City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 6.30, and the meeting will come to order. Good evening, and welcome to the June 2, 2026 Kennewick City Council meeting. Will the city clerk please state who is present and whether a quorum is established?

Good evening, Mayor McShane. All council members are present. A quorum is established, and Council Member Trumbo is joining on Zoom.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Will our Police Chief, Chief Guerrero, please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. No one is registered to provide tonight's invocation. Persons interested in giving the invocation can find information on our website through the city clerk's office. So next on the agenda is honors and recognitions. Will Deputy City Manager Kerry Rowe please join me at the podium? How does that sound? So I have an award here to present to Carrie Rowe in grateful appreciation for your 12 years of public service at the City of Kennewick. On behalf of the entire community, we express our extreme gratitude and appreciation for your outstanding dedication and service to building a better community in the city of Kennewick. I want to just add my own appreciation. I got to meet Kerry right after he started working at the city, and I've enjoyed that association that we've had both in my professional life as well as in my life in service. he's a great advocate for the city of kennewick and i don't think that i've met anyone else that has the city's best interest at heart like carrie bess i'd like to offer some time for you to say a few words but before that if you'd join me

I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve the city of Kennewick. Public Works is about public infrastructure. I've had an opportunity to have a positive impact on our infrastructure. I'll highlight some of that that the department has done over the last 12 years. But first and foremost, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. My goal in this job, as is every job I've had, is leave it in a better position or situation than you found it. I think I've done that here. I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish. I've worked hard at changing culture in the Public Works Department. I stressed the importance of communication, internal and external department. follow through, work ethic, accountability, and just kept chipping at it. And I think over time, that stuck. There were some times I was early on, looked over my shoulder and said, are they following me? But they were. And we have a much better department today because of that. I've encouraged staff to be proud of what they do, whatever that is, putting meters in the ground or putting pipes in the ground, whatever that is, be proud of what you do. Take pride in your work, take pride in your product. When I came here 14 years ago, or excuse me, 12 years ago in April, I knew there were four management positions that were going to come open in the next couple of years. So I had an opportunity to fill those key positions with folks that I've hired, have my work ethic, my perspective. And fortunately, we did a good job in attracting some quality candidates that had both relevant experience as well as credentials. When I came there was two professional engineers in the department. Now if you have an engineer behind your name, you're a professional engineer. That was important to me. It doesn't make you a better engineer. It shows effort. It shows that you're serious about your profession and you're willing to go the extra mile to take an exam that's a challenging exam and pass it and be able to put your stamp on improvement plans that are going to occur in the city. Some of the staff that we were very fortunate to get is Bruce Mills. You all remember Bruce. Bruce, great guy. He was my right hand. I could give a lot of things to Bruce and he would take off. Sometimes you got to pull him back, but he was after it. And I much appreciate, was a very good partner in managing the department. We also were fortunate to get John Cowling. John, as you know, started out, I actually initially hired him to be a design services manager. After I offered him the job, I called him back and said, hey, What about utilities? You want to switch? And to my surprise, he said yes. But John has been a rock solid guy in the department. As you know, he's been promoted to The director job, Jeremy Lustig, another guy we got out of Nevada, strong in the water side of things. He's now a deputy director. And then last but not least is Heath Mallott. He's a workhorse for the department. You'll see him tonight. He gives a lot of presentations, is active across the board. Obviously, three of those four folks are still here. That sets an excellent foundation from a succession planning perspective. I've been conscious about that as we added staff and hired new people. This management core is really what helped me as a team move the project forward. You don't do that by yourself. You do that with good people. You surround yourself with good people. And we were fortunate enough to do that. Next I want to talk a little about some programs or tasks that the department took on. One is permit system. I think Brad will probably relate to this. Early on when I got here, our permit system wasn't well liked. A lot of grumping, and the city manager at the time asked me to weigh in on what's that look like. I had done a major overhaul of a prior permit system in the city of Federal Way, so I knew about that. And really, I looked at what we were doing, and we changed three things. One, we're going to relax site plan requirements. All you need is a building envelope, your access points, your parking field, and we're good. A lot of folks just needed that to get financing started, so we relaxed the site plan. And as long as the plans you submitted following that were consistent, you were good. We did concurrent review, we didn't do a linear review. Public works be looking at it, same time planning's looking at it, same time fire's looking at it, and it's a lot quicker to get to that end. And then last but not least, is dedicated turnaround times. We said if you submit a complete application, we're gonna turn around in seven days and then walk that talk. Those combination of things over time really took. And one of the first developer forums that I was involved with was to communicate these changes to the permit process. It was very well received and that's only grown quite a bit since 2015 when we initiated those changes. So, I think that led to the expansion of the developer forum concept. We had one earlier this year. It was, in a sense, sold out. There's more people wanting to come than we got seats for, and it's always good. Brad, you've been very kind, not just to me, but planning, public works, and fire. You work in all three of these jurisdictions, and you've been very complimentary about you think we have the best one. never gets tired of hearing that. So keep that up for the folks who follow me. Next, I'd like to talk about the comp plants, both water and sewer. On the surface, the seed looked pretty good when it came. As I dug, not so much, particularly on the water sewer side. And what we learned was significant deferred maintenance. We had to shut down one of our two feeds from our year-round water supply that goes under both railroads because the pipe was so perforated, I was concerned we could fail the railroad. not something you want to be doing. We had to shut that pipe down. We had a sewer pipe on Edison and Yellowstone the pipe hadn't been looked at for 20 years it collapsed on itself 18 feet from the center line of the tracks it was a emergency downhill is the river sewer you don't turn about sewer keeps coming well you like it or not you better have a plan to deal with it and we scrambled and took care of but those were two examples of the kinds of things that the city had not done They hadn't updated their comp plans in 10 and 12 years, hadn't done a water sewer rate study in 20 plus years. And so we attacked it and said, what does the system need to get back on its feet? Develop a plan for that, come up with a water sewer rate and study. And then we've been at it the last 10 years, checking them off. We've made significant improvements in our water and sewer utilities across the board. Next is pavement preservation, something I'm very proud of. It had very good streets where I came from. We've got good streets here. We went from zero. 12 years ago to $6 million. And $6 million is probably not as much as we need, but it's a good start, a solid start, and we can keep pace at $6 million. Excellent idea to use that dedicated funding for the Transportation Benefit District. It's for that purpose. It could be used for other stuff, but really the intent was for pavement preservation. We look at preservation across the board. We do square cut patches, take out failed areas, crack ceiling, BST, and then my favorite, overlay, which I think you get the most mileage at. But we've done a good job in developing that program, and I very much appreciate your support in seeing that through. Maybe one not so popular is traffic impact fee. I know Brad came and testified one night at the podium when I was up here trying to get that passed. But we did. And I think at the end of the day, we were the only city that didn't have it. They had tried twice to get it and buckled down and used an existing plan we had and brought it in front of the council. A lot of it's about education, but it was good to get that in play. Last but not least, and this is maybe a controversial topic, is a VISTA-filled master plan and development agreement. I'm still a believer. I think it can happen. I think there are circumstances that came to play why it hasn't happened. Sometimes I don't know they can get out of their own way. But nonetheless, I think it does have potential. I'd like to see it move forward. We just extended the development agreement, which I think will help make that happen. Next, I want to touch on some of the capital projects, give you a sense of flavor. We completed 155 separate capital projects over the last 12 years. We invested $220 million into that infrastructure, whether it be pipes or roads or reservoirs or interchange, whatever that may be. And we were able to leverage $65 million of somebody else's money, whether that be a grant or a low-interest loan. So pretty good return on our investment. Some of the highlights of those capital projects, Bob Olson Parkway, one of the biggest projects I took on when I came here. Very rarely does a public works director get a chance to build a brand new road where there's not one at all. Usually you're adding on to roads, you make intersections bigger, that kind of a thing. But that was a challenge, and that really opened up the Southridge area by access. A lot of people use Bob Olson to get to 240. They don't go down the other ways they have in the past. People are figuring that out. It also brought utilities of every type. I'm talking about fiber, gas, Power water sewer and I remember spending three months in our cafeteria at frost with all the utility companies laying out who's going where it was involved in that as well. And because we took the time to plan it when we went to construct it, it worked. So Bob Olson, a big corridor, 18th and Kellogg Reservoir. They had a 10 million gallon reservoir there. It reached its use of life. They'd done two repairs on it. The roof was sagging, creating ponds on top of the roof. Ducks were floating in the ponds. Not a good look when you take Department of Health to come inspect your reservoir and you got ducks on your roof. Needless to say, that needed to go and we did that. And anytime you do heavy civil construction in the middle of a residential neighborhood, you're asking for a challenge. To my surprise, that one worked pretty well. I mean, we got complaints, don't get me wrong, but overall, it went pretty well. The next one, and maybe the most important one on this list, is ASR, Aquifer Storage and Recovery. When I got here, they had one well, 1,200 feet deep, 16-inch diameter, 83-degree water down 1,200 feet. We did our first cycle test when I got here. Couldn't use the water. We put it in, took it back out. You couldn't put it at benefit of use. We discharged it. We went through six cycle tests with the Department of Ecology. We ultimately ended up with a permanent reservoir permit for 450 million gallons of storage. We put in right now 230. So we got a huge amount of growth, which is big. This thing's in the right place, in the right zone of where we're developing. I've said in the past, and I'll say again tonight, pretty important project. I didn't come up with a project. I saw it through, for sure, but important project. That's going to serve our city for generations to come. Next one is U.S. 3 and 5 and Ridgeline Grade Separated Interchange. This is a project that was very involved in, met with legislative staff to get it funded. They came up with $16 million. We came up with another $5 million. It actually went to $23 million. We did the design. We did the permitting. We did the right-of-way acquisition. And then we contracted with the state and then held them to that price. They went over the price. We stood firm. They went and got money someplace else. They didn't get it from us. A deal's a deal. A contract's a contract. And we held them to that. Next one is automated meter infrastructure. This was done through a public trust fund, about $12 million. I don't know, 28,000 meters converted over a two-phased approach. We read all our meters remotely. We've got a communication system that we set up, got transmitters in the system, water vault, so to speak, and we don't have people going around reading meters anymore. It's all done electronically, much more efficient, a better way of going. The next one is the water sewer utility extensions under 82. This is a topic the council has been after for a long time. As we looked into that, it's solid basalt, 20 feet down at the end of Colorado Street. So it was a grind, literally a grind to get two large diameter steel conduits underneath 82, not getting them stuck. A lot of things can go wrong. But it worked out good. We had a good contractor, and now we have the ability to serve water sewer. And other dry utilities, we put in the conduits enough for the main pipe, water main or sewer main, and then we have a template of smaller diameter pipes that we can sell or rent for power or others to get in and get advantage of our investment without having to dig themselves. So we'll see more of that. So it's more than just water sewer. And then the last one is wastewater treatment plant, Fiosolids Processing Affiliate. We had an open house for last week. It was very well attended. Kind of out of the box, kind of a... I took a very measured approach. I took my time. We did a pilot. We really investigated, did a pairwise analysis to figure out which one's better and why. We now have a brand new plant, and it's in its way of getting opened up and start processing. So that's a flavor of some of, like I said, there are 155 of them. This is six, but they're significant ones. kind of closing comments I want to express my appreciation for the support and the trust the council had in me and being a good public rector being a good steward of taxpayer dollars and walk in my talk deliver get the job done Many of these programs and capital projects would not have been possible without the council's support, just flat out wouldn't have. We brought water sewer rate increases in front of you, five bienniums in a row, and five bienniums in a row we got a unanimous vote. That doesn't happen every day, I can assure you. So I thank you for that, and that's what's allowed us to make the big difference in the water sewer utilities. I've enjoyed my 12 years here. I look forward to some retirement. I told John he won't be on speed dial, although, John, I see a settlement on the way to City Hall. So I'm going to give that to you before I leave. Then it won't be me coming afterwards. But I'm leaving the department in good hands. I feel good about where the department's at. I feel good about the accomplishments the department's been able to do. It surely isn't just me. It's a team that gets those kinds of things done, and I was fortunate enough to build a good team. That's all I got. Thank you.

And in honor of Kerry's retirement, we're going to take a 10-minute reception break here.

There's cookies in the back. It's now 6.58 and the meeting is reconvened. Next on the agenda is visitors. Visitors are welcome to state their opinion on any topic except for election matters. And for tonight, item 6A, the six-year TIP. Testimony for item 6A will be heard later this evening under the public hearing. The city clerk is informing there's no online visitors registered to speak. If someone in the audience wishes to speak, please raise your hand. Public comment period, just as an explanation, is not an opportunity for mutual conversation with council members or for posing questions with the expectation of an immediate answer. Council members will listen closely to your comments but will not directly respond to you. The city clerk's business card is on the table near the door. If you need follow-up after the meeting, please reach out to her and she will connect you with someone who can help. When it's your turn, please come to the podium, state your name and city of residence before beginning your remarks. Each person is permitted to speak for once for a maximum of three minutes. A three-minute timer will be displayed on the screen and will start when you come to the podium. A total of 30 minutes is allocated for visitors' comments this evening. City Clerk, will please start the 30-minute timer now. All right, and we'll go ahead.

Roseanne Davis, Kennewick.

Kevin Davis, Kennewick.

We would like to present Chief Guerrero and Chief Hefner. They participated in our car show with the Pacific Northwest Mustang Club. We had 171 cars on site, and they came down and picked their choice for awards. Would you come to the podium, guys?

This is a little unorthodox here. I don't remember what they picked. Yes, I would like to hear that.

I don't know what they picked. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

We appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. a really pretty red-orange 6065 Mustang. It's a nice choice.

It's beautiful. Convertible or coupe? Coupe.

Fire Department picked a convertible that was honoring Coast Guard service, so thank you for their service. All right. Thank you both.

All right. Ubi, please.

Good evening.

My name is Ubi and I live in Kennewick. And I hope you saw my fancy map I gave you last week. As a community constituent, I want to ask City Council to reconsider the idea of the museum being torn down as per the recent presentation about the replacement of City Hall. the museum houses historical information about our area and must not be reduced to a minimal few showcases in the lobby many students and adults have toured the facility and have had hands-on opportunity to learn about our city and its surroundings yes city hall is in dire need dire need a replacement but not at the expense of the museum as a parks and recs commissioner i would like you to look at the plan um that we the board worked on in on this on this for this area totally agree that money is tight tight for sure but we must be forward-looking as to all the aging buildings in this area. Consider a master plan approach. Thank you, Ubi Creek. Also, this side of the community is very near and dear to my heart. I did a lot of my work in this area with a lot of low-income families, and this area means a lot to them. There's a lot that they can do here, and if we begin to take away the things that some of these youngsters can get to by feet then what else are they going to do so i would love to see us as i post put on this to make this area in the middle more of a family senior citizen connection area eventually a newer library keeping the museum the seniors need to talk to the young kids the young kids need to talk to the seniors we need to keep this area vibrant and viable for our citizens in this in this side of town um i live on the other side of town after we lived here for quite a few years and there's a lot over there you can go to a lot of different new places um it'd be nice to have some nice new places in this area too so thank you very much for your time i am leaving i have a graduation to go to but thank you for your time thank you anyone else would like to speak this evening yes please

I'm Mike Luzon.

Yeah, sorry, Mike. Come on all the way up.

I'm Mike Luzon. I'm a resident of the city of Kennewick. Number one, Mr. Mayor, why are you tearing down a museum? We have a historic museum since the founding of Benton County. I don't know if you're aware of this, but that museum also represents a number of individuals, including former mayor, Mr. Don Monk, Tom Monk, No. The original Van County was from Yakima and Klickatak Counties. Klickatak County was in Horsehaven Hills. There are a number of historic items in that museum. I myself have donated several. You would have to talk to Mrs. Ayers to find out what I've donated, but we've looked at Kenwick Man, we've looked at The instructor's manual for Kennewick Mount, I donated it to the university, rather to the museum. Now, whether you folks decide you've got a decided piece of property, clear it down to Barton, and you want to take it down to the museum here by City Hall. City of Richland did this when they had a historic building that was donated. There was a based on Frank Lloyd Wright's concept of a home. Now, I'm sitting here griping, and I'm asking you why you want to do that. I brought bags that show what I actually look at before I give it to Ms. Ayers. What I brought is a document on Richard Nixon's court case, what I brought is something that had to do with Methodist founding in Portland, Oregon. What we do here is the Columbia River, as you can see, without taking causeway down, and with such, the mud is moving down the river. Mrs. Ayers is trying to do East Bend County. That's Richland, and that's Kennewick. I'm a life resident of Richland. Even as a military veteran, I came back, and we've had veterans donate items to that museum. I'm asking if you would like to reconsider before we let you do. Thank you.

Any additional comments this evening? Warren.

Warren Hughes, Kennewick. You know, they say when the iron's hot. So a little while ago, I think we were before the comp plan for the city hall, and some folks were in here looking for a pool. And I know that these two things are now kind of being combined as part of a – the same planning session, but I would ask the council to consider combining the pool project and the city hall project on that site over there and using the funding for both to create one. As there was a separate funding pool available for remodeling the pool, and there's some general funds available for doing the city hall, that seems to make sense as an economic path forward. I'd also encourage the city to consider putting a roof on this building and saving it as a municipal center for various nonprofits that we have in town.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Any additional comments this evening? Okay. This comment period is now closed. Next item is approval of the agenda. If a council member wants an item removed from the consent agenda, please be recognized by the mayor and state the item number you would like to have removed for further discussion, and this item would be considered separately. I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to approve the agenda as presented.

Is there a second?

Mayor?

Yes, Council Member Milbar. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbar to approve the agenda as presented. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

Council Member Klippert, are you joined into the meeting by any chance? I don't think so. You don't think so? Okay. It didn't come to you either? Okay. You take your time with that, and then I'll just do the voice vote. Ron, can you help Council Member Klippert pretty, please? And then Council Member Beecham? Okay. And Council Member Trumbo?

Yes.

Thank you, sir. You're welcome. And then Council Member Clipper.

Aye.

For those in the audience who couldn't hear, he said aye.

That is passed unanimously. Next, we will consider the adoption of a resolution pertaining to the designation. Consent agenda. Oh, consent agenda. I guess we probably should do that.

Minor technicality.

Well, we could always come back, I guess. All right, consent agenda. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Kennewick City Council for reading and study and are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no separate discussion. I'll entertain the motion.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes, Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Is there a second? Mayor, I second that. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to approve the consent agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

Council Member Trumbo?

Aye.

Thank you, and thank you to Ron for rescuing us. Appreciate that.

And that motion is passed unanimously.

Next, we will consider the adoption of a resolution pertaining to the designation of Kennewick as a Purple Heart City. After the staff report, Council will have an opportunity to ask questions or to request clarifying information. General discussion and debate must wait until after the motion has been made, please. Ms. Johnston, may we have a staff report, please?

Yes, you may. Good evening, Mayor McShane, Mayor Pro Tem Torelli, and Council. It is my pleasure to bring forward something that has been advocated for by Kevin Belleke on behalf of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5785, and that is the official designation of Kennewick as a Purple Heart City. something that is probably long overdue. This was also sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and Council Member Millbauer, and I understood that while I was away on May 19th, you all had an extensive conversation about this, so I will keep my staff report very brief. The resolution simply establishes Kennewick as a Purple Heart City and then also authorizes an annual proclamation recognizing our appreciation to our veterans who were injured or killed in action. Council has alternatives to deny adoption of the resolution or to propose changes to it. Neither of those options are recommended. And there may be a minor financial impact in the cost of signage, but that will fall within the city manager's discretion and will not require further council action. And with that, I would be happy to stand for questions.

Do we have any questions of staff?

Okay, thank you.

With no questions of staff, I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor Shane?

Yes, Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to adopt the resolution as presented.

Is there a second? Mayor? Yes, Council Member Milbauer. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to adopt the resolution as presented. The floor is now open for discussion. Council Member Klipper.

Madam Clerk, how would I get a copy of this resolution? Because reading through it for a veteran is way cool. And so.

Sir, it would be my honor to give you a copy of it. I'll have it in your inbox.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Any additional comments or discussion? I want to express just a moment of appreciation for our council members who have helped to bring this forward and Kevin's work to do that as well. I think where we can acknowledge the sacrifices that we see of our military members, I think it's an important thing for a community to do. So very much appreciate those efforts. All right. It has been properly moved and seconded to adopt the resolution as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

Council Member Trumbo?

Aye.

Thank you.

That has passed unanimously. Next on the agenda is a public hearing for the six-year Transportation Improvement Plan. After the staff report, Council will have an opportunity to ask questions or to request clarifying information. Following questions, persons interested in testifying for or against the matter will be invited to speak. General discussion and debate by Council must wait until after a motion has been made, please. Everyone will be allowed to speak only once. Mr. Mallott, may we have a staff report, please?

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and council members. My name is Heath Mallott. I'm the design services manager for the City of Kennewick. I'm flubbing it up. I don't even know my own name. To start off with, I want to appreciate the accolades that Kerry gave me as I continue to flub up this, but it sort of brought a tear to my eye here. You don't usually hear that in the public sector, as you know, Jason. You get a lot of negative comments, but I appreciate it. So anyway, we'll start off with our six-year transportation improvement plan. This is required by the state. Every year we'll come and present this. It's according to RCW 3577010, requires each city to adopt an annual revised six-year transportation improvement plan before July 1st of every year. The TIP must address motorized transportation needs as well as non-motorized, including pedestrians, bicycles, and transit. And our TIP is based on our 20-year transportation system plan, which is what's adopted June in 2018, which is currently in the process of being updated this year. And I think you guys got a glimpse of that at your last workshop in April. And so we hired Transpo to update our plan for that. So going through the projects, so projects in the TIP include intersections, road reconstruction and widening projects, new road extensions, bridge replacement projects, new sidewalk pathways and pedestrian crosswalks and signals, annual pavement preservation projects and sidewalk repair projects, and safety projects such as RFBs, which are rectangular rapid flash beacons, and citywide LED street light upgrades. The format, which you guys will not see tonight, this is done behind the scenes that we submit to the state. uh... is you'll see that in the upper right hand corner all projects include brief descriptions of work project limits and whether it's planned which you'll see is a p or funded which with the math important to note that any of our uh... projects that receive federal funding we have to include them in our six year tip which gets rolled into the state uh... projects are shown with all phases preliminary engine engineering which you'll notice as p e right-of-way, which is indicated by RW, and construction, CN, with appropriate expenditure schedules. And then so this will be available on our city website as well. Each year we adopt one of these, our new resolution for the TIP. We will upload them for public viewing on our Public Works webpage. But here's a map which indicates all the projects in our TIP. I think we've got 49 this year. And so going into the next sheet is... Oh, there it is there. So this is exhibit a as part of the resolution that you're adopting tonight So if you click There I go, so I got some fancy graphics here. So on the left of the spreadsheet is We've got these ID numbers which are related to our transportation system plan, which I said that you've sort of got a glimpse of in April and so you'll be able to take this plan and correlate it to a what the consultant and as we've been working on. Map ID is for that map that I just showed you. So when you look in the map, you can actually find the project in this four-page table. And then we've got the location of each project as well as the project description. And then... the PE and right-of-way and construction cost types, and then broken out into the years 27 through 2032. Typically the way that we lay this out, the years between 2027, 2028, usually have the funding obtained or partially obtained, and then as you go out further from 29 to 32, they're more higher-level costs, more of a planning placeholder. The projects, we added five projects this year. So the first project is our Kellogg Street and Deschutes Avenue intersection. This is proposing a traffic signal here. Kellogg is running north-south with the chutes to the west there. Next project that we're adding into our TIP is the Ridgeline Drive construction from Quadfelter Road to Florida Place. So you can see it running from west to east. And this is all developer-driven out here. And so this alignment is not exact because it might shift a few feet or so as development closes in on that. You probably noticed that the contractors, developers have already started grade at Desert Hills Middle School on the south side, so they're definitely moving away out there. Next project added was Florida Place Extension, another developer-driven project that will come off of Bob Bolson, head south to the proposed interchange. Next project is the Union Street and 19th Avenue roundabout improvements. This is sort of a safety measure that we've added in here. We're proposing to construct some chicanes to help slow the traffic down there. And you probably noticed that we've had some damaged walls out there which are finally being repaired in the next couple of weeks. I was going to say, they look pretty good right now. Okay. Pretty good job on them.

Good.

Next project is the Ridgeline Drive and Plaza Way roundabout.

Right there.

So proposing some reconfiguration in there. When this thing was originally built, Ridgeline underpass didn't exist, and so we have to do some modifications to allow to westbound traffic to move eastbound. Remove projects we're gonna be removing from the tip the traffic signal at Bob Olson and 15th Avenue and the one at Bob Olson and Sherman Actually had a pre-construction meeting for Bob Olson and 15th today, and so the contractor will be starting that project June 15th right when the School gets out and then actually the same contractor I got the Bob Olson and Sherman project, too, so you'll see both of those coincide. Next major milestones, submit to BFCOG approved step by June of this year. BFCOG is our local metropolitan planning organization, Benton Franklin Council of Governments. BFCOG area-wide public informational hearing will happen around August, and then their board approval and forwarding to WASDOT, Washington State Department of Transportation by October of this year. Any questions? Yes.

Council Member Klipper.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't know if I used the correct terminology. My question is, as I travel the streets of our great city, Kennewick, I think it's the easements that I see a lot of weeds all the years I've lived in Kennewick growing up even on the sidewalks and the cracks and stuff how would I suggest or who would I suggest you for future transportation improvement plans that we think about how can we reduce the weeds on the streets and the medians of Kennewick streets to better improve the visibility to people who would come to our city and they wouldn't have to see that, that they would see the beautiful city that we have. Who would I talk to or how would I suggest such a motion?

You can definitely talk to our department. If it's on private property, It could become a code enforcement issue.

I see it in the medians and the sidewalks, just about everywhere.

Yeah, and so that would be, you could call me too. What we do is put out an annual herbicide contract, and so we've got a big map that we have citywide where we'll, we've done this for quite a few years, ever since I came in 10 years ago, but it's where we'll hire a herbicide contractor to actually spray the weeds in the medians. What they'll do is they'll have a truck-mounted spray bar, and they'll usually capture in the gutter pans at a lot of the medians. I know with baubles, and that was a little bit of a problem, so we've captured both the inside of the medians and then outside at the curb areas as well. And then some of the larger areas, like underneath 395, we got the big weed patch on 4th Avenue. We'll get the contractor that we hired to actually hand spray a lot of those areas. We've got a lot of other areas, like large easements. that will go out and hand spray. But if you see some areas that are creeping up with some weeds, you can give me a call. And we've got these people on a two-year contract, and they are under warranty because they'll come out there in March of every year and spray the weeds down. And usually you'll see it in either a yellow, or I think this year they used a blue pigment. And so that's how they can trace where they've sprayed or not. But, yeah, you can give me a holler and say, hey, I see some weeds coming up over here. And if it's in public right away, we can get our contractor out and reapply it. Awesome. Thank you, sir. You're welcome.

Mayor McShane?

Yes.

Council Member Trumbo has his hand raised on Zoom.

Okay, we'll come to him in just a second. Just as an expert in growing weeds, I will say that it's challenging to maintain that herbicide control. And so having contact herbicides, having to come back and recapture escapes, I think is a challenge that we see in our city. And I think oftentimes it's about reporting that so that our city knows to go take care of those things. But there are several locations where that's at, and I know it's a constant struggle for us to both clean the streets and then be able to get back out to get after those weeds. And they have been prolific the last couple of years. I think the other challenge is the private properties that are adjacent to the roadways that are then code enforcement issues. Okay. Council Member Trumbo.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity, Mayor McChane. The presentation mentioned the need to remove some traffic signals on Bob Olson at, I think, two locations. I'd like to know what prompted the reason for doing this.

They're under, as you said, they're removed from the six-year plan because they're currently out for construction this year and will be completed in the next several months?

Yes, it'll be completed by the end of the year, by the end of the summer.

Thank you for that explanation. That is all.

Thank you. Other questions from council?

Okay.

Thank you. Next, we'll open a public hearing on the six-year TIP, and the public hearing is now open. If someone in the audience wishes to speak, please raise your hand. Please warm up.

Warren Hughes, Kennewick. In my neighborhood, there's a street called Park Hills Drive, and I noticed it wasn't on this plan, but it is in really rough shape, and I think that just has to do with the nature of how that street's laid out. And there's several other streets that come to mind. Vancouver, I think, is pretty rough. It would be cool to see something done with those in the next six years, because I don't think Park Hills Drive is going to get better. This also looks like it's going to be very expensive, so I look forward to seeing how we're going to fund it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any additional members of the public who would like to speak for the public hearing? Okay. No additional public comment. This public hearing is now closed. I will entertain a motion.

Mayor McShane?

Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to adopt the resolution as presented.

Is there a second? Mayor? Yes, Council Member Milbauer. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to adopt the resolution as presented. The floor is open for discussion. I would just like to express appreciation once again for the work of our Public Works folks as they build these out. This is a tremendous amount of effort that goes into developing these plans every single year, and we cannot find that federal funding or state funding without these. I really appreciated Carrie's comments earlier about how much money we've been able to bring to the city to help offset these expenses, to help find ways to fund them. And it's really the great work that goes into these preparation documents that goes into that. So I want to just express appreciation for all that effort that goes into that. With that, it has been properly moved and seconded to adopt the resolution as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

Council Member Trumbo?

Aye.

Thank you.

That has passed unanimously. All right, next we have council comments and discussion. I'm going to go ahead and start. Council Member Trumbo, would you like to start us off?

I was pleased to be able to attend the grand opening of our very first but very wonderful wastewater treatment plant project. I was very impressed with the way it turned out and it was an amazing amount of attendance from people well beyond our area. And just for the public to be informed if they didn't know, this is the second project of its kind that is in operation in the United States. I think Kennewick on this one was truly leading the way. And we found this opportunity partly through Carrie Rowe's efforts to be aware and pursue the technologies that were being developed and available. So we didn't fall into it exactly by luck. But it was very fortuitous that the carry row was in the right place with the right people at the right time to put this project in motion and see the completion. I think it's a great example of what we're doing. And I think aquifer storage reservoir is another one. These are really significant things that Kennewick has done to prepare for the future. I just wanted to comment. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Clipper.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, want to thank everyone who made that tour happen. It was fantastic. snacks before the lunch afterwards just everything went went great and for those of you who couldn't make it there was what 250 people there at least and so very well attended so great job and i'm just super proud of what we're doing there in fact i can't wait to tell all kinds of ffa leaders or other teachers around our community it would be a great project for them to take their kids to for a field trip Secondly, we had hydroplane testing on the Columbia River this last Saturday, and it went extremely well. And we had a hydroplane waterfalls board meeting last night that I attended. And I'm just super excited about what the city of Kennewick makes available to our community. to the state, to the world. With our hydroplane races, it's not held everywhere. We're one of the few. So just super, super proud of that and what we do, and just want to thank everyone who helps make that happen, too. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Mayor Prokos, I'm Torelli.

Nothing new to report. Thank you.

Council Member Anderson. I'd just like to echo all the nice things that have been said about Kerry. Mostly we say bad things about Kerry, but today is going to be a nice thing. I really have been impressed with the Public Works Department and the changes that he's brought to the department. But I can speak from personal experience. I've had issues that I've brought up with Kerry, and people have come to me regarding public works, and Kerry has been excellent, responsive, quick. He takes his personal time. I mean, there was a couple of items that he was out at 5.30 or 6 in the morning on his way to work, checking on things for me, and really set a great example for me. And that was sort of... As I got to know Carrie and got to see the Public Works Department, they kind of all do that same kind of thing, and John's leading the way. I'm very impressed, and the city will miss you, but you've left a good legacy, so thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Milbauer. Thank you, Mayor. I attended the Benton Franklin Continuum of Care meeting. I had two presentations, one from Fourth Dimension and from the Union Gospel Mission. from the women's facility and presented both theirs. Also had the AWC, my first AWC large city advisory committee meeting back on 5-28. Discussion on the 2026 legislation and impacts on the large cities. Talked about the 2027 upcoming agenda and what we want to see on there that's going to affect our cities. We're going to have an engagement meeting up at the AWC annual conference in Spokane and discuss the large city budget conditions that are not just affecting our little city, our large city, but are affecting as every other city that was involved in that meeting had said they're having budgetary issues. And let's see, waste treatment, ribbon cutting. So yeah, that was great. just echo councilmember trumbo's and clippard's words i thoroughly enjoyed it everything was good i really enjoyed seeing a craftsmanship that went into that and making it work also attended the visit tri-city board meeting we've got staff updates and reports uh airplane employments are up for april which is good however lodging data is down 1.5 percent so far a year to date At that meeting, we had a presentation from LIGO, Michael Landry and Amber Strunk. Talked about their budget being cut from $49 million to $29 million. It's really going to affect what they do. If you remember, LIGO has the plant or the setup here also and the second one back Midwest. So their budget is going to be cut there, which is going to affect them. They do do outreaches still on the second Saturday tours of the LIGO Exploration Center. And that's open on Tuesday to Friday from 9.30 to 4 to take your youngins out there and learn some or yourself. Attended the Keep the Lights On meeting. It's sponsored by the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce. Had Stephanie Bernard and Rep. Alexander Yaber from the 13th discuss a variety of items, whether transmission lines, advanced nuclear, data centers, carbon capture, and what needs to be done in the 2027 legislation agenda as well. Oh, Pacific Northwest Mustang Club. What they didn't mention was the proceeds that are raised from that show every spring, and it went really well this year. Really wanted to give kudos to the Parks Department for keeping the grounds and having someone out there keeping the garbage empty. It was phenomenal. We always draw in a lot of people in there. They enjoyed the show. But the proceeds that are raised from that always go back to the different veterans organizations in our area to support their causes, too. And the size of the show we had, hopefully they'll get a fair share of some money for their organizations. With that, I'll end my report. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Vito. I want to start by thanking Mayor Pro Tem Torelli for the length of his comments this evening. That was perfect. I'll take his time. No. Just joking. No, I saw this Friday opened up. I was reading the agenda, saw that Kerry was on here. We're going to do his retirement or this last meeting. I think we get to talk to him. So Kerry and I, I think we've talked about it. We didn't start out as the greatest relationship. I think the first meeting we had, I thought here's this Westside guy. And I wasn't into the business very long. I had just heard from all the old time engineers that this guy's changing everything. This is the way we do it over here in Kennewick. And, you know, Kerry's a big guy. So you walk in, it's a little intimidating. I think he and I kind of got across the table and we're yelling at each other the first time we met that. over an issue, and that was our first interaction. Since then, I think our relationship's grown a ton to where, at least on my end, I respect the heck out of what Kerry's done. Lauren said the word legacy, and when I saw you on the agenda, I thought, What did he leave? A lot of people sit in positions and we come and go. We're all going to come and go here. Everybody in the city has a job to do. I think at times you have a job and you just leave. That position's filled and you're off. I think in Kerry's situation, not only for personnel that I've met over the years, we mentioned Bruce, we talked about John, we talked about people. I think that's the legacy that Kerry gets to leave is the department was in disarray and it wasn't headed in the right direction. And Kerry came in and it wasn't pleasant for a couple of years. I think for Kerry, probably worse so than the rest of us. He had to deal with. Everybody in the city was used to doing things probably the wrong way. It was completely different today. And that's because you came in and luckily Kerry's a big guy and he could stand there and take the brunt of it. But we're in a much better spot. I love that you kind of stood up and told us all of those things that were in disarray that... you've now looked to the future that we're taking care of that just, we're going to be, they'd be sitting here and we'd be figuring out how to fix the water and fix the sewer and fix all those things that we don't know a lot about. So I just appreciate it. I appreciate the relationship. Carrie often did call me before things would come to council and just, Hey, what's your opinion in the development world? And one of the greatest things I think he's done is the develop the development world, at least the city of Kennewick with the developers forum. I think every city has now copied you. I'm pretty sure that they feel like they have a voice and, that things aren't just thrown out, we get to talk about it. You know, there were a couple of things that were rolled out, probably the asphalt overlay at the beginning. I thought it was like, man, this is gonna just kill us, just more money, more money. And like you said, education of this is the most important or the biggest resource we have at the city. So explaining those things to the developers, I think when it was rolled out that day, it was like, okay, developers got it. So I just appreciate where you've left the city. The legacy will be that, yeah, we're in a good spot. Now it's just up to those that have learned that to continue on and we don't fall into our old ways. So I just appreciate the hard work, the dedication. It wasn't just a job to carry. I think he loved it. And you see that. There's plenty of public works directors that I can say I've worked with that don't necessarily have any legacy to leave other than they're leaving it worse than when they got here. So you didn't do that. So I just appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. City Manager Erdman.

Thank you, Mayor McShane. I just wanted to let Council know that Misty Ayers, the museum administrator, was kind enough to give department head staff a tour last week, so we were able to go through the museum and get a better understanding of their business. So if Council is interested in that, I'm sure she would be happy to do the same, so we'd be happy to schedule a tour for all of you as well. Also, we just sent out invitations today for the Columbia Park boat launch ribbon cutting, so that will be June 18th at 10 o'clock. We've extended the invitation to our 8th District legislators as they were the ones that provided the funding for that project to happen. And then also I'd just like to thank Kerry as well for his service. I feel very fortunate that he accepted the opportunity to act as a deputy city manager. I've been told by him multiple times that he had turned that down multiple times. And so I feel very privileged that he was able to do that and willing to do that for us. And he's definitely left his mark here on the city and is definitely going to be missed. So thank you for everything.

Thank you. And thank you for mentioning that part. That was the one thing I felt had been left out this evening when we were talking about Kerry and the work that he's done in public works I think is very well understood and seen across the city. But I think the work that you've done as a deputy city manager and the help with facilities and parks has been also noticed. I've received more compliments in the last month about how our parks look than I have the entire time I've lived in Kennewick. Most of the time I hear the other side of it. Of course, usually they're blaming the irrigation not working, but we do hear that. There's been a tremendous amount of efforts there too, Kerry, and we want to just make sure to express appreciation for that role that you've held with the city here. I just had a couple of things to update. So the Benton Clean Air Agency, I'm on the board there for the city, and we've selected a new executive director, Tyler Thompson. Tyler's been with the agency for nearly 12 years and is going to do a great job, I think, as executive director. Rob Rogers is retiring, and that will all be happening in July. So we're excited to have Rob stay around for a couple of months as he's finalizing his retirement, but that is occurring now. The other thing I wanted to make sure to express appreciation as well and pile on on our biosolids facility was a great event. I got to see people that I've known across the industry that had come to see. There's a lot of concerns on how to handle biosolids and to have people want to come and see what we're doing is really an innovative way. The facility is fantastic. It looks great. It's going to be a great facility for the city for a very long time to come. It's well constructed. And then I heard that the odor is supposed to be better. Of course, the last couple times I've been to the sewage treatment plant, it's been fine, right? Of course, the wind's blowing the other direction, so it hasn't been too bad. But we really appreciate the efforts that went into that and the partnership that we had with Merrill in getting that facility up and online. We look forward to its continued operation for decades to come. I thought I'd end tonight on a drought update. For those that have been keeping track, we still are in the fourth year of drought in the Acoma Basin. It's unprecedented in the modern historical record. Water supply is better than it has been last year. We will have an update on the amount of water available for the prorated water users, which includes Kennewick Irrigation and others up the valley on Thursday. I will just mention that some of these challenges we see in the cities, are really related to irrigation for lawns and gardens and things like that but there also is a drought for fisheries as well and so we have some unprecedented times in front of us seeing the october curtailment last year where we actually saw drinking water curtailed in the aqua basin for the first time in modern history as well as you know needs for more more and more needs for fisheries and so we expect to see that those effects again this year And for those that are keeping track of long-term forecasting, the super El Nino that's being predicted, that is a challenge for the Pacific Northwest in general. And so we're expecting that there's a high probability that we would be into a fifth year of drought, which again is just completely unprecedented. I will just mention that it really takes the entire community banding together in these times to make sure that water supply is adequate. The city's water supply cannot replace the water provided by the irrigation district, and so we need to all work together to do that. We're working with, in my day job, we're working with large customers, Kennewick School District and others to help with that activity, but I thought I would throw that update in this evening. And then, again, just express appreciation for all the great work of all our city staff, but particularly this evening as we highlight Carrie's retirement and the services done. So very much appreciate the job well done. So with that, there's no further business on tonight's agenda. It is now 745, and the meeting is concluded.