City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the May 11 city council meeting and ask assistant clerk Tiffany Element to please call the roll. Council member Amman.

Here.

Council member Coronado.

Here.

Council member Eckberg.

Here.

Council member Martin. Here. Councilmember Rodenberg? Here. Councilmember Stone? Here. Councilmember Tessichini?

Present.

If you could all please rise and join us for the pledge of allegiance. Before we begin this council meeting, we would like to recognize that we are gathered on not only the ancestral and traditional lands of the Squabash Band of the Puyallup tribe of Indians, but also on the site of one of the largest and longest standing historic villages of their people, the original inhabitants of the Gig Harbor area. Council, are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, we will move on. Tonight, I do have a proclamation to read for bike month.

And after I re read it, I will present it to Marlene Drucker. We'll take a quick picture, and then Marlene, you can speak for five minutes if you wish or less. Emphasis no. And, actually, after we read it, we'll do a I'll present it, and we'll do a quick picture, picture, and then you can speak. So whereas the bicycle is a healthy, convenient, and financially and environmentally sound form of transportation and an excellent tool for recreation and enjoyment of Gig Harbor's scenic beauty, local attractions, and friendly neighborhoods.

And whereas throughout the month of May, the residents of Gig Harbor and its visitors will experience the joys of bicycling through educational programs, commuting at events, bike to school day, trail workdays, helmet promotions, charity events, races, or by simply getting out and going for a ride. And whereas Gig Harbor's road and trail system attracts bicyclists each year, providing economic health, transportation, tourism, and scenic benefits. And whereas creating a bicycle bicycling friendly community has been shown to improve residents' health, well-being, and quality of life, growing the economy of the city of Gig Harbor, attracting tourism dollars, improving traffic safety, supporting student health, and learning, and reducing pollution, congestion, and wear and tear on our streets and roads. And whereas Washington Bikes, Cascade Bike Bicycle Club, the League of American Bicyclists, Ride Pierce County, and Bike Geek Harbor will be promoting bicycling during the month of May 2026. And whereas many of these same groups are also promoting bicycle tourism year round to attract more visitors to enjoy our local restaurants, hotels, retail establishments, locally produced foods and beverages, and cultural and scenic attractions.

And whereas these groups are also promoting greater public awareness of bicycle operation and safety education in an effort to reduce collisions, injuries, and fatalities and improve health and safety for everyone on the road. Now, therefore, I, Mary Barber, mayor of the city of Gig Harbor, do proclaim May 2026 as bike month and urge all restaurants, all residents to embrace bicycling as a safe, sustainable, and healthy mode of transportation and recreation and to support efforts that make our streets more accessible and welcoming for writers of all ages and abilities.

Years prior to that. Oh. And as far as I know, this is the first time that Gig Harbor has acknowledged bike path. So thank you very much for doing that. Some reasons that just at the top of my head to celebrate bikes, bikes remain the most efficient way to convert energy into movement. Bikes are simple machines and you can learn how things work by tinkering with them if you're so inclined. Bikes are compact and light. They don't need a lot of space to use or to park, and they do little damage to road surfaces and cause very little pollution. People who use bikes for transportation are one less car on the road, and none of you wanna be behind me when I'm driving. Not not that I'm a bad driver.

Not that I'm a bad driver. I'm just not incredibly confident, which can be annoying. It's easy when you're riding a bike to stop and say hello to friends and neighbors and everybody's dogs. Bikes are fueled by their operators, people who ride bikes enjoy refueling where they ride, particularly coffee shops, bakeries, ice cream places and those aforementioned restaurants. The bike enables people who can bike but cannot drive more freedom to travel independently.

When biking, you can enjoy nature and observe the world at a speed that is slower than driving but faster than walking. Biking is exercise since it's fun and can take you places. It can become a healthy habit that is easy to stick with. I'm currently a bike commuter. I ride back and forth to work, and it's a good balance when most of my job is sitting down.

And the nicest miles of my commute are the ones right next to here, near where I live, so I'm living a very charmed life that way. When my kids were little, I I ride on Cushman Trail at the start of my commute. The only section of Cushman Trail that existed when my kids were little was from Kimball to 14th and we goofed around on it a lot when the kids were little. As they grew up, the section that went down to Wilkinson Farm was developed and then I was actually at the groundbreaking when you made it all the way to Borgen. And I just want to say that I didn't advocate for one mile of that trail that I enjoy pretty much every day that I'm here.

But I'm very grateful for the people who did make it so. They people asked for it and put effort into it and made us have a really great place here in Gig Harbor. Recently, Penn Med Parks, when they built their recreation center, they expanded the trail the trail headed fourteenth all the way to the Bridge and it is so much more pleasant to ride on that trail than it was riding on the road and I know that there are people who use that trail who would never have considered riding on the road that was the alternative to it. So trails really are a build it and they will come proposition, like Field of Dreams, they extend the amount of people who are able to bike. Polls show that Americans are biking more and that Americans do want to bike more.

The e bikes that are more available now, they flatten hills, they lighten loads, and they let you arrive at your destination no sweat. It's easier now to combine bike trips with transit. There are more places that have secure bike parking. There are more workplaces with showers and there's better clothing and gear for bad weather and there are even adaptive bikes for people who have physical limitations. Kids who live near Swiftwater Elementary can and do ride their bikes to school, and that's really awesome.

There are some business some great businesses that you can reach from the trail and from other safe places to ride, but there are many places, like say our library, where adults would hesitate before they allow a kid to ride their bike there. People my age were allowed to were able to get around on their own in ways that our kids and kids today really can't. The world has improved in a lot of ways, but I think a childhood where kids can only go where someone can drive them is not an upgrade. And this is of course not just for kids, it's for anyone who can't drive. There are opportunities to reach recreation and social things and employments are all limited if you can't drive and there's no other good ways to get around.

People for bikes rate cities for the quality of their bike network. The highest scoring city in Washington is Port Townsend. They scored a 68. And so I wouldn't discourage anybody from going to Copenhagen or Amsterdam to check out good bike infrastructure, but you could take a quick road trip to Port Townsend and just have a look at how they deal with intersections and just provide better places for people to bike. Geek Harbour scored a 22.

That's not all the way at oh, this is out of a 100, by the way. A full a 100 went to Micenac Island where they have no cars, just service vehicles and, I think, golf carts. So while there are some good places to ride here, we have a ways to go. And more than money, it takes political will to to make those changes.

Marlene, you're at time.

Oh, shoot. Sorry. Could I just I got one sentence.

Okay. You can

take it. And then I'm gonna give you a GIF to make up for my overtime. Okay? And everybody's busy, so my friends are out riding bikes or working or something. But I hope that we will work on, you know, getting more people out there. So just get out there and ride, enjoy what we have, and I hope that we will work to do even better. So thank you very much for the proclamation.

Okay. You're Thank you so much for being here. Yes. And have a lovely ride home in the sunshine.

Yeah. I'm on a bike in Paris. Do you bike washes? Thanks,

Thank you. So I now welcome public comment on the consent agenda. If you have a comment on the consent agenda, please come to the podium or press the raised hand button on Zoom if you would like to comment. Alright. I will now close public comment on the consent agenda items and open it up for a motion from counsel to approve said agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda. Second.

Second.

It was moved by council member Coronado and seconded by everybody else. No. I'll say Rosenberg. Council member Rosenberg, please vote on your screens or vote verbally. I'm not sure if if you're signed in, council member Amin.

I vote to approve.

Thank you. Motion passes seven to zero. So on my mayor's report, I don't have a lot to report tonight, but have to say again how much I love this time of year for bike riding and everything else. Everything around is so green, and it's blooming. People are outside. They're enjoying the community. The number of people who were out walking this weekend was incredible. I wanna remind everybody that that does mean that bicyclists may be in the road and young people are outside playing potentially in the road, so please be extra careful. Also, a reminder that this is mental health awareness month. May 18, there will be a town hall here at the Civic Center in cooperation with the school district.

And on Saturday, May 30, our youth council is putting on a conference focused on mental health as well. It's for youth, and so we encourage people to come to both of those events. If you need help, remember that you are not alone. There are resources available to you. Those of you interested in the critical areas ordinance know that there's a public hearing for the proposed ordinance that will be before the Planning Commission on May 19.

And this ordinance goes to the planning commission before coming to council a bit later this summer. Volunteers are needed to support some of our big events coming up this summer. Check the chamber's website for information on volunteering for the Maritime Gig Fest, June, and call the Waterfront Alliance to sign up to help at the farmer's market, which runs every Thursday beginning in two weeks. And that's all I have. Enjoy the sunshine, and I will turn it over to city administrator Katrina Knutson for her report.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. As always, I would ask anyone that's watching and also anyone in attendance at this meeting to direct their attention to the wonderful department updates that are located in council packet agenda for each Monday meeting. This is a great opportunity to hear directly from department directors and program managers on all of the great work that's occurring in their departments. Just very briefly wanted to and I've mentioned this to counsel, but wanted to formally state that we will be starting our legislative agenda process in June year with the intent of having more conversation between counsel and formalizing our legislative agenda, probably six to eight weeks sooner than we normally do.

This will allow us to talk with our legislators in Olympia and be better prepared for upcoming legislative agenda, which is longer than it was this year. So council, be, as we talked about recently, be thinking about what's important to you so that you can talk with your colleagues about that in setting our legislative agenda. And lastly, I just wanted to let council know that on Wednesday, the mayor and I will be traveling up to Port Townsend. We will make sure that we look at bike infrastructure on the way. But we're going up there with the Waterfront Alliance and with Visit Gig Harbor, the chamber, to meet with Port Townsend City Staff as well as their main street organization regarding creative district program in Port Townsend.

The intent of this is to learn from them to bring back information to the council should council wish to consider a creative district in the future. The city of Port Townsend has successfully implemented that program collectively with their chamber and main street organization and are seeing great economic benefits in their downtown because of their work. So we're gonna go up and learn from them and look forward to sharing that information with council. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes my report.

Great. Thank you. And we have just one business item tonight, and that is amendment number four for the professional services contract for lift station one a rehabilitation. And I will turn it over to public works director Jeff Langhelm for the staff report.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. Yes. Jeff Langhelm, public works director for the city. The agenda item you have before you is a professional services contract amendment where you're needing to add a cultural resources analysis to our existing list station number one design contract.

This lift station is the list sewer lift station we have in the Southwest Corner of Crescent Creek Park. It's originally built in 1973 and has outlasted its useful life. A lot of parts and pieces that would they don't make anymore, and we need to get those replaced. And so this is the time to do that. Council did approve a consultant services contract with Kennedy Jenks, our design consultant, in 2023 for the new lift station.

We've had a few amendments since then. However, this specific amendment is in response to a request from local tribes for a cultural resource analysis from the site that was spurred on by the notice of land use application that we do, and the tribes responded with that request. So the amendment you have before you tonight, amendment number four, directs our consultant to complete that cultural resources analysis. There is project funding available in the 2526 project budget to complete this work. So staff's recommending approval of this amendment. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. It's time for clarifying questions. Councilmember Eckberg.

Thanks. Quick question. This project is in the just the corner of the park. I know where it is. And down the road, we have a lot of other work coming in the park. Is this study will the information from this be able to be used for the future phases in that park, or do we have to do this each time we we add a phase?

It will be useful information for the future phases. Yes. Thanks.

Are there any other clarifying questions?

I had a question. In regards to, the culvert near this lift station in Crescent Creek Park, is that being considered when updating this lift station?

It is in the fact that we are reviewing for future tide inundation, king tides, and we are making sure that we are constructing lift Station one above any future title inundation.

Thank you. I'm not seeing any hands raised for other clarifying questions. So I will now open public comment for this agenda item. If you're in the audience and wish to speak, please come to the podium now. If you're on Zoom, please press the raised hand button.

I will now close public comment on this agenda item and open it up for council member deliberation and action. Council member Eckberg.

Move to approve and authorize the mayor to execute the professional services contract number four.

Seconded. It was moved by council member Eckberg and seconded by council member Stone to approve amendment number four for the professional services contract. If you could please vote on your screen or council member, Ahman, if you could vote verbally, please. I

vote to approve it.

Alright. Motion passes seven to zero. So we now welcome public comment on any item that is not on the agenda. Anything that you anybody would like to speak about. If you would like to speak and you're in the room, please come to the podium now or press the raise hand button if you're on Zoom.

And we have no public comment tonight. Are there any reports from council tonight? Quick meeting tonight. Alright. There is a list of upcoming meetings that is attached to the agenda. And, with that, I will take a motion to adjourn so we can go enjoy the sunshine.

I move that we adjourn.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Being adjourned. Woo hoo.