Commission Meeting Agendas - Regular Meeting

development or redevelopment to be true of that site and i've been working with them and maybe working with some other companies hopefully before i'm done here but um pud is the one that they made the arrangement for because now ct is gone they can't disperse or do anything so um Uh, that's, it's, it's, it's complicated, but it's, it's a pretty responsible carryover. Um, you know, I spent 30 years as the state's enterprise zone person among other things. And, um, as, as I know, that's how I know Amy. And I think she, she was a local zone manager worked for zone manager. Yeah. Something like that. Um, highlight of her days, I'm sure. But, um, um, Where was I here? But, you know, CET did a great job as far as managing and being sort of the representative of the zone sponsorship, which is the two cities which have already adopted this and the county and port. And you also, of course, are a joint sponsor of a second zone here in Columbia County, the South Zone, which technically I'm also covering, though I don't have a lot of presence and visibility here in the county i'm from salem and so it's sort of sort of funny but um enough about me i just say you know it's a i think it's a no-brainer it's a great opportunity it's not a huge company um the zone has been used very successfully at times for some pretty good developments over the years a good tool it's one of the best we have so to speak and um Scion Lumber is their name, and they're going to hire a few dozen people, it would appear, and make sort of these specialized cuts of wood for various uses for various clients, if you will. And so it's a good opportunity there. And, you know, the Enterprise Zone does relieve companies initially of their expenses. additional property taxes in this case just for three years which is kind of normal and uh as part of this process and that's kind of my job is to handle the process and the paperwork and get this to business oregon uh hopefully in the next couple days at this rate and um but um you know, part of the thing is you, you, you know, there's a property tax issue. And so we've reached out to all the local taxing districts as well and, you know, inform them and, you know, they're sort of like, okay, including the port technically though, you're a sponsor. So that's not, not necessarily much an issue. So that's all I have for you. If there's anything more I could provide.

Has the history been wood product production or on that side?

There's been a few, but not so much. It's the old fiber sort yard. The site itself. I guess it's had a few different uses. It's kind of up in a hill, but everyone in Rainier knew about it, so I don't know. It's been used in tree-like lumber for decades. Yeah, I've been up there. It's just a bunch of blacktop from what I could see.

The new facility will basically be made of packaging wood for pallets and other things. And mostly from waste wood.

Everything that's not used. They're making a notably large investment.

tens of millions of dollars. And their financing package just got approved on Friday. Oh, yes. Backed by USDA. So the project is going to be moving forward. I'd like to get contact info from the fire district. Hasn't heard a word. I believe the fire district responded to Art's email.

Yeah, they did. I answered some questions for them, including that it involves two, it actually involves two tax lots, or well, two accounts, two tax accounts, a single lot, two tax accounts. So...

Can you send contact info for them to that fire district address? I can be able to contact them. I'll get it to you. Come to Kiwanis and do a few things.

Well, thank you for coming up and walking us through that. Sure. Okay.

I would move approval of resolution 2026-14. Second. All in favor?

Aye. Okay.

Thank you.

Sir. And the kids are here.

Jump in here. We're going to make a special exception for a late public comment. Some local students who have just joined the call from Otto Peterson Elementary.

Good morning. My name is Ms. Watzell and I teach at Otto Peterson Elementary School, fourth grade. And my class went on a field trip to the marina and we had an interesting adventure. And my classes felt very passionate about talking to someone about the I would say catastrophe that we saw for a fourth grade class. And so they wanted to bring it to your attention. I've taught them this year that one voice can change the world and they are so excited to bring this to your attention and they're so brave and I'm so proud of them. And so I have four little speakers here and they would like to address this issue.

Let me first start. Okay.

So, I was on a canoe. I was on a canoe with my teacher.

We can't hear.

Turn to a corner.

Gabe, can you turn? You got to be louder, bud.

Go.

Be louder.

I was with my teacher on a canoe. We turned to a corner at the Scott Booth Bay Marina. And there were tons of nests, but they were abandoned because someone pressure washed them down and got rid of them. And the people there told us that it takes 29,000 trips to make one nest for one bird. And I did the math, and there were about 200 nests.

The swallows.

And there was about 4 million trips to make all those nests. And all that work was just pressure washed down by someone.

I think it's kind of crazy that just to sell a boathouse, you had to pressure wash, like... Hundreds of birds, eggs, babies, and all. Just to sell one boathouse. Just to make the money. Well, they could have waited when they migrated. I was so sad when... I was so sad when all of the people, the people that were on the canoe were like, guys, come look. And then it was so sad seeing all of the birds just pressure lost away and that all the babies and like just all the families of birds just died just to sell a boathouse. And it was a mindful thing that they should have not done.

I think that it was really sad that they pressure lost all of them. Because babies were in the desks, there were parents that had left, and there were memories in that nest that got broken.

My class went on a field trip to Stafford's Bay Marina, and when we got on the canoes, we noticed there was a dead bird in the water. This made us super frustrated because someone just power washed tons of birds and nests into the water. And it takes those birds weeks to make a nest, and then all their hard work is power lost.

All right, those were our speakers. As you can see, they were deeply affected by this. And so we just had some questions about what we could do to prevent something like this in the future. As we said, the tour guides didn't know that. So the day before, two of our classes went on a field trip there as well, and they got to see the birds. And the tour guides did not know that within that 24 hours, Someone had come and pressure washed them all down. So when we turned the corner, they were like, and look to your left, boys and girls, and we could see all the destruction. And so my students just want to try to make a change and see what you guys can do to help us. We've already we've made a birdhouse as well and got permission. to put it up at the marina in memorabilia of our class and the trip. And the mayor will be there as well. So is there any advice you have for our students? Is there anything else we can do? We'd love to hear from you.

We don't answer questions in this phase, but we can get back to them.

All right. We definitely have some ideas. But yeah, we'll get back to you.

Awesome.

These swallow nests, I assume? Yes. Yes. Okay. Well, they're not there for very long. So that's an argument for waiting until they leave. Not doing it for them.

I'll just chime in and say thank you for participating in the public process. It's great to hear from you all about this and definitely follow up. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Thanks again. Thanks, Art.

Thank you, Art. Okay. Yes, absolutely. I know we went out of order there, Art, in respect of Art's time. We're going to continue on with new business. Item A is our fiscal year 2025 audit report.

Got Eric online joining us.

He is, all right. Smaller one's the one who probably. Well, I'm Eric Zempower of Current Thompson.

First of all, thank you for having us as your auditor. I'll try to be brief. I'll just go over the governance letter that kind of goes over the whole how the audit went, communication letter that just goes over items of note, the audit report, and then I'll be super brief on the financials. I'll see if the screen sharing is turned on. Let's see here. All right, hopefully they're all seeing a governance letter. Yep. All right. So this letter just kind of goes over, like I said, just the overall audit. So we've we perform an audit. We've issued our report. This letter goes over our responsibilities under generally accepted auditing standard. Management is responsible for the selection and use of accounting policies, and those are located at Note B, which we'll get to briefly. No new accounting policies were adopted. Existing policies weren't changed during the year. Key sentences, we noted no transaction entered by the port where there's a lack of guidance except the following. And this is just a departure from GAAP. It's GASB 87. The effect would be to add a large receivable for basically all future years of your lease receipts and a large deferred inflow liability. And management's chosen not to do that, and that's fairly common. All significant transactions were recognized in the proper period, so that's good. We call out sensitive disclosures. So, of course, one of those would be the departure from the lease standard and the environmental contingency. The financial statements were neutral, consistent and clear. So that's good. We had no difficulties performing the audit. Standards require that we accumulate all the statements, communicate them to you. Management's corrected all the statements and the material ones will be on a schedule that we'll get to. We had no disagreements with management, so that's always good. We received all the required representations from management. From time to time, a client will disagree with their auditor, get a second opinion, happy to report that didn't happen. We discuss other findings or issues, and we'll get to that in the communication letter. Other matters, this goes over things that aren't the basic financial statements, management discussion and analysis. It's a good summary of the audit and pension schedules. We inquire of management about how it's prepared and We don't express an opinion on it. With respect to the other supplementary information, that's the budgetary schedules in the back. It's basically a cash only version of your financial statements. We compared and reconciled that to the underlying records and that goes over the governance letter. Next, we'll get into The communication letter. So this just kind of goes over things we found in the audit. So these things are divided by things that are material. It just deals with internal controls. So it's kind of if you have an audit adjustment, you get a letter. The size is what differentiates you between material and significant. So first, it was just a reclass. There was some insurance proceeds. We reclass them from liability to revenue. The next was there was a missing note receivable for a building sale. and the related assets hadn't been relieved from the trial balance. So that was the first one. With these findings always comes a recommendation. We just recommend a review of material transactions at year end. Next, when we were looking at receivables, we noted that there was No analysis for the allowance for doubtful accounts. That's kind of that cushion, that expectation of receivables that will actually come in. So that was adjusted a little bit. So with that always comes a recommendation. We recommend a closing checklist that prompts someone to look at that at various periods of the year. And that goes over the audit letters. Next, we'll get into the audit report. So once again, we've performed an audit of financial statements and the notes. And key, in our opinion, except for the matter described below, that's that departure from GAAP for the lease standard. The financial statements present fairly in all material respects in accordance with GAAP. So, we conducted our audit with generally accepted auditing standards. We're required to be independent, meet our ethical responsibilities. We believe the audit evidence we obtained was sufficient and appropriate. We've already discussed GASB 87. And we don't estimate the amount that this departure would affect the assets and revenues if it was implemented. So next gets into responsibilities. So management's responsible for the preparation and presentation of the statements and for the design, implementation, and maintenance of internal controls. The next sentence just gets into going concern. Of course, there's no issue with that. Management makes a conclusion, as do we later on in this report. So our objective is to obtain reasonable assurance and to issue a report. This next paragraph just gets into the definition of reasonable assurance, the risk of fraud versus error, and the definition of material misstatement, which is just a user would make a different judgment if that misstatement stands. In performing our audit, we exercise our judgment. We identify and assess the risks of misstatement and then we design audit procedures responsive to those risks. And that's examining things on a test basis for amounts and disclosures on the financials. To do that, we obtain an understanding of internal control. We walk through transactions where we look for segregation of duty, dual control over assets, and then we'll go back and we'll test those controls and then we'll test those amounts and balances. We also evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies, reasonableness of estimates, and the overall presentation. of the financial statements and then we too conclude if there's an issue with going concerned of course there's not uh we're required to communicate with those in charge of governance which of course is you uh any significant audit findings and internal control related matters and that was that that communication letter that we went over uh Next, this just goes over the required supplementary information. That's the management discussion analysis in the front of the statements and the pension footnotes. It's not a part of the basic financials, but it is required by the government accounting standards board who considers it essential. So we apply limited procedures to those two schedules. We inquire about the methods to prepare. We look for consistency. We do not express an opinion on it. Other information, this is the budgetary schedules that we're discussing the kind of cash only schedules, if you will, at the back, it's the responsibility of management and it was derived and relates directly to the underlying accounting records. That that information has been subject to auditing procedures. Including comparing and reconciling it to the basic financials. And in our opinion, that information is fairly stated on all material respects as well. So that's good. Last paragraph is kind of an extra. That state of Oregon requires called the Oregon minimum standards. We've issued a report about the compliance under those standards as well. And the purpose of that report is just to describe our scope and testing for compliance. Next, we get into the management discussion analysis, kind of a good overall summary of how the year went. Good summary information here, not as detailed as the financial statements themselves. And then we'll get to the actual financials. So, you guys are active commission, you know, these numbers as well. So I'll just be super brief. Cash is up for the year. There was a large insurance settlement that came in. Receivables are up. We kind of just discussed receivables. There's a fairly large one for Next Energy. Let's see here. So fixed assets are down a little bit. Depreciation and deletions exceeded purchasing. Yeah. Pretty simple reason there. Receivables from other organizations. This just includes that additional note receivable that you got from the sale of the building. Liabilities. So fairly consistent. Nothing to report there. notes just going down by normal amortization uh environmental uh obligation uh no change from the prior year i think the the plan is to start work on that later and then that position just what's left over after assets less liabilities we'll see that on the next page Rents up a bit. Normal CPI adjustments. Personnel expense going up as it does each year with CPI increases to wages. Materials and services, those expenditures are down. There's a lot more of uncapitalizable maintenance in the prior year. And then next exciting item would just be the insurance settlement. And that kind of offset some operational losses to give you a positive change in position. I'll be super brief on statement of cash flows. This is basically just taking out the effect of accruals and just showing purely cash. So, of course, if you have a large receivable, you don't have that money yet. So this number would be lower than normal. you know, revenue under accrual basis. These numbers, it just takes into account the swings in payables. So just takes out the effect of AP and so forth. And of course, acquisitions of capital assets, you don't see those on the P&L, but they are cash outflows. So you can see them here and see their effect. AND THEN THIS JUST SIMPLY RECONCILES JUST THE OPERATING INCOME LOSS TO THE CASH PROVIDED BY ACTIVITIES. OF COURSE, WE'VE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT NOT ALL TRANSACTIONS ARE CASH, SO DEPRECIATION IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT NUMBER. AND ALSO A SWING IN RECEIVABLES IS GOING TO CHANGE THAT NUMBER. SO THAT KIND OF GOES OVER THE STATEMENTS. WE'LL GET INTO THE FOOTNOTES NEXT. So footnote A, no change there, just nice description of the organization itself. And as we said on the governance letter, there's no change to your accounting policies for the year. So we can kind of briefly pass by these. This is the sensitive footnote, the departure from GAAP. It's okay, it's fairly common. Next, we'll go to page 14. Just a brief discussion about your cash position and where it sits, whether it's in the local government investment pool or in the checking account. Sometimes there's a restriction on cash. It's not the case right now. Next, we'll get to page 15. It's kind of a brief summary of the receivables. Just this shows the allowance. So the court's been conservative and has set up an allowance for receivables to kind of decrease that expectation of receipt. Receivables from other organizations. Of course, you just see a number on the balance sheet, but this kind of describes what they are, who owes you. This footnote is always a good one. It gives you that what happened, the detail behind the changes in capital assets, additions and transfers and deletions. Footnote G, just a good description, summaries of each of your debt items, followed by just like in capital assets, a nice kind of summary of what happened to all your different debt. And then also the individual future amortizations for all your upcoming principal and interest payments for debt. Next, the pension footnote. This is about 12 pages of things that's out of management's control. These numbers come from the actuaries that do the work for PERS, and it kind of goes over your liability for retirements. And that'll take us all the way to page 29. No changes to those footnotes. This goes over sick leave and so forth. This is the footnote about your environmental remediation liability. Just some history, how GAAP treats it. Next, we get into the lease Standard this is the, the old least standard. Kind of shows some, some future expected collections from lease. This just goes over over expenditure. Anytime you go. 10% over your, your budgeted amount for a certain category just has to show up in a footnote. We'll see that on the budgetary schedules. And that covers the footnotes. Next we'll get into this, the supplementary information. This is the pension schedule that is not very interesting to most folks. So I'll breeze by that. As I said, I'll try to be brief. I know this isn't super exciting stuff for you guys. Next, we get into the this is the the budget to actual. The actual numbers here are just on a cash basis, just cash in, expenditures out. And this reconciles it back to the basic financial statements up at the front. Of course, in the budgetary, since it's cash only, anything that you spent for capital assets would have been an expense. So this reconciles you back to the net position in the front. So You know, you're basically adding back all those expenses and the reverse is true for debt and environmental remediation. So this is just how you get from the fund balance up to the basic financial statements. And very lastly, The report Oregon requires this just kind of goes over your compliance with the Oregon minimum standards. We do some procedures here. We're looking for making sure deposits are in compliance with the Oregon minimum standards. We look at the budget process. Make sure that you're giving all the required notices and filing all the correct forms. We look at insurance. We look at. Grants from this funding from outside sources that might have some conditions or requirements there. And public contracts and purchasing that's just. We're looking at the bidding process, making sure you're getting enough bids on expenses that are over that bidding threshold, and nothing to report on that compliance. So overall, audit went well. I usually open it up for any questions that folks may have at this point, and then I let you get back to the rest of your agenda.

So thank you, Eric. I, my one question is how many hours of work does this represent?

Uh, uh, hundreds.

Yeah.

It's, uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's quite an endeavor, but, um, you know, it's always great working with, uh, Sean, Bob guy, get me everything I need. And it's, it's no small, it's no small lift. We ask for a lot. Uh, we're annoying and, uh, they put up with us every year with, uh, smiling faces and everyone's super nice. So always a pleasure. It's been great working with you all over the years.

To be clear, Sean did not provide much information.

I tried to give you a little credit there. Yeah, it's mostly Bob and Guy.

Yeah, I should point out that some of you may know this is our last audit with Kern and Thompson. They are getting out of the municipal audit business. Is that safe, Eric, or just us?

No, no. It's so in order to do municipal audits, you have to it requires a specialized license and our our quality control for for an engagement this size. That's a muni. And for all engagements, you know, big cities, big ports, things of that nature. It really takes you have to have two partners. And we had a retirement. Congratulations to Rick. But, you know, we we, too, have our internal controls. Right. So I need someone looking over my shoulder just just like you guys do. And and without that, we we don't we don't meet our our ethical and our standards. So. So it's unfortunate, but yes, we're no longer doing ports and cities. It really does take that second set of eyes that we don't have anymore. So it's unfortunate, but it's been great working with you guys. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.

How many years have you been doing our audits?

Oh, shoot. Probably, I don't know. I would say since... Maybe Bob can help me out. Probably like 2012 or something like that. We've been doing it.

I was going to say 10, but yeah, maybe it's 15.

One interesting thing to note, a guy and I were talking with Eric earlier this week on a call, and I wrote this down, that the audit is not an internal control, right? They're not... it's not a gotcha that's they're testing our internal controls. So yeah, they, they're pretty careful about what they do. So yeah, for us to think that they're going to catch things is that they're just testing our processes. So they may not always be able to catch things.

That's why I have some other. A question on that note, I saw the accounts payable note or the accounts payable module note. Is that something that we will have with the work that guys, the software work that you're doing?

come up.

Sure.

Was that for me? The guy's making his way.

Eric, go ahead if you want to speak to it. I'm a better person. Eric, would you like to explain?

Let me turn up my volume a little bit.

Yeah, I was asking Guy more specifically about, I think there's a $250,000 budget item for software. Does that include an accounts payable module in it is really what I was getting at.

The software would be for this coming fiscal year. Yeah, it would include that. But I believe what Eric's talking about is the accruals that you're in for FY25 with accounts payable. Is that... Oh yeah.

It's just a suggestion. You know, we, we, we throw out suggestions. It's always helpful to have that, that, uh, that basically module gives, gives you the aging of, you know, how, how long it's sat in accounts payable. And, uh, you know, a guy and Bob work around it. They, they know the checks written after, after year end, um, And so it's, you know, we get comfortable with the number. It's just, you know, one of those extra things that it would be nice to have. It's kind of a tips, tricks, and hints that we throw out as well. You know, we're trying to add value for you guys. So we throw out suggestions. You can take it or leave it, you know, but we throw it out there.

I usually take it. Yeah.

I guess my question is, are we going to be able to implement that? Right, right, right.

Yeah, I know everything would be better if it's not.

Cool. Any more questions for Guy or for Eric? Anybody? Well, Eric, thank you for walking us through that. We really appreciate all your years of service. I think I'll speak for myself in a way we're sorry to be losing your services.

Well, we're sorry to lose you guys as a client. It's been a great run, and we've enjoyed working with you all over the years. We really have. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Have we been looking for someone else? Has that process already started? Yes.

Yeah, I assume. Yes. Okay. Well, stay tuned. It sounds like.

Yeah.

Okay. Moving along here. Bob, I think you're up with the ordinance 2026-01, first reading. Read it. Yes. Thank you.

What's happening up there on that screen? Good job, Sam.

Okay, good morning commissioners. This is the first reading of our no fishing ordinance, which. Let's see some guys fishing on there. Technically, in case you were wondering, we don't have to read the whole ordinance. I think we could do the, my, my belief is that we can do the title only and that qualifies. So we don't have to sit here and do the whole thing. So this is a no fishing ordinance at Scafus Bay Marina. First reading, so it requires two readings, so we'll come back again next month to finalize it. Unless there are substantial changes, then we have to start over, basically. Okay, so what this is about, as we talked about, fishing creates hazards for feedable, for vessels, and for marine infrastructure. As they're casting, you know, that picture you saw by the gangway there, they're often coming into the marina boundary and then casting towards the dock or touching the dock. You know, we have a lot of photos of them, you know, being right next to that honeypot sewer system that's right there. So it's really, it's not a safe situation. Slide up. Here is what will be the no fishing zone. It's interesting that this has been the no fishing zone for 15 years by port resolution. Now we're making it a formal no fishing ordinance. Slide. Fortunately, there is a fishing zone, a yes fishing zone.

That's on the other side of that line. It's confusing. Yes, no fishing zone might indicate there's no zones about fishing in there. We can put it.

We thought about it. We went with that no on the ordinance.

Okay, okay.

This is all no. Again, from that line to the rest of the world is yes. It's what it feels about us. As far as the work inside the fish away.

There's definitely some no fishing.

I was going to say. Are there some ordinance? Yeah, from the line that way is fishing. You're allowed to fish. Why an ordinance? Well, the no fishing resolution really hasn't worked. I think there's two parts to this. It sends a really clear message. It's a one-page ordinance that is enforceable as an ordinance. And we get into resolution is more policy. Ordinance is more rule. It's a little stronger. And it's enforceable under ORS 777. That's it. Wow.

And so how do you make this boundary visible? Do you have buoys?

It is. You have that exact same sign that you saw, the no fishing zone, is already posted there. Well posted.

It's more enforceable. And that zone matches up with some buoys in the water so that people can clearly see.

It does. They can arrive.

the commissioner Buell's question um more enforceable meaning law enforcement will act on an ordinance most more likely than a resolution yes and we can also act on that ordinance right yeah so just a question on process that um now there is an ordinance and it can be lawfully upheld who cites these individuals if there is somebody how does that how does that work

Just you, Bob.

Speaking for the Marina staff, I think that would be a verbal warning, I think, and then an escalation. to a notice and then ultimately a citation and involving authorities. It's the Oregon State Police.

The Oregon State Police could then cite folks. Okay, that's my question. I'm really mindful of not wanting to get staff and altercations down there with people. That's my, you know, because that has led to, and I totally get them and why they want to, but... We don't want to get ourselves in a situation where there's some type of physical altercation, even verbal. Obviously, you're verbally going to have to tell somebody, but after that, I just want to know the steps. And if it's to call the police, then fine.

Yeah, what I wondered about is if they come in on a boat, they're out in the water, how do they deal with that?

You'd have to get the numbers off the side of the vessel and then report that to Oregon State Police.

Right. And if they don't come in to?

I think that'd be pretty a rarity, I think. But yeah, understood. Any other questions?

Not for me. All right. We'll see you next month on this one. Thank you. Thank you.

OK, we took care of our earlier resolution there with Amy. And now our resolution 2026-15, Lacey, the east side pavement maintenance.

A new resolution from 615 in 2025. Airport engineer consultant Century West submitted a federal FAA grant application on behalf of the report for phase one. We're moving into phase two of this. Following a public invitation to bid, we're getting the bids reviewed under the FAA. requirements, which direct selection of the lowest at the lowest cost of the most responsible bidder Western United. So it seems to be the instruction company for the runway rehabilitation was also selected. So this project will coincide with the runway rehab project. To align with projects to happen at the same time, and I would like to note that the East Side pavement maintenance requires no additional closure. So recommendation of adoption of Resolution 2026-15 authorizing Executive Directors Clark to execute the contract with Western United Civil Group for the Eastside Pavement Maintenance Project.

So moved. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Lacey. Elliot, you're up. Resolution 2026-16. Get the money. The answer is yes.

Good morning, Commissioners. Resolution 2026-16 authorizes the port to apply for and set aside matching funds for a U.S. Maritime Administration Port Infrastructure Development Program, or PIDP, discretionary grant. For fiscal year 2026, PIDP will have roughly $489 million available for grant recipients. PIDP is aimed at improving port operating efficiency, funding programs that improve the loading and unloading of goods at a port, facilitate the movement of goods into, out of, and around or within a port, fund operating improvements including projects that improve port resilience, projects that support environmental and emissions mitigation, And finally, projects that support seafood and seafood-related businesses. Applications are due on June 1st. We're going to try and get ours in on May 29th just to allow for any technical issues. Slide. As we've discussed quite a few grants applications over the past 10 months or so, I thought I'd quickly recap the grants we've applied for and their current status. The first one listed is the Connect Oregon 9, which we were awarded about a year ago. Protect was a federal grant that was reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation and has not been released. Unfortunately, they withdrew that also after we had largely completed our work on that application. The next two are the PIDP Fiscal Year 2025 and the Rural Tribal Assistance or RTA grant applications. Those were not successful. However, last Friday we had our PIDP Fiscal Year 2025 debrief with MARAD and learned that there were 186 applicants that applied to that program, totaling $3 billion of requests. 97 applicants made it to the Secretary of Transportation's desk for the final review. Of those 97, 37 were chosen. So our application made it to the Secretary's desk, so we were one of the 97 that were reviewed, but unfortunately we were not one of the 37 selected. However, we do have the opportunity now of taking that debrief and understanding areas that we can work on and strengthen and hopefully you know, get ourselves to be one of the 37. The program is $300 million less this fiscal year, and so it will be more competitive. The next two doses are still pending. One is the billed fiscal year 2026, and then the Connect Oregon number 10. So the reason I referred to Grant County today earlier was that our intended scope of work for fiscal year 2026 PIDP grant mirror what we've applied for in our prior fiscal 2025 PIDP and bill grant applications. Slide, please. The three components of our applications are planning, permitting and design for the modernization and seismic improvements of both berths, extending the pipe bridge through the lagoon and demolition of sufficient area to mitigate the pipe bridge extension. Next slide. So this slide depicts the planning, permitting and design portion of the project. we will permit the replacement and modernization of berth two, the unimproved sections of berth one, and the two approaches and associated groundwork and the pipe bridge extension. So on this slide, you can see the replacement sections in orange and pink. The B line across the lagoon represents the pipe bridge extension, and the brown boxes on the shoreline represents groundwork. Again, this slide is showing you the permitting portion of the project. Slide. So this slide depicts the physical construction of this phase. So in this, we have extending the pipe bridge and placing the product pipelines, vapor recovery, and inert gas lines on the new structure, which is shown in blue. Once done, the pipelines will sit on a seismically designed modern structure in the lagoon, off the old wooden dock and away from passing vessels in the navigation channel. Another benefit is that once we've relocated those pipelines, we'll have more flexibility for implementing future phases of the project. Groundwork at the base of the 2024 pipe bridge is shown here in brown, that brown box that's on the shore side of the new pipe bridge and the downstream approach. And the final component was the demolition of the rail trestle or downstream remaining section into downstream approach as required to mitigate the height bridge extension.

Okay. Slide. Billy, by mitigation, are you talking about just to get it out of the way or actual environmental mitigation? Environmental shape. Okay. So that will cover the... Yeah. Okay.

So how much will this cost? So for PIDP and build, the budget was around $25 million. However, that budget was based on a single pipeline, and we may want to add product lines to the scope and different diameter. So, for example, at Connect Oregon, we did four by 14-inch pipelines, and I've communicated to our tenants saying, do you want to go to 20-inch or what do you want to do with that building? We're still working on that application and tenant matches. And for this reason, I drafted the resolution based on a $27 million budget while we finalize these figures. PIBP requires a 20% match. However, as with our other grant applications, the size of our match will be considered when they evaluate the application. And to date, we've managed to achieve at least 40% matches by including very strong tenant commitments. So our hope is to have similar commitments for this application. So based on a $27 million budget and subject to tenant matches, Our grid application will be between $15 and $22 million. The ports match would come from our Connect Oregon grant, and if necessary, we have the Port Westward Capital Improvement Fund available. Slide. Staff recommends that the Commission approve Resolution 2026-16, which authorizes our grant application and sets aside up to $5.5 million, including our $2.7 million Connect Oregon grant for uses matching funds. Thank you for listening. Do you have any questions?

Do we know what we're going to do if we don't get the grant?

We'll have to keep trying, but eventually the clock will ring out. And we already have the funding to start the pipe bridge extension, which is the piles and caps from the Connect Oregon. So we've actually started the permitting of that portion with the aim of putting those piles and caps in place. Next, getting their permits will, of course, affect funding availability and things like that as well. So there's a lot of balls being juggled, that's for sure.

That's the problem. And so you say that the Fed money has already been reduced. Is that secure money now? Is that known? Or will that change when their new budget goes into effect?

Well, fiscal 2027 is not known yet. Right, that's what you're asking. So, yes, there's no guarantee.

There's no guarantee. That is not solid. Yes. On that amount of money. Okay.

A lot of this is aiding our tenants. Because under these agreements, capital improvements for that. So we're working very hard to give them good support on this. And that's why I heard last grant's applications are matched with the Connect Oregon, and they actually made up the rest of the needs to touch our Westwood Capital Improvement Fund.

Did Beaver help all the – you've told me this before, but did they put that on the new pipe bridge, or did they move that entirely?

The Beaver plant is on the new pipe bridge and then cuts across Berth 2, sort of gets to the dock, makes a hard left and a hard right, and then goes back to a new – And that wouldn't be affected, but. Ultimately it would be, not the part on our new pipe bridge, but we would have to do something about that pathway if and when birth two is demolished and replaced.

Thank you. Just one thing, one, I appreciate the kind of the table that shows all the different grants because it's been, you remember all those, super helpful. What happens in the, scenario that we get the build grant and this one for the same scope.

That's a great problem to have. There's a couple avenues we could take. We would have to talk to the feds about that. There could be a de-scoping or we could maybe apply and expand our project and start tackling some of the other issues.

That's what I was hoping to hear.

Plan Z. I'm hoping for that.

And we have a strong DCA, which is the benefit-cost analysis. I mean, there's a lot of competition, there's no doubt. But, you know, that's a big part of our rating is what is the return. We have a strong one. In fact, on the PIDP, the Maritime Administration actually increased our score. They didn't give us the specifics of how. feeling it has to do with some changes that we did on our second BCA, which we had to redo our BCA because the use of the facility changed. We were doing renewable diesel. We transitioned to ethanol. So first BCA had to be redone to accomplish because it's a different trading pattern. One is domestic cabotage trade. Ethanol is largely export.

Thank you. You asked my question and Nancy did part as well. So I don't have anything further. I really appreciate everybody's hard work on this. It looks like quite an endeavor. Chip, do you have anything before we move along or good?

Okay. Well, hey, thank you very much. I would move approval of resolution 2026-16. Second. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

You're up. All right. Executive director report.

I've got my report over there. Pull that up. I do have my calendar in front of me. Coming. Hopefully.

One thing I want to, yes, there we go again. In front of you or just handed around the community outreach events sign up. Please sign up early and often. We don't want one person doing them all. So yeah, any of those that you'd like to sign up for, please do. And if those get a sign out, the list out to everybody. All right, slide. Busy month last month. But the big one, obviously we went to DC. You can see the stuff on there. Go ahead, Sam. Next slide. We are in D.C., do our thing. There's Steve Kopecky. He's way up there in Northwest Division of the Corps. He's very influential in what makes its way up from, you know, we're in the Portland District, and he has Portland, Walla Walla, Seattle. There's one more that he's responsible for. Challenging times in D.C., the Corps, because they're part of the Department of Defense, are part of the gag order. They're not able to talk to legislators or other agencies, which... as you can imagine, created quite the stir because PNWA is trying to get information from the Corps because PNWA lobbies for the Corps, and we need to know what they, you know, for their work plans, what they need, and they've been not very communicative. And, you know, not by their own decisions, but just by the policies that have been handed down. So that's been really frustrating for D.C. We heard it in all the offices. Representative Bonamici lamented the fact as well. You can see us there. Guy made the trip for Iwako doing dual duty and working on his laptop feverishly while we were in D.C. Yeah, we had a really good time with meeting with our representatives and their staff. I mean, we didn't get reps this year. We did get their staff, which I think was even more helpful because we had some points to clear up on some issues with Bonamici's office regarding the next project. So we were able to meet with a high-ranking staffer there, and he was very appreciative of the information we were able to share. Slide. Yeah, there we are. I did actually moderate for Suzanne Bonamici when she came in to the room, so that was kind of nice. You know, she's part of so many different caucuses. It's amazing, uh, that how they navigate their days with all the stuff that they're involved in. And of course, you know, we get a little slice of their day where they come in and get a talk, you know, some fun stuff, things that are, people are doing stuff, ports and the river, uh, maritime community. So they're usually very responsive and engaging when they come and see us and appreciative. And of course we have the, uh, The Tuesday night Taste of the Northwest where we invite all the Oregon, Washington, Idaho delegations and their staff to a room and treat them to Pacific Northwest treats and drinks. And that's always well attended. I think they said 400-ish people this time. Nancy, you've been there. You've seen that. Robert, I think you've had a taste of the Northwest. What did we provide? We got some Crooked Creek beer.

Oh, good.

Yeah. And donated, by the way. So that was nice of Dave down at Crooked Creek to do that. As soon as I told him what the event was, he was like, how much do you want? Wow, that's great. We do have to ship it. Next slide, please. There we are in the halls and the bowels of D.C. there. I'm introducing Representative Bonamici, standing in one of my sets of Supreme Court there. Interestingly, I'm kind of starting to get my bearings in D.C. a little better, my third trip, but I'm still like, I don't know which direction it's at. Of course, we've stayed in three different hotels now, too, so trying to get your bearings from where those are at. So, I... I like these trips. It is a grind. Tuesday, oh, my gosh. Tuesday, we were up 7 a.m., beat downstairs to get an Uber to get over there by 7.30 to get in position by 8, get through security. So we started, you know, be ready in position by 8.15. And we didn't leave until after 6.

We got up to meet with their half an hour at a time.

A couple of cancellations, which was okay. Okay. But, yeah, it was a grind. And, you know, day two, you're still getting used to the time change. And so it's fun, though. I like the not just only the networking, but getting with the staffers, because I think I've shared before, I'm just amazed at how much energy these young people have. And there's a lot of young people in these offices. It's encouraging to me that people are engaged in politics. I'm involved in politics, too. you know listen to the talk radio late 20s driving to work and feeling like an old man then i didn't know anything but these kids yeah they know they know how to navigate politics which is really neat slide please Larry, I'm at the Maritime Commerce Club annual State of the Ports. Commissioner Sorber came along to that, along with Lindsey. I think Lindsey's going to try to do the presentation next year as it's an annual deal. And we will let you guys know, one or more of you want to go, or one or two of you want to go to this. It's a good chance to hear about what the other ports on the river are doing. hear their takes on, you know, Portland and Port of Vancouver are tied a little more to tariffs and things like that. So it's interesting to hear that component of port talk. Like we've talked before, you've seen one port, you've seen one port. Some of us have similar issues, but still there's a lot of different issues that come up and they tend to, you know, Clamma, Longview, Portland and Vancouver are definitely the big ones, you know, the big cats in the cat box, I guess. Next slide, please. That's it. Let's see. Currently, we have nothing scheduled for a second meeting this month. And I know we're starting to get into the nice weather. We do have the opportunity to continue forward with Mr. Knight, Jim Knight, working towards a contract with me. But I want to make sure if we do set something up with him on a second meeting that everybody could make it. So if an evening meeting may be More difficult for a 2nd meeting. I just, I can reach out to you independently too. If we want to try to do a morning meeting, or we could fund until June. We don't have to this. Nothing's on fire with this right at this 1 point with the contract situation. Understood. So I'll find out. I'll talk to you guys all and we'll see if I know we want to make sure we get good representation there for those conversations. Also, along the lines of second meetings, we've talked a lot about using them as education. And I want to convolute this with it, but getting a port retreat ready independent of a port. where we get everybody together and my hope would be to go site by site and do just a little bit of visioning, a little education, history and visioning on sites for a retreat and then kind of help us to decide where we want to start focusing capital for the next few years on each of these sites that have a lot of needs. So yeah, second meetings, good prospect for those. Any questions?

I'm like, Cal?

I do not. I looked at, I'll definitely reach out, at least with signing up for these outreach events.

One other thing, actually, I need to inform you publicly that I have a, here, a contractor, a professional services contractor, P&D Engineering, who is working on the pipe bridge engineering for us. It is $67,000, $67,749. for our rule i will send you an email also with this and i'll actually pass the contract for you to see um just let you know it's within my signing authority it's what we're working on here with the the improvements okay thank you well thank you sean i think we're moving on to commissioner reports

I don't have anything to add, but just a couple questions on the staff reports. Sounds like Arcadia kind of changed our access. Is that something we've been through with them?

Or are we just... City, yeah. We have a shared chain with locks. We just need to get our own lock or get a key to whatever lock. I don't think they're trying to keep us out. They were just... They did something without communicating to the city or us.

If I understood correctly, we had originally wanted to use that access as the main access to the site. That kind of changed the... Permanent idea there or the long-term plan there?

I'll circle back with John Walsh on a couple of these because we've already looked at some diagrams and with the substation getting reworked, there was a clear path. So I want to make sure that that's still the case or if it's changed what it is, if it's hopefully better, if it's changed.

And then I was just curious, how was the SelectUSA deal?

Yeah, it was good. It was interesting. It was less intended than it has been in the past, but the connections with the community partners and the economic development organizations across the country was really beneficial, which is not why you go, but it's a secondary. Extra benefit, yeah.

And then finally, the BDIC meeting, which we had kind of chatted about beforehand. How was the bylaws update handled?

I would say it's moving forward slowly. Mr. Salisbury is a steep member of the advisory committee.

That was my bit. I kept saying Elliot nominated me. But we're meeting again on June 9th.

Okay, so.

It was lengthy.

We were there for a long time that evening. Nice to see some progress on that. I don't have anything else.

Thank you. Something for the executive session.

I'm just curious. You mentioned, Sean, that you have some ideas in mind for solving the removal of nests at the marina. Is that enough for you to share?

No, no, no, no. Work with the kids, not removal of nests. I was thinking more along the lines with their project going forward with nests. But I think... Mr. Buble had the best point is, you know, they're out there for very long. Maybe we can wait. Of course, you know, it was a private boathouse that we had no involvement in the sale of or, you know, notice of that happening. So it wasn't like it was a port project that we did.

So we don't have any control over what somebody does with their private boathouse in that respect, right? We obviously have some standards around.

If we had it in our lease.

Yeah, true.

Thanks. I don't want some swallows. It could be continued at that, certainly.

There's some time and place for it, but I'm sure the school doesn't allow the swallow nests on their buildings either.

I just want to thank you to the kids for speaking and for participating in the public process and that we would follow up with them. I know that one of the children's father is already building a birdhouse. So we'll work with them to find an appropriate place for that. And then maybe reach out to, I'm trying to think like there's Audubon Society, you know, we could connect them too with some nonprofits that might help them further their education kind of around how to advocate for wildlife in general and all work together.

I was wondering if there was somewhere we could encourage more nest building, not on buildings that we don't have any control over. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have birdhouses around my property. The residents see them, no problem.

No of the swallows. Some want to build the mud type. Understood.

I'll share the recording with the teacher so she can hear this conversation. Thank you for engaging.

It was a crude idea, but I had this idea for like a a high-ish wall somewhere where they could be encouraged to go and build. I'm sure they've got some areas, some space where they want to, so I don't know if that would even work.

But Audubon would... Internet Habitat nearby, maybe they could work with, reach out to Audubon to suggest some ideas that we could incorporate down there.

Cool. I'm not sure I agree with more of their assumptions, but reaching out to Mission was a great idea, and they should do that. I'd love that.

It's really neat that they did that. I sent them, yep, the kids and the teacher, I sent them a congratulations, you did a great job email and a text just now. So I will keep on that too. Thank you. If you watch this, children and teacher, thank you. Thank you, commissioners.

Okay, I think I'm up, I guess. I did attend the Maritime Commerce Center breakfast with Sean and Amy, and I found it to be quite informative. Actually, I got to meet some old co-workers there as well. It was really good. I like seeing all different port stuff and who's kind of got what going on. I highly suggest going to one. It was good. I had a really good time there, and I plan on attending more in the future. So that's kind of my report. Would you like me to read the... You're going to read this? Yeah, you're the script guy. Yes.

Port of Columbia County will now meet an executive session pursuant to ORS 660, Subsection 2E, to deliberate what persons designated to negotiate real property transactions, as well as 2Fs to consider examining public records, including written legal advice by Port General Counsel. It says... Representatives of the news media and designated staff are allowed to attend. Representatives of the news media are specifically directed not to report on any of the discussions in this or any executive sessions. The Port Commission will return to open session after the executive session. We do not expect to announce any decisions. Any persons excluded from executive session are welcome to return to open session when it is resumed. Thank you.

Okay, meeting adjourned.