Zephyrhills City Council Meeting
By JOE POTTER
Zephyrhills City Manager William C. “Billy” Poe Jr. received numerous accolades during the City Council’s meeting on Aug. 25. The occasion was the annual evaluation of Poe’s accomplishments over the past year. Poe has been City Manager for six years, and Monday’s evaluation was the fifth he has received from the City Council.
His overall average score from all five City Council members was 3.56 out of 4.0.
Council Vice President Steven Spina, Ph.D. praised Poe for the work he had done in October 2024 after Hurricane Milton impacted the City. Councilman Lance Smith said he thought that Poe “did a great job” responding to Hurricane Milton. “We’re very lucky that we were able to come through that as well as we did, so thank you,” Mayor Melonie Bahr Monson told Poe.
“Thank you for the kind words about the hurricane response,” Poe said to the Mayor and Council members.
In other business, the council:
Approved advertising for the first public hearing on a rezoning request made by AdventHealth Zephyrhills for 23 acres on their campus. The first public hearing is scheduled for September 22. City officials stated that a second public hearing may not be necessary to approve AdventHealth Zephyrhills’ rezoning request. The property is located at Dairy Road and Daughtery Road and is approximately 1,500 feet east of Gall Boulevard. The property’s current zoning is OP (Office Professional) and R-4 (High Density Residential). AdventHealth Zephyrhills is requesting the zoning to be changed to C-3 (Commercial).
No specific plan for the property was presented to the City Council on Aug. 25.
Items on the Consent Agenda that were approved included:
Approving a grant from the Federal Aviation Authority in which the FAA could participate in the rehabilitation/repaving of the airfield FBO/terminal apron and taxi lane, and taxiway pavement areas associated with t-hangar aprons 3, 4, shade hangar, and the adjacent regions at Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. The pavement that needs to be rehabilitated is more than 40 years old. Approving a grant from the Federal Department of Transportation for participation in airfield pavement rehabilitation.
There were some discussions regarding plans for Zephyr Park during the Community Redevelopment Agency portion of the Aug. 25 meeting. One of the topics was whether Alice Hall Community Center would remain in its current location; or whether a new, larger community center, also named after Alice Hall, would be constructed.
Mayor Monson said she believes a city the size of Zephyrhills needs a facility that could accommodate at least 200 people for events.
City Manager Poe presented a balanced budget for fiscal year 2025-26 during a workshop. The amount of the proposed budget is $135,911,380.
The first public hearing on the 2025-26 budget and the proposed 6.25 millage rate will be held on Sept. 8. The second public hearing and adoption of the budget and the proposed 6.25 millage rate will be held on Sept. 22.
