City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll start with roll call. Christopher Alston.

I'm present.

Thank you. Julius Brown.

I'm present.

Terrific. Ray Dawson?

Present.

James Harrison?

Here.

Chase Martin is excused. Johnny Mayfield?

Here.

Christy Merritt is excused. Mark Piela?

Here.

And Kamri Wilson, present. Tristan Larisela asked to be excused. He wants to make sure that you reach out to him, though, if you need anything. Instead of Patrick Smith, we have Assistant Chief Jay Klarich. You're Russell.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, you're listening. It's like barrels of the cheap.

We have the system city attorney. We have no one present from the council. Okay. And we do have a quorum. Okay. Can I give a motion to approve the meeting minutes of June 3rd?

Okay. No one here for public comment. Do we have a guest speaker today?

Okay. Any comments from council?

No, no, no. Okay. You know, they're still reviewing the speed cameras. That's still in the process of that one of its kind of the policy of it and decision making. That's kind of extended, but appreciate everyone's input and feedback on that. That will continue to move that work.

What's keeping it moving forward?

Differences of opinions.

Different opinions?

Yeah, yeah. And you get that, you get a governing body, you get seven different ideas, backgrounds, thoughts on it, so.

Do they agree on 80% of it? I think it'll move forward with. It can move forward with what they've agreed on. What's that? Move forward with what everyone agrees on.

Well, they'll want to have a look at what we're doing.

It's just part of the process, looking as usual. Yeah, I'm just asking how it works. Yeah. You think if they agree on 50% and get working. Well, we don't work it.

Well, they're not going to put in do and then do and then do and then do. So they want to identify locations.

Thank you. What's your fire? Any comments or updates?

I brought you guys a little snapshot of what we did last month. You guys will see that before we move on. Just a busy week. We all know we had a national layout last night. 67 parties were visible. We had 23 down there. Turnout was pretty good. A little less than what was in the air quality. We have back to school going up on the 8th and the 11th. We're gearing up for Summerfest, which is going to be on August 15th. That's usually a pretty good turnout for all the citizens. You guys have to attend. I encourage you to do so. Music in the Square, tomorrow, August 19. And then we have two more farmers markets. Tuesdays, the national income is always 25th. As far as our July numbers, we're down about a percent, and we're up about a percent for the calendar year. So we'll kind of put you on target. Hopefully, under target for what happened last year. Knock on wood again, no major structure fires. We had a couple of incidents at Village Green. It was pretty simple. Knocked it out really quick. And then our brothers at LPD were kind enough to do one arrest for one of our local fire setters yesterday, tied into something. So we got our eyes on a couple people that we're trying to reel in. I'm around if you guys have any specific questions.

Does West Pierce Fire do any type of ride-alongs? Can you go on our website?

You can reach out and there's a comment. You can fill out a couple of forms. We have a couple of restrictions on formal business hours. Keep the cash safe so you don't get in the thick of it, but you can see what you're doing on a day-to-day basis.

Great. Lakewood Police updates.

At the Lakewood Police Department, they have a new assistant chief. Have you had a good day? A permanent one. Well, he's supposed to be permanent. I'm Dave Claridge. I spent the last almost four years at the Pike Police Department as the assistant chief there. Prior to that, I spent 22 years at the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. I come with a little bit of a myriad of pretty diverse experience as far as my law enforcement background. Quite recently, I Finished the FBI National Academy, which was a pretty big deal. And then finished my master's degree in public safety. Was fortunate enough to get hired here at the Lakewood Police Department. I grew up on the east side of Tacoma. So I have a connection to the Lakewood community. My grandparents lived in Lakewood for years at the little, I don't remember the name of the whole park. Sorry, you'll probably know it better than me, but behind the Starlight Drive-In. Which one? I don't remember his name. It's a little one. It's a little one. I drove by there the other day and I was like, hey, that's Grandma and Grandpa's old place, right? I spent many a Saturdays at the Starlight Drive-In Swap Meet because my dad felt that everybody's jungle is his treasures. So I'm excited to be here. I've always watched Lakewood from a distance, being super close at Thurston County Sheriff's Office. In fact, our paths cross quite often. And matter of fact, back in 2010, I put a ladder application into the city of Lakewood, but got a little nervous and backed out. So this round, I didn't get nervous. I did back out. And the city selected me to be the next assistant chief. So I'm super excited about that. Like the fire department, we do have a summer fest coming up. We have that pretty close to fully staffed. So we will have... people representing there. And we have our staffing as far as the PD goes. We are, it's kind of steady. We have eight openings right now, but we have three that are starting PTO next week. One that restarted back at the Academy next week. And then several in the background processes to build those eight openings. So that's what we got right now.

A pleasure to meet you.

Thanks for having me on board. Thank you for having me. It's amazing. Well, I look in the mirror when I get my earphone on in the morning. It's pretty cool to have Lakewood children patched on. So, yeah.

It looks like we have a Marine Patrol update. Yeah.

So, do I need to stand up? It's okay. Anyways, I'm John Frazier, New Jersey Marine Service Unit. Just in regards to the questions that were raised about Lake Silicon. Mm-hmm. So, uh, majority of the stuff that happens on next time, I need the homeowners that live there. So in regards to watercraft sizing, um, that's going to be, I'm hoping to address that with the parks department and the advisory committee. The next agenda is in October. Um, we don't go out there with tape measures, but it is based on the size of the lake. There is this restriction on the size of the vessel that is supposed to be in the lake. The newer boats, as you know, can take on bows. They take on water and they, you know, people, you know, they surf behind the boats. That causes waves. There's waves that subsequently go against people's docks and their bulkheads and things like that. There's an association, I think it's national, that kind of works with operators and the general public on ways to mitigate that, when to do it, when not to do it. But this is a bigger issue than just the research here. So I'm going to ask for some input through the Parks Director and his advisory committee to say what they're looking for and things like that. The other thing is somebody went out there and they rebar into the stumps. Right now the water level's a little bit higher than the stumps and people are getting their props. When you're in your boat, It's just like when you're driving your car, you've got to be aware of hazards, both on the roadway and in the median. The Cove area has low speed. You should be mindful of where those stumps are anyway. You can't put rebar in stumps either, because then that opens liability to other people's vessels and dams. So there's a Lake Steilacoom Association. Captain Johnson lives out there, so we're trying to address those issues. Regarding paddleboarders, even on American Lake, we see about beginning of the season, about 90, 95% of people don't realize they had to have a light vest and a whistle by state law. They didn't even have them. They don't have them. They're laying down out in the middle of the lake. You don't care about the traffic and the roads moving. So we'd be really hammering that. We're going to make some signs, put them at the beach area, basically like that's required, dissociate it fine and try to get compliance that way. Once again, that's a issue for the advisory board. The reason why is you can be on an inflatable, you can be on a raft, you don't have to wear a life vest. You have to stay within 9 feet. Somebody on a paddle board, as you know, blows that up, it is likely being raft. So the question there is do you have to wear the life vest or not? We have the most restricted Ordinance regarding to vessels under 16 feet. You have to wear your vest at all times. Now, if you ever worn a vest and it's 85 degrees out, it's 80 degrees out and get really warm. You can buy one that goes around your waist. But the question really is, do we have to have them by state law? You just have to have them on board or more restrained. So those are things that we're going to try to work with the parks advisory board to kind of give some guidance. Just like everything, everybody has a difference of opinions. It's not my decision. I just enforce the laws that are passed by the council. So in regards to just taking our vote, safe vote, and putting it on Lake Steilacoom, that's not it. Our vote is 24 feet. The public launch won't accept the size of our vote. So right now, we have two C2s. that we use out there. When we go out there, there must be the quickest phone tree because it's like, and we literally drive around in a circle and nobody's there. I don't have unlimited resources. Our money comes from the vessel registration fund, which is the When people register to vote, that money then gets dispersed to various counties, and we get a portion, a very, very small portion of that money because we're designated as a voting safety program in the state of Washington. They used to get a U.S. Coast Guard safety brand. That went away. So that's limiting the income that we get. So we are mindful of how we spend the money. Our main bread and butter is Friday afternoons. Saturday and Sunday. And the one off, like tomorrow, even today, if the sun or the smoke wasn't here, the waterways would be packed. And so we want to be out on the heavy days to make it. I have co-workers in the dive team who say they call it no fun American lake because Sergeant Frazier's on it. Now the reason why is because he tried to make as many contacts as possible because we don't want the DUIs, we don't want the You know vessel homicides mass slaughter things like that and that's our Presidency now. Operators making sure, so, as you know, if you call 911 it takes us a little while to get on the water compared to you know Ecclesiastica on the bridge board. So paddle boards main focus the wakeboard is a bigger issue that she mentioned. Direction of travel is all by state laws counterclockwise in every lake. Biggest issue, as you know, down to the Interlochen Bridge. Very narrow. Some people don't want to run all the way up. They turn around because they want to get into the big water. I'll follow up with her. Like I said, right now I have six officers that are Marine service qualified. We have two more going next week in the academy down in Olympia. So we'll have two more and then one will have to go next year. So once they're certified, they have to obtain 40 hours a year. And our year really is mid-July or mid-June, mid-September. And as you know, that's all weather dependent. Like on the weekends for some reason, it gets overcast and rainy, not as much people. But then for some reason during the weekdays, it's nice. But anyways. So there's a lot there, but we're just trying to get people certified. And we try to go out and instill them when we can, when it makes sense to. Because it's hard to leave American Lake. There's two of us operating. We'll pull the CDs, go up there. We're wasting an hour of time. Because literally, when we get on that water, they're gone. And absolutely, the homeowner is saying, hey, it's this boat. And we're more than happy to go over and talk to that person and say, hey, your kids were operating it without a, you know, Second person, you're pulling somebody behind, getting too close to somebody else's property, stuff like that. So we've addressed it that way in the past, and through their own association. OK. It was a little bit of a lot of information, but I'm sorry. One of the terms.

Do you do any work out in the south? Only. All fresh water? All fresh water.

We bring our boat out there for training operations in Tacoma. And Pierce County is one part of the Metro Dive team, too. All right. Anybody have any questions? Appreciate everybody what they do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry. No council, so no comments. I'm finished. Can you speak at the . OK. We have unfinished business traffic service, sorry, traffic circle public service announcement. Anything on that?

No. Well, I just. I finally got around and I got around to it, and I did the report that I promised. We didn't get the kids involved, the youth people, but I consulted my good buddy's law, Mr. Young, and had some help in looking up some items that might be of interest to everybody about how to implement better rules and some potential public service announcements that could be used. So I sent those in because I didn't think I was going to be able to have them. I will be. So the next step is just to get them implemented in some kind of way, at least get them out there so that people in the community can see them. But you still see the same issues in and around us and people They know the rules, but it's like law of the jungle. First one pops in there, and then everybody behind them seems to think that they can pop right in behind them. So you find yourself sitting there, and there'll be six or seven cars and vehicles squeeze through, and they don't all make anything. It's just the rule says first one in the circle. So they consider that they're an extension of that first one. You see it every, not every, but every hour when you come to most of the traffic circles and lines. even though there's a yield sign on the entrance? There's a yield sign. The signage is another question. The signage is another question. A lot of places you see some better signage that helps, but we don't have super good signage that sort of lays that out for people so that there could be some way to enforce it if you have to. But most people will follow the rules if they see something there and it just doesn't happen sometimes. Maybe some better size, but it's something we need to take a look at, I think, and then we can get a group just to sit and talk about it, figure out, hey, I didn't make copies for everyone, but we can definitely send it out. Do you know how many accidents we've had in most of those? No, I don't have that statistic. I don't know. Assistant Chief, do you have anything I need to actually get back to you or something?

Get data on how many accidents we've had in the roundabout?

Yeah.

We'll see how important that is.

Well, you know what they did when they first started them? They did say that they really cut them out of accidents because it forced people to really slow down. So they really saved a little seabird.

Historically and statistically, roundabouts do create an environment where there are less collisions. But it just depends on the design of the roundabouts. You know, I don't know. I've seen some unusual roundabouts or traffic circles, as you will, if you will. But again, like I say, historic, they're far less than what there is in a controlled intersection, whether it's controlled by a stop sign or whether it's actually controlled by a traffic signal. So, but I can try and get some. It's improved the flow here and floated down.

You can see that when you're out there, it's just some people still the perfect example. The ones that I think that, because I travel across town four or five times a week to go out to the VA hospital and volunteer in that area. So the one at the VA at Veterans Drive, that's the one. People avoid Washington at all costs for the most part because there's seven of them you have to have a sheet. And that helps slow things down by doing that. And so I... I'm just thinking that we have one that's there. There's one that really should be there. That's just a little street where we always, where the bushes are on the way when you go down the, down the lake with Gravely Lake, when you travel down Gravely Lake, right there in Lassa. Well, I see you know that intersection there. There's no, there's not one there that you want to block away, where it really was very small and they need some work out. I mean, we should really be, we've been, they're going to the parking lot. It's just, I think if we took a quick look at it with something, we might be able to get something out. Because there was, we were trying to get them all so they could push that word out to somebody on the ground.

to help with the forward motion to keep this going chris is this something what james put together we could email like the psa committee to take a peek at it and then back at next meeting with questions or maybe input on what the committee um and other members think the best avenue could be to get the information out, could we do that? And then we could have that kind of as like a main topic for next, the next meeting. Does that sound good to you, James, since we're trying to take some time next meeting and really look at that? Okay. Yeah, we can take a look at it before next meeting, too. Awesome, thank you. The unfinished business update on PSAP, it looks like that's been . Hope you like them. Yeah, they look very nice, thank you. And then you're a White Council member, so great. So that's the result. Awesome. Thank you. New business. Preview of October's meeting. What are we doing there? So that's so that you know that Captain Jessica Fitzgerald will come speak to you on a flop. She doesn't want to make this month, but she will be able to come speak next month. Okay. I know we have some people online. Hi, Chris and Julius and then some members here. It looks like we have an application to participate in Truck and Tractor Day. We've done this for the last couple years. I remember seeing Johnny with me for a couple hours. It really helps if we have volunteers and we kind of like You know, make a list, a lesson in terms of one person to be there the whole time. We do have the sign up sheet if someone could volunteer an hour of their time, the day of truck and tractor. It just alleviates the responsibility on one or two people. I would really appreciate it. And I know we have some wonderful public safety advisory committee flyers that are already made up and they're beautiful. And it shares with the community what our committee is and what we do. Last year, we probably had the most significant foot traffic, but it's because we had a blow up dinosaur around our table and the kids were really interested in that. And so I'll bring back the dinosaur, but if I can get some help on participation, just talking to the community about the Public Safety Advisory Committee.

I'll be there again next year.

Okay, here's the sign-up sheet.

Do you have that poster I put together? It's a peace act and all what we did. I left it here in the last meeting, meeting for the last.

Yes, it's like a corrugated board. Yes.

You put that up at the booth.

Okay. And then let's see if there's anything else from new business. Mark, when's your last day with our committee? Tonight. Oh, well, thank you for all of your volunteer hours and years that you put in. I'm going to miss you.

Thank you.

You're welcome. You want to volunteer for Truck and Tractor Day?

I would love to. Yeah, I can.

I'm giving you a hug.

That's good. Okay.

Let's see. It looks like that might be, excuse me. Okay. Julius, thank you for reading. Oh, James, thank you for your continued service. I appreciate you. Okay. That looks like everything we can hand out from legal. Okay. And it was the The bikes electric bikes. Okay. Um, I guess we do have our 2027 work plan that all of you guys should have to take a look at that. Um, it sounds like it's going to be probably December 14th. Um, for those of you that don't know, every year we talk in front of the council to talk about, um, everything that we've accomplished for that year. And then what our plan is looking forward into 2027. So it sounds like our meeting with council is in December, December 14th. I always. love it when more committee members come and i'm not left to my own some of my by myself and have to talk to the council so if i could have your guys's support and be there it really does mean a lot um um it sounds like it's going to be on december 14th and then it's typically i want to say like 7 00 p.m is about right yeah because by the Okay, yeah, so about 7 p.m., when it gets closer, I'll make sure to get that information out for confirmation. But if there's any other ideas that you have for the 2027 work plan that's on the back here, please let me know.

I was looking at the city council agenda, I think the 17th of August, you know what I mean? i was just wondering can we make sure we have a work plan that supports them if they need some advice from this committee i don't know if there's a is there a connection between the agenda items the city council has and our involvement as an advisor

Yeah, so yes, because I made a solicit feedback on the traffic lights and e-bikes looking for just some general thoughts by the advisory committee. So yeah, so yeah, they definitely, that's, yeah. They want those to turn in, you know, kind of mesh. So yeah.

It sounds like there was something on timing this turnaround.

Okay.

But yeah, that's my question that we can ask students about what they'd like to see of us for the following year as well. So Heidi, our city attorney, it looks like she gave us some information on e-bikes, e-scooters, and e-motorcycles to introduce the subject that's regulation on these type of vehicles. Do you want me to read this or can people just? Okay. The background of this is state law regulates e-bikes, e-scooters, e-motorcycles. Currently, none are specifically regulated in city code. The city of Lakewood does not currently have either an e-bike or e-scooter share program. However, e-bikes in particular are increasingly popular for personal use and many cities are correspondingly developing policies to suit their specific needs. This year, the state legislature defined electric-assisted bicycle as meaning a bicycle with two or three wheels, a saddle, fully operative pedals for human propulsion, and an electric motor. The power output cannot exceed 750 watts and the bicycle must meet one of the recognized categories of e-bikes as follows. Class one, motor assisted up to 20 miles per hour. These can be operated in formal bike lanes and on shared use trails. Class two, fully motored, no pedaling, but motor stops Bicycle reaches 20 miles per hour. These can be operated in a formal bike lane and shared use trails. Class three, motor assisted while pedaling up to 28 miles per hour. These can be operated in a formal bike lanes and may use sidewalks if there are no other safe alternative to travel or if local code allows it. E-scooters may operate in the same places as class three e-bikes. Neither e-bikes nor e-scooters can be used on trails designated as non-motorized or that have a natural surface. By statutory definition, if the output is over 750 watts, it is not an e-bike. Motorcycles are defined as follows. A motor vehicle designed to travel on not more than three wheels, not including any stabilizing conversion kits on which the driver rides on a seat or saddle. And the motor vehicle is designed to be steered with a handlebar or rides on a seat in partially or completely enclosed seating area that is equipped with the safety belts. And the motor vehicle is designed to be steered with a steering wheel. Motorcycle excludes a farm tractor, a power wheelchair, an electric personal assistive mobility device, a motorized foot scooter, an electric assisted bicycle, and a moped. Motorcycles, e-motorcycles included are statutorily defined as motor vehicles. Requirements such as licensing and insurance do apply. No such license or insurance is required for operations of e-bikes. State law also prescribes equipment required of individuals operating a motorcycle, including mirrors, windshield, and helmet, headlamps, and tail lamps are required to be lighted whenever the motorcycle is on a highway. Cities do not have the same ability to regulate motorcycles as available with e-bikes. City jurisdiction and enforceability. Cities may regulate the use of e-scooters and all classes of e-bikes. E-motorcycles are treated under state law as any motorcycle would be treated. There may be a interest for cities in developing local regulations for e-scooters and or e-bikes by enforcement policy for e-motorcycles. There's options listed here, which include to be considered for e-scooters and e-bikes, equipment requirements such as helmets and or safety gear, restrictions on where such vehicles may be operated, restrictions on where such vehicles may be parked, impound requirements, parental responsibility. This list is not exhaustive and more ideas may be found in looking at other jurisdictions. The next steps, the city is interested in feedback from the Public Safety Advisory Committee to inform next steps with potential approaches to the regulation and or enforcement of e-scooters, e-bikes, and e-motorcycles. If the Public Safety Advisory Committee believes this is a relevant topic, it will be scheduled for a presentation and a discussion at the October meeting of the Public Safety Advisory Committee. Don't you guys? Yes.

One of the things I saw here is that they mentioned the scooters up here after three plus three motor assisted. They mentioned there and they don't have anything there until back here where she suggests maybe we have a look at these things for e-scooters. So there's no description on definition of what an e-scooter is. And also there must have to be Something put in there about the speed. Some of them are obstacles and really ill. I've seen some kids that passed me and I was going like 25 miles an hour and they went zinging by me. So one of them. So it looks as if along with what she's got, there are some things she's considered would be the speed limitations and a description of what determines a knee scooter.

Are there different speed limits for bikes, or do they use the same speed limit that we use on our bikes?

Well, in here, it doesn't say it, but it's somewhere else, and there's nothing in here. But I would suspect it's the same as the Class 1. Class 1 or Class 2, 20 miles an hour.

What's your guys' feeling on taking on this topic and assisting the council with guidelines or outlines. Anybody's up for it?

Yeah.

I think we did really good. Okay.

It's up and coming, the scooter producers especially, if you want to get a Interplanetary travel is not alone for them. They are settling to go so fast, and those platforms that their feet are on are so low that if they put safety lights on, you can't even see it. And I think it's another encumber.

The other thing with those e-scooter include the, what do they call them, monowheel, is that what they're called?

Is that considered an e-scooter? I don't believe so.

That might be something that goes in there, too, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah, so I think it's a little bit complex in terms of, you know, I think this may actually ask at one point for some more information about laws related to the e-bikes as they were emerging. And it becomes kind of challenging to think some of that information after you see the different classes and how it fits in who's going to grab what and where it goes because we're getting a lot of complaints especially on Fort Sullivan Park and in some of our staff meetings we've got some members from law enforcement talk about you know dental for a higher level of regulation for specifically the device Most of them are given by youth, obviously, and there's challenges with regulation of youth activity in the state of Washington. But there were some things that they threw out there, like the confiscation of those, and the parents would have to come to have a discussion with the parents about what's going on. So that was some of the context around

this topic and let's get the input from psa so that's what it's what age i mean you don't know what age and should they be licensed there's a there's a real problem right about a month ago, a kid riding down Lakewood Boulevard, traffic's moving 40 miles an hour, and he's, he had his head on a swivel trying to figure out what he was going to do, and finally he crosses two lanes of traffic, I don't know why he didn't get to, and then he turns in front of me and goes up in time, and he was a, he doesn't live there, 12 years old, because I stopped him, and I asked him what he was doing, and I chewed on him a little bit, and I don't know what happened to me.

And I think that those are legal up to the class too, because they're considered .

Well, he was moving about 20 miles. There is a challenge. We actually had this discussion earlier this afternoon in our all leadership meeting here at the PD. And because there are more laws coming down from the state of Washington, there is more guidance coming from the city of Lakewood. Again, a couple of guys were like, well, we'll stop them, we'll give them an earful and then we'll send them home. Well, the problem is, is that the example that was given, because for all intents and purposes, they're actually not bikes, they're motorcycles, right? Even some of these scooters are going as fast that they're almost considered motorcycles. The example that was given by one sergeant was, well, you wouldn't stop a 13-year-old in a Honda Civic and say, you can't drive that, so go straight home with the Honda Civic. We would impound that, have the parents come, or have the parents come and get it, things like that. So we're also trying to have conversations and trying to understand the new guidelines, the new laws from the state of Washington. as far as this goes. And these companies, as you said, Ray, these companies are pumping these things out faster than we can keep up with the regulations up.

I guess there needs to be a minimum wage that they can ride on a public street, at least.

A minimum size? Because some of these kids, I mean, they're going to go to the knees of their chest when they ride down the street, almost. light from the ground is so low. I don't understand. So a guy yesterday with both his knees, and this was an adult with a beard, and he was riding on some old bike, and all he had to do was hit a real bad bump, and he could have been just toast.

And that's a challenge for us on the enforcement side, right? Because if they have an age, at what point do we make age a primary stop, right? Versus, because you can have a 13-year-old that looks 18. Right. And so we've never stopped him. But you have the 18 year old that looks like he's 12. Right. And so and then the then we get caught in the middle because we're making, you know, a traffic stop on a on someone that's kind of an illegal traffic stop because we don't necessarily have probable cause for a stop or a reasonable suspicion for a stop. So it's, again, we're trying to navigate the new guidelines that are coming from the state of Washington as well.

I guess the other side of that, if there's something on the books that we should go around the schools and say, hey, you know, you realize these are the regulations that cover these schools. And maybe that would help. Or if there's an accident or some type, you know, where they do something stupid, what do we do?

For me, on my side, it lies community policing, right? Community policing where our officers are out. They're out and about. They are having conversations. They are reminding kids. Because it is one of those things, too, where like, well, we're telling kids to get outside instead of sitting inside playing video games. And then we send them outside. But then we're like, well, you can't do this when you're outside. But I do get the whole safety aspect of it as well. And so truly, it's one of our thing where when our officers are out and about having good conversations with some kids. We talked earlier today about, you know, some water safety issues that we were that we that we had yesterday when we not issues, but just conversations, water safety conversations we're having with a bunch of, you know, group of kids down at the Hairy Top Park. And sometimes it's just reminding kids to be safe and thank you for being out here and being kids and not getting in trouble as well. So, but these are, the e-bikes are something that we truly need to, we will continue to monitor the guidelines that are coming out so that we can help with the enforcement and the safety aspect of those.

Unless the state passes law that says you can't sell an e-bike with a battery larger than 750 watts, I'll bet you can go out there right now and find an e-bike that I know of that there are some trikes that have over 800, 800, 900-watt batteries in them. So there again, it's kind of like fireworks. We don't want you to use it, but it's pretty hard to please. We don't know that. We've talked about that for years here.

Well, I think it's only going to grow. It's going to grow faster than any of us keep up with it. We had a large group of youth signing in for a couple of meetings. Are they carryovers for the near future, or do they get a scrub of the ones that showed up this year and Okay, we're going to need to find an attractive way to bait them into being part of the talk. We have to know we're at their level. They're very sophisticated these days. I got a couple of grandsons that are there where I was when I was graduating from high school. down in sixth to the late grades. So you need to get them in and make them part of the effort and you'll reward them somehow so they can see that they're being incorporated in at least with the discussion and open it up because many of us are not going to be as skilled at what's really happening. We're not, I'm not going to be on one of those things going anywhere so I can't speak credibly. I can just speak for not wanting to bury one behind my car.

in-house. Does anyone have anything else for this meeting?

I have a compliment and a concern. OK. A little compliment is, I don't know if anyone's driven down Nianza Road lately. Nianza? Yeah. There we go. Beautiful. Yes. You know, I live on Nianza Road there on the lakeside. It's a lot brighter. Lights are out. Beautiful sidewalk. People are actually walking from around. I lived there for 20 years and never saw anyone walk. It was all dirt and gravel and everything. Now there's dogs and people walking all over the place. It's awesome to see. And it's also often for our fast drivers out there. It's like a drug to them. And see this wide open road with no speed bumps and straight for a quarter mile. Let's do it. And I hear it every day. So I don't know if there's anything we can do to monitor that at all. i can put that on the list for our traffic unit yep absolutely and it's usually between 10 and 2. not here 10 in the morning oh 10 at night yeah okay you don't have any playable especially the lights on nothing you don't have any playable dummy vehicles

I want to say to both of you uniformed teams there. I got 10 grandkids. Anytime they have interaction with West Pierce or like with police, they just feel like their day was made. You guys walk on way high above the water. And every time you can do that, chief after chief here, I said, It's worth its weight in gold when you can have that positive interaction without it being an arrest. And the oldest one's 18 now, but they all, I mean, at the night out, the three youngest ones, when we got there,