The Inverness Publix could soon see its parking lot expand after Inverness City Council members voted to approve the first step in developing nearby vacant land.

The council voted unanimously to allow neighboring property owners, during the council’s March 7th hearing, to petition the city to vacate a portion of undeveloped West Dampier Street and Hendrix Avenue.

The property owners are four Florida liability companies owning their individual Inverness lots that include 1000 W. Tompkins St., 950 W. Main St., 1101 North U.S. 41, 1012 W. main Street.

The owners of the more than 1.5 combined acres are 95 FLRPT, LLC, HAPAIN, LLC, Davidson 41, LLC, 95 FLRPT, LLC.

A street vacation involves the city renouncing ownership of the property and that the public will no longer have access to the property.

At issue is 578 feet of Hendrix Avenue and 185 feet of West Dampier Street.

“The purpose of the street vacations is to further develop the Publix Plaza with improved parking and landscaping areas. Continuous access to the plaza will be available from Tompkins Street,” the petitioners wrote the council as part of their application for a public hearing.

The petitioners say the portion of the two roads were never opened for public use and that portions are overgrown with vegetation showing that they haven’t been used as a street or an alley and that they are “more or less impassable.” The petitioners also said vacating the undeveloped streets would not interfere with city-owned utilities.

The petitioners also wrote the council that vacating the roads would not impede anyone in the area from getting on or off the other existing roadways.

The portion of the roads in question are Hendrix Avenue from State Road 44 to West Dampier and West Dampier from U.S. 41 to the West Dampier and Hendrix Avenue intersection.

The city’s planning and zoning committee also recommended approval to provide the petitioners a public hearing on the issue.

During the Tuesday council meeting, Councilman Gene Davis asked Community Development Director Greg Rice if the vacation of the roads would result in an addition entrance to the grocery store from State Road 44.

Rice said no additional entrance was included in the plans.

Council president Cabot McBride said, “We know the Publix can use the extra parking.”

Also in council business, Mayor Bob Plaisted and his wife, Nancy Plaisted petition the council that it vacate about 270 feet of Davidson Avenue near his home on West Zephyr Street.

The mayor’s attorney, John Eden, said the property had never been developed as a road, nor is the overgrown strip of land used by neighbors. Eden said that Plaisted now uses it as a driveway to his home.

City Manager Eric Williams said the strip of land between Hernando Street and Zephyr Street has been used as a driveway for decades and the city had no plans to ever improve the property that was originally part of a private plat.

The city’s planning and zoning committee also recommended approval.

Councilman Gene Davis said he had no objections to providing a public hearing on the issue and the council should put the property back on the tax rolls.

Councilwoman Linda Bega said she had no objections in moving forward given that some undeveloped roads to the north of the area had also been vacated.

Council president Cabot McBride agreed, saying “It looks like a driveway to me.”

Fred Hiers is a reporter at the Citrus Chronicle. Email him at fred.hiers@chronicleonline.com.

Brinker International, Inc. EAT is poised to benefit from solid Chili's performance, digital efforts and expansion initiatives. This and a focus on sales-building initiatives bode well.

In the past six months, shares of Brinker have gained 22.6% compared with the industry’s 2% growth. An upward revision in earnings estimates for fiscal 2023 reflects analysts’ optimism regarding the company’s growth potential. In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2023 earnings has moved up 5.8% to $2.72 per share.

Chili's has been a major growth driver for the company. Chili’s turn-around strategies generated positive results, with sales moving in a positive direction. These strategies are focused on simplifying Chili’s core menu by improving recipes, strengthening value proposition with higher-quality ingredients and incorporating new cooking techniques to deliver better food at more compelling prices.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

During the fiscal second quarter, Chili’s revenues increased 8.7% year over year to $878.7 million. The upside can be attributed to increased menu pricing and the acquisition of 68 restaurants in fiscal 2022, marginally offset by lower traffic. During the quarter, domestic comps at Chilli’s (including company-owned and franchised) rose 7.5% year over year. The company emphasizes on the brand's new restaurant development to drive growth.

In fiscal 2022, the company acquired 68 Chili’s restaurants from three former franchisees located in the Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes and Northwest regions of the United States. The company ramped up Chili's development plans with a pipeline of more than 20 new full-size restaurants. Also, it initiated testing of small footprint off-premise-centric designs with a focus on densely-populated markets. During the second quarter of fiscal 2023, the company added four new restaurants. Also, it stated positive customer feedback with respect to its restaurants in San Juan, Texas, Inverness, Florida, Owensboro and Kentucky. The company intends to open seven new Chili’s restaurants in the remainder of fiscal 2023. EAT believes that more focus on sales channel expansion and brand-building awareness is likely to drive growth in the upcoming periods.

The company also stands to gain from integrating its My Chili's Reward program with Plenti — a rewards program by American Express that offers leading brands across multiple categories. It gives Chili’s access to Plenti’s huge database of members and is likely to improve sales and profits.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.

Inverness City Councilwoman Crystal Lizanich made good Tuesday on her campaign promise to make City Council meetings and records more accessible to the public.

Newly elected this past November, Lizanich said residents shouldn’t have to make records requests of the city clerk to watch the council meeting from the previous evening. Lizanich said the meetings should be broadcast live on the internet and the city should archive the recorded meetings on its website for members of the public to review when they want.

Lizanich also called for the city to archive agendas and meeting minutes on the website.

It took some persuasion on Lizanich’s part, but after asking the other council members to try the new system for just one year, the council relented and the proposal passed 5-0.

Currently, the public can watch the meetings via Zoom through the city’s website, but to watch previous meetings the public would have to make a public records request of the city clerk.

In addition, the council’s previous meeting agendas are not available on the city’s website and only available upon request of the city clerk.

Much of what Lizanich wanted was part of the clerk’s request for new agenda software that makes it easier for city employees to add and process agenda materials. The city’s agenda software has not been updated since 2014.

The new software by CivicPlus also allows the city to archive council agendas and minutes and make them available to the public through the city’s website, and no records requests are required. The cost for the first year of service is about $10,000 and the price declines during following years.

At issue was whether the council also wanted CivicPlus to provide live video feeds of the council meetings as well as archiving the videos on the city’s website for easy public access. The cost was $2,700 annually.

City Clerk Susan Jackson told the council only an average of 4.5 people watch the meetings live now on Zoom and even fewer submit record requests after the meeting.

Jackson said the council only started the live Zoom feeds during the COVID pandemic, and Florida law does not require meetings be video recorded.

Lizanich said other county governments already offer agendas and videos of meetings.

“Everybody in the county has it, but Inverness,” she said. “I don’t want it to be a records request.”

Councilman Gene Davis said the cost for the recordings and archiving them on the city’s website seemed exorbitant, given that only 4.5 people watch the meetings live.

Mayor Bob Plaisted said the there are plenty of empty seats in the audience and people could come if they wanted.

“I find it somewhat unnecessary,” he said.

But Lizanich said that offering the videos directly to the public from the city’s website shows the council is transparent and does nothing behind the scenes – and making the archived meetings available could encourage more people to participate in the process.

An Inverness septic-to-sewer project that increased about $2 million in cost in just over a year and left the city’s council with sticker shock, came down in price a bit after city staff went to work on design changes.

The original estimated construction cost of the project that would impact more than 100 individual properties and help to take existing septic tanks offline along State Road 44 was $3,973,544. The city had also received $3,388,400 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to pay for most of the project.

The city put out the project for bid and two firms responded, with the lower of the two bids from Inverness-based Midsouth Inc. at $5,828,625. Art Walker Construction Inc., based in Ocala, bid nearly $10 million for the job.

City Manager Eric Williams told the council during last month’s public hearing that since the city initially considered costs in early 2022, continuing supply chain issues and material costs has made prices skyrocket.

Williams asked the city council to approve Midsouth as the contractor, but allow staff to work on some changes to the project to get the price down.

The city’s engineer for the project made design changes to reduce the total depth of the sewer construction. This modification eliminates impacts with Florida Department of Transportation roadway, and so reduces the overall project cost, Williams said

“The adjusted bid form as accepted by the contractor, effectuates a total project cost of $5,065,235. This value represents a $763,030 reduction to the previously submitted bid,” Williams wrote his council bosses.

Under the proposal, Midsouth would have 335 consecutive days from the city’s notice to proceed to substantially complete the project and an additional 30 days to fully complete it.

To also help make up the cost difference, Williams also pointed to Inverness still having its American Rescue Plan money, about $4 million, that hasn’t yet been allocated.

In the septic-to-sewer proposal in the council’s agenda, Williams did not indicate how much property owners within the project area would have to pay for connecting to the sewer line after being required to shut down their septic tanks.

The Inverness council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Inverness government center, 212 W. Main St., Inverness, to consider whether to accept the new price.

Fred Hiers is a reporter at the Citrus Chronicle. Email him at fred.hiers@

Inverness is getting a new standalone Starbucks.

The Insight Credit Union off State Road 44 will be torn down to make way for the coffee house.

The concept plan provided by the city shows the new Starbucks will contain 2,500 square feet, have 72 seats inside and on the patio and employ six employees. The site is 1.62 acres.

Inverness is Insight’s lone Citrus County facility. George Davis, president and CEO of Insight Credit Union, was mum about where a future credit union might open in Citrus County.

“We routinely evaluate our branch footprint and explore opportunities that could afford for expansion/growth in a market,” Davis said in a statement.

“While the process may at times preclude us from sharing particulars, Insight Credit Union remains committed to serving our members in Citrus County and intends to for many years to come.”

The news comes on the heels of another new standalone Starbucks to open at the Target-anchored Shoppes at Black Diamond on the southwest corner of County Roads 491 and 486.

Starbucks is also inquiring about property for a possible coffee house on State Road 44 just west of Coney Island hot dog eatery in Crystal River.

The Seattle-based chain has 15,698 stores in the U.S.

Starbucks is looking to accelerate U.S store growth to 3-4 percent annually, according to its website It plans to diversify and expand formats across cafes, pick up, delivery-only and drive-thru only locations.

The chain has also developed something called the Siren System, which allows customers to customize their hot and cold beverages and warm foods.

In its third quarter fiscal 2022 earnings statement, Starbucks reported global sales up 3 percent and U.S. sales up 9 percent.

“We have clear line-of-sight on what we need to do to reinvent the company, elevate our partner and customer experiences and drive accelerated, profitable growth all around the world,” said Howard Schultz, interim chief executive officer.

Starbucks has been in the news this week as workers at more than 100 U.S. stores went on strike demanding better pay, more consistent work schedules and increased staffing.

Michael D. Bates is a staff writer with the Citrus County Chronicle and can be reached at mbates@chronicleonline.com.