City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 6 o'clock and I will call the meeting to order. Clerk, please take the roll call. Mayor, can we just hold on one moment? I'm pulling it up on YouTube. Okay. Let me know when you're ready. Okay. Mayor Frederick here. Deputy Mayor Winkler present. Council member Elliot here. Council member Walton here. Council member Gassik here. Council member Wargo. Council member Barl here. and council member Thakur, we have a quorum. Please stand for the pledge of

allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First tonight, before we get into the public comments, Chief Gilly has a special presentation. Mr. Mayor, thank you, council members, everybody in attendance. Uh, tonight, uh, I would like to invite somebody up. U, this person has hit a major milestone within our fire department. uh he knows that he got a handshake, but he deserves more than a handshake. He deserves absolute recognition. So, if I could pull up Captain Tim Holand.

All right. Yeah. You didn't know I was doing this, did you? Not until I saw the tank.

I hope you prepared a speech. So tonight we recognize Captain Tim Holand for 20 years of dedicated service to DuPont Fire Department in the community that we proudly serve. 20 years in the fire service is just more uh more than just time on the job. It represents missed holidays uh represents long nights, difficult calls, training, leadership, and a commitment to taking care of others no matter the situation. Over those two decades, Tim has been a steady presence for the fire department, helping shape the culture, mentoring firefighters and serving the community with professionalism and pride. And after 20 years at DuPont, Tim has gone from the old station all the way to the new station. So, he's seen a lot of changes, new rigs, new equipment, new firefighters. And uh outside of you, I think there's only one other person that is still with Dupont Fire Department right now that you originally started with, if I remember correctly, outside of Mike. So Tim is uh definitely putting his time in. He knows these guys inside and out. And you know, a few of the things he probably uh doesn't really care for is uh you know, some of the policy updates he's pretended to read from our Lexipool manual, but uh I'll forgive him for that. So outside of that tonight, I'd like to present Tim on behalf of the city of DuPont and Dupont Fire Department and everyone you worked alongside with over the years. Uh thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your loyalty and your service. We appreciate everything you've done for this department and the people who call DuPont home. So Captain or Captain Holland,

congratulations. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and read the plaque real quick. It says, "Duon Fire Department recognizes Captain Tim Holand for 20 years of service, dedication, and leadership. Thank you for your commitment to protecting life, property, and for leading with integrity, and for serving with pride. Your career reflects our mission to provide professional service with compassion and integrity, making a lasting difference within the department and our community with respect and gratitude 2006 to 2026." Yeah, Tim, thank you. Oh, you're a few words. I have nothing.

No. Uh, thank you. Uh, there's been a lot of changes in 20 years and uh it's kind of weird looking back seeing where you started, where you think you and thought you were going to be 20 years later and where you actually ended up and the changes, the good, the bad, the turnover. um some of the guys that have been here for a while and some of the new ones. So, it's pretty neat. It's fun. Thank you. Thank you for staying with us.

And now is the time for public comment. So, Cler, did anyone call in? No, we have no one online and I have no written comments. Okay, thank you. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to make public comments?

Okay, we'll move on. Um, at this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. I would like to amend it slightly to add an item uh 10.2 to give the council an opportunity to vote on whether or not they want to move forward with ELTAC funds. So it motion the motion would be approval as amended. Anyone want to make that? Okay. Uh council member Theor. I make a motion to approve the agenda with the amendment of 10.2. Okay. Council member Elliot. I'll second that.

Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. Oppose. Very good. Uh tonight uh under presentations the very first one item 6.1 is the historical society annual report and uh JR home will give that uh report for us tonight. Go ahead sir.

Yeah. Is the mic on, Jar? There we go. Sorry about that. Uh, I'll start over again. Good evening, mayor, city council, and staff. I'm Jar Holm, president of the Dean Historical Society. I'll be briefing you on our annual report. And my fellow board members, uh, Robin Barrow and Robin Wby are here also. If I could draw your attention to the slides, please. We're happy to report that our museum uh visitor c I'm sorry. Next slide, please. Happy to report that our museum visitor count is up from last year. Uh 71 visitors. Um this is due to better advertising for our events. Um more aggressive approach on social media and other other things. Um our volunteer hours are also up uh quite a bit. Um I actually didn't calculate it but it is up I would say I think it was over um 200 hours um from LA up from last year. Um while our board members provide uh many hours um we do have a lively core group that assists us with events and special projects. A few major activities um digitize uh digitization of the 1966 to 1976 uh weekly newspaper the villager. Uh we will provide uh online access for that soon. uh America's two America 250s out of many one a project designed to engage local museums uh in collecting and showcasing stories that reflect the diverse American experience.

We also um had a u traveling Buffalo Soldier display. Um we have involved oursel in this prior but um we beefed it up and um in involved ourselves with the uh coordinated with the Buffalo Soldier Museum in Tacoma and uh the event was a huge success. We look forward to doing that again. Next slide, please. Oh, major events. Yes. All right. Box car ribbon cutting in February. Uh more than 50 attended. Uh it was really good. really great to see um all the uh time and effort and funding put into um making this box car um a uh a visual uh another visual for our museum. Um that is going to you know draw and draw certain uh visitors to us. Um the cherry blossom tea in April, one of our most popular events. Fourth of July uh pancake breakfast again breaking records for attendance. Um we cleared over $4,000. So that that event seems to be um increasing attendance every year. The 1843 Fortnite Tour and Spooky Stores events. Uh we continue to have our local and regional talent um holding those events led by us author Steve Anderson and YouTuber Chris Stoddinger. I don't mean to demean Chris Dodger by saying YouTuber, but that is um out there. Um he is well known for that. Um he is very talented in many other ways, but that is um one reason why we asked him to come. It does draw. And by the way, we did it in the park and we had dropins as people were coming through the park um that jumped in. So we had a pretty good crowd for that. uh the Hudson Bay Heritage Day. Uh we made some changes with this event uh

holding it in conjunction with the fall farmers market. Uh this worked well. We'll continue to do that uh this year. Um we'll continue to grow an event that attracts visitors from all over the region and even out of state. Uh that is our goal uh to continue finding ways to uh grow this and and make it uh a nice attraction, nice herit heritage event. Next slide, please. All right. Um, sure everybody's aware of the American 250 uh events uh coming up this year. Um, ours, as I mentioned earlier, out of many one. Um, they not didn't include only museums, but for museums. Um the project was designed to challenge museums uh to engage their community in selecting an item or items that represent our American experience here in Deont. Uh the Dynamite Train won easily and uh will continue to be central to our America 250 messaging going forward. Next slide, please. All right. Uh here is um grants and awards and other revenue. Um we uh appreciate the funding that we've received. Absolutely. The continued support received from the city. Um there were also another $2,172 in grant and other grants. Um I didn't have the list. I apologize for that. But um we um I'm going to mention on I think the last or single last slide I'm going to mention what we're doing with um funding um going forward. Okay, next slide please.

All right. Uh this year's priorities and goals. Um it's already May, half the year is almost over, but uh did want to mention what we have had going on and going on presently and coming up um in the next uh 7 months of the year. Um next slide, please. Um reaching out to the community, obviously that is something that's a huge goal for us. Um finding ways uh to to do that. Uh we expect to increase museum traffic through um volunteer coordinators that we'll be advertising for soon. Something that we're going to try um it would uh a a good asset matter of fact a way that I came on to the historical society myself was through um word of mouth but there is an opportunity for us to advertise on Handshake which um university students are tied into specifically um who's who handshake is for it. It's a website like Indeed um where people can go on and find um internships and volunteering and jobs um and I plan on advertising for a volunteer coordinator, a social media coordinator and and also people for specific projects that we have at the museum uh for the benefit of the museum. Uh we'll also engage more with the public through new and uh unique events throughout the year. So, um, you may see a lot of it looked a lot of the same. Of course, we're going to continue doing things that are successful, but we're always going to be looking for ways to tweak those events to make them more successful, get more foot traffic, more foot traffic, engage the community more, um, and but then add add somewhere we can, right, without providing too much of a burden for our volunteers, right? Next slide, please. All right, preparing for growth. Uh we have a couple of new exhibits that are going to be opening up soon, hopefully

within the next 30 days. And um one is going to be the America 250. We have a committee that includes a couple of our um uh student uh board members and another student um and um our museum employee Zach Leiday is uh there are writing up um what will be on the display right now. They're currently doing the research and writing for that. And then uh we'll have a we have a case already uh set aside for that. And so that will be a new exhibit. In addition, um I'm working on a um expanding uh what we have for the uh Hudson Bay Company uh steamship SSB. Um I'll be expanding that and and um bringing in the fur trade display and that and and building a case there. And uh it's going to be it's going to be great. I'm going to bring some digitization into uh the museum uh with a with an exhibit um for the first time. So, and it'll be touch display. Um so that um I'm in the middle of working on that and I should have that done in the next uh 3 to four weeks. Uh we'll always advocate uh for our historical sites and look to increase public access. Uh we look forward to increased collaboration with local, regional and state museums and associations. Um that's something that um uh and the board would like to focus on um making connections uh where we can benefit for the benefit of um of both parties uh in in our local area and region. All right. Uh any questions? Council member Gaz. Good. Yes, thank you. I was curious and you might not have the answer for me and it's okay if you don't. If you've noticed any change or drop in the number of visitors since the change at the Dupont Silicon Road Barkstdale construction, have you had um

fewer visitors? Great question. Um it would always be something we're concerned about. Any changes in traffic? Yeah. Um I don't believe so. No. Um a lot of times our our visitors are already aware. I mean there is certain people that just happen by those are are definitely um a group of people. Um but a lot of times people have looked up our museum online and are coming here specifically for that. Okay. Just curious. Thank you. Great question. Thank you. Um Mayor Winkler, sorry.

I just want to thank you for the presentation tonight. I want to thank everyone on the board for the museum and what they do and all the volunteers. Uh it's great. You know, preserving history is so important and with all your work, you make Dupont a better place to live. And I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone here and all the volunteers out there who volunteer in support of this. Thanks. We appreciate that, Council Member Walton. Um yeah, I was just wondering how um how often do you have coordination with local elementary schools starting the ones here, Chloe Clark, that kind of piece to it? Yes. Um we've had one. Do we do one event?

Can I actually Okay. Sorry, I'm I'm the I'm I'm new to the position, so I'm not infinitely aware with all of last year, so go ahead. Um, yeah, I need a second. We'll get you on there, Council Member Barl.

Thank you. So, I just want to say this past year, we were very successful. We did a full day at Pioneer Middle School with the Buffalo Soldier display. We um were able to the whole school actually visited us during that day and that was really great. And then we were in Khloe Clark um just a few weeks ago actually um as part of their steam night. So we brought in um some museum pieces so they could uh be a part of that. So yes, we have we're we're moving better than we were before. So, thank you, Council Walton, you have a follow-up.

Um, yeah, I was just saying third, fourth, and fifth grade per state requirements do Native Americans, Westward expansion, and then fifth grade is US history. So, how nice to literally have a museum that could support all three of those areas of content, not just one. So, continue to reach out to those schools because I know kids actually love to go to museums. They learn a lot. They really do. So, thank you for that. Absolutely. We'll do. Thank you. Council member Elliot. Yeah. I just want to thank you also for for your slide on preparing for growth. I mean, I think that's really exciting that we are preparing for growth. Yes.

And I know that that one area we're looking to to add a space for the fire engine, the old fire engine, and the old police car and and some of the old tools. So, um I look forward to some new funding opportunities, too. So, go get them. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Takor,

I just wanted to say thank you and uh I think Deputy Mayor has done a good job of explaining thanks. So I'll just uh not repeat that all the things but uh I think history should be preserved and promoted. That is always uh my goal and thank you for doing so. But I have a follow-up question because we have a next uh 6.2 presentation on the tourism and event center. What are your thoughts about from the museum perspective? Do you think that uh if you move from there would be a great idea in a new location or would you prefer to just stay there and renovate it or what are because there's a old Ford leg site out here also? Is there a facility you would think might help uh for next 100 years to continue to preserve all the artifacts we have? And if you can't answer that's fine. I understand.

Yes. So, thanks Har. Appreciate the question. Um, that is absolutely something that I would have to discuss with my fellow board members. Um, but we would always look forward to any opportunities as they arose. Um uh I think we all with the board um if I may speak for them it I would say that um we're always looking to be a partner with the city rather than um I don't want to say a burden but uh instead of always asking for money it's about you know what can we do to um join in with what you're doing to make uh DePont a better place and u we just happen to work on the historical side of it so uh we want to be involved in anything um that comes up. Yes, sir.

I just want to add to that. It might come up to Mike so we can record it appropriately.

The the museum actually has a lot of items that we can't display because the museum simply isn't big enough for it. Um if there was, while we love the building that we're in, it would be nice to have something else. I just really like having the museum in the in the village though. That's that's all part of the history of it. Um, but if there was ever an opportunity to get more room to actually display some of the many many things that we also have, um, that would be wonderful. Thank you. Yeah, council member Takor. Go ahead.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. So, just a follow-up question for you. So I know what is the square footage right now? Uh you can say about 1,700 1,800 2,000 square feet for the museum. I have no idea. I'm not sure. Um something like that. So

Oh, go ahead. Uh so my follow-up question to that question also is that when you said that you need a little bit more room to uh display the artifacts properly. Uh what is that possible room size you will look for or square footage size you will look for in addition say you are 100% on your current uh square footage. Let's forget how many square footage you have. Would you need 20% more, 30% more square footage on it or maybe double the size? I'd say you probably know more of the collection. Yeah, I I would say maybe 40% more. Yes, I would agree. And that that would still leave some stuff in uh storage, but um

you can rotate then. And it would we'd be able to rotate things easier that way, too. You know, when stuff is in storage, you you kind of have to dig through to try and find all of it. And it's it's a big deal.

Yeah. I would say that um I'm uh I just graduated history and I'm going into museumology. So it's um I feel very appropriate for me to work with this museum. Um and I work look forward to helping in the future um with any any changes. But um I I look at what we have and we do not have much room to do rotational exhibits, you know, temporary exhibits. Um we are are really short on space. So when she mentions the stuff that's in storage, we would normally be bringing those things out and putting them up temporarily and rotating those things. So yeah, you don't always have everything on display. Um but you want to keep the museum fresh and exciting and new. Um otherwise you know if no if everybody knows that when they come to the museum it's the same old same old then you know there's nothing new to see then why are they coming? So um we lack that space right now and that does I feel um personally feel that it uh hurts our foot traffic.

Yeah I think I think I agree with you. You know the uh history is in a storage room really doesn't help anyone. So, thank you for answering my question. I really appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate your question. Any other questions for Mr. Holm? Well, Jar, thank you so much for the presentation. We appreciate it. Thank you, mayor. Thank you for your time.

Uh, next we have item 6.2, the tourism event center feasibility study part two. and uh Amy Walker is here tonight uh to get us started. Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Uh I will go ahead and uh kick that back to Keith.

Yeah, thank you, Amy. Thank you, mayor. I I just want to go ahead and kick this off. Um you know, first of all, I want to say that that when we present to council, it's really important that that we, you know, present in a way that's clear and concise and that the information is given in such a way that that the council understands what our purpose and objectives are. and and ultimately and looking back at last time I I don't think we accomplished that and I need to say that's that's on me. That's my responsibility to do that. So I want to acknowledge that and say you know the the purpose of this and to talk about why we're here and what the thought process was a little bit and then turn it over to the presentation. Um you know bottom line up front we're looking to get the council approval to move forward with phase two which would be the design and engineering of either option one or option two. And I want to step back and say what the purpose of this was and and why we're going this way a little bit just to try to be clear. Um what we looked at is we have a building that was built in 1935 that has been in a state of disrepair. Was there an opportunity to find resources that we could bring forward in such a way to renovate this space and to make it a community asset? And the opportunity was to use Pierce County ELTAC funds. Uh they are driven by something called beds and heads. So the idea would be a tourism and event center and could we justify through a study and that's what we're we're here tonight to show that there was a need and demand in our community to utilize these kind of spaces and and what the study had shown was a couple things that within 20 miles um there is a lack of similar spaces and that the hotels had said that they felt like they had lost opportunities for uh events here and had lost uh people coming to our community because they didn't have the event space that they needed. And when it's not being used as event space, we could use it for other community type events as well. So, the

idea was could we do something where we could benefit not only our residents but our our local businesses. And I think back to for some of you, you might remember this in December, the Chamber of Commerce put on its first big event, the wear blue. we were in a a local business's lobby. Um that's the space that's available and it was incredibly crowded and the reality is in talking with the Chamber of Commerce, there just really isn't many areas um that are available to have a gathering space of of that. So that was kind of part of the the drive behind all of this. Um there is a multi-phase plan. The first phase is to do the the feasibility study. The second phase is to design as the engineering and the third phase would be to to do construction and eltac through Pierce County showing that we could meet this these markers of the beds and heads and and provide this value would pay for this. One of the questions I would I was asked was are we going to have to have skin in the game essence and I've reached out to another community that's been following this whole process and the answer is they have used some grants for some smaller things but really the lion share was a term of this has been paid for and they didn't need to use the other grants but they did do some partnerships with some other grants as well just to to tie in. So that's really the consideration of of this. I know parking was a concern and I do want to say part of the plans adds 30 parking places in here as well. So in my mind when you look at this if we have an event that is 45 to 60 people assuming one and a half to two people per car we're going to have less impact on the community because we're going to have parking spaces from that it's going to go back to having to park out in the streets. And that's a consideration I think whether you wanted to go with option one or option two. Um but the idea was let's utilize this resource to see if we couldn't take a community I hate to say liability but a liability and make it an asset uh for multiple use

amongst different things. And with that I'll be happy to answer any questions and turn over to to the rest of the presentation. Council member Walden. Um thanks for that Keith. I did have a follow-up question, and I I might have had this wrong in my notes last time, but was there a statement made that one of the local hotels in their uh rental space, they only had 26% of it rented in a year? Did someone remember hearing that or did I just get that wrong? Because I remember going, "Wow, that's interesting that a hotel is not renting out all their space yet. I'm also hearing they need more space." So, I just that those little things, those little details matter to me when I try to put everything together.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't have in front of me, maybe it pulled up, but the last time what the hotel had said is is that they felt like additional space would have been impactful and that they had lost

business to other other areas. Now, what the percentage was, I can't say, but what the the research had shown was them saying they they felt like more space would be beneficial to them and their business. No, clearly I heard that too, but I I have I looked at my notes and it was 26% um only only rented question mark question mark like I I was wondering why hotel space is not at full capacity yet. They and I don't know there's good reason. I'm just trying to kind of wrap my brain around that. I it doesn't seem to like it would be different if they're at you know 95% capacity they've had to turn down. I I don't know, but 26% if I am accurate, someone can dig that out. It seems like not a lot of people for them to want to possibly use more space. So,

I can look that up while we're here. I believe you may be referencing some of the community center numbers and that comes to mind that that may be the Stellum Community Center, but I will look that up while we're sitting here and try to find that answer for you. Okay. Yeah, that'd be great. and just you know rapidly rap going fast writing. So thank you. Okay, any other questions before we turn it over to our presenters? Council member. Uh I think I'll do it after my question will be after that after they're done. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine.

Okay. Thank you. So um I would like to reintroduce you to uh Johnston Architects this evening. We have Mona Zers and Jack Chapen here to give the final briefing on the feasibility study. So, I will turn it over.

Thank you, Amy. And it's good to see everybody again. Um, over the past two weeks, we have finalized hopefully our uh work on this project uh to create a feasibility study for um the Deont Event and Tourism Center. Uh not a whole lot of the data has changed um but we have coalesed everything we've learned into a um rather thick document that should be presented to you. Uh this presentation is in many ways similar to what we saw last time. Um we do have some math uh to go over which we went over last time as well. um and a few uh pretty renderings um that we've added uh to the packet. So, next. Okay. So, the purpose of the study, I think we went over this and Keith did a good job of um reminding us what the purpose is. uh what we were tasked with was evaluating sort of the constraints uh and the opportunities uh that presented themselves for future events and tourism center and that was from a design perspective but also from a monetary perspective. Um we were uh tasked with it uh looking at reusing uh the existing community center building. Uh we also came up with options to reuse the existing community center with an addition and then uh potentially a new build facility on u a site uh within Dupont. Um as part of the effort we also assessed uh sort of what was the environment for this? How were other communities or event centers doing in the region that were similar? We had precedent facilities that we reached out to to see

how their uh facility was operating, what their costs were um and uh what their uh percentage of utilization was. Uh we combined that with a cost estimate for the three options that we uh came up with for the potential event center. Um and then sort of come to you with that information to help hopefully make an informed decision. Next. Okay. So, here's cost estimate um for renovating the building. The the building as it exists today for use as an event center specifically would require some fairly significant renovation. Um in many ways it would be akin to building a new facility. Um most of the structure will need to be replaced. systems will need to be replaced. Uh foundation work, work on the exterior of the building uh would be rather substantial to make remediations. Um bring everything up to current energy code and accessibility code would also add cost. There's also the cost of just changing a building that is community center into an event um center that potentially could hold a 200 person banquet. Uh that would be things like restroom upgrades, kitchen upgrades, uh providing spaces for um free events like a green room or bait. Was that me? It wasn't me. Um or a uh a bridal suite uh for weddings. Um so that came out to uh $3.2 million in current uh dollars. We've also provided estimates for five and 10 years out as you can see on the slide um that

take into account what we anticipate to be escalation. Um if we renovate the existing building, it doesn't quite get us to that 200 person target that seems to be the need in the community. Um, so we did option two, which would add an addition of 600 square feet onto the existing building uh to get us up to that 200 person banquet facility uh at a cost of 3.8 million in today's dollars. And then it we just sort of started from scratch and said, okay, what if we could just build on a a new site? What would that end up costing for comparison's sake? Um, with this new uh proposal, we also included a multi-purpose room in addition to the 200 person banquet. We saw in some of the um data that we were getting back that having the ability to hold multiple events at one time or different types of events uh helped the utilization of uh the event centers we looked at. Um the cost of that option, option three, new building and site was as 6.7 million in today's dollars. Next, you want to take this?

Thanks, Jack. So, as we talked about a couple weeks ago, um we did have three options and this is a highle overview and I just want to echo what what Jack said previously. We have a 175page document that we will also be sending. Is that right?

It's a lot of pages. Um so there's a lot more detail that we can go into after this and during the question and answer. Um this is just a highle overview. So option one is to renovate the existing building. As Jack mentioned, there are many things we would need to do to bring this building up to uh what it would need to be to host a 200 person event um in a banquet seating arrangement. A banquet seating arrangement is the loosest arrangement of people um that we could put in the space and so it's not very compact and so that's what we used for our planning exercise. Um, it's also the type of event that through our interviews we heard was most likely uh one of the most common types of events that would be with this larger group. So there's a diagram here that shows the the banquet seating which actually in this diagram is 144 people. The 200 people would be in a denser arrangement. So, for instance, at like a cocktail hour, um there are many walls, existing walls inside the existing community center building that would need to be demolished to make this happen. And so, there would also be some structural changes that would need to be made. As you can see from the diagram, the banquet hall kind of opens up the left side of the floor plan. Right now the right side has uh individual rooms, one for mechanical, one for a bridal suite and one for restrooms. There's also storage and an outdoor terrace and a catering kitchen, but this is all within the existing footprint. We also have there would need to be 30 uh parking spots on an adjacent city property in order to meet code. Um which the code minimum for this area um as

Jack mentioned is 30 parking stalls for this use um for this capacity. We do have space on the adjacent city property easily for 30 stalls. It's a couple blocks away. couple blocks north. Okay. Option two, expand the existing building. So, um this option two proposal expands the building by about 15 ft um on the west side. So, on the left side of the plan um and this increase the increases the size of the banquet space to be 200 people seated in a banquet arrangement. before it was 144 seated in a banquet arrangement. Um, we also just have the same support spaces that we would have in the other in the other uh version of the project and we still are assuming 30 parking spots on the adjacent property. We would also need to do all of the same renovations that we would do with option one, but we would have the additional cost of the addition additional construction, the 15 extra feet on the left side of the plan. Uh the the diagram that you're looking at shows the what our assumption is for a parking analysis in a 200 person um banquet scenario. This is actually maybe a little bit underestimated. We are assuming that in a 200 banquet seating scenario, we would have um most people car pooling with at least one other person and maybe some cars would have three people. And so uh you might have 90 cars or 80 cars. Um, so 30 would fit on the city property and then the

rest would be on the streets and those are rep those cars are represented and very well parked in this diagram by red dots. So you can see it would kind of fill up the neighborhood for uh the span of that event. Let's go to the next slide. And this is what that could look like um with that extra 15 ft on the side. just a very conceptual rendering. I know that it looks real. It is not real. Um, we did model it. Um, but it's it's very conceptual at this point. And this is a closer look at those uh remote parking options. So, all of the parking um on the street in addition to the the 30 or maybe 31 stalls on the adjacent city property. Okay. Option three shows a brand new building. So this was just an exercise to understand uh if we were to build on a different site that didn't have the same complexity that the existing community center building has. Um how big would this building need to be to fulfill the needs that we perceive for a slightly larger event space and what would be the cost? So, uh, we ended up with a a slightly larger building at 5,700 square ft. It does include a banquet seating for 200 with the addition of a dance floor. So, this is maybe something that would be appropriate for weddings, whereas it's hard to imagine weddings um working really well in the existing community center building. We also have an additional multi-purpose room in this space. So hypothetically, um, multiple events could be happening at one time. We imagine this central space in all

schemes as a truly a multi-purpose room. We're showing it as banquet seating as sort of a a placeholder for planning purposes, but it could be designed to accommodate a number of different activities, particularly in the new build where you can have uh higher ceilings than you would in the existing building. You could imagine it it might be used for some kind of sports if you made it big enough. So, this also includes a bridal suite. um and all of the parts and pieces that we have in the other building as well as a catering kitchen, a bar and restrooms, etc. So, if we go to the next slide, um and this is a rendering of what that space could look like. Again, not a real site and not a real building, just conceptual. But this gives you a good sense of the size that we're talking about. I'll hand it back to Jack for the marketing analysis.

Great. Thank you.

Sorry. We spent a good deal of time on this slide last time around and uh I think the information is extremely valuable. It was um whenever we do uh market analysis or feasibility studies on these types of civic projects um it's always interesting to see what the numbers end up being. Um in essence uh when we looked at uh four uh similar facilities in the region uh that this might either be aspirationally trying to achieve or um uh either through the renovation and addition or or the new build. Uh what we found was um you know cutting to the long story short is that the percent uh cost recovery was somewhere in the 50s to 60%. Realistically um and I think that that was a big data point um that uh we found uh that we thought was important um that was help uh for the city to make a determination on just um how viable the project was. Um obviously I think through our study and there's um lots of information in here about how a facility like this uh might be very successful in this region. Uh even you know if it is very successful still 60 65% cost recovery maybe pushing 70 if we're really lucky is about what you're looking at. So, there are operation and maintenance costs that are associated with building a facility like this um that need to be taken into account when making the decision.

Next. Oh, question. Oh, Council Member Wen.

Um yeah, I was looking I said this last time, but it's it's good repeating information. when you looked at the battleground, uh, Lacy Community Center, the lodge, even Stilicum, I noticed all of those are pretty, um, they're pretty beautiful places. Um, they all have picturesque uh, water views. That's not going to be the case with the existing site. Not talking about the building, but the site. Um, and I noticed too that the first one is 400 capacity all the way down to three sections in Stilicum at 300, 360, 220. So these are considerably bigger than what option one would be for sure. And I just want to be really clear. I recognize that this is a a service to the community. It's not meant to be a money maker as a business. I completely understand that. But if I heard you correctly, a good estimate would be 50 to 60% we would recoup in terms of any kind of profit. Is that correct? Did I hear that?

That's correct. in the information that we've gathered. Now, it's not always apples to apples and we can't get perfect data, but uh this is the information we gathered for like slashpirational um event centers in the region. And I guess for me trying to visualize that particular site, again, not talking building, just the site itself versus these places that I mean, you can Google and look up night and day in terms of just the aesthetics and and things that like you said, probably not weddings there, especially when the home course I walk there every night in the summer hosting weddings. They've got the beautiful sunsets, all of those kinds of things. Um, so I'm just, you know, kind of concerned on the 50 to 60%. And that I'm assuming when I looked at these places on the internet, they have staffing. I mean, you got to I mean, you have grounds, you have landscaping, you have I mean, a bunch of stuff that, you know, I mean, even our our school of 400 kids has a nighttime custodian because one person can't get it done. So anyway, just wanted to make sure I'm super clear as we move forward on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, council member Barl. Sorry. Hi. I have a question about our current community center. Now, I'd like to know what our current cost operating costs are for it so that we have something to compare because obviously we're using it. So, I'd like to kind of get an idea um what that what our current costs might be. If somebody could answer that.

Council member Barrow. I do not have numbers. We could I could get that to you. The one thing uh my question is on cost recovery. If Eltech pays for the pays for everything, what cost are you recovering? It would only be cost of operations or something, right? Yeah. Yeah. not not the cost of the building because it would be uh in the ELTAC case, it's not like some of our other buildings where we had to finance, took loans or paying it off. It would already be paid for. So, it's only the operating expenses is what I assume. Uh, Council Member Walton,

um, along the lines with with Robin's question about operating costs, I'd also like to know, um, numbers and perhaps how much we do make on the existing place. I mean, it's again, like you, it's apples to oranges, but it's still fruit. Um, it would give me a little bit more balance. Um, what's been really hard for me, I'll be very transparent, is looking at that site, and you guys did a great job. Believe me, it's hard. It's a apples to meatloaf, right? Um, but these sites that were given here, I mean, they're they're very elaborate. They're stunningly beautiful. Several of them, if not all of them, had the lake died and the this piece and one was two stories. So, it's kind of hard for me to gather information with that piece, but I do appreciate that effort. I'd just like to know what what do we have now? How much does it cost to operate and how much does it bring in? That would help me as well. Thank you. And thanks, Robin, for getting that idea out there.

Council member Gassi. According to what I've found on the internet, it looks like the operating costs are just a little over 300,000 a year. I don't know if that could be accurate for the current community center. Correct. Yes. No, that's not accurate. not correct. No.

Okay. It's saying it's coming from the city's website, so it might just be inaccurate information. I I did have a question, though. Um and I'm not sure if this is an Amy question or um the feasibility study question. If we were to have a land owner in Historic Village that has a piece of property for sale that could accommodate perhaps 30 parking spaces, is that something that we could include in the grant request like to purchase that additional property for parking spaces? Is that something that you can include in a grant request? I'll I'll let Keith answer that.

Yeah. No, I think the answer is if we decided we wanted to try to get more parking, I think we could definitely look and see what options are and include that as part of that that request. There is someone that has property that would be willing to talk about that and I think they would have about 30 parking spots. I can I'll be happy to pass that information on to you.

Yeah. Yes, I think we can. And and stepping back, I I know Susan, you had council member Wald had asked in the past for information on on what the community center is and and we had shared that. happy to share with the rest of the council. I want to be cautious though to say the condition of the space has limited what we could do there and how often it is used. So I I same thing with the cost if we enhance this and bring more people in. I don't know if we're going to be caring comparing you know we keep seeing apples to apples here. I I think we should anticipate whatever the costs are now if we are using it more. It's being used by savvy seniors and Dungeons and Dragons. In the past, we've also used it for um it's been an incubator space for a karate studio and for a dance studio. Uh one of the things these are popular with is churches that are looking for spaces. I know a lot of places rent these out on Sundays. So, I think if the space were to increase, there might be not only some increased cost. We should anticipate increased costs within increased uses because of limitations of the space. Now, anything you want?

No, I think I think that's well said. And in fact, we received a phone call today to have a wedding at the community center in its current state. Um, which you know, we chuckle, but not everybody can afford a view. Not everybody can afford the home course. Um, and those need to be those folks need to be accommodated as well. And we have three or four weddings a year in the community center in its current state. So we are making the best of that facility um in its current state. So there is there is a market out there for it.

I don't disagree with that. I I would say that there's definitely market. It's you know not not every person needs to have a view when they have a wedding. Sometimes you're looking at just a conference because not all of these hotels have huge conference rooms. So to be able to accommodate 200 people um at a banquet seating for a conference would be ideal in a lot of scenarios. I don't really know that we have that even at the golf course. I think that's 150 if I'm not mistaken. A lot of it's outdoors.

Yeah. And it's so this would be, you know, understandably this would be an asset to the community, but it really would be to serve the community as well. So I'm not looking for it to make a profit. and someone might punch me that's sitting next to me, but I don't even think the museum supports itself financially and don't hurt me, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I don't expect it to because it's here to serve the community and to serve the history of Deont and you know, it's an it's still an asset to the community without necessarily making money for us. Um, so you know, after looking at this and the idea that this could be funded entirely, if I'm not mistaken, by grant monies if we were to get them, I would support option two. I do think the addition would be helpful. My only concern would be the buyin from the community regarding the parking. And it's my understanding, I did talk to some people since we had our meeting that they're okay with it and they're supportive of it. I'm not sure everybody is, but the people I talked to are. Um, so I might stand corrected on this from a couple weeks ago.

Yeah. One one other thing that um I thought about on the uh parking. I know that when I go to Pair and other places, they open up uh grassy areas for parking. We have a lot of space at Freddy Park. I don't know if that could be something, but there's a lot of space there you could use for parking. So that's just a thought there. Yeah. And I think it's important to remember too when we talk about community asset, generally speaking, your structures on these kind of places and and I've had this in previous experiences, you charge a lesser rate for your people who live in your community and a higher rate for people who live outside your community. So, in terms of of providing that, and that's that's also we talk about making money or not making money, you're looking at a community asset where someone maybe is looking for a a place to get married or has a tie to the community, has some sort of history here and and does that. So generally speaking, your rates are are conditioned on that or nonprofits or 501c3s get a different rate than for-profit entities as well. So just generally that's how that works and wanted to keep that in in mind too.

Council member Walton, you're next.

Um yeah, just to kind of respond back, Keith, I have asked for that information well before a feasibility study was was conducted. I think I'll just be really honest. I would say for for well over a couple years to be frank. And it just helps me way way before feasibility just to know my community, who's going, why, how many frequency. I'm a data geek when it comes to stuff like that. So correct, it's not going to be a comparison to what we may or may not potentially get, but it does help me understand where are we and perhaps show a need in one area that you might think, oh wow, if we have more space then um we could double the capacity of that group that has doubled their own capacity in the last several years. So it it is valuable information and I would like it for all the council, not just me. I think it's valuable data to look at. We have shared that with you and we can share what we shared with you as a council

with the whole council. I would appreciate that. Thank you, Council Member Barl.

Yes. Um, a couple of things. One, I want to say I have hosted a couple of weddings that could not be in larger spaces because these people could not afford and some of them even worse conditions than we have in our own community center today. So, I do know that there will be people that will use it no matter what condition it might be in. And the other thing is cost um for operational costs. I know um I I think we can pass on some of those additional costs like cleaning services to our rental agreement um when we rent it so that those costs aren't tossed back on us to cover. And um lastly, I I do know that many of the people in the historic community in the village, they do not want that building to go away and they would love to see that building there. And I personally really enjoy use utilizing that building for the many events that that I've been in o over there. And I'd hate to see that it go away. And I'm really glad that we have this opportunity through an ELTAC grant to cover all of the costs to to make it work and make it you useful for the community. So, thank you,

Deputy Mayor Winkler.

Uh, thanks, uh, Ron. I appreciate it. Um, I wrote up some thoughts beforehand. Uh, thanks for bringing up the idea about potential future parking because when I wrote these, I was very concerned about parking. So, uh, keep that in mind. Um and that's part of the good open discussion. I'll share that all three options have advantages and disadvantages. Uh the option doing nothing has some advantages and disadvantages. I came into this meeting and I think uh Jugle was going to share something that I want to hear too before I really say this is where I'm at. But I came into this meeting leaning toward option one. Uh realizing there's certain conditions and I just think it's important that we remember these conditions. um that we're not committed to go forward at all if we get this next grant, but we don't get any money following. I think the county needs to realize if we get the design and engineering money uh to go beyond that point, we're still going to need more money that that we need that additional funds. I just want to go on the record that citizens realize that we're not looking at doing this money unless that other money follows along. Um and some of the options uh with advantage one uh option one which um option two would have two. I do believe in maintaining a building that many consider a important part of Dupont history has merit. I believe it has merit. Um option one u keeps at least the exterior of the building as close to its original blueprint which again I believe has merit. I think that that's uh something as we try to maintain part of our history at least. Um staying within the current blueprint will help reduce the risk of cost overruns. So even if we get all this money, having served eight years on the school board when we were building a lot of buildings, cost overruns happen. So I think we need to have a bit of a realistic thought that

we try to maintain that. So that's why I was leading toward option one. uh being the smaller the projects option would would minimize the risk of cost overruns as far as percentage-wise and I also looked at if approved the option one would eliminate the need to fund internally the funds to either maintain the current community center and old fire station. The bottom line is even if we do no options we still have a building there that's falling down. Well, maybe not quite falling down, but is an extreme need a repair. So, we either need to find money to fix it or tear it down. This grant, if it went all the way through, we won't have that problem. It also would take uh address the um old fire station to my understanding. Keith, is that correct that um option one and option two takes in tearing down the old fire station and making it a parking lot?

That's that's correct.

Okay. And so we have two buildings that if we go in a different direction, we still have there and we still have to deal with. Um, and that's my concern with option three, period. Option three is we do this whole other building and then we still have two other buildings that we're not maintaining. Uh option one with the 30% soft cost comes in at about 4.16 million and the other ones would be 4.94 and the option three as percent would be about 8.7 using the soft cost previously given and my hope in the condition that for me would be that when we put in the grant request when we're going after the dollars to build that we can also build in that grant the soft cost not just the bottom line dollars or we will be short. Okay, so I'm going to go back to something that Shauna talked about which I didn't know about and I think it's very interesting. Option one with a capacity of a 144 person banquet room would require less parking than option two which is 200 person banquet room. So about 25% less parking in correlation. This would in reduce the impact on the historic village. Now, if there's another lot out there, you know, I I would be open-minded to option two. Um, I do believe option two would have more of a risk of cost overruns, but again, I I think my big concern with option two basically was parking. Okay. I do believe that that we can still keep open the goal in the future of having a community center over here in a space that would provide recreational activities that that are needed. I don't think this closes the book on that. I think it provides another service. Uh until it is done, until it is done, it's going to have to do like it kind of already does serve in both capacities.

That means provide an opportunity for someone rent it out whether it's for a wedding or for us to use it for our own events when we're doing it. So I think those those needs would still be there. So, you know, if we could go after grand money and maintain the building and still keep something available to us, you know, even if we don't do anything, we're still heating it. We're still having to maintain it. We're still having to do some things. So, unless we tear it down, those costs don't go away. Um, but to tear it down, that cost us money, too. So, I would lean, my initial thought coming here tonight was lean toward option one. Um, if you can find another parking lot, I'm I'm open-minded to option two if that's where most people are comfortable. But thank you,

Council Member Elliot.

Great discussion. Um, you know, I I was part of Savvy Seniors. I've been using that building for a couple of years and it is awful. It looks awful and I wouldn't want to live next door to it. But I also don't think it's the place for a community for a an event center. I would hate to be the person who's lives right across the street and cars are parked all up and down the street and maybe people are outside drinking and having a good time till who knows how long. To me, that's not a good fit for the neighborhood. Um but but as we were sitting here talking, I was thinking a little bit more and I really like the the museum needs an expansion. So, I think we're rushing this. I think we could take some time, go for another grant, and and go for maybe knock that building down and build a smaller footprint for the museum so that all of our history stuff is in one place. We could put a house for the fire engine. We could put a house or a a building for the police car, a a building where we could have storage and we could have displays that changed frequently. I I I again I feel like we're rushing into this without even thinking. And the study that we paid or somebody paid Elac paid $100,000 says that this this will not bring people into hotels. It says it's pretty DuPont centered. uh people from the neighborhoods would use it, but it does not say that heads will be in beds. Um and you know, we've got Eagle's Pride, which has uh it can seat 210, and they have a new caterer there now. It's a beautiful building that overlooks the golf course. We've got the home course that can seat 128. And then right up the road in UP is the Pierce County Environmental Center, which has stunning

views over Puget Sound, and they can seat 200. I just think we're being shortsighted with with with a good intention of doing something to that building, but I don't think an event center is the right thing for that space. But I do think we could go back to the drawing board, put some time into it and and do something for the museum since it's practically right next door. That's just my thought. Council member Gassic. Well,

I have two items. First of all, I as I recall, and Amy can correct me if I'm wrong on this, there is no real historical value to the community center. The only historical value, as I recall, was the steeple thing on top and a transom window when we had it researched before.

And so, anything else can be salvaged. If there's, you know, any architectural pieces, they can be salvaged and rebuilt. There are a lot of uh historical buildings that have been rebuilt better. and you know incorporating some of the historical valuable materials. So I still think that we could do that. I'm not concerned about losing any historical value there because that building in my mind should be a burn and learn for the fire department. Um second, the uh the idea of an event center. I don't know that I would call it an event center. I would I would still call it a community center. I'm not giving up on the community center over here by any stretch of the imagination. But, you know, to turn this over to the museum at at this early stage, I think is is not a service to the community because we need to have a place for, you know, the kind of the overflow for things from schools and, you know, you do have income coming in, not a lot, but you've got, you know, gymnastics, dance classes, whatever classes you're having there and meeting places still. So, I don't think that we should be giving up on that idea. However, down the road, if we were to have a regular community center over here, I would support turning that over to the museum, but I don't think that it should be done upfront. And I I don't think we're rushing into anything here. I thought we were rushing into the the parking situation. So, I guess we have different uh different definitions of rushing into things. So, um, you know, but it's, you know, it's all

yeah, part for the course, but I I do think we should try to keep this as a community center for DuPont for now. Uh, and and I do support option two. I do think that if the citizens are supportive of the parking on the streets, I don't have a problem with that, but I do think that there's an opportunity for additional parking adjacent to the museum is where I think the lot is. Um, and I'm happy to pass that information on. Council member Walton.

Um, yeah. I just I guess I want to be really clear. I'm I'm not anti- one, two, or three. I I'm just not pro any one of them. I just feel a little bit kind of piggybacking on Beth a little bit. Just some other options. The museum. Um, a little bit more details about this. So, for me, this is pretty fast. And I've done like nothing but read this for the last week. It's kept me up at night because I don't like to be hesitant or indecisive, but I know myself well enough that when I am, it's speaking pretty loudly to me because I'm usually pretty like, let's do it. Um, my biggest thing more than anything is always money, right? And our our federal government, our national debt now is 100% more than or is at our GPT or GDP. The state of Washington, do we need to talk about budgets there? Um, my own little tiny school lost a $3,000 grant. Gone. We've had it forever. So, my I just want guarantees. And maybe the answer is, guess what, Susan? There are none. And if someone can tell me that, that's fine. That's honest. But when we say things like grants and another grant for this, and we hope that, this is probably the most uncertain financial times we have ever had in our country and in our state. So, it's almost like, yeah, we're pretty darn sure that if we do the engineering, they'll fall. What if there is something more catastrophic that happens? I I don't know. I just I pay a lot of attention to those things. And I might be liberal in some areas, but I'm a super fiscal conservative when it's other people's money. And it just seems like not that solid source of funding. And maybe it is, but when you say grants, there's nothing in a grant that says if something doesn't happen down in Olympia or in Washington DC that will not impact us. I mean, I have I have families right now not able to put food on their tables and there's no grants for them. So, I

just look at it from that place. It's such a responsibility when you're talking about other people's money. I love that Mike brought up though that it's kind of an albatross around our neck. We have to do something with it. It needs some fixing. I get that, too. But I just want to be really clear. I'm not I'm not saying one, no, yes to. I'm just needing more information. And I might be in the minority on that. And when we get to move it forward or not, that's fine. But just know grants are not in this time and of of particularly in this time, they are not solid. And we have had our little grant for years at my school and it was snatched away no problem. And we're laying off people in the school district of Puallup. So reality is grants are not a full source of funding. Council member of the corp.

I guess I've been patiently waiting to make a comment because I have a long list of comment to make and uh I don't know should I go with that and uh because there was a three options were presented initially. So now we are discussing option one and two and uh I think it it created some kind of a interest from the city and citizens. Hey what do you what are you going to do? So option three is also should be an option on the table and uh I have some presentation made uh and I I would like to present it. So rather than just talking I will show you the drawings and some numbers if that's okay with everyone. Well, I don't know if our folks are done with their presentation yet for one thing, but let's go to Oh, you you okay?

Cancel that out. Or where are we at on your presentation? We have another slide.

There's one more slide. Okay, we've kind of gone over it, but we can just look at it uh for uh posterity. This is um essentially uh the operations numbers that we came up with based on the facilities that we looked at based on historical data um that you could be looking at depending on a very varying um bits of information. So at the low end, so low booking frequency, um on the low end of what the u annual revenues would be, you know, it would it's it's not a great number. It's minus 125 grand a year on the high end, which is probably aspirational. um with high bookings, uh higher annual revenue, and uh the operating cost that we came up with, it's a $96,000 um uh plus. In between, we also have a few negative numbers. I think taken as a whole, this is very representative of what we've seen out there when we've been looking at the data that exists in the area. Um, so on the low end, you're probably not going to hit that. On the high end, we're probably not going to hit that. It's probably going to be somewhere in the middle if we're planning conservatively. Uh, so there is still, um, based on this and on the on the numbers, uh, there's going to be a deficit, a yearly deficit depending on on just how successful the the project is. I would say that the high booking frequency um you know it is probably dependent on options. Um you may get a high booking frequency in option one but the bookings would be smaller. So obviously the revenues would be smaller. One of the things that we

found um during the research is that the larger the event typically the more profitable it is. Um, and so that's just something to take into consideration um, when you're making your decisions. Um, but that is the end of our presentation.

Yeah, Google. Um, a minute. Um, yeah, before Google started, I just follow up. Um, if I'm reading this correctly, the 125 negative, the 43 negative, is that um, let's say we we had option one and I get the bigger you actually more profit. Is that what you're saying? We would inc um incur an operating cost total. Yeah. Okay, got it. Exactly. So, let let's just go with 43. Let's make it 50,000. So, if I'm going back to to Ron, your who pays for that? Does that come out of ELTAC or does that come out of our money? these operating costs. I don't know. What What do you think, Keith? Amy?

Well, and I think we've talked about this. You know, I think part of this is right. One of the ways that other event centers do is that if you are renting that you pay for additional staffing and and cleanup, right? Um that's that's pretty typical as well. You know, if it's in a really popular, we we may have some additional, but I I think right now a lot of this is still just kind of a generic. It's per specific. I don't have specific answers. is just here's the general information we have. Well, again just a very very direct question. If if we had operating costs let's say at 75,000 split the difference. Let's we got option one or two whatever

operating costs at the end of the year turn out to be 75 grand. Does LTAC pay for that or does the city I think it's the city this the city could the city could apply for city elac money as well but we are responsible for paying whether we get the eltac or not correct thank you and we have we have operating expenses right now but more council member Walton that could come out of our local lodging tax fund I get back on.

I I get that. I get the possibilities. I But words like potential and I just I I just want to know at worst case scenario, I think when you're responsible for other people's money, you have to think best case and worst case. Worst case, we would be on the hook for operating costs should they be under at that level. That's all I want to know. I'm hoping we can get eltac and it sounds like the system's very efficient to continue but I just have to sometimes think in my own family worst case scenario what if I lost my job what if my husband lost sister these are just things I think about in my own life and my own school building and I just want to think about it for DuPont best and worst so worst case yes we would be responsible for anything that was over that

yes it's our building we're responsible for it and I use the word potential because we would apply and that would it's our local ELTAC and that would be up to the city council to accept or deny that. So yes, that's why I use the word potential. It's not a guarantee. That would be totally understand. I know grants and potential sources of money very well. I just wanted to make it clear that it's not 100%. Right. And and that would be a decision that would be made at your level. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you, Council Member Thorp. Yeah. Can I have my presentation up, please? Well, wait a second. Let's Let's get Council Member Cassik first before you get on to that.

Oh, thank you. Just one last thought. I forgot to mention this. I I know that there was a concern about whether this facility would bring heads and beds. And I can tell you from my personal experience, a couple of weeks ago, I went to the General Federation of Women's Clubs conference that was at the Best Western on the corner of Wilmington and Palisade. And there were 50 attendees and I believe at least 30 of them stayed at the hotel for four nights. Uh it was a three-day event and a lot of they're all in Washington. So some of them were in Eastern Washington, but even people that lived in Lakewood were staying at the hotel just so that they could be close to all of the events that were happening because they have like a full calendar of events. I think that you would find that it would bring people to the hotels because if you've got a conference that's going on for more than a day, people don't want to drive back home late at night, even if it's just Tacoma or if they've been drinking, whatever. I do believe that it would bring heads and beds. And I think that you could apply for an ongoing ELTC grant, whether it's through DuPont Eltac or Pierce County Eltac for operating costs if you can prove that, you know, you're bringing heads and beds and there's going to be a benefit to the community and and tourism. So I while I understand that you can't count on it, you know, the fact that it's within our own community for our ELTC grants, I think that's saying something and it's not, you know, our own ELTC grant monies isn't going to go to something necessarily, you know, in Stilikum if we've got something here that that we can put that money toward. I'm not on the board, but I'm just saying.

Council member Walton may make a comment as well. I you had asked me to look up um your 26% that you were recalling. So what I found was uh the best western uh their facility util utilization is estimated at 20 to 30% annually and that's their um conference room that holds 100 people and that is theater style. So when somebody's coming in and wants to sit at round tables and whatever else it really only holds closer to 4560. So I think that's where you read can you

let's say it's 20% 20 to 30. So the the 26% is how much of that space is rented out. Did I hear that part right or conference room or not? Was it still the rental space is only rented out 26% of the time of the year? It's 25 to 30. Okay, that's that sounds right. And maybe they give a specific number. And again, I I just think that's a kind of a low number for hotel people that want more space, but that's just my my opinion based on the numbers so far. And I and I will say as somebody that needs that type of space, I I am always looking for space for 200. And the reason for that is because the space is too small. That's theater style, right? I get it. Seats 100.

Okay. Well, I'm glad I did have I pretty accurate question. Thank you. One more. Okay. Go ahead. Council member Gazi.

My last comment. I swear we were in that that room and it supposedly has 100 people, but there were 50 attendees. It was very crowded. We were at round tables. It was very crowded and dare I say not completely comfortable. The hotel was great, but they also had to have the catering set up behind curtains in the back of the room. And while the food was good, it wasn't hot when it was served. You didn't have a kitchen. So there is a huge benefit to having a facility with the kitchen. And again, this this facility at Best Western, it doesn't hold that many people. You know, I think having this this 200 person banquet environment would be great. My other question, and I don't know if you know the answer, when you say 25% occupancy, does that include nighttime hours or is that just like 9 to5 Monday through Sunday?

Yeah, I'd be It doesn't say. Yeah, just by year some days. Yeah, but you know, they're open all night. So, I mean, are they looking to have it booked all night long? I don't know. Okay.

So, and just to put this in a little bit of perspective for you, the way that Pierce County lodging tax dollars work is you need to have on average, now before you apply, you have to meet with Pierce County lodging tax to see if you're even a a valid candidate. So you we need to be able to have a thousand heads in beds annually. So think about that. That's 85 hotel rooms a month. Pretty doable. I mean, you're talking to your tourism representative here. If I can't get 85 people into this town, you've got the wrong person in this seat. Okay, it's 85 hotel rooms a month and we've already been vetted through Pierce County Tourism that this is potentially a good projects. So, we as a city have been giving Pierce County lodging tax up to $200,000 a year. I actually think it's probably a little more than that. And anybody that I know you've all done your homework. I know you've all been on the Pierce County lodging tax website and you see project after project after project after project that's going to other cities.

732 of them.

That's right. That's right, Mayor. And not every city within Pierce County pays into Pierce County lodging tax. Tacoma doesn't. Lakewood doesn't, but I'll be darn DuPont does. $200,000 annually. And I did the math. Over the last 10 years, it's over $6 million we have given Pierce County lodging tax. I'm not okay with that. As a citizen of DuPont, I think it's time that we get our dollars back. Whether it's this application or something else, the applications are due June 5th. So, you know, it's up to you, council, to make whatever decision you you you make this evening. It's our job to give you good information and to give you the best information so you can make good decisions. But I'm not okay with the with with funding other city's projects. We need to make some some decisions on what's best for our community, whether that's the community center or whatever else. And I'm here to support you in whatever that is. But we're giving our money away. Okay. Uh, any other questions other than juggles? Okay. Council member Theor, you can give us your opinion.

Oh, just just a second here. We'll get you. Are you on? Yeah. Yeah. So this is my opinion but it's little bit longer and I think everybody took time and I I'm just compiling my time and uh opinion together. Can you make it a bigger one Krie please? The full screen not it's okay. All right. So just uh let you know I I only make $500 per month from city council to make this project and this presentation. Okay. 500. So 650 it's no no after tax.

All right. So I think that we should have a community and event center and uh it should be right across the street from us which is an open land with comprehensive recreational use and aquatic facilities. Can we go to the page two please? So why did I thought of doing this is a reason and the reason is that we have to always see the history to predict the future. We have a building which is here for 90 years and uh thanks to our forefathers who has done a great job of building it is still standing and we are using it but nobody likes to use it anymore. It's awful somebody said it next to me. So now let's repeat that history. I would say that think 100 years from now for DuPont because DuPont is growing you know uh currently we have a 3,800 homes and population is somewhere around 11,000 people with the old Fort Lake expansion coming in next 5 years there will be additional 300 3,000 homes will be buil built and 7,500 more residents will use it another possible future development is coming from mine pete where we have a residential area has been proposed it might happen in next 20 years or 30 years I don't know but we are talking a long-term project here point8 is a state farm location was presented as a future homes by nationally reputed builder and the future cost is keep climbing so if we can invest now and don't wait until recession or depression I think this is a good time for us to work together. Just like Amy said, we paid $6 million. It's time for us to get that million6 million back.

So, let me show you some stat stats. And uh so stat shows there's a 3,833 number of households, 2.6% per household. The average age in Dupant is 30 34 years.3 median age. But 75 or 80% of the population is under uh 60 years age. So and our what is our income is an average is about the median household is 120,000. Next please. So initially we were presented with the three options. I know now we are talking only option one and two. My question was that why did we got the presentation on uh option number three? I prefer to go with the option number three because it really represents the DuPont. What's going to happen in Dupont for next 50 years. So if you look at the picture I showed and like we were talking about 80 parking lots, but before I get there, there's a total area is about 142,000 square ft. It goes 300 ft north to south and 400 ft to 600 ft east to west. Next, please. So, I asked to draw 80 parkings and uh we can have a nice 4700 uh square ft indoor basketball court, indoor swimming pool, which could be 30 ft x 15 ft, and outdoor tennis court. And there's a also a recreational facility in the front which is a white portion that could be also a one of the great addition of move or moving the our museum out there. So say right now we

have a thousand visitors. Tomorrow we can have a everybody who is walking in for the event center or people going in for recreation. All those people will have an access and curiosity to go in and explore our museum. So there are 80 parking spots. Now one thing I have to remind you when we were talking about 200 people facility in the old historical village right we can renovate to 144 or we can expand to 200 so we need 80 parking spots we have an issue but here is the thing suppose say 200 is a sitting capacity but the standing capacity is 400 I want to do an event uh for 400 how many cars are we expecting maybe 160. Do we have a 160 car parking in old historical village? I don't think so. So if we put the 80 parking spot in our this option number three, we have a more parkings right across the street which is our city hall parking lot and majority of the events will take place either in the evening or on the weekend. So definitely uh we are not here uh working staff is not here and we can utilize those parking lot. That's my one of the additional benefit. I also have a drawing of a north side view and this is just remember it's a singlestory building north side view east side view south and west. Next please. So it shows that we can have a aquatic center tennis uh I mean we also have a event hall transformation. So the basketball court we have we can literally have a

transformation uh to consider as or convert into the event center. Next please. And the next one I'll go to the next one. So this is what it shows. There is a 4,700 square ft central court acts as an facilities primary anchor for recreational use. We can have a maple hardwood floor. This is the what I came up with the pricing. The premium maple hardwood floor can cost $16 to $26 a square foot. The outdoor tennis court will be 78 ft by 40 ft. professional tennis court and singlestory building which is made out of modern pre-engineered metal building which is called PEMB construction for maximum clear span of space. So we are talking about the metal building and it's a prefab building. Next please. I'm trying to run through fast. Okay. So the event capacity and configuration will give us somewhere around 650 people standing reception or a 450 theaters sitting or we can do 200 banquet sitting. Next please. So the financial analysis the next please. It shows what's the building shell will cost. So if we use the prefab metal and they build somewhere they bring it over here and put it together that can cost and the lower side is 1.8 8 million. The higher side could be 3.1 million. Also, what is a mech? We need a mechanical uh

instruments for the pool and edgewax system which is heating and air conditioning system which it can cost 300,000 to $550,000. Then we need a athletic surface which is a basketball tennis court which could be up to $265,000 and site infrastructure with 80 parking spot drainage and lightning could be up to half a million. So the total cost next please. The building shell can cost up to 65%. The hway can cost 15%. The site parking will be about 12%. and soft cost will be somewhere around 8%. Next please. So what I came up with the total project what I just showed it to you the upper side could be up to $4.7 million. Now we can talk about we always have to keep 10% estimated you know uh plus or minus. So the next one I think I'm going to go the next slide too. So the biggest challenges or I call this as a three big elephants in the room. The operational cost possibly what we are making any any new facility we going to make. We have a operational cost. Even if you make in a downtown another $4 million project how are we going to keep it up right? So the operational cost there is also a gap in possible LTE grant. So suppose say we get a $4 million in LTE grant. Then how are we going to fund the actual construction cost suppose say it becomes a $6 million and also I put the possibility of putting the cost to maintain and move

the museum into the same facility. So like I was asking the question so we can talk about museum old structure needs maintenance or replacement. It also requires funding for ongoing maintenance after replacement. How city will pay? How much do we have a in general funds? The options are integrate the museum into the same building. It will be the first scene on entry and before getting to the event or recreational options. So more visitors to the museum in future we will also have a old fort lake site developed and historic walk we are talking about right now for the our Dupont history so it will be a perfect place to start and end our historic tour right from here to our city hall that's my thought the revenue opportunity how we can have operational cost if we have a swimming sessions people use the pool people come for the basketball teams they will leave out here, rent the rooms, create a monthly fees to use pools, tennis courts or the event centers which will take care of the maintenance cost for museum, event center and recreational space. Now I would like to address the gap in a construction cost. Suppose say we don't get all the money. Sorry I'm reading through. Hopefully you guys are catching up with me. So next please. How how do we get the construction cost? So here I will use my new council member card. You all are experienced. I'm throwing out something new which you might be thinking okay he's talking about something which failed five years ago. Okay. So I I'm new council member so I can use this. So in a hypothetical situation say city needs $6 million project in addition to Eltech money we

get. This is how the math comes to me. $6 million if you divide by 3,800 homes. Suppose say all the homes wants to put in the money for the event center, community center as well as the recreational center, then it will come out to be a $1,579 for a one-time cost. But we are not building the building tomorrow. So, it's going to be 5 years down the road. And if you divide the cost to the five five years, it's only $316 per house per year. Now, if we add the old Fort Lake, which is going to happen in 5 years, another 3,000 house will be built. And we can also ask the developer to pitch in some money. Say we need to have them pitch in $ 1.5 million in the beginning cost of uh while we are doing this construction. And if we divide that $6 million by 6800 household in total, it comes out to be $882 per homeet one-time cost or if we divide in a five-year plan starting say next year, it's only $176 per year. What it means? Say my family wants to use such a amazing tennis court, basketball court, swimming pool, museum, every single thing and I'm paying only $176 per year for next five years. I am in. You know how much it cost to just drive up to Lakewood and Lacy to take our families. Okay. Next, please. So this is uh I have to give the credit where I got the pictures from and where I get the data from. So there's a credit here

and last slide questions. So I made this presentation so you can ask me or also my partner was Gemini Google AI developers. So you can ask Google. Okay. Here here's a one question. Okay. Go ahead. It's Council Member Wall. Another question.

Yeah, Joo. Um, boy, just when my brain was saying I can't take anymore. Holy moly. Um, I uh maybe it's Keith or Ron. We I think in the past we've talked about this maybe not that elaborate, but pretty big community center Shauna's dream world across the street. Um, we would have to have a bond. Correct. Lax not going to pay. So when you're talking about the 6 million divided by when old Fort Lake comes in all of that that would be a bond correct. So for so a couple things who runs the bond what if the bond fails I mean in this you know school districts are not passing bonds like they used to because of of financial issues. So I'm just I just want to confirm this would be a bond correct yes or no to get something like that. My answer is yes with an infant, no with a butt. So I think be a combination.

Yeah, because it would involve somewhat of a bond. It would have to require somewhat of a bond, right? Because the portion that we could ask for eltac would be the part that that that meets that beds requirement. The other things we wouldn't necessarily be able to show or we would have to try to figure out and do another study to to do that. So right, the answer is yes, you would probably need to go out for a bond for at least a portion of these costs. Okay, that's that's what I was thinking. Just And is a bond um for cities, is it the same as schools? Schools have to have pass bonds at 60%. What is it in a community? Is it a is a major civil majority or is it 60% for a bond? I thought it was 60 for cities, too.

I think it's 60. So, not only a bond, but pass it until proven otherwise, 60% which is um in these financial times pretty considerable to do, but more options. I love that. Thank you, Council Member Gassic.

Thank you, Jagle, for all the work you did on this. This is good information. I do have uh I I do think this would require a bond, obviously, but my concern is the calculations that you have of the buyin from the community. I think that part of the way that we were supporting the operational costs and the maintenance of a community center was coming from the monthly membership fees or the annual membership fees that we were going to have to charge people uh to even though you're residents, you still have to pay to use the facility. So, I I think that would conflict with what we're seeing here, but it's definitely something I think we could look into. Um, you know, I'm not opposed to doing something there now, but I do think you're going to need community buyin on that. And, you know, I just know from past experience, it's not as easy as you think it might be. That's all I'm saying.

Deputy Mayor Winkler. Jugo, I too want to thank you for all your work on this. U, you put a lot of time on this and it's appreciated. I do have a couple concerns having worked some bonds in the past. Um, I believe we're required to fair pay fair market labor, which means we pay union labor. And I'm making a statement for against. Um, and that's why schools and public buildings are sometimes higher. We don't have an attorney here at the moment to help us with that, but I think these costs will probably be higher. Um, and then the second part, I see Keith wants to add some info on that. I'm just ready to respond.

Okay. And and then I would also be concerned, although I have no personal problems with a metal building, I'm not sure if that's going to meet our design codes for here in the city, but I I I would really want to dig deeper into this. As I said, I think in the future, we need to have that conversation of putting something over there. And I think this is a a good starting point, but I think these costs are low. Um I'm going to defer to Keith. I think it wants to add to something on my thought.

Well, I can defer to the engineer and I have the planner here as well, but the the answer is when you have a public space like that, the requirements uh for building codes are much higher, including uh ADA accessibility, but also you're including and or structural safety uh um dealing with earthquakes and and things of that nature. So, um, you're right. The cost of this for for cities are are generally significantly higher and and you know, general frame of mind, I would say $1,200 a square foot is a is a pretty good frame of reference.

Uh, good evening. Uh, just for a frame of reference, the new public works building, which is right behind the public safety building, it's not much, right? It's uh I want to say three five garage bays plus an upper level admin building essentially wood structure and it essentially has a little bit of parking that cost the city $8 million. We put out a $10 million bond. It was intending just to only cost six, but we essentially had the impact of COVID uh and it hasn't gone down. Uh so uh while there are cost estimates that that can be generated throughout for everything uh that are in here what we can point to is what has actually been executed. Uh so if you haven't visited the public works building I mean it's it it is the newest building within the civic center. Uh I would not say it's a Taj Mahal but is significantly better than where where the the team uh had departed. uh which is unfortunately we're now calling the old fire station. Hasn't been the old fire station in a while. It's the old public works uh admin building uh from there. So keep keep that in mind. So and the other aspect is is we we had a previous uh analysis in 2019 in this location and that and that was for everything uh that that had the indoor uh athletic facility. It had an indoor running track. that had uh aquatic center. Uh we partnered up with the library and a whole bunch of other community type functions. And that upper this is 2019 precoid. So so I had to look that up just before we started this uh council meeting that was 80,000 square feet at $48 million uh at that point. But that was pretty co so we need to jack that up by between 30 and 40% in

today's cost uh from there. But uh yes um I what I do recommend what I really do recommend is hey let's let's not stab at costs right if if we really want to pursue uh indoor and outdoor facilities if we want to pursue uh things that are specific for this community center we we can go after both right we can't we don't have to have one or the other right it's not you know like do you want to eat breakfast or lunch uh uh in this situation we can go after both and I I recommend we we go about it in a thoughtful process. It just so happens that what we're presenting here is specifically a specific type of funds that we can pursue whereas the indooroutdoor facilities is another process we can pursue in a different type of funds that we haven't discussed here uh from that point but they'll they'll take a longer process. So um uh Keith I don't know if that's more than probably what you probably bargain for with

Gus I think that was actually perfect. Okay. Buzz killed. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Is there anything more? Any more presentations? Nothing for you, Council Member Barl? No. Okay. Okay. I guess we can uh we can move on. We'll have a chance to uh vote for options down under 10.2. We'll get to that in a little bit. Okay. Right now we've got uh 6.3 which is 2025 budget update. Uh Keith you've got this one.

Yeah thank you mayor and council. Um you know first of all I want to say I think there's some confusion. This is saying a final pres b budget presentation. Really what this is just a highlevel 2025 yearend financial report. Um I think as this year goes on and as we prepare to do our next year's budget I do want to have more conversations about some of the historical data. um and continue to share that as we move to a JFO best practice budget. Um a lot of this information becomes um more important and to get into a little more details and analysis and background and history becomes more important. So this is really just kind of a initial highlevel um talking about some of these things. So I will give Carrie a chance to get my presentation up here. Um the initial ones just as we're getting ready for this we're just have some numbers on a sheet of paper and coming forward we'll continue to add more data to this but this is just a general overview of of our main funds here including the general fund and I will go into a little more detail on some of these after we get through some of these initial things because of course on this screen no matter what it's a little hard to read. One of the things I did want to to say is that we need to make an adjustment to some of our numbers. Our actual beginning fund balance for 2025 was $574,620. I've been working with Kelly Atinson and Kathy Troder and if confirmed that is the case. So, um, going forward, we need to make that adjustment. There was, um, uh, some still some good news coming out of this, and we'll talk about that. We have seen our general fund numbers up with some caveats. So, I do want to talk about that as you're going through these numbers. It's important to remember and I do want to make this change going forward. If it has a bracket around it, that actually means it's good. If it if it doesn't have a bracket, that means it's it's negative. So, brackets are positives. Uh non-brackets are negatives. I always have to wrap my head head around that. Uh we'll talk a little more about the the general fund, the re

revenue stabilization fund, and the contingency reserve and a little more detail coming up. There really is no big information, although we'll talk more about these in details at upcoming meetings for our special reserve funds and our internal service funds. Next slide, please. Pet, can we ask questions as we're going? Yeah. Okay. Um, I appreciate it. Uh, oh, Susan's on here first. Okay. Go ahead, Susan. Go first. Council Walton, go ahead.

Thank you. Um, I and this is not my forte. I I know I emailed you, Keith, and I'm I'm still sorry. I I'm a little confused. So the 574,000 but then when the first line 001 general it's the 1.3 million correct and then when I take that across I could be wrong to the 1.9 million I those are not like adding up for me cuz your your answer to me that we was that we ended 2024 and 2025 at 574620 is so is that that's where we ended but yet the the numbers here look a little more than that. So, I'm trying to figure out and I've used my calculator to the point I've gotten more confused.

Yeah. I mean, I I think as we go forward, we do have another presentation just to really go over the specifics of the general fund and and where some of these funds landed and to talk about in a little more detail. But, I mean, to answer the question where we where we began 2025 was at $574,000. So, should the 1.3 million be there? No, that's what I'm saying. We need to we need to adjust that number. So, I did read it correct. Oh, I'm kind of like excited about that. Okay, so that is actually not 1.3 million. Then if you take that adding and subtracting, then the 1.9 would not be accurate either. No, the 1.9 is is an accurate number and and there might be some more detail we need to provide. 25 to 26. You're No, I know that. Yeah, I just it Okay,

this is sticking in in in revenues and expenditures and and some other funds as well. So yes, the 1.9 number in going through this and working with the staff is is correct. But the 1.3 should be 5 574 should be 574. Correct. But when that for the starting at 2025 then why would the 1.9 be accurate if the beginning number and you take it across is different? I I without maybe someone else sees it. I'm just okay that I still struggled there but okay we'll keep going. It's two different years we're talking about. Yeah. It's the end and where we start to Mayor Winkler.

I'm going to build on to Susan's question if she's okay with it. Uh I have when you come back, that'd be my followup. Uh because if you take the beginning balance of 1.3 million and you add on the actual revenues at 13.5 million and you subtract out the actuals, that's where you get a 1.9. So there's several numbers that would be wrong in there. If you put the 574,620 in that starting beginning balance, I come up with an ending fund balance of 1,245,670.

There's some there's some revenues in there that that we haven't accounted for in those difference that was added into what would became a quotequote supplemental. So that's what the money we have to to go through and and I need I've asked for more time as we go through and put this all together. But what I can say is working is that we started with that and this is what we ended with that. So, some of the numbers we needed to work on, but where we're trying to figure is the number of the 1.3. So, there is some more work we need to do on this. Okay.

Oh, Council Member Elliot. Yeah. Just um I know we bought some new or we were supposed to buy some new software this year. Did Did we to up to to upgrade our finance department? We we didn't. No, there has. there there hasn't been as we've gotten into those some of those expenses. Okay. Because we did we did pass that that we would budget items in there as as well. Correct.

Okay. Because you know I have to say this is really frustrating to get this information when we're looking at it and it's incorrect. I I just I don't understand why we're even looking at this because it's it's it's incorrect and that that to me is unacceptable when we're doing a trying to figure out where we were in 2025 and it's May almost June. So anyway, I just I find this very confusing and I I I understand the frustration.

Yeah. So just the second items are are getting into the the general government nonoperational funds, service funds, capital improvement funds and and fiduciary funds. And then just kind of a general overview to our enterprise funds. I I do want to say um we will be having more conversations and work on some of these um as well. So as we go forward with this um we need to make some of those adjustments as well. Next slide please. Next slide please. So our actual ending fund balance is 1,976,372. That is where we started 2026 at. Um I understand there's some questions on that and we are working through some of those as we make some of these adjustments. Um, this is we said this is almost a million dollars above budget. What we're referring to is that our budgeted amount for 2026 to start was $997,12. So, we're seeing a little bit more. We collected more revenue than budgeted and this was partly big due to taxes of the BNO increase that was made uh admissions and gambling permits and plans examination fee and investment interests. We have expenses of 8% unspent. But I want to be clear that there is some um uh concerns with this. There is a Teamsters contract which expired in 2020 funds. The Teamsters is our police union. They have been out of contract for all of 2025. Um so we know that we have this expense coming as we come into contract with them.

Oh, Council Member Walden.

Okay. Two things. Um, and I appreciate the cander about this, Keith, and it'll be updated, but it's it's it is I agree with Beth hard to com to comment on this when the numbers are going to be changing. It's a little bit frustrating to say the least. Um, especially when 1.3 million is actually 574,000. That's a pretty significant difference to then carry the addition and then you subtract and then you get the total. So, that's that's one piece. Um, when we talk about our police, it's been about a year, I'm guessing, for that contract to be negotiated. How much money are we talking will come out to I know for teachers you go back and you have to retroactively whenever that started pay those people that is fair about how much money will that be out of our general fund to do that

yeah I really don't want to comment specifically because we're in negotiations I don't want to look like we're trying to land on a number but what I can say is that we they did not receive any cola last year and then whatever increase or pay increases or additional revenues that we would would do would be part of that so I would anticipate this would a larger amount, but I don't want to discuss it in public. So, we're not looking like we're committing any sort of bargaining interference or No, I can respect that, but I'm I'm just guessing that would be fairly substantial and it'll eventually need to be reflected in here. Correct. Correct. That's why I want to be transparent as we're talking about this number that it is a number that's high because we know we have this outstanding

and then this 2026 is firefighters. Are we going to have to go back retroactively when that's settled as well? So this we talk about this as well coming up, but yes, at 2026 we are out with firefighters and we are out with police. So as we are getting our numbers for 2026, we need to keep in mind that it is reflecting a number that is lower than what we will actually get to when we settle. Okay. Oh, council member guessing.

I understand you probably cannot comment on this, but as a citizen taxpayer and a council member, I'm very concerned that we are not in contract with the police department that it's out of contract since all of 2025. And how much is this going to cost us when we don't have a city attorney to to wrap this up? I know you can't comment. I'm just I find it very concerning. I I I have a concerning as well. What I'll say is that part of this is I mean really the big part of this has been and I don't think I'm giving anything away and I don't think they would disagree. We've been working with Teamsters. They had a transition in their in their person that was doing that and we went a six-month period without any negotiations. Um they've had trouble finding someone else to take over for for their account. So the challenge has been just finding a team's representative to to be here. We have met three times in the last year. city is open and ready to negotiate. So, um that's just been the reality of of the struggle we've had with with negotiation. So, as we yeah, as we go through just a general overview, there's 16 total funds. Um, one of the things that has been really important is we are keeping our money active. It's they're being spent or invested. We're drawing about $53,000 for all funds, not just our general fund in terms of our investment accounts. And this general con fund position has been improving even with some of these concerns we've had um in terms of of outgoing expenses. So we have seen some positivity in that. So part of the difference in that the revenue streams are the updated fee schedules, the onetenth of 1% sales tax for transportation, the lodging tax and the

rate adjustments that we did for our water and our storm water. One other things I wanted to talk about, I know there's some questions about this was our 2025 reserves. So, our policy has a reserve policy in terms of our goals for our reserve funds. This was a council priority a few years ago. Um, the budget talks about this as well, but for our revenue stabilization, we are still 53% below our policy stated goal. And for our contingency fund, we are 35% below the goal. So, we still have some more res more work to do in terms of our reserve policy. And I think as we continue to talk about what we do in the future and be mindful of being good stewards that we need to work on getting these funds up as well as our general fund as well.

Council member the court. So we like we are still waiting for the negotiation with the police and fire and uh that's my question is that uh how much backdated we need to pay them 2025 the year 2025 and almost 2026 correct. So then the followup question is do we have enough reserve to pay back the salaries what we owe them right now? Yes. Yeah we have plenty of reserves to do that. Okay. Thank you. But it I I do want to be mindful of just saying as you look at the number we have starting this year, we know that this is an expense that we need to account for. Okay. Thank you,

Council Mayor Walton.

Um just move moving forward on this. I know we've asked this as a council quite a bit. It it's just imperative that we as a council have monthly updates, money coming in, money going out. Um because this is I'll be honest, this is pretty shocking to look at right now and I'm not even an expert, but turns out I was I was adding and subtracting correctly. Um that I just I don't know how to emphasize that enough. Maybe it's just me. I I know some of us would like that. But as we make decisions about other people again and other people's money, man, I want to know every month where we are at as a as a city. And honestly, this is not even really telling me where we are right now to be frank. But um you know I'm always looking at how do you make it better. We I don't know what to do to make that happen. But and there are other districts oh sorry there are other cities that that do that that have a pretty um almost user friendly way of doing that. But we have to move forward in these tough economic times to get monthly updates that are really really as detailed as possible. And I know there is never a perfect ending balance. you. I I just spent a couple thousand bucks on my next year's budget. I get it. But something every month that gives us an idea of where we're at so that we are not surprised or we can start proactively addressing it. Those are my thoughts.

I I don't disagree with you on being more transparent. I know we have had presenting monthly information. and I will be following up with council on some changes we need to make on that and and why. But I don't disagree with you that we need to be more transparent and open in our in our budgeting process and and and our budget. So I won't disagree with you. Oh yeah. Okay. Go ahead.

I I I'm I'm glad you agree with that. But I'll be again very frank. I've been told that probably since I started on city council four years now. I agree we should we will um we're we're not and and we have to so it's it's great to say we will we're going to meet I I when you're newer Keith heard that for quite a bit um it needs to actually be a part of our standard process. We need to have systems in place where that is just standard operating procedure. Um that's I don't know what to say. I I I'm starting to doubt Understood. So for the 2026 budget um and just for the future just keep in mind so we've talked about this already. Police and fire contracts um will affect the 2026 expenses that may not be reflected in the current budget. So just want to be open and transparent about that. Inflation impacting materials and contracts. We've talked a little bit about and actually quite a bit about our aging infrastructure needs. Um so just understanding that that's a cost that we have. Um when we talked about our standard and pores, this was one of the concerns that they had they had talked about as well. Um we're worried about a potential economic slowdown which could affect our sales tax. It could affect development potentially in our community. Um we need to evaluate the utility rate increases and and how they've been working in terms of our expectations and we need to continue to work to close the gap on reserve funds. Another big portion of this is we keep seeing insurance costs go up significantly every year, which is a big part of of our cost overall. And we need to continue to explore grants and revenue opportunities. So, I'm aware that we need to make some changes and and we're working on that and we need to be more open and transparent on our budgeting and we need

to be uh better and I I acknowledge that and we'll work to do it. So, I ask for patience and grace as we as we work through, but we also need to work through some of our past numbers and make sure we get good data and numbers as we as we go forward and make sure that we're starting from a place we can all agree on. Council member Elliot.

Yes. So, I want to go back to that software. So, I did think that the council did approve that the finance department would purchase new software. And why haven't we? and what software is out there that would make it streamline, make it much easier for our finance department to do their to do their work and to publicize it to the to the community. And to me, that would help us do our monthly reports because I'm I'm with Susan. We need we need a monthly report um an accurate monthly report. So, where are we with that software? Yeah, I mean the software changes were were things that we had talked about in terms of getting budgeting software, you know, because we're using Excel spreadsheets, um, which, you know, inherently have some challenges, aren't aren't the best for that. So, um, you know, there was some initial work on doing that, but we really didn't go anywhere, but I agree that that needs to be a priority. Software needs to be a priority. um we need to be more uh technology savvy and try to use economies of scale in terms of using resources that can make us more efficient. There's just there is just a long way to go. So this is going to be uh a long process. It's so I'm I understand the frustration today. My thing is to say to you I I hear you. I know what we need to do. I have a background in this, but I also know that this takes time and it's just going to take some time to improve. Council member Thor.

So again being new I didn't know what we use for the accounting software but while you are talking about Excel spreadsheets I mean those are the I guess olden days but still people use it. It's very efficient. However I think uh new softwares online softwares are available. So sometime we don't have to have a downloaded software and work on a one computer. actually two three people can work simultaneously online like a Quickbooks or things. The benefit I know personally because I have a business and I know how to do accounting and I have done used the QuickBooks for like last 15 years. The QuickBooks will connect you directly to your accounts. So every penny comes into the our account and every penny goes out it's right there for you to identify what is your income and what is your expenses where did you spend the money as soon as it's identified you have that all the time available. So you can get that reports like we are talking about monthly reports. It's pretty easy. Somebody can be just sitting down every day expenses and income and uh just be done with it and on the 30th night maybe another first or second we will have the reports ready.

Maybe I'm not right. I you can correct me. Well, the Yeah,

council member LA, I believe what you're talking about was a module in our Springbrook accounting system because you referenced Burrest, I believe. Don't they have reports that that you you've referenced? I believe that's a module in Spring Brook and I believe it does what um council member Theor saying it feeds from our Spring Brook system. We put in the payments and it and then I'm not accounting so I'm but I what I remember is you could go online anybody could go online and track that in real time. I think I believe that's what that software

Yeah. So part of the question too is is Spring Brook still the best software for our finance system because what we're doing is taking spring data and putting it into an Excel spreadsheet. Um, so I mean I think to answer your question, the the bigger question is is Spring Brook still the right financial software for us to use and many cities have moved to different programs. So that's really one of the initial analysis in terms of trying to to do this and then what if not what other budgeting software can we use that be better suited rather than Excel.

There there are online programs um yuggov is one and and others that you can do. One of the benefit I have to tell everybody to go if you do it on online software if you use it what happens is the data cannot be manipulated. So in a excel spreadsheet I have it somebody can just say delete and it's gone. In a online access it stays every time. So even 100 years from now if it's a online data has been preserved and those are connected with the bank. So suppose say if your bank cannot give you the access to the data from 7 years from now your accounting software has the entire database from the bank is downloaded. So in my opinion it's a very efficient way of dealing with accounting. I'm not an accountant but I'm a business owner and know how to do the accounting. Any other comments, questions for Keith? Okay, there's going to be a lot more to come on this. And of course, as you all know, we have a a recruitment out for a finance and budget person. So hopefully that'll come to help us as well. Okay, we'll uh move on. We have a an appointment of a member to the DuPont Planning Commission, uh, Mr. James Jenner, recommended by, uh, Council Member Theor. I've talked to James Jenner myself, and I will entertain a motion to accept his appointment. Council member Theor,

I make a motion to approve the planning commissioner, James Jenners. Okay. Council member Barl,

I second that. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. Oppose. Okay. Mr. Jenner has been appointed. Uh, next I have a one proclamation tonight. as whereas armed forces day is celebrated on third Saturday in May each year whereas it falls during military appreciation month and joins memorial day and military spouse appreciation day and whereas originally there were single day celebrations for the army navy and air force. Whereas on October 21st 1949, Secretary of Defense Lewis Johnson announced the creation of Armed Forces Day to unify the armed forces under the Department of Defense. now commemorating all branches of the military during one solitary day. And whereas Armed Forces Day is a joint celebration of all six branches of the US military, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and the newly created Space Force. And whereas the day honors all people currently serving in the US Armed Forces, including the men and women who have served or are serving in the National Guard and Reserve components. And whereas unlike Veterans Day, which honors those who served, and unlike Memorial Day, which honors those who died serving, Armed Forces Day is a day to honor all men and women currently serving, as well as those who have served, both active and former military. Now, therefore, I, Ronald J. Frederick, mayor of the city of DuPont, Washington, do hereby proclaim Saturday, May 16th, 2026 as Armed Forces Day in the city of DuPont. And I encourage all citizens to join me in this observance sign this 12th day of May 2026.

Next we have the uh consent agenda items. I'd entertain a motion to uh approve those. Council member Elliot. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Okay. Council member Wargle. Second the motion. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. Oppose. Thank you. Item 10.1 is unfinished business item and it's uh for ordinance number 26-1 1170 regarding a utility franchise with light curve. This is the second reading. Is there any further uh information we have on this, Keith?

No, Mr. Mayor. Uh, attorney Car presented this information last time. It needed to go to a second reading. I think the council was ready to move forward. There is no additional information um for consideration. Okay. Well, in that case, we'll entertain a motion. Council member Wargo. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve ordinance number 261170 regarding utility franchise with Lake Curve. Deputy Mayor Winkler.

I second the motion. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. Oppose. That ordinance has been approved. Um, our newly added 10.2 item, which is a vote on on moving forward to request some ELTC funds for engineering plans. Deputy Mayor Winkler. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve the staff submitting a county altac grant for design and engineering study for option two. Okay. Do we have a second? Council member Barl.

I'll second that. Any further discussion? Council member the core.

I think I would like to see we present the option number two and three as uh one of the things to move forward with. I would love to get it moved forward. We can get the Eltech money and if we get the LTE money as well as we get some more money from other sources like uh our city engineer just told us and if we can create uh our event facility community center plus the recreational multi-purpose use for city of Deon for next 100 years I would love to see that happen. So I think we should pursue the two options. Option number two and option number three.

Mhm. The two different things are not mutually exclusive. I mean over time we can do both, right? Amy, would you like to do you think it's possible for us to apply for two options at the same time? I I actually do not. Yeah. do one then later on do the other or the other unfortunately because they're two different sites. You're you're talking about two very different projects and one might require a bond as opposed to ELAC money. So there's different scenarios there. Anyway, uh Council Member Wargo.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I um you know, I'm happy that the council is going to move this forward. you know, not every option that we discussed tonight um uh is a slam dunk by any means. Um but I'm definitely not in the in the in favor of kicking the can down the the road. I think we go for the eltac dollars from county uh provide something for our citizens as a service in the community and also help our businesses. So I think we got to be bold and unafraid and just uh move forward. So I'll be voting yes. Council Member Elliot.

Well, I I do have some real concerns about this and um I'm going to point back to the $100,000 study that was just conducted that said it's highly it's highly probable that we will be having to pay costs out of this from our general fund. And having just listened to the 2026 budget, we've got some significant financial challenges coming up. So, I'm wondering how much money we're going to have in our general fund to to contribute to this. Even though it's four years down the road, I don't see things improving economically anytime soon. So, I do have concerns about this and I would vote I'm not going to vote for this. I think I would vote to go back to the drawing board and put something else out there.

Deputy Mayor Winkler. U just as a recclarification uh I was leaning toward option one if I I think the study for option two makes sense if there's a potential for more parking. Okay, that would need to be included in the study and that cost would be need to be included in the study. So that's why I lean toward option two for this. Uh if that parking doesn't become available, it just means less uh less of a cost but less parking. But uh I want to clarify it only commits us to apply for a grant to do a study. That's all we're doing. We're not doing funds from anywhere. We're applying for a grant to do a study. If approved, the grant will pay to do the study. Uh we will then need to apply just so everyone following for another grant a year from now in all likelihood um to do the actual construction. If that grant is denied, we don't do the construction. So, we don't we are I think in my mind being very good stewards of our own dollars. Um the bottom line is this is the first step. If the grant is approved, the study's done. If we're not approved for the next grant, then we don't go forward. It's it's that simple. And I, as I clarified before, we already have some costs into our current building that we're already paying, such as the seating and so forth. Structure size would be about the same. And um and if we don't do anything, if we kick the can down the road, if I can steal Tom's line, then then we have two real rundown old buildings that we haven't done anything with. Okay.

Council member Walton. Um, I I'm just I don't I'm going to vote no to move it forward and and here's why. It's not that I'm kicking the can down the road. Certainly not. I I understand all the financial pros and cons and so forth. Um, I just would like to see more choices, more thoughtful ideas, and um, I'm sorry there's a crunch deadline. Um, but I want to make it really clear, I'm I'm not against any, quite frankly, of those options. Even running a bond, I'm not against any of it. I just don't feel me personally I'm I'm at a place where I can make the most informed decision that I need. Um but certainly I don't think myself or or Beth or anyone else that matter we're not kicking the can down the road. We're that's not um at least what my vote is all about. My vote is about making the best fiscal decision that I think I can for other people's money. And given the budget concerns that are starting to really concern me, um maybe when those are addressed, I my my vote might have been different because I was going back and forth, but it kind of solidified to me that there are some pause buttons that I would prefer to be hit right now, but not against it as an as a even a partial or its entirety. Council member Gassic,

I think part of the reason that we're in this financial position is because we have kicked the can down the road. And when I say we, I don't mean me. I'm talking about previous council decisions because slowing down city growth and, you know, reszoning property that's already been zoned and doing things over um and recreating the wheel because it's not what you wanted to see has stopped revenue for the city because we have not had any growth. There has not been any growth. Old Fort Lake is still sitting there with nothing happening and you know it could have been further down the line than it is right now and you could have had money coming in. Kicking the can down the road is never a good idea. You you need to address things headon. I'm voting to support this because I have faith that we can get this these elac monies. We're leaving money on the table. This is like working for a company and not putting in for your 401k is the way that I would liken it is it's it's money that should be coming back to us. We we are leaving money on the table if we don't put in for these grants. And I am absolutely 100% in support of this of option two. I am tired of seeing this council kick the can down the road.

Sorry, council member the court.

Okay. I think like I I will stick to what I was talking about. Uh I would love to explore our city look beyond just uh repairing or reconstructing the older building and not having a more issues of having parking and so many uh and spending $4 million. I would love to get that money back to the city but I think we should look forward not the backwards and uh we have uh some options. We are rushing to this uh decision and I think uh we should uh make a approach if would if we would like to make an approach but having something new something which city can use down the road for long-term of the uh citizens. So at this time I'm not going to vote on this.

I'll abstain. Council member Barl, I just want to add if this does move forward that we also include some sort of information on how we can preserve the storage space that's currently in the community center for our historical um artifacts. So we if this does move forward, we need to make sure that we have something set aside for that storage space. So, I just want to make sure that if we're going forward that's accounted for.

Any other comments? Okay. Well, I'll call for the vote. I think since we're kind of divided here, you might want to do a roll call vote on this one here, clerk. You think?

Okay. Okay. So, the motion on the table is to request for ELTAC funds for an engineering study for option number two. Council member Faker, how do you vote?

Um, Council Member Elliot, I'm reading my notes and they're not following. Council member Wargo. Council member Winkler, yay. Council member Gassik, yay. Council member Barrow, yay. And council member Walton. The

uh motion passes. Uh next u we have the mayor's report. I don't have anything further, so we'll move on to the council reports. Deputy Mayor Winkler.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Um, I do have a report for the council. I just wanted everyone to know on April 30th, state representative Mari Levit met with the mayor and I to discuss future needs right here in the city. Part of that discussion included potential sources of fundings as we request grant options. Some of the funds that she brought up were the recreation conservation office or RCO funds which can be used for parks. Uh the climate commitment act funds and the modeltoxic control act funds hypothetically if we needed a potential source for more funds for cleanups. We could reach out to these and these funds are in addition to or separate of the capital budget where we've been able to get grants from before. So the goal this year is to actually go in there with more than one ask to go in for two maybe three asks and funding them to the right source. Um Representative Levit sent us information on the recreation cons conservation office funds and some of the grants other cities have received. It's quite amazing. I would love to get on that list. I will be asking uh Keith and um Carrie if they can send that out to all the council members for information only, not for a meeting discussion. It's just so that you all have the same information that we got and you can all be a little more educated about the RCO program and what it does. uh then I'd like to establish our legislative priorities ad hoc committee earlier this year and that we're not only focused on the legislative priorities but expanding more into looking at grants. I kind of would like to vote on that at our uh first meeting in June with the understanding that we won't meet into probably late August because the staff have a very heavy workload this summer and we need their input. I mean, we've

got uh Memorial Day coming up. We have um the Fourth of July coming up. We have the canoe coming up. So, but I would rather have us figure out who's going to be on that ad hoc committee now so that when the staff gets through their very busy summer, then we can start meeting. And with that shared, that's my report. Thank you. Council member Elliot.

Yeah. Um, I attended a fascinating and yet sobering event on Friday at Bonnie Lake in Tahala. Uh, Mike Winkler was there, Sarah, our planner, was there, our fire chief was there. Um, and it was really it was sobering and it was all it was all about fire smoke and uh the drought that we're experiencing in western Washington, the uh the heat um the the chance of wildfire is is greatly enhanced. And so um as a result of that I spoke with um Nancy Henderson who's from Stilikum. She and I have got together yesterday and we've we've contacted James Moore who is with the Pierce Conservation District and he goes out and gives presentations on how homes homeowners can help prepare their home against wildfire. And so we're looking to have a a presentation here in DuPont and then one in Stilikum. And we're I've got a tentative date for for the latter part of June and then sometime in July. Um, but I'll get more information about that because he did a great job. He'll bring lots of handouts. He I got this great book. It's called Fire Resistant Plants. It's how how much how many feet you need to have uh uh plantings away from your home. I mean, he it was fascinating. So, I'll look forward to sharing more information about that when I have a date. Thank you,

Council Member of the Court. So just to give you the report on the south housing uh I attended the uh meeting last time and uh there is a they are hiking the fees for the cities uh what exactly those fees are and that's going to be for next five years the fees are going to go up so we continue to participate we don't or how do we approach that so once I have the numbers I'll share with the council that's number one and number two uh I would like to see uh for the next time when we have a proclamation that becomes uh top on the agenda item. So if some people wants to just come and have a proclamation taken and go away and not wait here for all the meeting, I think that will be helpful. Thank you,

Council Member Walton. Um just a reminder, you probably already know, but this week is National Police Week. So, if you haven't gotten on Dupant or where I've been on the Puallup one as well, just a couple really sweet words out there and thank you and gratitude for everyone from police officers to SRO's. Um, if you see them, just tell them thank you. I mean, it should be 365 days a year, but let's not miss an opportunity for an entire week to celebrate law enforcement because they are amazing and what they do is something that many of us could not even dream of doing. So, little extra thanks out there would be great. Council member Barl.

Hi. I just want to remind everybody that on June 13th and 14th, it's Flag Day weekend in the historical society. We'll be hosting uh some flags from the US history and also the flag of the um Nisquali tribe will be present. Um it'll be from 1 to 4 on Saturday the 13th and Sunday the 14th. And I it's free and I think everybody will u should come visit. Thank you,

Council Member Gessic. Since you haven't heard from me enough tonight, um I wanted to remind everyone to support your small businesses. I have spoken with some of the businesses in historic village and they are having some slowdown in their business like a reduction in close to 80% for some of them since the change in the the road revision to Dupont Stilkcom Road and Barkstdale. And while they're hopeful that it will improve over time, I don't know if it's just that people are confused, but they're not getting the business that they've previously seen uh due to this change. And I don't know if that's something that we didn't take into consideration when all of this uh planning was done years ago, but if we could continue to support our small businesses and perhaps as a council we should look at ways that we can help support them. I don't know if it they need signage out on the roads or what, but I've heard from three different businesses that they've seen a drastic reduction in numbers of people coming in.

Any other council comments? Okay, time for the city administrator. Have anything else, Keith? Yeah, just really quickly, the city of Pon is honored to be selected as the landing location for the 2026 canoe journey. So, we want to invite everyone in the community to an open house on May 21st at 6 PM. The Disquali tribe in the city of Pont um are inviting for an open house to highlight the canoe journey to have an explanation. Hanford Mloud will be leading that. We encourage everyone in the community to come and attend that event. May 21st, 6 p.m. right here in the city council chambers. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Any more questions?