City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We have a bit of an echo. [laughter] Give it a shot again. All right. Thank you everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for being here. This is beautiful. It is 5:32 p.m. on Tuesday, January 6th. Good evening. Thank you soary.

There we go. 2026. [laughter] I think that's right. [gasps] So, I now call to order the city of Collegebase City Council workshop. Madame Clerk, will you please take roll call? Uh, Commissioner or I mean council member Cleveland present. Council member Peterson present. Council member Sherman present. Council member Boyer Bole. Boil. Sorry. Um, mayor Norma

present. All right. We are all here. I everyone please join me in welcoming Carolyn Holm. This is her first city council meeting as our new city clerk.

So she she is working her way through it. We have a quorum. Yes, we have a quorum. [clears throat] All right. Will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? All right, it's now time for public comment. Madame clerk, did anyone submit a written comment in advance or request to speak via telephone or virtually?

There have been no requests received.

Okay. Thank you. If anyone um in person would like to speak, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll move on to the exciting things. So, there's six topics on our agenda for tonight. First, let us welcome our our new council members, member elect Green and Stline. And to make it official, city clerk home will now give the new council members and the mayor their oath of office and we are going to do this one by one um so that you know friends and families can take pictures and you know have your special moment.

Do you want to come first? [clears throat] [snorts] [laughter] Okay. Um, okay. Raise your right hand. I, Norma Hernand Hernandez, I, Norma Hernandez, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am a citizen of the United States that I am a citizen of the United States and of the state of Washington and of the state of Washington

that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and all lo local ordinances. and all local ordinances. And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties And I Go ahead. And I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of the mayor of the office of the mayor for the city of College Place. for the city of College Place according to the law according to the law and the best of my ability.

and and the best of my ability. You guys back so I can see the picture where this isn't in the middle of

um Naen, would you like to come up? Raise your right hand. I, Naen Steckling, I, Naen Steckeline, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am a citizen of the United States that I am a citizen of the United States and of the state of Washington and of the state of Washington that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and all local ordinances. and lo and and all local ordinances. And that I will faithfully

And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties and impartially distrust no discharge discharge the duties [laughter] of the office of the city counselor of the office of the city counselor for the city of college place for the city of college place

according to the law and the best of my ability. according to the law and the best of my ability. Thank you. Thank you. And Jordan Green, [clears throat] Councilwoman Stline, would you like to take your seat?

Council member Bole, can you hear me? Yep. Okay. Yes, I can. Thank you. Um, I, Jordan Green, I Oh, yes. Sorry. I, Jordan Green, I, Jordan Green, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am a citizen of the United States that I am a citizen of the United States and of the state of Washington and of the state of Washington that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and all local ordinances and all local ordinances

and that I will faithfully and impartially Y and I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of city counselor discharge the duties of the office of city counselor for the city of college place for the city of college place according to the law according to the law and the best of my ability and the best of my ability. Yay. Thank you. Hold on. One more for the city.

Get one for the city. [clears throat] Carolyn, Council Member Cleveland. Thank you everyone for crying. [laughter] We saved the best for last. Just kidding. There's someone after me. [laughter] Okay, raise your right hand. I, Michael Cleveland, I, Michael Cleveland, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am a citizen of the United States that I'm a citizen in the United States and of the state of Washington and of the state of Washington.

that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and all local ordinances and all local ordinances. and that I will faithfully And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and impartially discharge the duties the duties of the office of city counselor of the office of city counselor for the city of college place for the city of college place according to the law according to the law and best of my ability

and best of my ability All right. Very exciting. Four swearing ends. How about that? I think that's got to be a record here. Thank you everyone. You have a good evening. Um I am [laughter] I am going to um if it's okay, I'm just going to switch up the agenda real quick. Um item 2.0 04 if it's okay. I'm going to move on to that next since we have um our law enforcement officers here. That way they don't have to sit um if they need to to move on to um their work. So, I'm going to um um move the agenda just a bit. So, I have I do have the pleasure of presenting the Law Enforcement Appreciation Day proclamation uh to our law enforcement um officers here in College Place. Whereas across the country on January 9th, citizens will take the lead to demonstrate support on National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Whereas law enforcement officers of every rank and file have chosen a profession that puts their life on the line every day for their communities. They've answered a call to public service that is demanding and often unappreciated. On National Law Enforcement Day, we have an opportunity to thank them for their service and offer a token of respect. Whereas National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day was founded in 2015 to thank officers across the country for their daily sacrifices

that they make for their communities. Concerns of Police Survivors, the FBI National Academy Associates, the Fraternal Officer Order of Police, the International Association of Chief of Police, the Officer Down Memorial Page, Law Enforcement United, and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, International Conference of Police Chap Chaplain, the National Troopers Coalition only a name of the few of the long list of organizations supporting inaugural day of national law enforcement officers appreciation day. Since then, nationwide, many more organizations have joined forces to support law enforcement appreciation day to spread encouragement and respect to these dedicated men and women. Therefore, be it resolved, I, Norma Alernandez, mayor of the city of College Place, Washington, do hereby proclaim January 9th, 2026 as law enforcement appreciation day in the city of College Place, dated this 6th day of January, 2026. With that, we do extend um our appreciation to our dedicated officers who in a small community like ours are often doing double triple duty and doing their best to to be out there and protect the community, build relationships to the community, and represent the city of College Place in a way that makes us proud. So, thank you all very much for doing that and thank you for being part of this family. [clears throat]

Get a picture. [clears throat]

I think I blend in. [laughter] Awesome.

Thank you.

Dabble. and Miss Boardock's training. How about that? [laughter]

All right. Because of our newly elected council members, we are doing some um just housekeeping, I guess. So, we're going to do a bit of board docs training um and council technology and Madame Clerk Holm will be conducting that on her first city council [laughter] meeting. All right. So, um thank you for having me. Um this uh in the agenda packet you will see this flyer that is attached which outlines the way to get to board docs but I'll do it for you really quick. You would want to go to cpawwa. us and if you scroll down you can click board docs council and then it will take you to the board docs portal. right up here in the top right there's a little person and you would log in here and once you log in um it gives you access to all of the different committees up here on the top right you can do the drop down and choose what committees um you're part of that you want to go to that's that's really its here for you um I can help All right, that was easy. Thank you. Any questions from any city council members? All right, hearing none. Let's move on. Third, uh, Miss Holm and Mr. Ferguson will provide a brief overview of the public records act. Very important.

Thank you.

All right. So, great. I have no intention of trying to drag everybody through. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. I just assumed everybody knows who I am. Um, no, it's okay. Uh, Eric Ferguson, uh, city attorney, and just wanted to uh not really get in depth with anything uh of the issues with regard to the public records act, but just really a reminder uh some of the folks uh were we're kind of in different stages on the council uh in terms of the training requirements. One of the things that the both public records act and open public meetings act requires is that your training uh you have to have within 90 days of taking office you have to have the training and then after that every four years you have to basically reertify uh through a refresher. So uh [clears throat] good news is uh the the two newest recruits are good to go on both of those because they uh uh wasted I mean they they spent a Saturday uh [laughter] at uh the the training. We had a good time though. Um, and the food was good. But, uh, so we did the, uh, the elected officials essentials training and so that really kind of covers everything. And then

I didn't realize you were there. Oh yeah, it was great. That's where I met him before that training.

So they uh, um, long and short of it is what uh, what that covered uh, both the items for the new council members. Uh, the other council members are are all good to go with regards uh, to their training. I I when I looked online, so just this will be you I'm not I'm not uh uh certifying or diagnosing where you're at in the the training process, but it looks like most of the folks are good with their certifications. Uh and except there's a couple of folks uh that uh just got reelected. I think it's Mr. Cleveland is in 29. He would need a refresher if you haven't had one already. So anyway, one of the things that Rhett put together for us, we were kind of a little bit of who's on first because Mary Elizabeth had put this item on the the agenda and then Rhett was trying to take the lead on it and kind of fill in the gap and then uh then of course then Carolyn and I we got uh you know put it uh where we had to kind of pick it up and and run with it here. But just uh essentially what I want to be able to do is just remind you of a few things. It's nothing that that you haven't heard already, but the main thing is just to make sure that you get those certifications and uh we can certainly there's some information in the packet for how to get those certifications again if you need that refresher. Uh if not um uh this will be all be kind of old news, but uh we can I can certainly also help you with the uh the attorney general site. I just I prefer that training module because it's a little little easier to understand and it's a little quicker uh has a little better pictures and and diagrams and and so it takes you through more of a overview. Uh that's and they also have a certificate that you can download on that website. So I'll send that information to you as a followup. But long and short of it is just a quick history. Uh public records act was created uh due to growing public demand for government transparency, accountability, access to government information as a result of Watergate scandal by the Nixon administration. That's a little that's a little bit of a of a misnomer. This is just if anybody is interested in any of these kind of things like I am political science-wise.

Uh it's really kind of fascinating. It was actually the the beginning of the public records act wasn't because of Watergate. was actually because of uh in June of 1971 the uh Pentagon papers had been released and that was where uh it had been discovered that LPJ and the previous administration and uh had been had all these records at the Pentagon that were basically saying that we knew

yeah [laughter] sorry yeah I'm showing my my colors here but uh long and short is yeah it uh it was really interesting how that kind of started the process obviously uh Watergate really kind of took it to a whole new level. And now in Washington, and one of the things I think Rhett put in the the uh the the PowerPoint here is Washington has some of the strongest public records laws in the nation. Uh I can uh attest to that uh uh having worked in a few other states around and when we get folks from other states uh they are especially contractors and others that will send contracts and they'll think that they're complying with what we call FOIA Freedom of Information Act which is the federal law um is not anywhere near what the requirements are going to be for public records act in Washington. Uh, and just as a quick aside too, there are um, this is one of the most highly litigated areas of law in Washington state. On an average, there's about 30 reported cases. And I know that doesn't sound like a big deal to you guys, but from uh, where I sit that a reported case is basically a case where it goes up through the appellet process and it's of a novel uh, it's a novel decision in such a way that it actually needs to be reported and published. So, it's not just a decision on an appeal. it's actually a publishable uh decision. So that's a big deal. So there's between 20 and 30 cases a year uh that get published with related to public records act. So it's highly litigated. Uh there's a lot of folks that uh that really uh take a lot of interest. Uh they have a lot of groups and organizations that really uh focus on these what we call sunshine laws which public records act is the main one. So the other thing I just wanted to highlight there is that as Rhett put in the slide here, the public record is defined as a writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics. Now that is a very broad definition but

essentially what it means is writing does not mean writing. you know, we all know that uh it means pictures and video and all kinds of uh when you actually look at the definition in the public architect, it's pretty pretty shocking u some of the things that it includes. Uh but you just you need to be aware that it's going to include most things. It doesn't include obviously phone calls that those are not writings because those wouldn't be document be able to be documented any kind of way reproducible way. Anyway, uh maybe let's see if we can just jump to the next slide real quick. So yeah, here's where we talk about uh rioting a little more. Uh one of the things I want to highlight here uh meeting notes, that's always a question that comes up with regard to well wait a sec. If I'm taking uh notes, it's it's a very convoluted area. Essentially, if it's meeting notes that you're taking and then you're going to go and then use those notes to give direction or you're going to uh in any way use those to create policy, those would be public records. your personal notes when you're in a meeting to refresh your memory or if they're what we call transitory in nature. Uh those aren't going to be uh notes that have to be retained by the agency. So, uh there's a there's a lot of nuance to that and a lot of folks will especially they will see uh when you're on video, they'll see maybe you're doing something or you're writing down something, whatever, they'll say, "I want I want I saw Mr. Cleveland, you know, jot something down in a meeting. I want to I want I want to see what that is and if it's his personal notes as he's going through and making mental recollections." uh those are not going to be uh public records. Those are going to be something that the agency has to retain. Um so it gets a little fuzzy and please uh I think we get to this he gets to this later in the slide or another slide where he talks about ask questions but uh that's really the key. Let's see. So but why the law is based Oh yeah this is this is the best part right there or but why uh the law is based on the principle that government records belong to the public and people have a right to access them unless there uh the an

exemption applies. The law declares that the people do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know. And this is all based on a famous quote from uh Lewis Brandeise uh Justice Brandise uh back in the 1940 late 40s I believe where he stated that uh there was a famous quote where he said and this is why these are referred to as sunshine laws that uh basically his quote in a particular case was is that the best disinfectant for abuse is sunshine is sunshine is the best disinfectant for the abuse of government to shine a light on it and um I occasionally we'll have to do trainings and things and it's tough to keep these things exciting and so I but I've tried to come up with a few jokes the only one I've ever been able to come up with is uh that while sunlight may be the best disinfectant it's also the leading cause of skin cancer so [laughter] you can't have too much of a good thing so anyway that's only one of a couple but uh next slide please okay so yeah these were the best practices that I'm not sure where got this or if you drafted this, but uh these are great uh comments to keep work and personal communication separate. This is the one that really is becoming a huge huge uh problem uh because technology is is getting so we're getting so connected. Uh it's getting very very difficult to to constantly distinguish between personal and and professional accounts. Uh your city account versus your personal email, those types of things. And then and as the others that went through the recent training got uh a lot of stories and and uh different scenarios to go through those processes. It really is seems to be one of the things that that is coming up uh the most especially from members of the public who are requesting records. Uh they're they're specifically requesting items uh from personal accounts from folks because they feel like that's where people are going to communicate and do conduct business.

Now, uh that's where it gets it gets pretty tricky. Uh in terms of the the easiest way is just to always make sure that you keep those separate. Uh it's not the end of the world if you use your personal account or your personal phone. Uh it just means that you're going to if a if a request comes in, you're going to be required to search that account or that that phone. You won't have to give that to the agency. You won't no one's going to be looking at your personal uh accounts, but uh you'll have to uh take a a look and then put down in an affidavit. It's a single page little affidavit where you basically say I searched under these terms and this is all the records I have or I don't have any. Uh the easiest way is just to never use your personal accounts and and your personal devices because then you don't have those issues. You never have to go through that process. You can always say you know search the agency has all my records. Um so uh that makes it easier but sometimes uh it happens and some find sometimes folks are okay with that. Uh let's see. Use official channels for all written city business. Email, phone, text. Uh, and then ask if unsure if something's a public record. Assume everything's a public record, which it is. Well, I wouldn't say that, but it's close. Uh, let's see. Oh, yes. I like what he puts there. Uh, preserve records you create or receive as part of your job. But then that second bullet point, don't delete workrelated messages or documents unless you're following an approved records retention schedule. that is very very critical because destruction of public records could be a big deal. So u that's not a public records act thing necessarily but it's also a uh there's a Washington retention law that also uh is is a big deal and so that can uh that can be something that can uh not to try to scare you or anything but that can uh if if done intentionally that can lead to criminal charges so you don't want to definitely don't want to do that. Uh and

I wonder maybe um on a day we could have u Mr. Grant has explained to us how the retention of our emails are oh are done. Yeah. Um I mean generally speaking we we archive [snorts] our all of our emails but immediately or every day they're backed up. So even if I delete an email to clear out my inbox the antis is able to search um those records. They're retained indefinitely. So okay. Yeah. So, those just a few little uh Oh, I'm sorry. Council member Peterson has

quick question. I I love using my Gmail account, my personal one for everything because as we've discussed here before, it connects immediately into my calendar. [clears throat and cough]

We've talked about the difficulty of doing having it connect to your calendar if it's through the city's email. Does it? Of course, we can always add it manually. My question for you, if you have four years of using your personal email uh mixed up with the city communications, there is no magical date necessarily where you decide from this point on I'm not going to use it. I'm only going to use the city's email. At that point, I would assume that everyone would still want to know what your history is.

That's correct. Yes. What's the There really is no point then in changing over to city email if everything is discoverable for the last 10 years.

Well, yes and no. So, essentially what would happen is is because the retention schedule is going to differ depending on what the record was, which also makes it very confusing. Uh it it'd be easy if we could just say that all city records require six years of retention. Unfortunately, that's not it's not that simple. There's they there's three years for some, six for others, indefinitely for others, right? So um so the key will be to make sure that getting those records if you wanted to switch over the way I think the best way to do that would be to uh get those records that you do your search and get those to the agency so those could be uh those could be retained uh that you wouldn't be responsible because when you become a custodian public records you're going to be bound by those same those same laws. So, um the I I would recommend it because then you're you're able to then at that from that point forward, you know that you're able to uh you're no longer going to be responsible for retention or uh or have to do any kind of searching. So, that would be the benefit. But yes, anything that you would have uh could be uh potentially accessed. So, if you're creating public records outside of that, but it's this this is you're you're making a you're you're making my case for what I say all the time. Nobody listens to me, but I say it all the time. This is the problem with technology moves at light speed. The law moves at glacial speed. And you know, so the law says that you're supposed to do these different things. There's there's ways now that you can't even describe how certain things when you say with certain metadata when you think okay well I've sent that that message to the so now it's being retained but there was other information because of the way that the device was being used that the person thinks that they've given all that information but it turns out a lot of the metadata and some of the other background information that somebody may want and have access to um will get and then add to that you of lawyers and which or judges who were formerly lawyers trying to interpret technology which is usually not that

doesn't usually end well either because uh that they have to really wrap their head around that. So anyway, yeah, it's just u it's a it's a suboptimal situation, but yeah, definitely I would recommend it sooner the better because then

Anyway, yeah. So, just uh the main thing I guess the main takeaway I think that that Rhett wanted to make sure that everybody knew is we just need to get those any folks that don't have those uh uh certifications uh within the last four years uh with their certificates uh we need to get through those training modules. um they he put a link uh to some of them in this, but uh I also have another link through attorney general's office I'd be happy to share with you. But um yeah, just need to basically get those done and then I think we'll we'll be in good shape. But I think well everybody's in pretty good shape anyways, but there's just a few folks that I think need just refreshers. I think we can always use refreshers. It's so easy to just

right there uh you know assume that something's not right, you know, because you're not sure. I one thing I learned was um I have a Facebook page that's not associ associated with the city but as the mayor that I created as a way to communicate with my constituents um and assumed it was my own page cuz I created it was right and I learned recently well [clears throat] not that's recently but that it's not right that because I have the name of the mayor so I had to um connect a program that we have that's makes records of all my social media as mayor um um because it's not just my page even though it's not part of the city's official thing. So it's so easy. Um Miss Holm, I have a question on board docs. Did we um provide the new council members with their login and passwords for the non-public site of board ducks?

I do believe that um they receive them clerk did. Okay.

Okay. So, they did receive them. And you understand that the the login one sometimes has documents that the public one does not have. Okay. All right. Just wanted to make sure. All right. Do we have uh council members any questions for city attorney Ferguson on public records um open public meeting act? No. All right, Mr. Ferguson, thank you so much. We really appreciate that. And again, it's always important to remind us because I know for me it's so easy to forget um what is considered. The only thing I would the final takeaway I would say mayor is is uh please do not hesitate to reach out and ask any questions you may have. Just uh email uh everyone should have our email and uh we can definitely get those answers to you as as soon as you need them because oftentimes they're very quick turnaround. You know, you're getting right before a meeting you're getting somebody uh emailing you and asking for something and you're you know may have question about you know open public meetings or public records. So, please feel free to utilize us as as soon as you need to. So, we're happy to help.

And and one caveat to that, when you email, do not email the entire city council. [laughter] Um, and do not reply if you get an email like that because it's considered a public meeting, believe it or not. And we did give notice and so the discussions are not had in public. So, we can't have email conversations with the whole council that way. I learned that on my like third week [laughter] as city council member the hard way. Council member Peterson.

So, through this discussion, I'm assuming that you will let us know if we are tardy as far as getting this done. You're you're we made some comments here that yeah, everyone looks good, I think, and whatnot, but who has record of our training? That's going to be something that me and Miss Holm are going to try to figure out and and figure out where everybody's at. I'm sure we're great, but I just Yeah, you guys will be contacting us to tell us that you're you're not great or you are great or Yeah. Okay. Generally, the city clerk keeps keeps track of all your certificates for everybody. But we'll obviously she just got here too, so we'll we'll get that squared away.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Just making sure council member Bole doesn't have her hands up. Okay. Well, uh, but we are on our last item already. So, u, Miss Holm, who was not part of it, [laughter] is gonna give go over our most recent city event, which was Winterfest. I don't know how much uh you've been. So, I see by looking at the agenda that they've added um it was it had great attendance and they've um attached some pictures which are pretty cool if you have the time to open them up and take a look at it.

I'm not sure um if like what the how many times we've done this in the past, but I know when I was here previously, we used to do this and it was well attended as well. It's always been very successful. So, yeah, live music um really adds to

to the feeling of Christmas. So, it was very nice having the live music and the face painting. Um and you know, hopefully we can uh bring in some more vendors. You know, the goal is to have a place where people can do their Christmas shopping, support small businesses, get unique gifts, and uh and support our local entrepreneurs here in College Place as that part. It looks like also as part of that they did a gingerbread houses um competition. Um, they announced it on a billboard on Highway 11. Santa was there

and there's a I didn't know who was playing the Grinch until I just read I didn't know either. I thought it was going to be one of our uh firefighters or EMTs. That's what I had last heard. But I guess they couldn't finagle Chief Winter into the suit. Maybe next year. It's a great costume. Yeah. [laughter]

So, I'm sure it was lots of fun for the kids.

Mayor, there there were a couple of changes that we made. Um, the staging, we moved that over to the uh west side of College Avenue. Um and that was primarily uh because we did have some construction on um on the other side of call on the east side and also um Andy's market had been um dealing the past couple of years with uh people that were attending the parade parking in their parking lot and causing problems for like filling the parking lot up so their customers couldn't use the parking lot. So, we we moved the staging route north one block and that kept 10th Street open and moved the moved it away uh from Andy's Market a little bit more. And I did talk with Andy's Market after the fact and they uh we also did some signage saying no event parking um that we provided for them and that helped out a lot and they were very grateful for the changes so that they were able to have their customers um get to the store. great thinking and great working with our our community members and our our businesses here and you know I think it uh helps alleviate a lot of the stress for them.

Sure. We had one little scare um if you recall there was a airplane on College Avenue uh that the university uh they lit up. It was the wings folded up on it and it was kind of a last addition. Um, and we we gave him permission to do that. Uh, thinking we had plenty of clearance for the wingspan. We we forgot about the new midblock croc crossing at the post office where we have those the lights and so the parade had stalled if you recall it. It stopped for a few minutes and so Troy was on the phone. Um, Chief Tamarus was on the phone or on the radio with one of the guys up that was staged up there in New Forth and I think it was Ron Nordman and he was like, "What's going on, Ron?" And he's like, "I don't know. I think we might have had an accident."

And so, so Troy runs up College Avenue and then finds out they're just folding up the wings and [laughter] so we're keeping the law enforcement on their toes. The plane the plane had an accident, right? No damage to any of our infrastructure. [laughter] Thanks, thank goodness. Um, but no one plane. I'm Yeah, I think there's a picture of it. [clears throat] Oh, yeah. I saw Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. They bought They bought two new planes.

I hadn't even thought about it when it passed me by that it's going to have problems navigating. [laughter] Okay, navigating there. All right. Well, any other discussions, comments? Yes, sir. I like this meeting. L, let's keep it up. Council member Peterson has a state a question or comment. Other fine. Go ahead.

Um, might be a question for Troy and John and maybe others. Um, and I may be a dollar short and a day late in my understanding of this. So, so give me give me some grace here. But, um, so with what's going on at 125 in Myra, has is the city, and I'm sure you are, um, is all that traffic going to head down Military and 12 that would have gone down 125.

Yeah. So, I have not been that involved in the detour route, but Robert McAnnandrews has been and they've been working on that detour route for over a year. Um, and and while we have given permission, uh, they have a permit from us to reroute traffic down Commercial Drive, um, for the period of time that that intersection at 125 and down Commercial down Commercial Drive. Yes. Or or 12. It just depends on if it's truck traffic. If they're, you know, um if they're heading south down Myra and they are trying to get to Oregon or something, they're going to want to stay on the highway. So, they'll be routed onto Commercial Drive um and then back onto the highway

from Myra. From Myra. Yes. Yeah. And then by Honda. So, so, um, thank you, [clears throat] John. You can tell me why I'm wrong with what I'm about to say, but our four-way stop, um, you know, I will go to my grave wanting a roundabout at at Myra and 12. Um, 12th in March. 12th of March.

Sorry. Thank you. I guess I won't go to my grave. [laughter] Um, yes, 12th in March. Thank you. Um, but is there thoughts of changing one of those to a yield only? And what I I'm not Look, I'm just throwing it out there. In other words, if you're coming in from Walaw Wala down 12 and they're all going to be heading to to Walmart or something, right? or or Milton Freewater or I don't know what, but um is I wonder if there's some thought of putting one of those signs to a yield left down Myra and then doing a stop the other way. What What are your thoughts on that, John?

Well, I'm not a traffic engineer and I'm just a city planner that uh Yeah, no, I put I put yes. Um, I I would think at this point um another revision to a traffic signal could be creating a dangerous situation because you're already redirecting people. So yeah, like for instance, when you make changes like to that, you know, you have to put up a whole bunch of notice signs and Yeah. Um

and so it probably would be safer um to not make a change right now for that. Um but so that's why some of the traffic if they're truly trying to head down, you know, if they're heading south down Myra and heading would have headed towards the highway, they will be routed onto Commercial Drive and then onto the highway. So they'll drive by um Giza credit, not Giza, STC um and the Honda dealership. Good point. And then out. Um, if you're coming from Walaw Wala and you're headed to, you know, Walmart or something, you know, down Dallas Military and 12th, then yeah, you're probably going to stay on that. And, um, but I also, uh, Tomorrow Road and that roundabout that they built this last year, um, that's open. And so I think as more people figure out that they can't go down the highway, they're going to and they're going to Walmart, they're going to reroute um as they get accustomed to moving around. So it's not ideal. It's just,

you know, I I've been surprised uh lately, you know, if you if you head up military or 12 towards military at 5:15. Yeah.

It's it has surprised me. Um, and I don't want to exaggerate this, but you can have 25, 30 cars backed up. They're trying to get into college place. And I think, and you're right, the the uh, you know, the bypass um, down my over uh, will help. Um it's just I don't want to um impede business coming to Walmart. Um because they're trying to fight through that four-way stop and and um and people will figure it out. You know, it it is not forever, but but actually it is forever. What is it for? For four months, five months. I think it said January something through May or on the bill on the Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know the exact. Anyway, it's something. Hey, look, John. You know, it's something we're all going to be talking about in the future, I'm sure. And it's going to be something maybe we can adapt to it or do some changes. But I just wanted to bring it up right now just to Yeah, this is when we should do our traffic counts to [laughter] get those federal funds for the Yeah, that's going to say get our police officers out there, you know, make us some money. There is that uh what is it? Dewey uh that Dwey drive. Yeah, that cuts off. Um you know, we're probably going to have to do some enforcement because people are start avoiding the four-way stop. Um, you know, yep. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but uh, yeah. Okay. I just wanted to bring it up. Thank Thanks, John and Troy. [laughter]

Well, I was going to say that it hasn't felt as heavy on 12th as I thought it was going to, but it's because they're down there until I was on my way here tonight. I was very um, what's the word? Inconvenienced. Yes. Coming out by the 15 cars in front of me. Uh, yeah. So coming um west on to well getting on to 12th was fine but then it was like all back up. I made it. I was in. So John, we've we've talked about a roundabout there, right? We can't do it. Yeah. We we they did this like years ago. We did a study and we looked at that and like they couldn't do they tried. We tried. We tried.

Well, no. It's always been a case of funding, not a case we can't do it. I thought we couldn't do it. Didn't they say that we couldn't put that there or like it wasn't the right solution for that? 12th and I think no 12th and large I think I think 12th and large I think we still have it in our own eventually plan to do a roundabout. Well then you'll see it's complicated. There's a driveway that pops right out onto it and on the back burner. Well and there's things there's there's roundabouts and there's roundabouts. Some of them are like, you know, they're like UFO landing sites. [laughter] And there's other ones that are much smaller and people don't like those, but you can do them cheaper and easier, too.

And I'm trying to figure out why we can't just wing that. Wasn't it because we needed a solution like right now? And the four-way stop was like, isn't Yeah, the four-way stop is in, you know, it's a band-aid. And the Yes. One of the things that um myself and the department directors are working on um is a work plan for work sessions. I think this would be a great work session with our transportation people here and present and contributing. So we'll add it to the list and um share the list with everybody starting with the mayor. And I I think there's something about plumbing on that road too. Sewer things not plumbing but sewer

underground sewer. infrastructure issues. Do two level roundabout. Yeah. Where [laughter] you have to like what could possibly go wrong? Do a zipper merge to go in. Okay, let's just get an overpass. [laughter] That sounds cheap. I think we should just have Lauren direct traffic out there. [laughter] Would we have would he have to wait four years to get paid for that? Because we can't increase his pay [clears throat] until he's reelected. Get some white gloves. A volunteer opportunity. Oh, I love this. Ask [laughter] shall receive. [gasps] All right. Is there any other business for good of the order? No. Yeah.

I would just like to take a minute. They're no longer here with the exception, I think, of David, but um you saw um Police Chief Troy here tonight. You saw Brian, our finance director here tonight. Um our fire chief, um David Winters is here tonight. our city attorney, John Rickard, our chief clerk, and our um HR director are all here tonight. Um the department heads made a conscientious decision that they all wanted to be here to welcome the two new council members and um say congratulations to the mayor and council member Cleveland. So, they're not here anymore, but I want to acknowledge their efforts tonight. Oh, that was nice. I saw them here and I that was very nice of them.

Well, yes. Um, you know, we're at our closing and we're going to conclude in just a bit, but again, welcome. Um, there's going to be lots to learn, but we're looking forward to your contributions and having you here. U Madame Clerk, thank you so much for your work on this. I know it was kind of stressful. We threw a lot of things at you to our be before the meeting. So, you did very well. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. And thank you all for being here. Mr. Ferguson, thank you. drive home safely. So, uh, if there's nothing else, I just wanted to say I'm sorry, my calendar just told me that tomorrow is College Place's 80th birthday.

Is it really? Yeah. January 7, 1946. I thought we become a city in April, like April 24th. Um, well, no, I have it in here. I'll have to look at that. And then it says some sources site January 19, but the Walwell County Board of Commissioners formally declared college place an independently functioning municipality. You don't think so? No comment. [laughter] Never mind. Well, look. You might be right. So, and I don't remember exactly, but there

there was some the town took some action over like the Christmas season and then it wasn't filed. Um, so like the actual date, founding date is there's discrepancies between what when the actual city Can you tell me when in a second? I beat my calendar. I not off top of my head. Well, at some point maybe maybe all the community development director follow the papers. [clears throat] [laughter] That John 80 80 years ago. Yeah, just like yesterday. [laughter]

My dad was born 80 years ago. They were just babies um in October. [clears throat] Wow. Okay. I'm trying to see I'm sure you're correct. What Wikipedia said, [laughter] but I can't find it. No big deal. All right. Well, if there's no further action for good of the order, I do conclude the workshop at 620 24 p.m. Sorry. I want to make sure I'm looking at the right tie.