of Punta Guarda should reelect you.

Speaker 16 (42:01):
Well, I've been here twenty seven years. I am a
business owner, i am I've had proven leadership. I've got
local priorities. I love serving this town and I only
serve it because I want to give back to this community.
I'm here for the long haul, and if you have
any questions or whatnot, I always ask people to reach out.

Speaker 11 (42:20):
May I share my phone number?

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Please?

Speaker 11 (42:21):
Okay?

Speaker 16 (42:22):
My phone number is nine four one two five seven
three zero two six. If you have any questions or
want to have a meet and greet, please give me
a call.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
All right, Melissa Lockhart, good luck to you. Hope to
have you back on the show. Thank you very much,
and we'll be back after a fake news. Radio update
on news Radio fifteen eighty WCCF Ponta Gorda Chohanta County's

(42:51):
only news talk radio station, serving you around the clock.