City Council - Regular Meeting

How everybody? Uh my name is uh Mayor Bore and it's Wednesday, March 25th, 2026. It's 6:30 and I'd like to call this council meeting to order. Um finance director Williamson, can you please call? So we have Frankie here here. Hubard here here. Nipper here. Fredo here. Here. Shaw here. Here. Taylor. Wilson here. Or here. Mr. Yes. Motion to excuse council member Taylor. Second.

All in favor? I. Now, if you'd like to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Motion to approve today's agenda. Second half.

Is there any discussion? Thanks. Uh, I'd like to vote that we unend the agenda striking the word creating from item B1A.

Second, the special committee items. It says bill creating an amending and I just wanted to clear my thank you all in favor I motion to approve the agenda as amended second. Is there any discussion on this? All in favor? I post.

Now we'll go to public comments and please keep your comments to 3 minutes if you can. Be kind. Start off with your name and your board or city. And if you'd like us to respond to you, please uh put your name or information on the form at the back table and meet the time clock and we'll get back to you after the meeting. Okay. I live on McFarland Street and we're having a real problem. Can you say your name?

I'm Mark Sar. I live on McFarland Street. We probably have the deepest ditches in Southside and we have the most foot traffic on that street and we have cars that are going 40 50 mph up and down the street and uh they don't stop at the stop sign. Sometimes they'll stop at the stop sign and speed and feel their tires and take off. Um a couple months ago we had a car come down there. There were people were walking with a child and they were walking on the left side of the street like facing the traffic like supposed to. The car comes so fast down McFarland and he got to exchange he went the wrong side the street took the stop sign out went in the ditch and had so much momentum that he come back out of the ditch and this is a constant problem. We have fourwheelers going up and down the street 40 50 mph. It's dark. Uh there's homeless people walking down from 7-Eleven. It's the main surreal from Kulage and Hardy. People walking to 7-Eleven. There's no sidewalks. There's deep ditches. I seen a kid run his bicycle into the ditch by avoiding a car not too long ago. Uh, I would propose you put speed bumps and between 7-Eleven and exchange and exchange down on McFarland down to the street. Especially the one that goes down to Koolage and Party, they have a tendency to stop at the stop sign sometime and then go fast as they can down there. And someone's going to get killed. I know you can't afford to to put culverts in. It's too expensive. We have no sidewalks. is really terribly lit. Uh need something to slow them down the board. And we have extra kids in the neighborhood right now. I've seen a whole bunch extra kids. Our my bus stops right in front of my house and where there used to be like four or five kids

there to seven or eight kids there now. And the bus stop is exactly where that guy took the stop sign out and went into the ditch. I was thinking if they put some speed bumps in, maybe it would slow down the traffic so some hope. Thank you. And did they replace that stop sign?

Oh, they replace the stop sign. The cop come the people took the guy's license number and when the cops came, they said, uh, oh, they explained the car and give him the license number. Oh, we know exactly who it is. Cops knew him. They said, we can't do anything to him because we didn't see him do it. But he he he come down the street like this. I was sitting outside. Come down the street and they were walking down the street and he had and he was going to stop at stop sign. That was sure cuz he was already going so fast. He went in the ditch on the mountain. You can tell how fast he was going. But he had to swing to the wrong side of the street even to miss these people. Okay. Thank you, sir. Is there anybody else would would like to make public comment? Yes. My name is Dustin Kudson and I'm a My name is Dustin Kudson. I'm from Aberdine and I'm a co-owner of Messi Jess. And we've been having issues where the homeless have been defecating and urinating next to our dumpsters and our bartenders and our cooks have to go out to these dumpsters and then go back into the restaurant. And then also they're cutting the locks off our dumpsters which we have to have a lock in. And we probably withdrew at least $60 in locks within the last year just because they keep cutting them off, getting in the dumpsters. They're camping out under the DNR theater recently where Buddy Moose was renovating and somebody was doing drugs right on the side of the building next to them while they were renovating on and I just we try to want to figure out what we can do to fix that issue. Duct feeding and urinating in the alley is a big part because we're a restaurant and that can't be tracked inside. Luckily, they do it at the end of the night and they dump everything, but still they don't want to track it to their homes.

That's about it. They leave your information on. No, I'm I'll go back and I'll put my information on it. Thank you. Thank you.

Hey, my third word. So, what these two guys say, I'm going to say something different. Um, speed bumps. I've been asking for speed bumps for since was uh mayor and he told me to go put a boulder in F and Bley, which I never did, but um during when the school gets out, we got the high school kids that go flying up F Street and people are getting off work, they go flying through the park. So, um I understand your pain, but it's it's everywhere. Um as for peeing and pooping and everywhere, try living across the street from a park that has no um Santa cans anymore. And I brought this up a couple minutes ago. Um the lady that lives right next to the park to the Santa can or to the bathrooms, she has four boys. I think I mentioned that also, but she has four boys. They keep their shades drawn because they're tired of seeing it. So I understand about, you know, it's not gym homeless people. Um, these are people that are in the park that have nowhere to go. So they go where they think we don't see them behind the building. So that's just my two cents.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay, we'll move on then to Council President for the consent agenda. Motion to approve recognize the consent agenda which includes minutes from the March 11th meeting and accounts payable and payroll. Second. Is there any discussion on this?

I for the mayor's report. Um, a couple things. I'm going to start off with the letter I I received here. But dear mayor, May mayor or thank you for cleaning up Aberdine. I live outside the city limits that shop and have family in town and I'm very appreciative of the efforts to clean up. It's so nice to go shopping again and feel safe and not bothered buying bumps pan having to watch a drug out person trying to gather asphalt. It's nice not driving over the bridge and having to make sure the window is rolled up. It's very nice not seeing the tents in the garbage. Thank you. And Joey coin or coined. That was one thing. I have a a little letter that I I want to read as the council. This is response from communications that I've been hearing and Bear with me and pop really quick. Dear city council, in 1983, the city of Aberine boasted hosted a beautiful museum's history located in the old National Guard Armory. The museum had many wonderful exhibits featuring the city's memorable and colorful past with the entire run of the museum. It was finally operate operated by an energetic group of city minded volunteers. The thousands of artifacts exhibited in our museum were donated by its many common families and businesses. All with the written expectation that the city would preserve and exhibit these wonderful relics and keep safe our history for the visitors and our current and future

residents and enjoy for 35 years. With some funding, help from the city, donations and from and profits from rentals and events, the museum grew and became a place where residents could bring guests and family to show off our history. Then in 2018, it fire destroyed our museum and one day it was gone. Within a year or two, the other tenants, the other two tenants of the building were made whole again with new spaces in our downtown. Unfortunately, the city leaders at the time saw pilot money that could be used to fix low color blows to artificially balance budget each year rather than first using the money to return the museum to its residents. Our city has treated museum volunteers poorly with disrespect and the thousands of hours that have lovingly given to our city. Members of our pioneering families have have been accused of only wanting to show off their famil family's histories. Board members who've spent hundreds of hours working on restoring the museum have been discarded without a kind word for their efforts. Walls have been built and now divide these wonderful folks and keep them from doing the much needed work of creating a new museum. I extend my deepest apologies to the George Donovans and the Nancy Kyles and the many other wonderful volunteers who made our museum possible. In my personal opinion, the museum should have been made whole first within a year. We all know that didn't happen. In fact, processes were put into place that almost ensured that a new museum would never happen. And now here we are today paying for a warehouse to store a historic collection with little to no guarantee that there will ever be a new museum. Shame on all of us. I'm embarrassed that this happened. Our

community trusted us and we deservedly lost their trust. Again, shame on all of us. I'm sick of the procrastinating. and I'm sick of greedy hands looking at the at what's left of our museum funds and seeking base to take the remaining funds to use in our general fund. I've been clear to administrator Clemens that I expect her to work to tear down those walls that the that the city has built between the city and the folks who applied to operate our new museum. I tked her to look into any and all options that will get this collection out of the city's hands as the council has wants and get us a new museum. I believe that the remaining museum funds. This includes the property purchased with those funds should be included in this proposals so that we give the museum the best chance of success that we can. I want to be able to present to the council options that have been cleared through our attorney that will ensure that the residents of our city will have their new museum again. And then it will be up to you, the council, to decide, not me. I'd like to end by letting you know that it is not my best in my best interest to get a new museum. History 9852 is a tenant in my building. And when we get in the museum, I will lose my major tenant. And most likely, I'll have to rethink how I would be able to make up the loss. But I'm not here to look out for my interests. I'm here to look out for my city and this residence. And that's exactly what I'm doing. Respectfully, Doug mayor. I just wanted this to be clear out on the table. So there I've heard there's rumors and whispering going around and I just think it's BS. So this is this is what I see. Um

okay. So I'm sorry I interrupted everybody. So now I'll go on to something better. Um I love acknowledging council members when they got their leadership uh municipal leadership certificates and so I wanted to acknowledge Kevin Mahham for his his presence. Now we'll go to council reports and we'll start off with our student representative.

Okay. I have a long report to give tonight. Um this past week I surveyed both students and teachers from Aberdine and Harbor High Schools. Uh, and I'm here to share some of their feedback that we received from teachers. First, when I asked what they hear students complain about the most regarding the city property, many teachers shared safety concerns. Students often mention the homeless population and say they do not feel safe walking around town, especially near the school due to unwanted interactions. Teachers often noted that many students feel bored, which can lead to negative behaviors such as stealing, drinking, or drug use. Because of this, they suggest partnering with local businesses to create safe, engaging spaces students can spend their time to connect. When asked how we can better support students in our community, teachers recommending shifting away from the near welcome to aine signage and instead showcasing students artwork for banners that reflect their voices. They also suggest offering tours of local facilities and providing information about job opportunities and career pathways available right here in Aberdine. Finally, when they asked when I asked if they had any additional thoughts, teachers empathize the importance of improving the overall environment. This includes cleaning of areas around the city, addressing homelessness in near school zones, and increasing police presence before and after school to help students feel safer. I also printed out a response submitted by a teacher which included a piece of a student's essay. Um, I'm going to let Aiden share that piece. I have seen this city every day for the last 10 years of my life and it seems that every day a bit of life is stripped even further away from the city that already lacks any. The city tremendously

lacks any amount of community spaces and/or recreational centers with the last one being removed very recently being the bowling alley. Before said bowling alley, the latest building removed was the extreme fund center being permanently closed down following the closing of the mall. Taking a good look at the infrastructure here, you would think that there's more vacant buildings than ones with any sort of activity in them. The tallest and highest buildings here are almost all completely empty, and if not, they are extremely rundown, gray, and bouaying day by day. Other companies have bought out property to renovate the town. But there are almost zero changes in the city, and all they have done is bought out people and raised the rent on everything, even further worsening the situation of poverty. Besides buildings, you also consistently see the effects of poverty here. As if you go to almost any gas station, you can see the smorgus board of people suffering from the effects of the city. In my opinion, I don't believe these people should be looked down upon as almost all are actually friendly, but also because the majority of them were born into a much worse situation. And despite what many people believe, it's not as easy to escape that kind of life when resources can be extremely scarce. I believe that the majority are failures of the system and the location in which they were born into. Now, I'm going to share the student questions and their feedback. When asked what they like about the city of Aberdine, many students said they appreciate the parks and natural environment. However, they also share they often feel unsafe using the spaces. Students also spoke positively about the sense of community. One student shared that

um when they moved here, Aberine felt like home. For the next questions, I received very a variety of responses. So, I'm going to share multiple. When asked what they like when asked what they would like to see change about the city, students express the desire fewer homelessness individuals around the school areas and bus zones, more activities to do things in town and in unique attractions that bring in tourism. They also mentioned wanting more local events and job fairs. Some students shared concerns about current approaches such as the needle exchange program and expressed opposition to abusing the cameras. When asked about the biggest concerns, students most frequently mentioned homelessness and drug use and the lack of student spaces. They also pointed out concerns about the conditions of downtown buildings and crosswalk safety near the schools and overall safety when walking around town. Additionally, some students feel there's not enough being done to encourage youth to stay in during the school. A few also noted traffic features such as the white blockers on the turns can be challenging for new drivers. I also asked students if they would be interested in meeting with elected officials in Aberdine. Sadly, 80% of them said no while 20% said yes, which suggests that there may be a disconnection between the youth and local leadership. When given the opportunity to share anything else related to Aberdine, they would like to see more long-term benefits, largely due to concerns of homelessness and safety. Others mentioned the importance of encouraging the youth to vote, creating more entertainment opportunities, offering local tours and facilities. Some students were even interested in learning more about the abandoned building and why they remain in their condition. In conclusion, both students and teachers share similar concerns. The most common themes were

safety, especially related to homelessness in the areas where students swap, lack of engaging activities for youth in our community. Both groups also express interest in learning more about local facilities and opportunities within Aberine. This is something we could potentially address with a partnership with the Aberine High School Gear Up. I hope you all take into perspective and paint into consideration. Even you may not fully agree with what they said and recognize that this is how many students and teachers currently experience our cities. If anyone has any questions, please ask. Yeah. Can you email me? Yes.

Say what activities that everyone's interested in. What type of activity? Um, so they didn't share what activities they want to do, but I'm guessing it's related to like the bowling alley and the extreme fun center. There's not a lot to do here. It's jump all the way to Olympia or Oceaners.

Wasn't there some plan for the DNR leader to become a moon creator? There was, but did that come He's working on it. He's working on that. Okay. I think there's also a a fun center kind of a facility that that will be opening hopefully. Yes. The people that oversaw the stream fun still here already. But my

my understanding of the arcade is that they did want to be here in Aberdine, but the property they were looking at right on the main thoroughare, the property owner wanted way too much in rent. And so that's another thing we're kind of facing with these exorbitant prices that, you know, business small businesses aren't able to to find. Is the gym open like the like the basketball doors open after school?

Um, no. No. Um, so the person in charge of the gym coaches football and track except to leave right after school. So they're closed after school and and they sell the gym was open till I think it's 8:30. kids show up there and they shoot dudes and you have bleach be parking lots a really cheap way simple way to get kids to play back with each other currently I think um community volleyball is going on in the gyms right now which I'm not sure how many high schoolers participate in that we had what was called the neutral zone Josh you the neutral zone I think that was maybe at the harbor eye that was gym space. They throw dances and

there was one stabby. Any other questions?

Thank you. Yes. All right. Then we'll move on to staff reports with respect. There's councilman. Oh, I'm sorry. There was there Okay. Sorry. Council person Francy, would you like to go?

Um, since our last meeting, I've been two committee meetings. the museum collection committee working against features and then I was part of the PR council develop there's a wonderful brand in there for rails and um like safe passage to schools if there's no if there's no match And we do have a blue zone um report that was put out by Chris Bry um last year showing a trail system that we could that I think was a $32,000 project but we could apply for we needed or wanted to. I'm kind of more of a prod as far as I understand that's sound familiar to you.

It doesn't sound familiar. I do have the other plan though. I I I can say I have some questions and concerns like I think it would have to be altered anything else any other council replies yes

so I have been um working on the economic development advisory committee now for a few months and I haven't reported on it because we haven't had a lot to talk about up until now because we've just been kind of getting our feet under us and and getting things going. Um I know Administrator Clemens will be talking about a workshop coming up. Um, I just want everyone to be thinking about um any priorities that the council might have for the economic development advisory committee to explore because when we do uh the workshop, we will be asking you if you have any priorities or any things that you would like us to be exploring that we aren't already considering. So, just be thinking about that.

Thank you. Any other thoughts? Yes. Yes. So, last week, council members and predo and I hosted the democracy and action class for the civics 101 cohort. We hosted it right here in this room. Uh, it was loaded with very fruitful conversations, lots of great personality, lots of great ideas. Um, yesterday I attended the lunch with the mayors. Another important topic really that came up a lot was youth involvement decision making and I was very proud sitting there knowing that this is represented here having student council representatives and we're essentially leading the chart with some other cities near us take advantage of the same program. Uh tomorrow I lead for the council leaders exchange from Ellensburg. I'm looking forward to learning from and with and other council presidents and mayor pros across the state. uh these new chairs that we're sitting in here coming from the committee room and we got new chairs for the committee room. I'm going to continue to looking to continue looking at options for uh getting us some new outlet as well so that those that view us via teams or watch our recordings have a little bit better.

Thank you. Um, I have a question. Um, do you know what cities have student representatives? I don't believe anyone else in the county does when you're right now and we'll go to administrators with

Thank you, mayor. I concur. I've heard a lot of things said yesterday, yesterday's meeting, and I was thinking in my head, wow, we're already doing that. So kudos to all of you for pioneering and trailblazing in the area. A lot of people are watching Aberdine, not just locally, but statewide as to what we're doing. We've had many other cities around the state reach just reach out to us for the programs that we're piloting and trying out. You know, just trying to find out what what the data look like on those. So at least we're you know moving the needle and trying different things. Um I would like to request um for council president um swore at the due to the order to discuss or to bring up the economic development workshop that um came for all of you to consider. It was on your report. I did have it listed as April 8th. I I apologize. It should be April 15th. It's the offer from in between your meetings. Um, an update from the parks um, board is they welcomed uh, council member Francancy to the board last meeting. Um, and so looking forward to working with him. Uh, we also had a veterans group reach out to see if they could plant trees in one of the parks. They had wanted to plant in on Sandbang Park, but we already have we've already I think we've removed 10 trees from Sandbang Park. So, we're going to work with them to see if they would consider planting those arbor vitings or the tree that they're looking to plant out of the Bishop Athletic uh complex. We also met Austin Weber and I met with the school superintendent Ren Green and Tracy Sandstrom to talk about the Barley Park lease agreement. For those of you who are unaware, the city has had long-term leases with that. I think they're about 10 to 15 years. And in the last couple years, um, we just had short-term, uh, leases with them, uh, because they were build looking for a site and they thought that that could be a potential site for their schools, but it's wetlands, so they found a different site

instead. So, I think that there's an opportunity there for the city to um, purchase the property or to do a land swap with the school district. That's one of the things I'm have on my list to do is send them a list of the surplus property to see if there are any that are adjacent or a budding school property to see if we could just swap. So, um Oh, yeah. Just so you know, Garland Park is for we have our dog park program. Yeah. And I believe it has some of the newest playground equipment. It has like the only zip line. Yeah. kids.

Yeah. So, um and then the school board has also agreed to surplus a couple parks, Kinley Park and Herbic Park. So, we'll be working to look for the deeds for those and then to to work towards surplusing them. Um, I had sent out an email that the 118 West Wishpaw building was vandalized and so I did receive final um, bids for the cleanup and a low bid or was selected. I hope to and so it it does fall under the threshold that we can just take care of it. But I just wanted to give you a heads up. Um, because the building's vacant, it will continue to be prone to breakins, vandalism, trespassing, crime, and drug activity. So, I will prioritize in the the coming weeks to uploading that building from the city's ownership. Um, city um, one last thing I forgot. I did set the dates for the town hall meetings. They are set for May 6 and May 20th. May 6 will be held at Robert Frey Elementary. I will work with um, Council President Swore to figure out which words he'll be where, but I figured we could. And then and then May 20th will be at Miller Junior High. So we're at different locations. And so um just I I'll let her work with all of you to determine which wards want to show up where. Um but we did we did set those dates. The school district just asked that we set those before school went out or they didn't really want us doing it in June. So um Civics Academy is wrapping up. Their last class is this Saturday. They'll be taking a tour of one of our water facilities as well as the jail. Um it has been a wonderful experience. I'm working with them now to figure out if they want to do their graduation at the first meeting of a on in April or the second week. So I will get back in and make sure that that's put on the agenda. And lastly,

um I will be hosting a couple years ago we hosted a meeting with all of the community resource organizations. that's like CAP destination hope and recovery the more right group DSHS um and so I'll be hosting another one of those to talk about better coordinating in preparation for um the summer the summer months is when we tend to have more homeless visible homelessness in our city so I just want us to engage in a discussion a thoughtful discussion around better coordination um and so uh yeah if you have any questions about that please let me know and that meeting um will be in early May. Uh so if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them, but everything is found here in my report. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Are there any directors that would like Director Scott?

Thank you. Um so I have a couple updates for you. The first one I'm going to talk about the library. Um so we have been in the process of working with the library board as well as Timberland um to uh do some capital facility upgrades to the building. Um we started this project right before CO hit and CO hit and then I guess a blessing enough what happened was the library figured out that how they're doing services has totally changed. So they're really glad they didn't go with the original remodel. And so now we're trying to re go back and look at everything. So, um what we're hopeful for is that we're going to have a set of building plans come to uh the group and the building uh the library board as well as Timberland to look at review the plans in April and then they would bring their recommendation forward to city council and then city council would make their recommendation to the community foundation which holds the funds for capital facility uh improvements to the building. kind of what they're looking at is elevator, hbacks, bathroom upgrades, really just things that stay with the building that are capital improvements to sustain the life of the building. One of the things we're also looking at is uh there is a grant coming up um that is actually due April 15th and it's done by Department of Congress and it's done as part of the uh state budget. Um, one of the issues we're having right now is we think that with our project, we're going to be willing to we're going to be ready to start construction based upon timelines in fall. This grant we apply for in April. The commerce committee makes a recommendation to the governor in September of this year. It goes to the governor. The governor does his budget in December of 26. the state um uh the

uh legislature looks at that, makes their recommendations on the budget and that comes in fall or in spring of 27 and then funds would actually be awarded in July uh July 1st of 27. So part of the problem with that and I know everybody's really hot, you know, really wanting us to go for as many grants as humanly possible. This is definitely a 50/50 match. So, we do have funds available. Um, however, the problem with this one is buildings have to be leadcertified. So, in order to even get the library on there, we're going to have to spend an additional million dollars just bringing it up to lead certification. And the second is there's no guarantee that there's going to be enough money in the capital budget to uh even if our library, it's a it's a gamble. We don't even know if our library would be successful in its application because we compete with the rest of the state. Um so we we those aren't decisions that we're obviously going to make as um but we're we'll be bringing that forward to the group as well as the city to say is it worth the gamble? Do you want us to delay the project a year and a half with no guarantee for the funds? And then also you're going to be potentially looking at adding another. So, we've got some tough decisions that we're going to be wrestling with, but we're hopeful that we will bring the plans forward at the um April 22nd meeting um for your guys's recommendation to the community foundation. We're anticipating this is probably about roughly a $5.2 million project. Um again, capital improvements to the building. It's not uh paying for shelving, desks, things like that. It's really truly capital projects for the building. Um, so that's kind of it on the library and I have more, but is there are there any questions on the library itself?

Is the 5.2 million estimate inclusive of the million that we'd have to No, that would jump into 6.2 and then um yeah, roughly I just got the estimate today that being a lead certified which is a requirement that we're not going to be able to get out of wood admission. So

are there any other questions like have a question but yesterday I was kind of meeting one of the representative brand which people was there talking about me and they really liked the idea of us being part of a playfield or something on the roof. There was a accidentally there was a request saying this year and she said she would love us to resubmit something like that in the future that she'd like to support something like that.

Yeah. and and we we we definitely got wind of that as well. The problem at least from our side on the technical standpoint is it's not structurally viable to do something like that on the roof. And then access is the other thing you're talking a ton of money. Not that it's impossible, it's just whether or not there's enough money to to definitely I heard that and it Yes, I understand. It would be really nice. It's just all of our components are also on the roof as well for Yeah. All right, any other questions by Okay, so the other one I want to talk about quickly is the Southshore Mall. Um, so every I'm sure most of you are aware we had somebody buy them all and is looking at putting in a manufacturing plant for cold form steel modular units that are basically done ready kind of I call them our plug-andplay units where they're built on site transported to wherever they're going to go and you basically plug them in and they're ready to go for housing. Most of the time they're used in high-rise housing. So there was a couple delays with the project. It's not dead and I just wanted to let you guys know that. The first one was they were working with the Port of Grace Harbor to get the foreign trade zone extended to the Southshore Mall and that takes a little bit of time. The second is they're working on a big project with the city of Belleview right now and they are um there in bigger cities permits sometimes take a lot longer to get through with all the regulations and it sometimes can be up to a two-year if not more process. So they were held up with Belleview and they've just got the green light. So they're going to be moving forward with the construction for their first phase which is the internal portion of the mall this summer. So uh they've also the owner of the company has also reached out to Greater Grace Harbor Inc. to start the process for work first development what needs to be done. So I just wanted to give you a brief update that those are coming. So

yay. That's great. We're looking forward to that. And then a couple other updates real quick. I know vacant buildings uh we heard it tonight in the student representative reports. We have been working on an update to the ordinance. Our struggle right now and we're working with that as our legal is what actually is legal for us to do and what isn't. In this state, it is not illegal to have a vacant building. We cannot find them for that. We can't tax them for it. We have fees. What do you do when people don't pay fees? You leave the building. doesn't take care of what you want and we sit with the lean on a building to what end to the point where we foreclose on a lean. Do you want to own buildings? How much do you want to spend? So, we're kind of working through that legal process and we hope what we'll be bringing forward in the next we're hopeful it was going to come in April. But just because we're we're really looking at those legal legalities of this is to bring forward a sound offensive ordinance that we know one we can enforce and then we also know that we can um uh we'll be able to follow through with that. So we we're taking our time in and doing that. The second thing we're working on too is an update on our opioid and needle exchange program because it is mobile. Um we're we are working again with our city attorneys trying to come up with defensible language. Recently, one of the cities got challenged on their outright not allowing it and they lost. So, we are kind of going back seeing what we can legally do or not. So, again, we're hopeful to bring that forward in April. And um so kind of we're we're really trying to be as proactive and give you guys what you want, but sometimes there's a little bit of challenges cuz to what end, especially with a vacant building, is one, do we really need to own it? Do we have the money? Even if we did own it,

if we took it back from a a warrant of lean, um typically with our leans, um we don't they just sit there. If the county get the building or property comes up for back taxes, the county sells it. Any additional money they get goes to the property owner. We don't get the money. So, in order for us to recoup our leans that we put on buildings, we need to look at what's called a a foreclosure of the lean. So, we would actually do what the county does on a city basis, but then we end up with the property unless somebody bids on it. So, those are kind of things we're we're talking about. we we really want to be as proactive and get you guys the results in the community the results they want to see. But those are kind of our legal struggles right now, but we're going to work through those and we'll we'll get back to you hopefully what is a good defensible ordinance. So, are there any questions?

Yes, ma'am. Um you know how uh Levvenworth is designed, you know, is there a way to make a minimum look for Aberdine that those buildings would have to, you know, make up and match up to. No,

what you do is it's a program that hopefully get enough buy in and there's more of an incentive than a buy in. But you go even go back to Charleston, South Carolina, very historic town, very much uh very stringent with their requirements. If you own a building and you want to update it, you're going to have to follow historic preservation code. But if you don't agree that you like the paint scheme that they've picked out, you don't have to paint your building. And there are people that don't. They leave it looking like crap like that because you can't make somebody you can't make them paint whatever you want to paint. If they have to paint, they're going to have to follow the scheme. But it's that private property enforcement. So you know there are struggles that it is challenging. um this state does take it a little bit further and and it is more challenging to get results here because we are really strong property rights uh we are a very strong property rights state and so I understand and that's where having maybe a business association that works with the businesses that kind of comes in more of a maybe a shame you know like hey I'm your next door neighbor you really need to do something um you know those are things that I think we're going to try to explore with our downtown Aberdine association because we really do need some some you know we're our we're the stick as the city and we need someone to be the carrot. So we're exploring well trust me we're exploring every avenue humanly possible to get as much participation as we can but that's a really good question.

Um council member Francancy I just wanted to reassure you that Lisa did attend the opportunity zone 2.0 O webinar. Um just just an FYI like like we were aware of it and we have like people that have attended it.

Absolutely. And if you guys have any questions at all or you want more specific information, our doors are always open. Please feel free to reach out. Um because you know, granted, sometimes I know it comes across as well, they just aren't willing to do anything and that's not true. If you've got suggestions, we're open to them. whatever we can legally do, we're open to that. We just don't want to put the city in a position where we're in court being challenged constantly for um some of the land use decisions, which is, you know, the state is very ligious. We are in a very ligious society. So um we're rest assured we are looking at that in all ways, but our doors are always open. Please, if you've got a suggestion, we're open.

Thank you, Mr. director. Any other directors? No. Okay. Then we'll move on to presentations and we have the 2025 for the quarter budget presentations by director finance director Williams. I just take a minute to get my screen to share here. And in the meantime, I want to introduce Caitlyn Johnson, who's sitting up here with me. She works in the finance department. She does all of our business licensing. Um, she also helps me with some of my clerk duties and I will be absent from the bay for the April 8th meeting. So, Caitlyn will be filming for me. Um, so that's why she's just here to kind of observe that so that she is ready for that. Wanted to say thank you to her. Um, Okay. So, with that, we'll go ahead and get started on the 2025 budget results. That's bring it all the way.

Okay. So, first we have a summary of the general fund um operations for 2025. So, our revenue collections ended the year over projection by 7% or $1.6 million. We ended the year under budget with our expenditures by 2%. Um, we had originally budgeted using 1.16 million for reserves, but instead you'll be adding 988,000 to reserves. The increase in the general fund revenue is mostly due to an increase in sales tax, building permits, and licenses, and plan check fees. All of these are kind of a one-time special circumstance uh revenue. Uh, so we can't necessarily count on them year after year, unfortunately. Um, so then we can look at our general fund revenue details. And this is just a bit more of a breakdown of where those different types of revenue came in. Um, so we have our property tax, our sales tax, uh, licenses and permits, other taxes, intergovernmental revenues, charges for services, fines and forefeitures, miscellaneous revenues, and interest investment interest. Um, as you can see, property tax, sales tax, and other taxes make up the bulk of our revenue in the general fund. Um, I also want to know that one thing I want to point out is the investment interest is down from the previous year. And that is something that we're keeping an eye on. So, just some general notes about the revenue results. Our sales tax was up 13% over our projections and that was due to an increase in construction activity. The licenses and permits were also up 85% over projections and again that was kind of related to the increase in construction activity. Um we had our intergovernmental revenues were up 45%. Intergovernmental revenues are grants

and state shared revenues and those were up because of unanticipated grant awards that we didn't include in the budget. Um we had our charges for services were 81% higher mostly due to plan check fee revenue which again is related to the increase in in construction. Um and then our miscellaneous revenues were higher because we had a donation from AGP uh for the fire department. And how did we compare to last year? So we had an 11% increase over last year in our revenues. Uh this just kind of breaks down some of those categories that were a little bit higher. Um we had our other taxes was a was an increase and again we have our sales tax due to the construction. Our tax revenue results, uh, so our property taxes collected in 2025 were up $105,000 from 2024 and our assessed values were up 2%. Um, our sales tax was uh 7.3 million and that and BNO account for 61% of all of our taxes collected. Uh we also had our utility tax collection was up $929,000 and that was due to an increase in the utility tax rates for water, sewer, garbage, and cable television. So here's some facts about the sales tax. So our local sales tax represents 41% total taxes collected. Um again they were up 13% for a total of 7.3 million. Our largest uh increase was building construction. It was up 50%. And that was due to the terminal 4 expansion at the door and our own wastewater treatment plant project.

Our retail trade for motor vehicles, building materials, food and beverages and furniture was up 1%. And our other retail trade was up 2%. So again, that construction was really really fueling that increase. Um, you can see this is kind of a year-over-year comparison. We were kind of down in 2024 compared to 2023. Uh, but we did rebound pretty nicely in 2025 um, again due to those construction projects. And now we'll take a look at expenditures for the general fund. Uh so we were at 98% of the budget for a total of 22.3 million and we had salaries and wages and personnel benefits as a large part of our of our cost. We also had some transfers out and prior year we allocated costs and these are just uh expenditure results by department. I won't bore you guys by going through all of those for a total of 550 million thousand. Sorry, my microphone keeps cutting out. I'm sorry. Um, and this is just a a recap of our general fund reserves. Um, so our net undesated reserves as 4.4 million and that equates to about 73 days in cash. uh the target reserves for cash is 90 days or 24% of budget expenses. Um so we are a little below that do know as well um a lot of bond grading agencies like to see 120 days of cash. Uh in 2025 the city had a total of $23.8 million of capital project expenses. Um there we have US highway rail separ

separation design permitting third avenue slide repair construction project construction sidewalk improvements northstar levy north aberine bridge US 101 safety improvements systemic safety improvement project market street sidewalks our wastewater treatment plant uh char rifle range and we have some vehicles purchase along with a street sweeper and So, we'll take a look at some of the special revenue funds. First, we have our parks fund. Um, this is a fund that is subsidized by transfers from the general fund. Um, so we we were able to add to reserves fund this year and the income cash is $31,939. Uh we have our street fund which again is also subsidized by transfers from the general fund that is in operations was 474,000 and we have our EMS fund and the EMS was being subsidized by the general fund through a cost allocation of 48% general fund and 52% EMS for a total subsid subsidization of 2.6 6 million in we do did end with reserves of 4.7 million in the EMS fund. And we'll take a look quickly at our utility funds. So our sewer fund uh we have multiple projects budgeted that didn't get started in 2025. So the intergovernmental revenue is budgeted as is the capital play. And in our water fund, um we did bring

in some money through timber sales, $2.9 million in timber sales, which is a onetime revenue. Um so we did end up having quite a bit, you know, that money added to reserves. And in the storm water, our ending was 1.157 million. And in industrial water, it's the same. Sorry, I think I might have got a number wrong on one of these slides because the ending cash is still the same. Um, so industrial water, we do currently only have one industrial water customer. We have our fiduciary funds. So here we have our fire pension fund and this is we currently have 22 members of the fire pension fund and we are required to pay all rental costs for them. Um and this fund is also currently being subsidized by transfers from the general fund and we're going to need cash or operations 185100. And the police pension fund also has 22 members that we are required to pay medical costs for and that also currently is subsidized by transfers from the general fund. I also have provided all of the council members and the directors with other reports that give a little bit more detail into a lot of these matters. But if you have any questions, please any questions. Thank you. That was it didn't look so bleak if I Thank you.

I know it's not the most exciting information, so I apologize. And now we have the Timberland Regional Library and we have EP. Now I have the world's most exciting slides for you tonight in a second here. Did they come up? Okay.

There they go. Appreciate it. Uh for those of you who don't know me, my name is Abby Bule. I'm regional manager for West Grace Harbor for Timberland Regional Library. I oversee the Aberdine Hoquium West Pullton Amanda Park Libraries and just wanted to give you a very brief rundown of some of our services and programming give you some statistics and given that we've been in a bit of flux lately, uh leave some time for questions uh that you may have as well. That panels the first two slides. How about that? Um if you're not familiar with Timberland Regional Library, we're comprised of 29 libraries across the five county district. Uh and we also have five uh what we call anywhere libraries which are mobile services. Um so total of 34 collections uh that we're able to pull from and that's one of the advantages of being in a larger district is that we're able to take what's available at one library and it's available at all of them. So that's a big advantage that we have. Uh Aberdine has been part of the TRL system for almost 60 years. Um the current library that's just kitty corner from us here was built in 1966. By 1968 we had an annexation agreement uh into TRL. So that's the current status there. Um and so I wanted to give you uh a little bit of a rundown of just what our general use looks like. Uh the Aberdine location is currently open uh Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Um and we are the only at present uh library open in Grace Harbor on Mondays. So we see a great deal of of traffic then as a result. Our circulation in a given month and that is um checkouts and renewals uh on physical items is anywhere from 4,000 to 4,500. Uh that has been trending downward. It

is down 10% in my time TRL which consists of an entire year. Uh digital um checkouts though have increased by a similar amount. They are over 5,000 uh per month now. So we're seeing more digital checkouts than we are physical uh medial wise. Um one of our very common services is our printing. Um, and if it tells you anything, we would see between 14 and 18,000 sheets of paper printed per month. Um, so we we go through quite a bit. Uh, we recently, as a result of some budget challenges, have reduced the print aotment to uh down from $44 per month in free credit to $20. And as a result, this month we've seen a 70% reduction in print demand. We're at about 5,000 uh sheets. So that's having a bit of an impact there. Uh internet sessions we average between 1,00 and300 per month. So we do see a lot of computer use uh throughout the day uh when we're open. So um beyond the library though there are some features that are relatively popular. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Libby for example. I've seen some nods. Um, if you're not familiar with Libby, it is uh an a program that helps you check out ebooks and e audio books available on phones, tablets, computers, and the like. Um, really probably our most popular service and uh uh we see our collection growing in that space as a result. We also have Canopy, if you're familiar with that. That is like a Netflix for libraries. It's Canopy with a K. Um, and it's uh you have a certain number of of tokens per month to be able to stream um uh video. Um, and there's a whole wide variety of offerings on there as well.

And that is also available as an app or as a program uh on your computer. Um, and then our online resources are where we have really a lot of the things where people comment, "Oh, I didn't know the library had that." Um, if you go to trl.org or at the top uh on the bar there, there's an online resources section and uh there's there's ultimately a lot there includes um book reviews, reference services, job and career help, homework help, uh local history, online courses, test prep, and we have resources in Spanish uh there as well. And on this uh next slide here, uh I've got a few examples that I just wanted to highlight. Uh the first is Grant Select, which is a funding portal. um helps you to find awards, fellowships, grants. Uh it is free to use. Uh we all like money, so uh it's a it's a a handy resource that sees a fair amount of use. We see a lot of patrons using Consumer Reports. You're familiar with Consumer Reports, the uh unbiased review company. Um uh that's available as a resource uh through online resources as well. Heritage Quest is a genealogy uh service that uh includes data from more than 60 countries and uh dates back to the 1700s uh with much of the data. So you can track a lot of family history that way. And then LinkedIn learning for library um this is an app also uh that's available to you but the LinkedIn learning library is available to you um through this and this is these are just a few of of what are a lot of resources that are available in that space. So, I do encourage you to uh to check those out. As for programming, we have three main divisions uh for for youth, for teens, and for adults. Uh teen and adult programming tends to overlap a lot of the time. So, for example, our Lego club

is for teens and adults. Um or really anyone who likes to play with Legos. Um but our our youth uh we have a strong emphasis in youth with our current strategic direction school age youth in particular. Um family story time is a popular uh weekly event at many of our libraries. Uh we tend to have a kid hangout builder club but the one I really want to highlight um is library in the parks uh which is one of those things that makes Aberdine unique. Um and last year's library in the parks saw more than a thousand participants. So, um, so thank you for your support of of that program. That that one really reaches a lot of folks. Um, adult programs, we tend to have, um, some presenters come in. There was recently one on edible weeds. Um, about half of us in the library joked that you could run that in our backyards because we have plenty of them. Um, but uh, that was really popular. Our um, our page turners book group is very popular. And then recently we also had a uh speaker who was a volunteer helicopter pilot uh following the Mount St. Helens eruption and uh he has a book with a collection of his photographs from that time and he he tells a lot of the stories of that. Uh we had that a couple of months ago. He's still doing some of these presentations around uh other libraries in TRL um also. And so I suppose at this point uh you know uh I would love to entertain any questions you have. I know we've been in the news a bit lately and so if there's anything I can address for you I am happy to do so. Are the It sounds like there's a budget shortfall from what I've read and is that impacting our library frontline staff

um here in I can't speak to specifics but yes it is impacting West Grace Harbor as it is unfortunately all thanks to um how many high school age kids attend the programs and how do you guys spread the word on them? That's a good question. um on attendance. I don't have that date to appear. I can work on getting that from our programming staff. Um we tend to uh use social media primarily. We use Facebook which is not the ideal way to reach high school age uh folks. Um but uh that tends to be our our primary outreach method.

Um sometimes the high school lets guests come in during lunch to speak to students. That could be something that we look at. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yes. Anything else I can address? Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Now we have a request for council action and we'll go to finance chair. Okay. Uh okay. Ordinances, we have first reading of bill 26-1, an ordinance creating the customer assistance program fund and establishing chapter 3.124 AMS in the as uh I make the motion we approve this second.

It's been a second. Is there any discussion on this? All in favor of the first reading of bill 26-01, an ordinance creating the cussion customer assistance program fund establishing chapter 3.124 of the EMC. All in favor say I. I. Thank you.

Next we go to our public safety chair Hub. Okay, I don't have any action items for the council. I just have a brief report um for our fire department. Um we actually have our Washington state survey and rating bureau is coming into town in June. We'll be assessing the fire department. Um and that will update their rating which then um affects homeowners insurance in our town. So that's kind of kind of important. Um they also have two vacancies currently. Um they have a new firefighter paramedic starting on April 1st that's not an April Fool's joke and they are working through uh candidates for the remaining second position for uh police. They also have some openings. Um they have moved into the written test phase for their police officer candidates uh for one police officer vacancy and they've extended two conditional officers to police service officer applicants and start background reports on facts. And then we had an email come out to us from administrator Clemens. Um, we wanted to kind of give some shout out, some kudos to our record specialists and police service police services officers. Uh, Washington State Patrol released their annual compliance report uh for disposition reporting. So, they report on over 300 agencies in our state and we came in second highest rated um of our size or greater cities in the state. Our score was 96.62%. Only Kenowick beat us out by6 and the state average is 83%. So that's a that's a pretty big jump. So we just wanted to give them some kudos for that.

Thank you. Thank you chief for all your work in this. Next we go on to works with chairperson. Uh we just had our committee meeting earlier today at 4 o'clock. Our discussions include conveyance, grants, and funds. And we have one item on today's agenda with a report and it's a request recommending the city council authorized exfusion by the MTC testing services contract and for the mayor to be authorized community contract agreement with the materials testing consulting approach and we accept this report second and second. Is there any discussion on this? Um, so all in favor of a request recommending the city council authorizes exec execution of MTC testing services contract and for the mayor to be authorized to execute the contract agreement with materials testing and consulting incorporated. Say I oppose this passes. Thank you. That's all we first.

Thank you. Now we'll go on to special committee items with council president. Uh we have the first reading of bill 26-02 an ordinance amending AMC chapter 2.20.040. I move that we accept this. Second. Is there any discussion on this? Yes. Just for the sake of mentioning it in your agenda packets, there was some information included about updates to 8.08 as well. Um, that'll be coming to us at the next meeting. Didn't want those two things to get mixed up.

And just for clarification, which one is this? Which one are we going? Yeah.

2.20. There were a group of us last year that made some amendments to this and unfortunately he fell through their cracks last year and I'm just bring back for everyone's attention. This was a project that was taken on by myself, council members, Alice and K. Is there any other discussion on this? Seeing none, all in favor of the first reading of bill 26-02 in an ordinance amending AMC 2.20.040. Say I.

I passed. Right. Now we'll move on to public comments and again start off with your name, your board or your city and then be sub with your comments and if you have three minutes please just is there anyone who'd like to make a public comment. All right. Seeing none, then we'll move on for the good of the order that we council president.

Really appreciate always just like um Yes. For the good of the order, then can you make a motion for council to host a workshop on April 15th at 6:00 p.m. with the economic development advisory committee? Second. Is there any discussion on this? All in favor? I have the workshop. Yeah.

May I ask just while we're for um I have a motion to just approve the dates for the 8th and the 20th um for the town hall meetings. I apologize for that. Uh motion to approve dates for our council town hall meetings which will be May 6th and May 20th. Second any discussion.

Hi Ruth. Are those at 5:00? Did you say they're 75? Um you'll let us know. Yeah. I'm gonna send an email out to everybody and kind of take a thoughtful duty. uh figure out which states work best for the majority of those such and

else I forgot something um there is work on experience on the station post some between Pacific Okay. Anything else?

All in favor? I. All right. Thank you. Thanks for having us and spending your time here.