City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. going to call the regular meeting to order of the Hermiston City Council. And with the declaration of a quorum, all members present. At this time, I'd like everybody to rise and join me in the flag salute. I pledge allegiance 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. Mr. City Manager, are there any changes to the agenda?

Okay. Um, I'm going to my mayoral uh prerogative here. I need to fix something. Um, one of the tenants of my campaign and when I was running for mayor was accountability. And I tend to demand that from those that I work with. And as such, I also expected of myself. And I was brought up with the mindset that you you admit when you make a mistake. And as such, I need to acknowledge that the last last council session I did just that. I misread the misinterpreted the rules as it applies to the council in regards to questions. And in the course of that doing that, I cut off Miss Simp to I want to formally apologize in these in these circumstances for making that mistake. It is to me I I screwed up and you know and I don't like things unresolative and I think that it's it's important that I hold myself accountable and make that apology right here in front of everybody with that. Okay. All right. Thank you for indulging me in that folks. Um, next citizen input or non-aggenda items. Anyone wishing to bring anything before the council agenda. We have uh consent agenda items A through D. Do we have any council questions on consent agenda items A through D?

Public comment. Council comments. See again. Does council wish to remove any items? Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A through? So moved. Second. Wow. Um, so everybody on the motion to approve and I didn't get who went

for a record this year. Okay. On Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

All right. Resolution. Resolution 2401. Master fee schedule and utility rate adjustment. Mr.

Yes, that was Mr. Morgan. Mr. Morgan. All right, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this evening, we're asking you to approve resolution 2401, which pertains to water and sewer utility fees. Uh, generally speaking, there's two main components to this uh change. The first one is the uh regular annual uh adjustment that you consider this time every year. Uh this year that's being proposed as an acrosstheboard adjustment of 2.34% increase on both water and sewer rates. Uh generally speaking for your typical uh residential customer that's going to work out to an average of about $2.72 per month. Uh the other change which is a completely different change uh but worthy of note is a change to how we uh sample uh for determining uh rates to be charged for industrial customers uh for sewer. Uh first off uh you'll all remember uh from last year uh that back in about uh 2019 time frame uh city council uh decided to make it a policy to rather than you know go multiple years without adjusting any rates or fees uh to annually adjust rates and fees. So rather than putting them off for three or four years and then all of a sudden residents are faced with a like 25% increase or something in one year uh to increase that little bit every year uh and follow an inflation index. I'm sure everybody's familiar with the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. Uh but there's also uh the engineering news records construction cost index. And so that measures a different basket of goods than the the CPI. Uh for the the CCI, it measures things like 200 hours of labor, 2500 weights of structural steel, 1.1 tons of cement, 1,000 board feet of lumber, those types

of things. So it's tracking price changes specific to uh the construction and utility industry. Uh then uh in about uh middle of 2021 uh we were tracking the pandemic supply chain induced inflation uh that was going on. And so uh council chose in 2021 to change the policy from uh just looking at year-to-year uh CCI change. Uh they chose to just take a three-year average of that uh CCI uh index. So uh in 2021 you know we would have been looking at a 7% uh price increase but instead uh averaging the three prior years it was less than that. Now in doing that it's ultimately you know robbing from future uh utility rate payers uh by not charging you know equal to inflation at that time. But that's predicated off of an assumption that eventually inflation will come down and as long as we stay on that same three-year average then eventually uh those prices will catch up. And so that's what we started to see in 2023. You can see the three-year average that council adopted at the time was a little over 5% even though inflation had come down to about 2 and a.5%. Uh last year inflation at least in the construction industry had cooled significantly. So it's actually less than 1% uh but last year's uh uh increase adopted by council was 3% because that was the three-year average. uh this year uh we really started to see the effects of uh import tariffs uh starting around June uh time frame. Uh so construction industry inflation really starts to ramp up uh in the month-to-month numbers through the ENR. So you can see by December of this past year uh inflation had accelerated back up to about 3 and a half%. Uh but since we had two years of relatively low inflation uh that puts our three-year running average at 2.34%. So that's what we're recommending uh for

this year. Uh also, you know, it's been uh asked every time, you know, how does this affect your, you know, what what what does this mean for the actual customers in town? And so, uh that's always hard because all of our utility rates are predicated largely off of how much water you use. And so, uh that's why I include that uh table that I don't don't expect anybody in the audience to be able to to read, but it's included in the agenda packet. um and I include it every time and that shows the actual uh change in uh the amount that people pay for the median residential customer. Now uh we arrive at that median residential customer figure. Uh that is that yellow highlighted uh bar running along the top. uh that is the the customer that half of utility customers in town use more than that amount of water for that specific month and half of the customers in town use less than that for that specific month. So, uh, it's important, uh, to keep in mind because, um, the way that our rate structures are set up, you know, depending on when you go over that first tier of, uh, water consumption, which is 15,000 gallons in a month, that throws every subsequent gallon that you use into the higher uh, rate class. And so, uh, we don't want to just look at a, you know, come up with the median residential uh, customer, what they use over the course of an entire year, and spread that out over the course of an entire year. We're looking at that median usage every single month. And so you individually, you may be in the say 75th percentile of users in June, but you may be in the 25th percentile in January because maybe you're just a single person. You don't have a whole bunch of people at home doing laundry, washing dishes, making meals, all those sorts of things, but you may have a really green large yard. So that median customer, that's a hypothetical person that if they were the person that used exactly the midpoint of every single customer every single month. So that's

how we calculate that. And so um it spits itself down um at the bottom. You can see the the monthly impacts. And so when we're talking about a 2.3% increase, uh the increase in a dollar perspective is different each month. So, uh, when people are using more water, on average, your your typical customer is going to use around 30,000 gallons of water in like July and August time frame. So, the increase to them that month is going to be somewhere around $4 uh for the month of August. Uh, but for most of the winter months, really like November through March, uh, then for the median customer, the monthly increase is going to be closer to around $2.17. And so, I apologize, that's also a typo down there on the bottom. It says $2.27 on average. That should actually be $2.72 on average for the median customer. It's correct in the staff report and on the first slide, but it's incorrect there. So, so on average over the course of the entire year, that median residential customer is going to see an increase of around $2.72 per month. And then also, you know, we haven't uh done kind of a benchmarking analysis for a number of years. Uh we used to do this more frequently. Uh but so it it's was asked by one of the counselors you know how we stack up to other communities and so uh we took the the opportunity to look at uh how do we compare and this is comparing that median user. So uh specifically median user every single month we took those usages plugged them across all of those different cities uh water and sewer uh rate structures and that's how it uh that's how it works out. Um I just picked those cities more or less at random uh because that each one of them have different components that I think people like to compare against. Some of them are similar sized but in different parts of the state, some of them are just close by, some of them are larger but close by. So uh but

generally speaking, looking at those uh cities um at random, not knowing how we would shake out, we came out kind of in the middle there. But um you know we're generally a little bit more expensive than the Tri Cities. Uh each of the three Tri Cities. We didn't look at West Richland, I guess. Um more expensive than each three three Tri Cities. Uh less expensive than Walawala, but then of the three cities uh in Umatillaa County that we looked at uh Umatilla, Pendleton, and Stanfield, we are uh less than all of those other communities. So also important to keep in mind um that what I'm showing there that is the total uh water and sewer costs over the course of an entire year and uh for Hermiston that is showing uh what that total would be with the proposed rates. So all of those other communities were showing what their rates are that were available as of last week. Um, so I guarantee most if not all of those communities will probably engage in some type of rate setting or rate increases over this next year. So, so that's where we fall currently. Uh, if you assume the proposed rates, uh, if we were just basing it off of the existing rates, then we'd be almost identical to the Dows in that analysis. So, so that is the general um, rate adjustment. Uh the next uh portion is that I mentioned is changing how we calculate um industrial sewer rates. So very important for everybody to understand. Uh there is only one out of 6,000 customers in the community. There is only one customer who is build under the industrial rate uh and that is the Columbia based and bioscience CBD processing facility up by Denny's, the former Hermiston Foods facility. So the current policy uh because of the makeup of uh the water discharge that they send to us which has

a lot of um agricultural products uh in it. Uh because of the makeup of it mainly BOD is the specific um constituent that we sample for. Uh we sample we don't do this for anybody else in town all 6,000 other customers. We actually meter their discharge so we know exactly how much flow they send to us. And then we also have an auto sampler which pulls samples of their water. Um so then we can take that to the lab, test it, see how much BOD specifically is in it. And then we run that through our rate calculation. So we sample uh our we sample up to 10 times a month. It's somewhere between 8 and 10 depending on how many weeks there are in the month. And that's also because when we're working with the labs that we have to uh work with and testing for this, you know, there's certain days that they'll run these tests and those types of things. So, so we take up to 10 uh samples per month and then we average those samples uh together. And so then we take that average of their BOD uh readings and that's what we use to to plug in for their their monthly billing amount. So, what we're uh proposing is changing it to only billing for uh we're still going to sample up to 10 times a month, but we would for that BOD reading, we would just use their highest sampled amount because that's how much infrastructure we have to have available is in order to meet that peak demand. So, uh there's challenges associated with uh using the method that we do currently in terms of averaging. So like I mentioned because of the way that we have to work with the laboratories and able to to test and analyze the samples uh we have a very regular sampling uh system. So if you were thinking from like a best practices from like an accounting standpoint where we'd maybe want to do more of a random sampling. Uh we're pretty structured on when exactly it is that we sample and we can't really change that up very much. And so, uh, that means that, uh, you

know, if you're the person who's sending stuff to us, um, you can time your discharge. If you have the capacity and the capability to hold back some of that BOD and discharge it when, you know, we're not sampling, uh, then you can, you know, you can avoid some of that sampling. Um, so yeah, a regular sampling means that it's very uniform. Uh, but we did this past year, uh, we, um, recognizing this, we we took the opportunity to take a truly random sample. And when we did take that random sample, uh the readings came back significantly higher uh than what we would see during our regular sampling. So to give you a sense of scale of what that means, this thing is very very touchy. Sorry, see to give you a sense of scale. Uh so this customer typical monthly bill is probably going to be somewhere in the range of around $10,000. um when we did that one-off sampling and the readings came in significantly higher uh that one-off sampling uh would have resulted in a bill of around $200,000. So, uh the amount of BOD present was almost 20 times what we typically would see uh when we were just doing our regular sampling. So, why is that a problem? U so the treatment plant, the sewer treatment plant has to have capacity in place in order to meet that peak demand. So, um, even if you only send us, you know, one really large slug of something, you know, once a year, the treatment plant still has to have the all of the pumps and motors and digestion capacity and all those things in place to meet that peak demand as it comes through. And so that means that if an industry pushes our treatment plant up to its capacity limits, then we as system operators, we have to start planning for system expansions and and those get to be expensive. And so, uh, so if there's one specific customer that is pushing us up to the limit, but they're by way of the way that we're billing them, they're only paying 120th of what they should

actually be paying, then that means that the cost of that plant expansion is going to have to be covered by all the rest of the customers. And so that's why uh we're recommending to change the way that we we bill uh to only still sample 10 times a month, but only bill based off of the one highest um reading per month. And then finally, uh the the main portion of the water and sewer adjustments, that 2.34% for all customers in town, you know, that would take effect March 1st as typical. Uh but for the industrial uh changes, we're recommending um to make that effective January 1st of next year. Um so the plant currently has the capacity in place to be able to meet, you know, large slugs and it has been. Um so it's not a an emergency that we have to have this implemented today. Um so we felt like it's appropriate for us to make that uh change not effective for roughly a year. So that'll give us time to work with the industrial customer. um these types of things they can be mitigated on their side of the on their own property if they implement some uh treatment capacity on their side before they discharge it to us. And so uh this gives us time to go work with the customer say look this is how the rate is going to be um unless you make some changes. And so that gives them some time to to have some have a grace period in order to make some changes to their process. So that is what we're recommending. Now I'd stand for any questions.

Council questions. Councilor Hayward. I got a couple on your chart that shows other cities in our area on the Tri Cities. Does that show that they use irrigation water and how much they're using to water their yard? because in it doesn't make a good example for us when everybody's using water, city water to irrigate their yards, water them where I know majority of Tri Cities use irrigation water to water their yards. So, it's kind of misrepresenting how much water they're using to water their yards compared to what we're our citizens are doing. So, this chart only compares city potable water.

Okay. Then the other question on the the random test thing for the one company, if we found out that they're doing it more when they're holding back, why aren't we not just doing random tests instead of letting them know, hey, this is when we're doing it? Yeah. So, that's why I mentioned during the presentation that we're limited by the laboratory capacity. So, there's only certain times of the week that they're able to run these tests. And so, that is why we're really locked into only being able to to sample during those certain times. So, we were able to run a couple of one-off tests, but we're not able to do that on a regular basis. Okay,

Counc. Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Morgan. Uh my question is just purely based on how you presented the presentation which is just to ask I saw that you use median for a couple of the statistics and just ask why you would use median versus a mean uh when just when just showing this the data I guess.

Yeah. So uh the difference between median and mean you know for anybody who's watching online and didn't take stats 150 or whatever in college like uh uh so mean mean you know the average that can be skewed by really large users or really you know small users and median is the exact midpoint of all of the customers total and so I think what we find uh when you graph out all of our 6,000 customers uh the meat is really centered around that median customer and so that's I you know I was talking internally and it's kind of just semantics but I'd almost rather I prefer to refer to it as like a typical customer even rather than a median customer and talk kind of in a range u because like I mentioned you know it's very hard to come up with who exactly is that median customer because it bounces around like even individually you may be you know a fairly large user in April whereas in June you may be low just because you turned on your sprinklers earlier than somebody across town. So, um, so yeah, that's why we use the median.

Thank you. I I appreciate how you, uh, show and display the data of of the trends that we're seeing. So, I appreciate it. And the different graphs, I'd love to see a box a box and whisker plot next time. Oh, there you go. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Councelor Kelzo? Yeah, I wonder if you could give us an idea of what it might cost in very round numbers for the the u the one industrial user to implement their own treatment system.

Yeah, I mean I don't have a I couldn't hazard a guess off the top right now, but um I will mention that um if you drive past there um there's kind of a industrial looking superructure on the south end of their building. Uh that is where a lot of their effluent comes out of. And uh if you look just to the south of there um you will typically see um what looks like a greenish water fountain occasionally. So that's an aerration basin. And so they have a a relatively small um very small lagoon pond area. And so they have a an airator there that's blowing that water up into the air. That's really the single largest pre-treatment that they can do to help knock down that BOD. And so, um, they did not used to do that, uh, until we implemented an actual charge for the BOD. Once they did that, that was a relatively relatively affordable, uh, solution for them. Um, but I couldn't tell you, you know, what it would cost for them to maybe expand on that type of system. But again, that's why we wanted to have about a year to start working with them. and and and I think, you know, uh, frankly, as I'm getting into this, you know, if we're starting to work with them and we see that they're making some progress, you know, I wouldn't have a problem, you know, working with them in the fall if they're clearly heading toward making some changes, uh, coming back and asking for maybe a delay to that change or something like that. So, as long as they're, you know, making a good faith effort to to move towards that, I think I'd be willing to bring back a request to even delay it. They already did implement some. Correct.

Correct. Yeah, that's the aeration that I was talking about. Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. Public comment. No. Okay. Council comments. Council. Council.

Yeah. I'm just glad to hear that the city is willing to work with the industrial um customer because the last thing I want to do is raise rates to the point where we chase them out of town or any business out of town. I would hate to have that happen. So um I think it's great that the city wants to work with them to make sure that we can find a common solution to the problem. So thank you Hayward. Uh Mark, thank you for the reporting and everything. Thank you. It was great. Thank you for the being open and everything. Any others? Seeing none. Okay. Can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2401 and lay upon the record?

So moved. Second. And moved by councelor McCarthy, second by councelor Hayward. I didn't second it. I'm sorry, Councelor Roberts. Sounded like a roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. It's never fundraising rates on anything. But if we can, you know, if we keep doing this like we are incrementally small, small small bites, you know, as they say, how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time. So, you know, we keep biting at the elephant. Maybe we can keep it manageable. Okay. Resolution 2402, installation authorized installation of four stop signs. Mr. City Manager. Yes. Uh Mr. Mayor, members of the council, uh this resolution is bringing to you two totally separate intersections. Uh but they both came up the same time. So we're bringing them to you in one resolution. So uh requesting uh stop signs in a a long established uh subdivision. Um so this is over on the east side of town intersection of East Tamarack and uh uh Northeast 8, excuse me, Southeast 8th Street. Um so requesting to install uh stop signs on Tamarack for traffic that's heading westbound. And actually, Tamarak turns into Cassen Court once you get west of ETH. Uh so installing a stop sign for eastbound traffic coming out of there. So uh this uh originated as a request uh from a citizen through the My Hermiston app here about a month or so ago. Uh so the resident lives in that uh vicinity. Currently there um are no stop signs uh currently and and so what we see or what the the challenge is is you'll have predominantly most of the traffic that goes through that neighborhood is coming like from uh Tamarak. So like going west down Tamarack and then heading south on 8th. And so, uh, simultaneously, you'll have a lot of traffic that's coming

south on 8th Street, either heading into the culdesac on 8th or into Cassen Court. And so, um, it created some conflicts and so the neighborhood has complained about, you know, a number of near misses, uh, in that vicinity. Uh, so they would like to have some actual traffic control. Uh the street department historically had not been supportive of um stop signs in there uh because Southeast 8th Street uh through there particularly between Tamarak and Pine uh is considered one of our snow routes uh for snow removal. So they try to plow that uh relatively steep street um early and often when there is snow uh but it takes additional uh focus when there's snow and ice activity. And so, um, so they, uh, were concerned about vehicles stopping at the intersection and then not having the momentum, uh, to get up and out, uh, heading south down Southeast 8. Um, I think we've kind of changed our uh, philosophy on that. You know, I think that may become an issue. We'll have to continue to focus on uh that section of ETH. But I having lived in snowy areas and icy areas and hilly areas uh with all of that. Um I can tell you that frankly when there's snow and ice, people in uh vehicles that go into neighborhoods like that, they live there. Uh they learn the best route. And so I think frankly if if you're unable to get up and out on Southeast 8th, there is another alternative to just continue to head east on Tamarack because Southeast 9th is a much more gradual slope. Um and so there's other ways to get in and out of that neighborhood. And so I think if it becomes an issue where okay, that's always a challenge to get up the hill because I spin out and I can't make it up Southeast 8 there there's other alternatives to make it out. And so, so I think that was always the the rub in the past was a concern that people would get stuck on that hill when there's ice.

Um, but there's a sense now that I think that outweighs the potential for a potential accident happening at that intersection. So, that's why that intersection is being brought before you. And then the other one, this is down um on Columbia Drive in Southeast 10th. So, you can see BMCC uh there to the west. And so, um, you can see the new, uh, subdivision that's going in east of 10th. Um, that's you can see the the tax lots there, but no construction on that image at least. But so, what has, uh, come up is that right now for vehicles leaving the subdivision. Um, so heading west, there is a stop sign for them um, heading out of the new subdivision, but there's no other stop signs. And so, uh, what we find is there will be, um, vehicles coming south on 10th that are coming south turning left to go into the subdivision. They don't have a stop sign. And then there's also vehicles that are coming on Columbia Drive that are coming from the west and they're going to go north on 10th and they don't currently have a stop sign. And so you have the potential for conflict uh taking place there. So what we're recommending here is to just install a stop sign on Columbia Drive uh to stop that vehicle traffic and then at the same time just for the future putting a stop sign for any vehicle traffic that's heading north on uh 10th coming from the south. So those are the recommendations. You would put that second one you were just talking about in now.

Correct. Okay. On the 10th Street. Why are we not making a four-way stop? I mean, we could um Yeah. While we're at it, just make it a four-way stop because it's going to pick up and we're gonna have people coming from other directions, not yelling. Chair recognizes Mr. favor. Sorry. Sorry, mayor. Council, are both of these uh stop signs recommended by city staff or was it recommended by uh the neighbors?

So, the first one was requested by the neighbors and so city staff looked at it and that's how we recommended to because there's currently no stop signs there and so we recommended those two. Uh the second one came up from uh city staff, city street department uh having received complaints. Uh and so that's what's being recommended by the street department. Thank you. Any other questions? Councelor McCarthy. You mentioned on this 10th Street location, there's already one stop sign there. So there would be according to this with this proposal, if passed as presented, it would be a total of three stop signs at that intersection. Correct. Yeah. And the one that's But the one that not be what's that?

Which corner would not have it? So for vehicles traveling south on 10th, they would have a free right, free left. Okay. Thank you. Any others? Seeing none. Uh public comment. Seeing none. Council comments. Councelor Roberts,

I tend to agree with the question brought up by councelor Hayward. I drive through this um almost every day, at least when it's not under construction and closed. But um and and I could see a real uh confusion and danger if we don't make that a four-way stop. Uh especially with with southbound traffic uh not having to yield. Um that could be confusing for the cross traffic, I think, on uh on Columbia Drive. And so I think uh I would be uh very open to making that a four-way stop. I just think that makes sense.

I just appreciate city staff's work on this. Uh which is why I kind of asked the question that I did. Uh I think it's great when we listen to constituents, especially regarding traffic issues like this. They live in those areas. they they know what's going on in those areas and um they might have seen some close calls already and so just being proactive on that, listening to our constituents and being proactive about other intersection intersections that we see nearby. So I'd rather be proactive than than reactive in that. Thank you. Other comments? Seeing none, I'll throw my two cents worth in. I tend to agree with uh councelor Roberts on this one myself. A four-way intersection, a four-way stop on that intersection as opposed to a three-way would create less confusion. I think um if that's the will of the council, probably the motion we the way we like to handle would be a motion to table. We can come back with the altered resolution. It's more clean. We can kind of research it better. It's a little easier to handle that way.

I move that we I move that we table the motion uh for staff to present an updated report for the idea of a four-way stop at 10th. Second and moved by councelor McCarthy, seconded by councelor Hayward that we table this until it can be changed around. Correct. Hope that works for me. Okay. All right. Amended. Amended. Yes. Tell can be amended to reflect the will of the council. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay. So motion to table is carries unanimously. Next, uh, January 2026 council goal update. Mr. Spence.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Uh, members of the council. Um, going to go through a little bit of discussion of the goals that you worked on in January 2025. Kind of in preparation. We're getting close to our 2026 goal setting session. So we're going to talk a little bit about the goal structure, status of those goals and then open for some discussion. So we organized and this has been a number of years we've started doing this but the goals are organized around uh Hermanson 20 240 structure of four separate areas growing and prosperous safe and healthy sustainable connected and engaged. Those were adopted in April of of 2025. We did a council update in July and um here we are talking again in January. So growing and prosperous uh the two main the three areas under this uh category is economic development, transportation and housing. And the specific goals first under economic development examine the expansion of the urban growth boundary for commercial and industrial lands. That item is complete. Uh we actually as I was preparing this report we got final word from the state and so um all of those items are complete and that area is I guess it's 30 days after that notice that the actual annexation and everything takes place. So we're within 20 days of that. Uh then um evaluate retail business mix and pursue areas of need. This is something that is kind of an ongoing item. We continue to work with uh retail strategies, our consultants on retail attraction and um you know we we actually got some good news just at the first of this year. not open to share uh exactly what that was, but there's companies that I know some

of you would like to see locate here that are continuing to work and look at sites and evaluate and so we're happy to see that continuing forward and uh our consultants are are helping us out with that. They really know the industry much better than we do. So,

transportation uh complete the transportation system plan update including sidewalks. uh this process has started. We've already had some public outreach item or uh efforts. Uh we had consultants and Mr. Spencer were here during the tree lighting and had I think they he talked to 30 or 40 separate people during that um uh event. And so they're doing others. There's an online um uh way to to give feedback as well. So that's uh in in process. uh prioritize sidewalk installation, supporting student pedestrian travel. So, that's being worked into our uh upcoming uh work plan uh as far as doing some spring install on some additional sidewalks. Uh evaluate personal transportation options. So, we really had two separate sides of that. One, we needed an updated contract with our provider for our senior and disabled and work taxi programs. and that was accomplished earlier this year. And we also updated the city code that then allows ride sharing companies to operate within the city. Before that, they were operating but were not legal uh in doing so. So now uh those both of those items are taken care of. Uh then uh we just a couple of years ago completed a safe streets for all plan and uh the goal was to try to work on implementation of some of those uh items. We made application for uh some funding from the federal government did not get that initial grant application but we'll be continuing to work on either future applications or working those uh projects into other projects as we uh move forward. Then housing uh track market rate rental housing developments to increase our middle

housing inventory. Uh we the the council approved an incentive plan. Um uh the developer is continuing to work. They needed to uh do some work on their financing and had to actually uh reubdivide the land so that that helped them use part of the project to finance the rest of the project. Uh so that we think that's completed and they'll be uh looking for uh dirt work to start uh in the next hopefully by the end of this quarter of the year. Uh we're also study incentive options for market rate rental housing. And really this is really an ongoing and a case by case. You know the the plan or the the incentive package we put together for this project over on diagonal uh was really tailored to their needs and to the the kind of project they were developing. And so we try to work with the developers and see if there's ways that we can not only uh assist them but also assist in the development of infrastructure around those projects. and then continuing to fund infrastructure improvements to support new housing and enhance livability. This is something we're always again looking at what projects uh can we do maybe in partnership with the development and uh enhance the the area and just continue to work on those. Safe and healthy is the next category had two subcategories wellness and public safety. And then uh first one under wellness the only task under wellness was complete the feasibility analysis of the hawk which is the heriston aquatic and wellness center and then kind of next steps with partnerships and and land. So it's it's ongoing. We've had we had a task force work on that this past year and I'm going to go in a lot more detail on that on this particular goal than I

do on the rest just to give the council an update on where we're at. So the whole um task force started with a look at uh a study we did in 2018 to evaluate a potential um indoor aquatics and and uh community center uh facility. And this is just kind of a highlevel um architectural look at what would we you know what would we allocate space to. So, there's a natiatorum, which is the swimming area, and there a couple of gyms. There's office space, all of those kinds of things. And they just made boxes and laid them out. That's not what it's going to look like or anything like that. Um, so there's this would be a two-story facility of about 67,000 square feet. That's the task force took a look at that. They did an evaluation on what kinds of programs and services they'd want in this facility and it really matched up very closely to what this was originally kind of conceptually put together for. So we used this as kind of the footprint and and taking that to help us evaluate some sites. So we took and looked at over 20 different sites around the community. uh we did a more deeper look at about 12 sites and really ended on four viable sites and we've had some internal um discussions as a task force about that and then um but but I'll kind of talk a little bit why uh what we're kind of the part of the process we're we're continuing on right now. But the four sites, first one is what we what we've called the green property, which is up next to the wastewater treatment plant. Um, and so each site we looked at, we kind of did a um, so we took that conceptual box and put it on

there, the parking we would need, is that going to is the site going to work? And then we looked at uh other factors, site access, utility access, future growth, um walkable, visible, those kind of things. And and if you look at those boxes on the side there, that's how it's how each site scored or this site scored on those different things. So walkability and visibility, not very good, but utility access, site access, and future growth all scored a little bit better. uh closer to that darker blue. And you know, the city owns this site and controls it. That that's a very helpful piece. So, the next two I'm not going to show the detail, but we did take the box and place them on here. Make sure and and they they fit and there's extra land as well. Both of these sites are owned by Good Shepard. Uh they've been integral to the task force um and and participated uh a lot. We've had discussions even in more detail about the sites and what works better for them. They're open to either of these sites. Um we would just need to work with them and figure out what kind of works best if this is the way that ends up if if we go forward and if these are the site one of these sites would be the one. So this is where part of the the disc golf course is right by the uh the gas station. This other one is across Elm from the hospital or from the and so it's in between the the uh Peterson Clinic and and the Shelco building. And so both of those would work. There's there's more than enough land and there and so uh we really appreciate working with Good Shepard on on uh the possibility of you, uh utilizing some of their land. So then the fourth that we took a look at um and and I'll have to be honest honestly to start with I didn't really

like the idea of trying to reuse the current site. Um I didn't uh it's really tight. There's a lot of rock around. I mean it just there there's a lot of things that can make it hard to do. But as we really started talking through it and looking at it, this has become probably what I would say is the preferred site if there's a way we can make it work. And up to this point, the the highle estimates that we've had say that it's not that much more expensive. And that's what I thought. It was really going to be a lot more expensive to re reuse some of the site. And so so there are two images of kind of what we might do. And the idea would be to preserve a couple of the preserve the outdoor pools for the summer usage and adding only a pool uh an indoor competitive pool uh as part of the the new construction. So this is one conceptual look at it. This is another one. And if you look at both of them, both of them are still going to require a partnership with Good Shepard because we need parking that's available to the site that might bleed over uh into the land that they own. So again, we're again working closely with them what works best. They have if they're able to uh partner with us and and um make it work, they would like to potentially provide some services out of that facility and and that would require certain things to happen. And so that's why uh again, we'd be working closely if they uh continue to be a a partner with us. So, where we're at kind of the original plan was to do all of this work, get the sites, and then go out for some public comment. But as we were getting into that more, I didn't really want to go out to public comment until we decided

yes or no because I don't want to go out and get a bunch of people get everybody excited and then say, "Well, we really can't do it." So, we're at the point um where we needed a little bit more information particularly about the existing site. Um, I think is it this week or this week we're going to have some consultants over looking at the existing pool to to do a little bit deeper study to to help us see what it would cost to make sure if we were to try to reuse those outdoor pools, making sure that they are up to a standard that, you know, they're not going to fail in a few years because they're already 20 plus years old. So bringing them up to a standard that would match the the potential indoor construction uh nearby. So we're working on getting that additional details, working on some partnership discussions with um some of the other partners u the the city of Umatillaa and others that that we hope are going to be able to be financial partners uh with us. So, uh, hopefully by, um, maybe so, April time frame, we we'll get them the numbers back, have a chance to talk with the committee again or the task force and be ready to bring back some information to the council and and kind of go from there. That's that's the the plan. Any and maybe because that one got into so much detail, any questions about that? Um before I go on to kind of the rest of the goals.

Yes. I have uh questions with the the uh poll and the sites. Um I was told by some individuals that this has been put up for vote in the past and it's always failed. Is that correct? Well, not this exactly, but a version of an indoor pool. And and

some of you up there would be able to give the history a little bit better maybe of what exactly was put up to a vote before. For the most part, and anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, when we've had this discussion about the aquatic center, we've been trying to have more partnerships and seeing who could be a partner with us because you're right, if the city went in it completely by the by their own, I think most the council saw that as not feasible. So, we've been trying to look for more partners to see if with partnerships this can actually become feasible.

Okay. But I think but I think the vote happened before we built the the current outdoor aquatic center. Is that right? Yes. Okay. So that's 20 25 plus years ago.

Okay. because um I have asked did a minor survey and the majority of the people have said no to the cost of the pool and when I was out campaigning before was just a few years ago about four um the majority of people that I've also talked to were also a no on because of the cost and so I would like to see before we approve it um that we engage more people to find out if their plans or minds have changed on it. Um, I feel that 300 people saying yes to it is not enough people when we are at a population I would say at least 8,000 to 10,000 or 18 and above and I think we should have a higher u approval rate before we spend and we said the cost would run around $60 million and then and so people that are property owners that are the ones who will be affected for pay paying a higher property tax. Uh and uh in my opinion, the ones that really want this the most are the ones that really can't afford to go to the pool that we have at this time uh because of cost is and uh so I would definitely like to see people the public engage first to see if they are have changed their minds on this. Well, and that that's always been the part of the plan is to go out and talk to the public and and uh get some feedback about it. Um, but frankly, the plan in my mind that I was putting forward or or or planning to put forward would not involve any kind of a property tax increase that we would fund this through

potentially enterprise zone funds that that are no property tax increase to anybody. So that's but that information would come back when we when we come back with a hopefully a better number on the cost and and and those types of things. Still still have another question. Okay. Um if it is approved by the city council to go ahead and to implement this plan, the cost yearly is going to be around, as we've discussed before, a million dollars a year. So, where's that million dollars extra money going to come from?

Well, and that's that's part of what we would bring um not only a discussion about the capital costs, but also about the operating costs and how we would how we would think that those could be covered. And frankly, that's what we've been talking to partners about as well is not only just helping to build it, but being a part of supporting it financially uh on an ongoing basis. Okay. Thank you,

Mr. McCarthy. I know we've been talking about public engagement and I just want to jog my own memory and then I think some of the people that are uh newer to the council. Is it correct to assume that part of the reason that this task force was created is because when we send out surveys for requests for what people want to see in Hermiston that an indoor aquatic center of some kind is probably our most popular request for something we people want implemented.

Yeah. multiple uh formats that has come back as one of the most uh requested projects. Uh Hermison 20 240 it was the top project that came out of that planning effort and also our um parks and recreation plan that was adopted a few years ago. That was also the top project that came forward was an indoor aquatic center. And and I think and correct me if I'm wrong, in some of the um discussions we've had as a council about this, the the task force exists to determine whether or not the project itself is feasible, right? But to go forward because we recognize that's what everybody wants. And now we can say it either is feasible or it's not. Sorry, we tried.

Right. And that was the I think that was the discussion of the councils to, you know, it's been on the list for a long time. Let's decide. let's either yeah, we can do it and go forward or we can't and just leave it off the list. So, uh I was hopeful that we would get to that point before the next goal setting, but uh with some of this additional information we needed to gather, uh we weren't able to hit that goal, but uh hopefully within the next few months, we'd be able to have that discussion.

What is next on the timeline for the Hawk task force? It's we're we're waiting uh like uh Brandon's going to meet consultants out there this week and they're going to do an evaluation of the existing facility and give us uh help us to get a better idea of what it would cost to renovate that if we're going to include that in a kind of a indoor and outdoor facility that we could keep uh going forward. Okay. Thank you, Hbert.

Um this is something you probably can get with me later. Um, I would like to see what it would cost to even include covering what the system if we go that way to cover and make it an indoor and outdoor possibility using different time of the year so we can use it all year round.

Well, that's I mean that's the goal with with these two with this uh look that you you'd have the two existing pools be available for the summertime. One of the blue buildings would be a a a pool that could be used in the winter, the colder months. Um, we have looked at the feasibility and it's just the way it was constructed just makes we couldn't cover the existing facility. It it just wouldn't work. The pools are too close together to try to get a wall. So, it would only be able to cover one or the other. and um it just then we'd also have to winterize and cover the buildings. So we looked at it and it really isn't kind of realistic to try to do that. I know a lot of people think we should and want us to um but um it just it wasn't designed to be covered and it would be almost as expensive to try to retrofit that onto an old facility in that sense. Okay.

Thank you. Any other questions before we move on? Okay.

Okay. So, under public safety, um we had a street light study, uh safety and security of parks and trails. Those are both in process. The third was to evaluate and possibly implement red light photo enforcement along Highway 395. Uh we have uh received ODOT approval at Elman 395 which was the main intersection that we were concerned about. Uh for two of the four approaches they've given approval for us to implement red light um uh enforcement. And so now we're at the process of putting an RFP together. Uh there are multiple companies that provide this kind of a service. And so, uh, we're going to put an RFP and get a a, uh, see what a service provider would look like and then bring it back to the council for final kind of go ahead or no. So, that's that's been moving forward. It just took it took us a little longer to get through that traffic study and things we had to do with ODOT than we were hoping, but um, it has been moving moving well. All right. under sustainable two areas, city facilities and fiscal uh for facilities uh public engagement use scenarios all for the Carnegie building. So, we did some outreach during this fall. Um we're planning to have a final report to the council on that outreach in the next month or so and then have the council discuss you know uh the options that kind of come out of that public engagement and then talk about next steps and what do we do uh to kind of move forward in the process of reusing uh the Carnegie uh the public library renovations completed reopened uh permanent water rights or allocation uh irrigation rights for EOTE tech. Um

because of the purchase of some property uh near near uh EOTech, we have some opportunity to utilize those water rights. We haven't finalized all of that yet, but we're working towards that. And that that really looks better than it's looked in a long time uh to get some permanent rights. And so we're uh pretty excited about that. probably one more irrigation season of of leasing some rights uh from some of the other farmers and then we think we could have that uh kind of finalized more permanently. Uh reinitiate the broadband infrastructure discussion. Uh we've released an RFP to try to help us get a better number. You know, that was really the kind of the the sticking point or the the point that I think the council was most interested in. what would it cost to do this? It sounds like a great idea for the most part if you just talk theoretically, but is it just too expensive? So, we're getting some uh financial information on what it would cost and um we plan to bring that back uh later this year u for the council to take a look at. Uh it's all all of this latest effort has been done in partnership with the city of Umatillaa and that's been good. they're they're interested in in also improving broadband access in their community. The um just as a this was an item I was going to put in my report at the end of the meeting, but I'll just bring it here since we're talking about it. There will be uh surveys starting to go out starting this week to get people again. So, if you remember almost eight, probably seven or eight years ago, we did what we called an e checkup. And so, people were able to comment on their broadband service, they were able to do a a test at their own house with a device to show what their speeds were on upload and download. Uh we're going to

redo that just to make sure we have the best data we can get. And so, we'll be doing a uh information campaign to encourage people to participate in that uh starting this week. So can watch for that Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Um so question regarding that system of doing it and I would appreciate um your input on this method. So if somebody's doing what is essentially a speed test at their home, isn't that dependent on the service they chose? They could be potentially eligible for higher tiers of service or even from a different provider.

That's true. But we need to evaluate what they're getting. You know, sometimes providers say you can get a certain speed, but you really can never get that speed. And so, you might have signed up for a certain speed, but you can't get theirs. It's just to kind of get a handle on that. And we'll also be working with the providers to understand where their uh where they provide service and what levels and those kind of things. So, we'll be able to combine all of that data. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

Since we are going to have our first city chat tomorrow, would it be ready for us to be uh promoting this at our city chat? I'll find out.

Since you're doing a survey sort of, can you just add the the pool in that survey at the same time? So a number of people can say whether or not they approve or disapprove.

Well, it it's really I mean what I would prefer to do a separate for the pool and that's what we would do is when we get a little closer with some more information we can give just because mixing up the topics sometimes we we don't get always get the best results out of that. Then uh last item here is public safety center renovation. Um it's moving along well. I was able to share some pictures uh from the project. Uh March, April is when we're we're looking at it now. We're originally thinking January, February. I should have never said those words but uh now March, April. Um so but things are moving on again. uh pieces like the elevator are the most challenging. There's uh the contractor was telling us there's two inspectors in the whole state and the project has to be at a certain level before they'll even walk in the building and look at it and then you know anyway we we went through a similar project process over here at the library. So hopefully that will not be a huge hurdle, but we're that's one of the ones they're anticipating. Uh fiscal, so evaluate the use of the TRT for chamber and hearken rider cont contributions. We talked about that with the budget last year. Uh we're also going to go have some uh additional conversations with um the the senior center board and work with them uh related to the Harkin writer. Um the five-year financial plan. We're in the process of developing that. And then uh digital records management retention. Uh we've evaluated the potential different options it would take to kind of get that going and kind of get us to the point where we're just digitizing and

making sure we got the new records, trying to get get the backlog taken care of. And the the process that we're moving forward with is is uh trying to hire some temporary staff to help us really kind of make a big chunk of that uh and get that going. So that's the status of that uh connected and engaged community engagement and good governance under the the first one was uh expanding engagement with uh with the youth and so we've really done a lot more this year with the youth advisory committee. Uh they've been able to attend some meetings and um we've been and they're they're more active. Um they've adopted a street and and they're doing some projects in the community uh to try to make make an impact. That's been good. Uh we also I was able to go and and teach civics particularly about the city of Hermiston and uh uh to all the seniors this year and we hope that that will be an ongoing uh program. And so that was really that was something I've been trying to get going for a long time and it was really good. Uh then develop a communication engagement plan identifying goals and metrics. Um we're working on an RFP to kind of get a an idea of what that might cost and then um kind of move forward with developing that plan. Good governance conduct the charter review. Uh the charter review committee has met I think four times now. Yeah. And uh we've reviewed the full charter. uh we're going to bring back to them now kind of a draft of what they've what they've uh expressed interest in seeing uh changed and uh continue to move forward. That's been a good process. And then earlier this year, we finished taking a look at all the council committees, boards, and advisory

groups and we're able to kind of streamline a few of those and uh add some different ones that we that the council felt was more appropriate. So, I would consider that one completed. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. All right, questions. Seeing none. I appreciate uh appreciate that, sir. That's a a very good update. Got us a little bit more in tune with what we've got coming up here in a couple of weeks. So, uh, do we have any, uh, public comment? Step forward, please. Name and, uh, address for the

Sure.

My name's Christa Van. My address is 764 West Alder in Heriston. And first of all, Byron, that was amazing. Thank you. One of the things I wanted to share with the council is that when I was in the civic leadership uh group, we did not know, none of us knew that the city had goals that had been established. And I think they're 20 40 goals, something like that. And there's a plan. And we were all super excited to see that. So, I would just uh advocate for making that information more available, more accessible, and also reminding people of it. So, including it in the newsletter, which is fabulous. Um, something like that, like these are our long-term goals. These are our 2026 goals. Here's where we are. Uh, we've started this, not just started or it's in progress, but how far along are you? Are you 25%, 75%, what are the blockers? These are things that are really important to the community. And then when I see things that it's like when I hear what people are saying in the community, I would be able to point out more accurate information or where to go for that. So that's my comment is just really take the opportunity to share with the community as much as possible.

Thanks. Thank you. Sounds familiar, huh, Mr. uh Smith? We just had a conversation about that very very same thing here a couple days ago. So yes, sir. Um I just want to make a comment. Um, since you inquired, um, on the city of Hiron website under the mayor and city council section, there's a city council goals page where if you want to, you can go back and review every single goal setting report that we've had for the past however many years. All right. Well, since you started, any other council comments? Council Roberts?

Just briefly. I know that uh, you know, we didn't have any questions tonight as a as a council. Um, but just for the public's information, we have our upcoming goal setting session coming up. So, even though we don't have questions tonight, it's not a lack of interest. It's that we're literally going to be sitting, uh, for a day and a half, uh, you know, two days, uh, looking at the the next year and and refining these goals. And so, uh, I'm glad to hear from the public. And uh for anybody out there uh either listening or in the audience, tell your friends, please bring those uh ideas to us so that uh we can we can bring those to the table. Um I know I'm not the smartest one up here. And I I would say that we're we're a fine bunch, but if I could speak for everybody, I'd say we're not the the smartest group of anybody out there in the sense that we have all the ideas and all the answers. So um I encourage people to bring those ideas so that we can uh discuss those. So,

is that goal setting open to the public? Yes. And um can you state when it is just for the record? January 2 from a Friday. 20. Yeah, it's the 23rd. January 22nd, 23rd. It's the It's an evening and then an all day Friday, Thursday. And do people need to RSVP? Nope. I mean that it's it's not designed for a lot of public engagement in that. It's really but the public can be there and hear everything. It's not a private meeting. Got it. And the council will be there discussing everything.

So, one of the things that you just brought up um was public input. So, and in relation to that particular meeting, is there an opportunity for the public to give input at that meeting or is that just really an opportunity to observe? Not generally. It's it's more of an observation because it's a it's a work group for us. Okay. But I think what uh Council Roberts was talking about maybe ahead of time if there's some things that they wanted the council members to bring into that meeting. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Oh, wait. Hold on. Does anybody else have any comments? Councelor Hayward.

I was going to on what Josh said. Um, if you do have questions and you're not feel comfortable giving to us, reach out to Byron Smith or the city of Hermanson, letting them know some school stuff that we might be not seeing out there. Any others before I give Matthew a second shot?

Okay. Um, I will say that we will have a fully presented report and presentation of what was discussed in that goal setting meeting at a council meeting. So that'll also be available ahead of time with the full packet available on their website. So you can see everything that was discussed if you want to spend a full day and a half listening to us talking. It'll be presented and adopted in a future meeting. Okay. So there's no action being asked for council. This was a information only uh portion of the agenda. So we are done with that. Correct.

Correct. All right. Committee reports. Does anybody have any committee reports? I do. Council.

Okay. Parks and Recreation met last Thursday. This has been a very, very busy season for Brandon. For Brandon. Things can go badly due to weather and electronics and all different kinds of things, but this season went really really good. I think that I I know some of this stuff was really close to the wire, but it you pulled it off as usual and it was very nice. Uh tree lighting, it says there's 2600 people that attended that. Um, okay. So, the next thing that we discussed was he's almost fully staffed. There's one more. They hired Telicia Goodwin as operations coordinator and she coordinates rentals and customer service. Um, and then they're still looking for a recreation coordinator for youth and adult sports and interviews to be scheduled. Oh, interviews are to be scheduled. Yeah, but I think that they are to be scheduled like Have you already done them? Okay. Right away. All right. So, another topic that we discussed was Belt Park Bridge is unusable, and that will come as no kind of a shock to anybody that's used it recently. Um, the Hermiston High School metal shop is designing and building a new one. Anticipation will be or anticipating installation this spring.

Sherman Park design is well we have a con a conceptual design and it's going out to bid in late January. So that will be also soon. Um, Simmeron Recreation Area, Aspen area, Upland Meadows, Country Squire, and a total of 1,31 with 750 built today are the housing developments.

Yes. And that's what's been built thus far. Okay. And then we went over the swimming pool recap. Splash pass was sold. They had um 362. Last year they had 360. Member check-ins 6,28. Last year it was 5,955. Daily admissions the high day was uh 29919. Um last year this year it was 30,803 weekday average 357. This year it was down a little bit and they're working on why, but it was uh 328. Weekday high was 781 and that was on Tuesday, July 18th for whatever reason. Maybe it was extra hot. Um admissions revenue was $137,946. Uh public swim days open 77 swim lessons participants 1,619 all summer 8week series 528 swim lesson revenue 1 thou 104,676 concessions and revenue new is 6,000 or excuse me 62,411

uh with the hot dogs, pizzas and the like. Um and there was 30,384 items sold, total visits 82,218. So they had a very busy season. Okay. Uh 26 parks and wreck goals is uh finalized community forest plan. Continue planting trees. Design Main Street Tree Plan. Construction of Sherman Park. Install Horizon Park. um trees and irrigation on heroes, but that's been an ongoing an ongoing thing and seems to be going well. Rebuild and relaunch programs that were previously placed on hold. Add two new youth andor teen programs. Introduce one new family focus program. Create a quarter activity guide in-house production community center. Increase rental utilization by supporting um multiple rentals per day. Quick turnover between events. Meaning that in the past it's kind of been where they rent something out for one day, it's takes up the whole weekend and they don't, you know, reup on their um plan to rent it again. Okay. Hermiston Family Aquatic Center launch a new passholder program.

Enhance the multi-use pool ex experience, which is the one with the little dive boards and the um splash what do you call them? Quick the different pool fountains amenities and yeah that water water features

park and rider senior center restructure senior agreement with senior board increase facilities rental through inclusion in the rental brochure streamline rental pro processes to ensure accurate scheduling and conflict. redemption. That's about it. I would say quite a long meeting for us. Sounds like it. Any other council committee reports?

Roberts, last Wednesday met with the airport advisory uh group and got an update on the airport's budget. uh looking pretty good overall. Um the uh Lifellight helicopter is no longer on site at the hel uh at the airport. They have moved down to Good Shepard Hospital. However, from a budgetary standpoint, their lease is continuing through the end of June. So, uh we're going to continue to get revenue from that. Uh but coming up in June, uh staff is going to be thinking about what to do in the long term with uh with that building up there where Lifellight was uh was presently or recently uh renting. Um fuel sales were down a little bit. Part of that is uh their training plane uh has been on the fritz, but uh it is coming back soon, which is going to help. Um that and and December and January just usually low fuel sale months anyway just due to inclement weather. So overall, uh no real concern. Um even though the budget's down a little bit, it's it's still looking okay for the fiscal year. Um the uh first tenant is uh now in the new hanger up there. Uh if you haven't had a chance to stop by and see the new hangers, uh I'm sure uh uh Mr. Anderson would uh would gladly give you a look. Uh I've been in the new ones. They are are very very upscale. Um topnotch. So um they have uh more than enough people on the waiting list to fill those uh remaining hangers. And so, uh, hopefully in the next few months, we're going to get those filled up, uh, fairly quickly. And so, that's kind of exciting. And then, um, last thing we discussed was the, uh, uh, land that we, uh, approved the lease on. Uh, the farmer is out there and hopefully this week going to be, uh, starting to work the ground out there on our, on our, uh, land extension

out there. And so, uh, a lot of exciting stuff at the airport. Uh we do have an opening on the airport committee. It's been open for a while. So if anybody knows anybody that can meet once a month at 400 p.m. on a Wednesday. Um it's uh only through the end of October is the the remainder of that position term. So, um we uh we would ask the committee uh community to look at your calendars and uh airport could uh could use another person on that uh to help with quorum, help make decisions and uh this is uh my first time uh being on that committee and being up there. A lot of just cool stuff going on. The airport's just a cool place and so um who doesn't like airplanes? If you can make it, we'd invite people to join that committee. So that is my report sir.

Okay. Yes ma'am.

Uh lifelight was brought up. I just want to say uh I thank them for the service that they did. I had a great grandson that had to be lifellighted over to Tri Cities and then up to Portland. And um they are exceptional in what they do. They um helped save my grandson's life. Any other council committee reports? Well, then I have one. Mr. uh uh Mr. Smith came touched on it during his last uh deal. Uh the charter review committee has actually met twice since our last uh council session. Um latest being last week. And as he said, we are all the way through all all the way through the charter and and uh it's being tweaked now so that we can have a another look at, you know, what what it's going to, you know, potentially look like. Um once once that's been done and it's been finalized and went over and beat up, then it'll come to us to for review. And then once that portion is completed, it you know potentially could end up on the ballot on the early early uh midterm ballot, but more than likely it'll make it it'll be on the November ballot. So, but everybody has been very conscientiously working on it to create a finished product that I think uh the citizens will be happy with and it'll make a another it'll be a great path for us to follow. So, I'm really excited to see where it's going.

Okay, so now it's time for the mayor's report. That's me. Um, so over the past since our last meeting, we know uh Christmas has come and gone, New Year's has come and gone. Uh, we Christmas Express, uh, got its stuff done. I know Jason's would be love right now to give a report on that, but I'm not going to make him. uh a lot of you know I think pretty much most of us were there to help with the packing of the boxes and doing that and everybody did a heck of a job getting putting that together and I was very very impressed with with the hard work that everybody put into that to that program. So thank you to all of you that participated in it. Um, again, we have uh been more meetings than I know what to do with and I don't have them all written down, so I'm not going to be able to give you a complete deal. Um, let's see. We uh had the uh change of command over at the uh Armory this uh past weekend. Um, councelor Kelso and I were able to attend. Um there's a change in what they're going to be doing there. They're changing from an armor unit to an infantry unit. So there's going to be a whole change in the way that they do things down there. And it'll look a little bit different, I'm supposing, by what they have in their backyard as opposed to what they do now. So, and coming up, um we have the fair appreciation dinner. If you guys are planning on attending that, please let Lily know as soon as possible to get um set up for that. Uh we have uh goal setting coming up as we've discussed

several times. City chat tomorrow and we also have uh the LOC listening uh session tomorrow night here or I mean tomorrow or Wednesday night. Yes. Yeah. Lord I need a calendar of calendars so I know which calendar to look at which day. What's that? Uh, yes. So, um, also going to circle back around on that bridge, the belt park bridge. I remember uh just remember that it was if I remember it correctly, wasn't that built by a boy Eagle Scout project?

I think so. Yeah. Years ago. Yeah. And it was made out of wood. Yeah. I thought that's it was a a young young fellow that came to the came to the parks and recck committee and to the city council and we gave him the official okey to do it. It's lasted this long. So

it's lasted a long time. So that's that's impressive in and of itself and think we should reach out to him at some point in time and say thank you and to let him know how you know how long it's gone. So um and I do have a question about something coming up. I was it was brought up to me um and you and Brandon get get hit with this one at both at the same time as we are hitting the what is it the the quarter millennium millennial for uh the United States birthday the 250 year celebration on the July 4th uh the um National Guard offered any assistance to help with that uh project anything that we do during that time. So, you know, this is going to be a big year in that respect. So, just um keep them in mind if you're looking for uh bodies to help or you know with what we what we have plans for that they would like to be included in it. So,

thank thank you for that. Uh we just had a planning meeting with some partners um looking to make this year the 250th bigger and better and last year with the fireworks. Uh but yeah, thank you for the uh the recommendation and that they were brought up to uh partner with. So thanks. Okay. And I know there's many more things on my list that I've forgotten. So with that, I will turn it over to our council president report.

Thank you very much. You um just one thing just to remind everybody at the end of the night is make sure you're leaving your iPads with Lily tonight. Um, mayor, you did mention the ballot coming up with the charter review. So, I'll also take the opportunity to remind everyone we still have um opportunities open to file for city council. You have until March 10th to do that. Um, there is at least one candidate for every seat. So, I'm glad to see that. And then also another event kind of happening right in the middle is we have the MLK walk on the 19th at 11:00 a.m. at the community center. So, be sure to be present for that. That's the one I forgot. Okay. Uh, council report.

What time is that LLC thing at? Uh, 5:30. Council bro.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I just wanted to have a moment to share, I guess, my displeasure with our upcoming goal setting session. Not because it's our goal setting session, but just merely because of the dates. I believe about like four years ago, we made a decision that we might alternate dates because originally, I think when I got on council, we did a Friday, Saturday, and then I think we swapped to a Thursday, Friday, but I think we're going to keep swapping back and forth because just of availability. I I can't afford to take those days off as a teacher. I only have limited amount of days and so I was hoping for the opportunity to go back and forth like we used to. Um, but uh I just want to share that because I don't think I think that's going to compromise my availability for the day.

Yeah, that's uh understandable. And you know, I mean, we we have a well well it's you're right going forward it's something we should we definitely need to pay attention to. I know that there are certain unavail you know people are going to be unavailable no matter what day we have it on. So, um I think uh I think you know next next year we'll look at at switching it back to the to next to the uh Friday Saturday. Um you know we we've got to got to be cognizant of everybody's everybody's availability whether whether or not they're uh whatever obligations they have. Others Yes, ma'am.

Um, I just wanted to update you guys. Uh, this well, Hermiston has an opportunity to be represented at the LOC board. Um, I was sworn in to fill in a one-year appointment. Uh this will be the mayor for Pendleton is the other person that represents that represents this area, the eastern side of or Oregon. So it's pretty exciting um to be able to um fill this commitment for a year. What I would like to say is that I had no idea the level of commitment at the meetings that uh the former mayor was doing, you know, because he served as the LOC president in the past as well as uh Mr. Smith attending as the treasurer. So, it brings a new level of appreciation for the work that they have done in the past. And um it looks like a very dynamic group. I'm very excited for the opportunity and I'm also very grateful um to be able to represent the area. One of the things that is um a big topic of discussion was um homelessness and how um you know the cities there's the bill that is going to be coming up um during the legislative session which is I want to say and correct me if I'm wrong um in a hurry to make sure that I got here on time to be able to turn in my um my laptop. I forgot my phone and my notebook that where I wrote down the my information um from the notes that I took, but I believe it's um bill 3115

or 3. That's that's what it was when it was originally adopted. That was the the legislation related to um basically putting in statute the decision on the Boisee case related to homelessness. I can put more information in my weekly communication about this. LLC doesn't know. I mean, there's kind of a split among the cities as to which direction to go and so they were looking for information.

Correct. So, know that I did not voice anything because I didn't think, you know, that we as as a council have not had the opportunity to to discuss it. So, um um a lot of us felt like we needed to have a discussion with our own local um city council members before we would be able to speak about it on everyone's behalf. So, you know, um very excited for this opportunity and I appreciate it.

I so wanted to tell people about that, but I have had to let you do it because it's your thing. Well, and I attended the December meeting, but you know, I just didn't know uh it was going to be up for vote, and I thought, well, anything can happen at a meeting, right? Someone can say no, we don't like that idea or whatever. So, I thought I'm not going to put the horse before the cart. And so, well, I am very proud of you and this is a a big accomplishment for you and I and I have zero doubt that you will represent Eastern Oregon in to the best of your ability and make us all proud. So,

um I just had a question about uh 395. Um, someone asked me about uh if if any sidewalk sidewalks was going to put be put up that way because of the shelter that's out there and people that will leave and walk down this the side of the road. You're talking about North 395 going towards Umatillaa. Yeah. By stepping stones. Yeah. Going out that direction. Um, you know, I I haven't heard of any plans of ODOT or the county to put sidewalks.

Okay. I did recommend that they go to ODOT and also to uh the county, but I wasn't exactly sure. That's why I wanted to ask tonight. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's Roberts.

Just briefly, I I wanted to just acknowledge that while we've come out of the holidays and there's been a lot of cheer, our community has been affected by some tremendous loss these last few weeks. Um we've had several families um have some very very significant losses and impacts to their family and and uh I just want to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to those families and I I'm hearing the stories of people rallying around those families and I'm just so proud to live in a a community where we do that. And so I just bring up that as a reminder to to keep those families in our thoughts and prayers because um there's been quite a few and um I just learned of another one today. So um kind of a a deep time for a lot of people. So um just as as a community, we just want to keep them in our thoughts. Thank you. Any other council comments? Council.

Yeah, as you've already mentioned, I had the privilege of attending the change of command ceremony up at the guard u the armory on Saturday and uh it was a great event. I'd never been to anything like that before and I'd never even been in the armory. So, um but I had a great time and the new commander, Major Deanda, is a local guy. So, um, I'm excited about that. This is the the armory that he enlisted at and started as an enlisted man and worked his way all the way up through the ranks. So, it's quite a story. Um, and I'm just wanted to say I'm proud to have these guys in our community. I think they do a great service for our country, these men and women, and uh, I want to thank them for the invitation to be there.

Any others? Mr. Smith? I have nothing that hasn't been already covered. So, Lily, would you make a note of that? Thanks. Way to cover everything. All right, we do want to make a introduction. Mark, you want to go ahead?

Yeah, council member uh Ron Civy retired here this past month and so we uh took his position and split it into two. So, we now have two folks. So we I believe we introduced Roberto Herrera took over as streets foreman and now we have uh Cameron me who's in the audience here. Uh he is now in the new position of streets and capital projects manager position. So uh he'll have the responsibility of ultimately overseeing the the streets department uh from an administrative level, but then also he'll be responsible for overseeing and managing all of the capital improvement projects for all of the public works departments. So water, sewer, and streets. So, we have this nice capital improvement uh plan uh with lots and lots of projects in it. And so, he has plenty of of work to do. So,

so you're going to be that guy. You're going to be that guy. Good to know. Welcome, sir. Look forward to working with you. Any others? Nope. We're adjourned.