City Council - Regular Meeting

is Champion Mill site update director Hart. Yes sir. Um let me share my screen really quick. Okay. So before you tonight is that is really loud. Okay. Um so um uh we have had a summer full of work sessions and this is uh our second to last one. Um, and so we have the Champion Mill site uh before you tonight to talk about uh kind of three buckets of conversation. Kind of what we have done, what we're doing, and what's left of what we are currently doing. Um, the general cleanup process associated with cleaning up brownfields in general. um and then kind of how to fund it, what are the grant opportunities, and interesting ways to think about the project to try to maximize the grant funding opportunities. Um so, a a general historical overview of the site um that was put together as part of the phase one environmental assessments. Um, some key items to note are the main historical operations on the site, the main industrial users, which includes a plywood mill, a battery separator, um, a plywood and paper mill, and also a lumber mill. Um and these key industrial users used some heavy machinery, fuel, adhesives and other chemicals uh in their processes to treat the lumber and produce the plywood and paper which are the key contaminant uh uh issues on the site. Um this is the site in general. Uh it is

important to note that there are two property owners for this site. Um you will see the yellow outline and then the weird little triangular area that is not included in the yellow outline. That is a 5.28 acre parcel. Um that parcel was under separate ownership and actual went actually went into tax default. Um so was owned by Lynn County. Um, and because the property is zoned industrial currently, there is actually an OS standard that says that when a property is uh industrial, um, it does not have to go through the standard uh, open bidding process. It can just be directly sold to an individual. Um, and so that is what the county actually did. Um, somebody put an offer on that parcel for $30,000. um and the county sold it to that that person without doing a a direct uh auction for that property. So the city was not aware that that was happening. Um so that happened uh about two years ago. Um so that property is under separate ownership than the rest of that yellow outlined parcel. Um, and so all of the assessments that the city has been doing with grants is only on the yellow outlined parcel area. Um, and so you'll see for the 5.28 acre parcel, there's one pro, there's one building that's currently standing. Um, the rest of the remaining property, um, there's no buildings that are standing anymore. All the rest of them have either been demolished or burned uh, in separate fires. Um there's large concrete pads that still exist on the property. Um there's some old machinery that's that's left on the property and the water tower is still left on the property.

Um some key items to note uh about the the area. There's only one legal point of access for the property and that's off of Gilbert Street next to the water treatment plant which is a by River Road. Um and there are a portion of the property is actually part of Cheetel Lake. About eight acres of it is part of Cheetel Lake. Um and so that comes uh as an important point because we have to assess uh the water and the sediment along the river bank along the water bank um as part of the assessment because portion of the property is as part of the lake. Um and then also there are wetlands uh associated with the site along the northern portion of it as well. uh and that comes into play uh when you're talking about redevelopment um and costs associated with it as well. Um so it is a big site and it is a complicated site um and there's a lot going on with it especially now when you're also dealing with two different property owners as well. Um, so in terms of the environmental assessments and the progress that we've made to date, um, we have been really successful in getting grants so far. Um, so we started with a $70,000 grant through Business Oregon to do a phase one and phase 2 assessment. Um, that was back in 2002 and 2003. We worked with Stantech Environmental to do that work. Um, and they did a very extensive phase one and have a 1,200page environmental document with all of the historical records associated with the site. Um, and then they did a preliminary phase 2 assessment based off of what they had available in terms of funding um to to assess the site. We then partnered with Oregon Cascade West Council of Governments to apply for an

EPA coalition grant, which is a $1 million grant. Um, that is to fund uh phase 2 assessment and planning grants for Lynn and Benton County. Um, and our Champion Mill site is the prim primary site for that grant. So, the uh a large portion of the funding of that $1 million grant is going towards this site. Um so we have done one round or so round two of phase two assessments already on the site with that funding. It was completed this uh this spring and the report of that was um finalized and reviewed this summer through DEEQ and the work plan for round three which is supposed to be the final phase 2 round um is being reviewed and finalized by DEEQ and that work is going to be done this fall. Um, in addition to that, with the EPA grant, we're doing a market analysis, which I will be talking about a little bit later as well. Um, we have also been able to capitalize on um, some state funding. Um, we were actually approached by the state uh, to be able to utilize this funding. So, we have a 10,000 uh, $100,000 grant um, for infrastructure analysis. Um, and so we are doing a transportation and sewer analysis. Um, and that transportation analysis is going to analyze secondary access to the site to figure out how to connect to Highway 20. Um, and the sewer analysis is going to study the the sewer capacity offsite about how to upsize the sewer capacity to handle um the added capacity needed for for the overall area. Um, again, the outstanding issue for this is that little pocket of the site that is

not included in this overall area. There is a phase 2 analysis that was done for that property by the county as part of the overall sale. Um, it has not been reviewed by DEEQ to identify whether or not that is considered as fully characterized. So that is something that is an outstanding issue that does need to be addressed as we try to move this project forward. So I have I have a question for on the last screen. The round three phase two work that's supposed to start in the fall is that the are they doing wells? So we've already done groundwater testing as part of it. So the the round three phase two is soil vapor testing to identify whether or not there's methane in the the um soil. Um and then a tier three a tier one ecological assessment and then there's some other stuff that I am not fully educated in the environmental side of the equation to be able to understand fully what they're doing. Okay. Um, but we've already done groundwater testing and there is not uh necessarily groundwater issues that have been identified. Okay. So, all righty. Yeah. So, we've had no contact with the very lucky person who bought that piece of land for $30,000. We have had previous contact with them um with one of the representatives. She has since passed away. Um and and so I I think that there there is uh an opportunity to connect with her partner and see if there has been a a change in circumstance. Um I have never had contact with the her partner at this point. So I I don't know what his intention is with the property. Okay. Um I the the conversations I had with the his partner um there was a a sense of extreme inflation of expectation of

property value. Um and and so it was not a negotiable price that was anywhere near worth our conversation point. So the so the the property that's outlined in the yellow line and then there's that the additional what you said five acres. Eight acres. Okay. So we've done all the in we've done the phase one and started the phase two and completing the phase two in the fall on only the property that has the yellow line around. Correct. Correct. So the 5.2 acres if we say say there in you know all the stars align and we're able to the the owner of the other property was able to to uh obtain that would that separate five acres need to go through all the phase one and phase two. So the county did a phase two assessment already on that property as part of their sale. Okay. So we would have to submit that phase two to DEEQ um to identify whether or not that that meets the threshold of full characterization for for what we're trying to accomplish. So did they get a no further action? No, they didn't get a no. No. So this slide kind of it will explain it. So uh I do not know how they evaluated that phase 2. So there are different levels of analysis of what's called um it's basically the the human health standards basically. So you have different levels of of of acceptable uh contamination basically and and residential standard is the most stringent basically you can have the least amount of of contamination where industrial or open space you you have less stringent standards to abide by. Right? So, our site, the the the large

site, we are doing all of our assessments to the highest standard because we're assuming that there's going to be a mixed use of the site, but we don't know what it's going to look like. We're assuming that there's going to be some level of residential somewhere on the site. So, we're we're doing all of the assessment to the residential standard. I don't know what that 5.28 acres was analyzed to, whether it was industrial, commercial, or residential. I'm assuming that they did it to the industrial standard because it's zoned industrial. So, we would have to probably have it rechecked to to the residential standard. Um, so that would be an additional process that we would have to go to. I have a question on that. So when they when they're testing they're doing all the tests you're saying for residential they're doing additional tests on top of the what they would do for industrial or they're just testing for different products. So there are additional chemicals that are not allowed in a residential area that may be allowed in an industrial or open space area. So there there are additional chemicals that they would be testing for that they're not necessarily testing for if you're looking at an industrial base. Okay? So they don't know if they just did an industrial test, they wouldn't know all the chemicals that are in the soil. They would only know they would know these 14 and then there might be 30 over here on the residential that they didn't even test for. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So that's where I'm saying you're not able to just say, well, here's the you're not able to sit here and say, well, okay, here's the testing panel. You clear it on the industrial level, but you don't clear it on these other two and but you might clear it on the residential level, right? It's not the same testing panels. So, you have to do

it differently. It just seems like for the price, the money that they're whoever is paying us or the county, they could just test for all of it at once. it is expensive to test and and so that's why you do it based off of the land use that you are anticipating because these are not inexpensive. Um that's why we're relying on grants. Yeah. Um and so if you are not planning on doing residential then you're not going to spend the money to do those extra tests. Right. And the county was not planning on spending a lot of money on doing this. And so they're not going to spend the extra money to do the tests. So you had a question. Yeah. Kelly, was there any test done on the old SOS pile that sits right on the other side of the tracks? No, because that's not part of the study area. Okay. And just so everybody knows, the the owner's name that passed away was BJ Justice. Yes. And she does have an heir, so you might uh have to contact her heir as well as the other other partner. I'm not sure that that that she was actually ever on the she Yeah, she was not the owner. She was just the business partner. Um but she's not actually on the deed. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So, moving right along. Um so in terms of results um so you have the the human health uh riskbased concentration so the RBC's which we were talking about um and this is the first round that we did in 2023ish um and the the results aren't terrible right so there was only two areas that it actually triggered for the human health um risk based issues uh for

residential standards for formal firm formaldahhide and pha pa that on the screen just look at that um and that's on the eastern side of the property where you could see it on the the red circles. Um there was a number of different areas where there's ecological based conc risks of concentrations. Um and then there is the the cleaned fill screening exceedences. Um and those are the two areas where you see the the yellow circles. Now the the clean fill uh screening exceedences uh it's for PCP. What that basically means is uh it's expensive to either a treat the soil to a a level in which it's not going to exceed anymore or you're removing the soil to a landfill that will receive contaminated soil and and that's an expensive process, right? And and so those are are two areas in which you're noting that that is going to be a more expensive area to to treat. basically. Um so those are the key areas to highlight on that round. For round two, um you do have a this is the much more extensive round of testing. Um this was the the larger funded round of testing. Um and you do have uh more areas that picked up um the human health race bit uh the human health risk based uh concentrations. Um, and then they're the dioxin furins. They're um based off of areas on the the eastern side, the southwestern side, kind of the the spine of the um property um through the middle there. Um and then there's just a a few little hot spots here and there sort of

thing. And so it's not across the entire property, but it's more of just concentrated areas is what we're seeing. Um and then there's one point uh of area of like other chemicals of concern and that's more like formaldahhide that they were seeing um and petroleum. Um this slide is very wordy. I mostly put this in for when I'm gone so that when people look back to this presentation they have a summary of everything. Um but the important part of this is the data gaps. This is our plan of action for the last round of phase two. Um, and that's where we're going to do the vapor testing for the soil um to uh test for methane. Um, and then also do the tier one ecological uh risk assessments as well as the sediment testing along the border of Cheetel Lake because we're testing for the property that actually is part of the lake itself. Um, so that's the overall hopefully once that is done, DEEQ will be satisfied that the site will be considered fully characterized. And once that's done, you get to actually move on to the next steps. So, any questions about that so far other than what we've already talked about? Okay. So, I want to to take a moment to sort of talk about why this project is important other than just the environmental side of the equation. Um, so, you know, you have the environmental side, there's the safety part of the equation, right? We've had fires out there. Um you have the site itself which is not the safest site on the equation, right? You have lots of areas that are

um unsafe for people to be. It's tripping hazards. You just generally shouldn't be on the site unless you're um escorted. Um so it's generally a p public safety issue. Um, and you have our fire department, our police department which are spending time going out to the site and responding to issues on a regular basis. And I'm sure that Frank could could attest to. Um, and there's an ongoing issue of illegal dumping, um, vandalism and unauthorized occupancy on the site. Even though the site is fully secured with no trespassing signs, people are still getting into the sites and and causing those issues. And the city has invested over $35,000 to clean up the site previously um and unfortunately the property owner has since let the site um go back to its original state after our cleanup process. Um, and so it's an ongoing issue for our um, law enforcement. Um, and it's a public safety concern. It's also an economic impact to our community as well. So, the current site itself, it it's 50 acres all in play, right? It only generates 8,000 and change of property taxes across all taxing entities, right? But for the same amount of acreage of industrial area in our north uh area on Hansert Avenue, it generates over $500,000 of property taxes all in. And so I I did that just as as an industrial basis, apples to apples, because it's way too hard for me to do 50 acres of residential trying to get all of those properties together. But there's a huge economic impact to let this property

just sit like this. It is a a major economic uh depression in terms of the amount of time that we're spending with um our law enforcement and the fire districts as well as in terms of property revenue opportunities as well. Um it, you know, is also on Cheetel Lake, which is our, you know, Crown Jewel, our Pride and Joy, right next to Cheetto Lake Park. And so this is a great opportunity for our our community to be able to turn this into something great. So there are lots of redevelopment opportunities for this project as well. Um you know there's trail connectivity um from the the property to um the park as well as to Western University which then connects it pretty much all the way through um the entire eastern part of the city. Um there's opportunities for safe routes to school through this property and and to all of uh several different schools in the region. Um in addition to that, this property has for decades at this point been identified in our comprehensive plan um as a site that is meant to be um revitalized and reszoned as a mixeduse site from industrial development. Um, so when we redid our comprehensive plan back in 2004, this was identified as a a key site for interest and um redevelopment. Um, so I say all of this as it's been on the books uh of interest for the community to to try to get something going for this site. Um, and so it it seems to be of importance. And so through this entire process, one of the key important things moving forward will be public engagement to figure out what the public is going to want to see on

this site. Um, and so through the brownfield process, a key component is public engagement and through the land use process to figure out what will be the next phase of life of this process. um public input will be a key component of it as well to to understand what they uh will want to see on it as well. Um so as part of that to gear up for that um we are doing a number of studies. Um we've kind of touched on this. We have grants for all of these studies and all of these studies are either planned to move forward or currently are moving forward. um we already are kicking off the bottom two um and they're kind of working hand inand together um and they're both sort of um going to tell each other what to do. So the transportation study and the market feasibility study um is going to indicate how the the site is going to be able to gain access and what is the commercial viability for the site. Um so as you guys all know tractor supply has been built right along right in front of it that changes the dynamic of the market marketability of the site. Um when you have a large commercial property that sort of blocks the view of the site that changes the commercial dynamic of of the viability of what can go in there. Um and so it changes the types of um shops or or large anchor shops that might be able to to support any commercial activity there. Um so we have a market analysis um that is looking at that site uh identifying um

opportunities and then you know the how access will be gained um from the highway to the site um will also deter uh determine the market viability and vice versa. you know if the market marketability for commercial is strong that will also determine the type of roadway and access that will be needed for the traffic as well. So those two will go hand in hand. Um and then the su sewer capacity um is just identifying the the pipe sizes needed to accommodate future growth for the area as well. Um, so we're doing these studies to sort of help put together the the guard rails to to sort of identify this is what the the property can bear. Um, so that when we do do um public outreach, we're going to have some information to be able to share with the public. Um, so that we're going to be able to have realistic expectations of what can be developed on the property. Um, so from there, Kelly, I have a question on that. Does the studies that are being done, do they include the five acres that's separate from the It's just studying the whole area. It's just studying the whole area. Okay. Yeah. Um, so from there, I wanted to give you all a um very high level, very basic understanding of the the DEEQ um voluntary cleanup process. Um this is the the process that um if we were to move forward with the site that we would be going through. Um you're kind of partially in it already. Um so you've done the site evaluation. That's kind of the phase one. You're in the preliminary assessment phase which is phase two. Um from there you start the remedial investigation and risk assessments. um

which is kind of your your health uh human health and ecological evaluations and all that kind of stuff. That's part of your phase two as well. Um once you have your full site characterization, once you've sort of done your studies to identify what can be born on the site, what um is the best use of the site um you're going to work handinhand and collaborate with DEEQ to do the feasibility study or um the ABA, which is the alternative brownfield cleanup assessment. Um so DEEQ is actually going to be your partner through this. Um they work with you to identify what is um the best cleanup al cleanup process for the site based off of the land use that you want to do that is going to um preserve and protect human and ecological health um while being the most um fiscally prudent and efficient. Um, so they do try to to balance those those acts. Um, so they will look at the the property and say, you know, if there's a hot spot that's going to take an exorbitant amount of money to clean up, um, maybe it's a good idea to to cap that hot spot and and leave it in place because it's not migratory. period stagnant in place and plan for a parking lot to be over that hot spot so that you're not um having to to go through the process of trying to clean that up. Um and capping it in place is a perfectly acceptable mitigation measure because nobody's actually living on it, nobody's staying on it. Um it's a m migratory use for people. Um and it it caps the contamination, right? So they will work with you to try to find those alternatives that will be fiscally

prudent but but solve the problem, right? Um and so once you go through that um process, you will get a uh record of decision from them um that will tell you this is your plan. This is what we all agree to. And you're going to then go through the implementation process and the cleanup process. Um once you clean it up and everything is done to the approval process, you will get a no further action letter. Um and they will close your your cleanup process and the site is done. Um now that you understand that process separately and before that though you need to make the decision about the policy decision about liability and entering into a prospective purchasers agreement. Um this is if the city were to be the one to purchase the property. Um, this is a liability shield basically. So, we would as part of the voluntary cleanup process prospect process, excuse me. Um, we would enter into a prospective purchases agreement, which basically does the same thing that I just explained to you, but you would enter into this agreement, which would take you out of the liability chain of custody to basically not allow for third-party lawsuits to to say that you're liable for, you know, issues associated with the contamination on the site, basically. So, it it's a bit of a liability shield. Um, to do something like this, you do need to hire a specialized environmental attorney um

and some some consultants associated with it. There are um some some processes you have to go through and you do need to pay for DEEQ's time um to go through the process as well. Um so, there is a a costbenefit analysis that you'll want to do. Um, so I, you know, any recommendation associated with this would be to review the phase two analysis once you get it completed and then weigh your pros and cons associated with it. Um, but there are three different types of prospective purchases agreements. One is more shielded after the other sort of thing. The third one is the the greatest level of protection. Um but the third the first one is a a minimal shield but it does not take you out of the third party um liability. So it's it there's different phases to it. Um but it is something to consider. So um anticipated cleanup costs. Full disclosure, this is me literally throwing a dart at a dart board. Um this is a huge wide range of anticipated costs. We are still in the midst of doing the phase 2 analysis. So we do not yet know what the full cleanup costs are. Um we have been fully funded for our phase 2 um stuff. So that is being taken care of. Um there will be costs associated with putting together the feasibilities and the alternative brownfield cleanup assessments. Um there are DEEQ grants that are available for that. So we could try to to get that. There's also EPA technical brownfield assist assistant grants associated with that. Um, and then cleanup assistance, uh, and implementation could be anywhere

from 1 million to$10 million or more, or I'm not going to say less than 1 million. Um, but that will be determined based off of the feasibility study that is agreed to between DEEQ and the city. Um, and that's going to be a negotiation. Um, but there's lots of different grants that are available which I'll go through after that after the slide. Um, but it it is still up in the air about how much it's going to cost to to go through this process. Um, so we we still have a lot of work to to figure this part out. Um, in terms of still moving this project forward, this is still a a big project. Um we're still in the very beginning phases um of doing the assessment, but with a team um you could get this project done in three to five years um with one person working on it um like we have been it could take 10 years um to get it done. Uh so it's it depends on the uh capacity of of the city to to make this happen. Um, so there are some other things that need to be considered as well. Um, there's a lot of other unknown costs and a lot of other things that are going on this property other than just the Brownfield side of the equation. Um, there there needs to be obtained secondary access um across the railroad to connect to Highway 20. That is a big project. Um, we have significant concrete on the site that needs to be removed. Unfortunately, we have done the testing and there is no contamination underneath the concrete, which means that brownfield grants will not pay for the removal of the concrete. So, we need to have a different way to

find how to fund the removal of the concrete. Um, there's also wetlands on the site. So depending on how you want to use the site, uh you'll either maintain the wetlands on the site or you'll have to delineate them and mitigate them. Um there are three septic tanks on the site as well as a decommissioned uh gas under uh underground storage tank. And so depending on what you do on the site, those might also need to be removed. um depending on who we partner with or how we move forward, there is a significant amount of city infrastructure that will have to go onto the site to build throughout it. Um and then the upsizing of the sewer offsite um that is currently being studied. Um and then you have the the water tower on the site that needs to be repaired and restored as well. So like I have said, this is a big complicated project. um that's not just a simple brownfield cleaning up of the site. Um so there's there's lots of moving parts associated with this. Uh so how are we going to fund it? Um number one complete the the environmental assessments though that is um funded already. Um there are a number of brownfield specific uh grants and lowinterest or forgivable loans um through business Oregon and the EPA that are stackable or you can do it consecutively um and so they're they're anywhere from 60,000 to $500 uh,000 um depending on what grant you use. Um, I have given Ron the contacts for both EPA and Business Oregon to be able to get in contact with them to um, start

working with them about how to stack those grants. Um, I think that the URD um, the Cheetah Lake URD is also a good tool that is available. Um the property is not currently a project as part of that. Um but it can be uh and we can utilize those funds that are currently in the URD to help fund a portion of this project. And then as you guys saw um when I talked about how the property can once it's redeveloped um increase the the property values that will help refund the the URD to then be able to do the other projects that are listed within the URD as well. Um so it's kind of an exchange of of use the funding now in exchange for it its benefits later. Um there's some additional opportunities and and this is a benefit that I have gotten from being able to go to the the Brownfields conferences that that you all have sent me to. Um it's looking at the project as not just a brownfield project. It's you want to look at it as an economic development project. You want to look at it as a parks project. You want to look at it as an infrastructure project. Um, you want to piece meal it out to every single different thing that you can possibly think about. So, is it an arts project? So, for the water tower, I know that everybody wants to paint strawberries on it. So, can we get an arts grant to restore the water tower? For the park, uh, for the restoration of the waterfront, we can get a parks grant. We can get an EDA grant to do some of the reconstruction or some of the work associated with some of the commercial activity that we're talking about wanting to do there. You can get a

Connect Oregon grant for some of the road work that we're trying to do to get the access way um for uh Highway 20. So, there's lots of different ways that you want to think about the project um to be able to connect all of the different types of um activities that the project will serve. Um you can also include system development charges uh for for the project because there is growth associated with it. Um and then finally, uh if this is a too big of a heavy lift for the city to consider doing, um you can bring it into a public private partnership earlier than later, um by issuing a a request for proposals and RFP um and identifying that the city will be a partner with the developer by being the grant sponsors um for all the grants that cities are only eligible for. um and you know identifying what skin in the game the city's willing to put in and then what the developers can bring to the table um and what the developers will have free license to do and what the city needs to get out of it. Uh and identifying what that partnership would look like and see if a developer would be willing to be that partner in exchange for having the ability to develop the property. Um so so there's an opportunity to do that as well. Uh but uh there is a recommendation at the bottom of the slide here. Sustainable strategies DC is is a consultant that has done several presentations at the Brownfield conferences that I've gone through. Um where they will spout off 40 different grants that are available based off of a threeinut presentation that somebody has done. Um and so I would recommend getting in touch with them to try to help do some of the grant stacking. um

that would be uh working for this project. So, there are opportunities for grants. There's lots of them out there. Um but I think the city has to have an expectation that there will be some funding that will have to come uh associated with this project and I think the URD is um a good opportunity for that as well as system development charges. So, next steps, um, obviously finish the phase two. Um, we're going to need to designate a project leave, uh, lead, obviously since I am, um, no longer going to be here. Um, I would highly recommend, um, putting together a committee to make this project work. Um that is one of the things through um listening to other successful projects through the conferences that I've been through is that there has always been a committee um from the city working to champion this project projects forward. Um so having a committee help um move and shepherd the projects forward would be um a good option. Um and then engage consultants uh for the prospective purchasers agreement if you guys are moving forward with that um and moving forward with it um to help with the expertise. Um I have cobbled this together with uh the knowledge over the last couple of years as much as I can um but getting some official expertise would be helpful I think. Uh and then begin identifying that funding would be good. Uh and then finally uh the one slide that we have been putting on all of ours. Um obviously this directly aligns with our strategic plan. Um it is a an item identified explicitly. Um there are regulatory drivers associated with this

project explicitly with the EQ and EPA. Um and then in terms of risk without the action, there is the medium risk in terms of you know the property being uh a degradating influence and demands on the police and fire department. Um and then capacity is going to be the the largest issue for the project. So with that available for questions. Any questions? I have one. To keep this moving forward, how much how much staff time are we talking? Is this is this almost where you could hire a full-time position or is that too much? Um, is there too much waiting between all the phases for that to be cost-effective? I think at this point until you get the phase two completed and we know exactly what we've got there, I would say yes. There's a lot of lead time. When you get to a point where, all right, we're going to start applying for grants or we're going to start the cleanup process, um, then I would say, yeah, it's going to be a full-time job. Yeah. in order to move it through without taking the next 30 years. Are there people that specialize in that and like that are good at that and that's what they do? We'd have to find them. Yeah, it sounds seems like a rare there's consulting. So I before I did something like that, I think rather than hire somebody, I think you you'd hire a consulting firm that's that would specialize in something like that rather than bring another staff person on and then you use consultants to you manage the consultants uh and then they're doing the work um would be what I would look at. But

all the grant grant applications and managing all that is that some of the consultants they will do some of that too. Yeah. Yeah. We've uh the cog right now does some of that for us. But yeah, if if you started stacking grants, we would need help with that for sure. All right. I hear Oregon City hired somebody who's pretty good at that stuff. Any other questions from council? Thanks, Kelly. Thank you. All righty. Okay. So, that will bring this uh meeting to German at 5:45. We'll reconvene at uh 1,800 or 6 p.m. for the regular session.

Some guy hit a camera in the bathroom. Not here. That is disgusting. Okay. Okay. Did I scare you? Well, I call the meeting to order. Let's please rise for the flag salute. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All righty. Thank you. Um, city recorder, please call roll. Mayor Jakola, present. Council President Steinhevil here. Councelor Ki. Councelor Man. Councelor Salvage here. Councelor Mlan here. Councelor Workman here. All righty. Thank you. We'll move into the consent calendar. F. Following items are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion. And there will not be separate discussions on these items unless the counselor so requests. In that case, the item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately. Excuse me. Agenda, Lebanon City Council agenda, September 10, uh, 2025. Committee meetings, library advisory committee, April 8th, 2025. Council meetings, August 27th, 2025. Regular work in executive session. Is there a motion? Move for approval.

Second. Uh, motion's been made to approve. It's been seconded. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion passes. Um, we're going to move into presentations and and the first up is the Oregon Cascade of West Council of Governments. Ryan vote. Well, thank you, mayor. Uh, good evening and good evening councilors and city staff. Thank you so much for having me. I assume this is hot. We're on, right? Okay. Um, as the mayor said, my name is Ryan Vote and I am the executive director for Cascades West Council of Governments and now the executive director for the Community Services Consortium as well. Um, that's been a bit in the making. I'm going to talk a little bit about that today. And um in your packet, you have some information about the Council of Government's uh footprint in the Lebanon community this last year. And uh one of our board members likes to describe us as a friendly octopus. It's just kind of a reminder that we have our our fingers or our tentacles in so many different things as a social social services and economic development agency that I like to provide some information about kind of where we are specifically in uh in the community. So if you're getting regional information, it's sometimes hard to distill. Yeah. So what what does that mean for us? What are we getting in Lebanon? And so uh I have that for you. I've also provided for you the um community action uh regional report. Now this is kind of my first year being in this role. Haven't been there for a whole year yet. So I apologize this one is spread from a regional perspective. It doesn't have you that same level of

distillation around what it means for your community. But as you review the two of those, and I'm not going to belabor those reports today. I'm happy to answer questions about them, but um they're there for your reference as you see fit. But as you look at them, you get a sense of the service array that is contained within the two organizations. And it gives you a little bit more context for why it is that the last 15 or 20 years, the different boards for the two agencies have been uh contemplating how do we partner better together. Specifically, the major overlap is for lowincome seniors happen to uh routinely seek services from both organizations. And these are people in desperate need whether it's housing or utility assistance or whether uh it's uh staying in their own home safely or what have you. And so uh many of them have transportation issues obviously. Many of them have uh various funding issues. And so the notion that in order to access housing services, they have to go somewhere and talk to somebody. And if they want utility assistance, they have to go somewhere else and talk to somebody else. And if they need help paying their rent or their mortgage, they have to go and talk to somebody else. And if they have food insecurity, they may have to go to two or three different places. And so the board's really contemplated within that context the possibility of bringing the two organizations more closely together to try and figure out how we create some one-stop uh conversation. Now, we've got a long ways to go in terms of being able to make it so that uh somebody who needs our services across both organizations can see one person or just fill out one application. But that's really the beginnings of what it is that we are trying to accomplish. Um, and I have a little bit of experience with that and a little bit of experience actually here

in Lebanon with that because uh an entire lifetime ago back in 2005 I opened up the child welfare and self-sufficiency center right down the street here. Um, so um I'm I'm very excited about this new opportunity and what it is that we can bring to life, but we've got a ways to go. Um, so like I said, you've got those reports in there. I'm happy to answer questions, but I don't intend to work through those. I do want to talk about since those reports were uh 2024, something that's a little bit fresher in terms of uh the things that we have going on here. And um so a couple things that are probably worth highlighting is that uh one of the places that the Cascades West Council of Governments does is we do a bit of work in economic development. And I know all of a sudden I'm taking a radical shift from low-income seniors, but um economic development. And we've been working with the city of Lebanon and we've been working with the city administrator, city manager uh Ron for a bit and um we predate in some of that work as well. So if you're not familiar, we've been assisting uh the city with a couple of grant applications to try and help shore up some of the things that you're working on here. Um, we were able to help help you all land a housing infrastructure support fund grant for $100,000 to help with sewer capacity and road access for the Champion Mill property. We've been uh instrumental in helping to manage and work through a number of brownfield sites over the years here in Lebanon. Um, including this Champion Mill property as well. Um, and uh, we've done some additional preliminary planning and I think we may be ramping up some of our planning over the next couple of months to help the city navigate through some

transition work. On the social services side, um, we have been providing uh, senior health insurance benefit assistance. Now, this is counseling for people who are trying to navigate uh Medicaid and Medicare changes. And um we've had uh 48 people in the Lebanon community be consumers of that service just in the last quarter. Uh Medicare and Medicaid changes are um really troubling and problematic in terms of trying to navigate that. if you're a senior um figuring out what this looks like for you in the coming days. One of the other places where the two organizations overlap and I'd like to highlight this for just a moment because it's going to be salient continues to be salient for your community and that is the notion of food instability. So on the community uh services consortium, community action agency side, uh we run the Lynb Benton food share. We provide uh millions of pounds of food to the region Lyn and Benton counties uh every year. Um we provide money to social ser or provide food to social service organizations uh gleaners group um food banks all uh aimed to try and make sure that those people who are food insecure have access to nutritious healthy uh regular food and meals. And on the um council of government side we also run the meals on wheels program. So these are two programs really aimed at serving uh many of the same people. Um and uh by bringing the two organizations closer together, we can streamline that in a way that uh make sure that people have stability over a longer period of time and that uh we can remove some of the administrative barriers to getting those things done.

So that's a sense of a couple of things that we've got going on in uh your community. If I could take the liberty to go with a little side narrative for just a moment since uh police chief is here, hopefully not about to get anybody in trouble, but we had a really cool engagement a couple of months ago uh on a social services call that also involved one of your officers. Um we uh we do adult protective services and we received a call of a family that may uh be in distress, have some concerns. The information was pretty compelling to a point where we asked for uh law enforcement assistance and a welfare check. Um, officer Fountain uh responded uh was able to validate that the family was actually in pretty good shape and was the concerns that had been brought forward were not um present, which was wonderful. Uh but Officer Fountain did find that uh that family needed some additional supports and uh took it upon himself to go out uh to Walmart after his shift and uh purchase a wheelchair and some additional supports for the shower for this consumer. um because I think it's just the heart of service that comes and uh despite us reaching out and saying hey we can help offset that uh we're happy to refund that through one of our programs uh officer Fountain kind of shrugged it off and said that you know this is part of my community as part of what I do. So, I'd like to give that acknowledgement to you while you're here because that's just kind of a really cool story about the kind of work that uh my staff know every day we're touching lives and helping people. And when we see other people in the community sharing that same value, it really helps with uh people coming to work with a smile on their face.

So, I could do this for an hour or I could take questions now. Any questions? I'd just like to thank you and hope I don't need you too soon. Thanks, counselor. No, my my at the end of my mom's life meals on wheels took good care of her and I appreciate it. Excellent. You do good stuff for us. Thank you. One of the things that we are uh a bit concerned about and I'm not going to um politicize any kind of conversation here but where where we exist right now in the current realities of what's predicted for um Medicaid supports and for the um supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP is that we anticipate that um there are going to be some additional hurdles for people to get through in order to maintain those benefits. some of the people who currently receive those benefits are going to struggle to navigate those hurdles. And so we anticipate that the uh need and demand for food security uh is going to grow. Um we are trying to figure out how we're going to stay ahead of that curve. Uh I've never come here before and asked for anything other than to just kind of prepare you for where I'm at. And I'm not asking for anything today, but I do want you to know that this is this is probably an area uh of a little bit of vulnerability for the two organizations is to make sure that we're getting enough food out uh to your communities. So, thank you, Council. Could Could I ask one question? Of course. Um the much more glamorous issue, uh the wetland feasibility study for both Lynn and Benton counties, uh I know that that's is it ongoing still or has it been finalized? Um, so is everybody familiar with it? Yeah, we've been working on that for a couple weeks now. Uh, so um, thank you for the question.

The uh phase one of the feasibility study was done to try and look at the possibility of establishing a public land bank that we could sell credits on to bring down the cost of offsetting wetland uh work. And uh the wetlands consortium has applied for a phase 2 grant and uh the the um funer is uh moving forward with that and they're also hoping for a uh formalized endorsement from the board of the council of governments even though it's really the wetlands consortium standing alone to do it. Uh that won't be a barrier. So, uh, in answer to your question, it the phase two, uh, is the the grant application's been submitted for the phase 2 to try to figure out what the next steps would be, and we are, uh, highly hoping that that's going to be a successful place for us. So, I'd just like the council to to know how much we work with Ryan's staff. Um, we do a lot of things with them. They're very responsive, great to work with, and we appreciate everything you guys do for us. So, I just want to put that out there and let your staff know that. Thank you. I appreciate that. Any other questions, comments? All righty. Well, I appreciate your time and your briefing. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Next up is the Lebanon Museum Foundation update. It'll be presented by Mayor Paul Ziz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Welcome. Welcome, Council President, counselors, and city manager. Weird to be on this end, but it's nice to be back. glad to have you and I really appreciate you putting us

on the agenda so that we can share with you what we've been doing uh the past eight years. Uh we've done a lot of things publicly but I don't think the council is really aware probably of what we've been doing in some of the details. Um let me go here. Perfect. Uh we were in the strategic plan also in the art arts and culture section and the idea was to develop a strategy for a museum for Lebanon. Uh the city council approved a committee to research what we needed to do because I wanted this to happen. And um the city put out a call for those interested. We got a group of seven people that had a wide range of background uh including our curator Tonyie who uh actually is a curator from Nevada. Uh she worked with other museums. So we really had a good team to go into this. Uh the committee visited the Eastland Historical Museum and the Albany Museum. Uh we later on, I think uh Independence and a couple other ones too because we really wanted to see what they were doing and how we could do what they're doing or how they became the museum that they were. And it's interesting because Brownsville is a little different because they're funded by the county. So that actually is a county kind of organization. Um, when you look at like Independence and some of the other ones, I think the Sweet Home, they're more of an independent agency. So, that's we were kind of looking at the different ways. So, we went to the council with a request. The city gave us $10,000 seed money. Uh, the committee created a 501c3 and that was approved in November of 2018. We have seven board members right now with two exofficial members. Uh, I'm the president and acting treasurer. Uh, Linda Zedric is vice president, secretary positions, open curators, Tony Morawa. Little asterric is just the people who were the original uh members from the original committee, which we

have quite a few still. Uh, we have Wayne Dystra who's on the board, Jolie Root, Gary Marx, and Chamilleia Jeepson from Camille's Candles Downtown. She's one of our newer members. And our exofficial members, Wayne Reeseamp, and Jeff Smith, who's a photographer and quite a historian. Could our group stand up? I just like to share that they came to support and we really appreciate all the work that they've been doing. Thank you guys. The first big collection was from the former Lebanon Museum Group uh from the '9s to 2017 and that was stored at the is called the Oregon Real Estate. It was one of those little offices. Uh and we received several other collections since then. We got John Dalton, the photographer, Dorothy Paige, John Jenkins, uh, who a lot of you know was a strawberry for years around here. We have a lot of strawberry memorabilia. And this is just an example that I brought to show what we've been doing to preserve. And this is from Dalton's collection. That's Richie's Drive-In. And you remember that's Tony's tacos now. And that's also the grand opening day that he he was a photographer that was very popular in town and had a store downtown. And uh they ended up selling his estate and I think actually I think what happened was is they closed the store passed away then the family sold things off and somebody came to us with this collection left over. So it's kind of neat because we have the slides and they've been scanned in and preserved. Uh otherwise that thing would have been gone. We would not have had these. But I love the uh grand opening day of the Lebanon Community Hospital and there's a whole bunch of other pictures. There was a big awards thing out in the fields out there. Uh, and that hospital obviously does not look anything like it does today. It's amazing. Uh, the museum events, we have had a ton of events since 2018. Our kickoff was about the Calouya natives. Uh, that was

Tony Farqua who uh was from the Ranger Station up in Sweet Home. He's no longer with them. Uh, but he came out and did that. He is an amazing speaker. If you haven't seen him, he's really great. He he kind of dresses up and he's got the garb and all the little artifacts. It's really a fun talk. We did growing up in Lebanon with three of our local people that have grown up. Ken Bol, Tony Hayden, Sally Morgan who recently passed away. So getting this information is important because these people who have lived here are passing away and getting older and we're trying to keep those memories so that we can share those with the rest of the community. uh Lebanon Pharmacy, Bob and Betty Smith. Uh Pictorial History of the Lebanon Mills was Jeff Smith. These are really have been really wellreceived and we're getting 20, 30, and on some cases 40 people to some of these events to come and we did them here. Uh and we've tried to kind of keep it here because it's a little bit easier this building in this area. uh pictorial history of the fire department, historic downtown walk, Santan Wagon Road, uh and the history of the Lebanon Police Department, Chief Stevenson, and that was a good talk. Uh Lebanon in the 50s, John Leard, history of Sodavville, Civil War medicine, Native American storytelling, tribal histories of Wamut Valley, uh historic homes, and first fruits. Our very own Linda Zedric, vice president, has a book, Pacific Coast Fruit Industry History, and it's really fascinating. has a lot to do with how the fruit trees came here across the country. Very interesting. Um, this is just some of the flyers of all the different events that we've had. Just kind of little example at the historic homes tour, the first fruits. During our time in eight years, uh, the grants and projects that we've done, we got the $10,000 from the city. Uh we've done uh grants from Lynn County Cultural Coalition has really helped us out. Publicity marketing that helped us to

get our business card, our our flyers and a lot of that uh our website going. We got a large flatbed scanner for scanning those slides. Uh oral history and transcription recording media. That was a really cool project. And that those two the recorder microphone hard drive are are connected. Uh we got some from the Silots uh tribal trust and also from Lind County Cultural Coalition. And we got uh I think it was nine people. I'll talk about that in a second. And we got them to record the oral history of these people that we will lose at some point in time and we will never have that, but we now have a recording of their stories and the history of them in the community. So this is really important stuff that's just going away and we're trying to preserve that. Uh and then we got some exhibit cleaning displays. So, basically, we've gotten about $17,000 from grants and projects. Um, since 2018, we performed cataloging, cleaning, storing of donation items. Uh, this oral history project I was talking about was funded by the Silots tribe to capture the stories of 10 local people, and we were able to give each person a copy of the CD with the recordings and the information and the transcript. Plus, we have that all in our file, too. but they were able to get one uh for their family which was kind of cool. Uh we scanned photos from the collection. We've created a historical c calendar calendar. We handed one out to show you one of our little fundraisers that we did. It's a little bit of an older calendar but I kind of want to give you an idea of what we've been doing. And uh we create and maintain the website and Facebook page. We started with $10,000 money from the city and currently we have $12,000. I think that's pretty darn good man money management. We've been very frugal. Uh, a lot of grants have really helped the little things that we've needed to do. Uh, we've gained a following and have a group of really gracious donors. We've searched for grants to get a building, but what we're coming across is most grants are not for the capital of securing a building. Most of the grants

that we find are, "Oh, you have a building? Oh, we can give you handicapped access. Oh, you got a building? We can help you put some displays up or give you money for that." So, it's just not out there to, oh, you need a new building. We'll we'll help you get a new building. That is not one we've been able to find yet. We're looking, but we have not found it. Currently, we have our uh collection of secure temperature controlled storage at one location. We did have it in a couple locations. The library here was holding some things for us. Uh Kendra Oliver was uh one of the original, not Oliver, I'm sorry. Uh Kendra from the library was on our board from the beginning and she helped us with storing some of the items that first collection that we got. But we now have them all in a uh temperature controlled storage and uh it's all in one place so it's a lot safer. We feel a lot more comfortable with it. But we really want to get it into a place, a building. Um a few items are on display at Chameleia's Candles. If you're downtown, check it out. Uh take a look inside our shop. Uh we've got a couple displays. One's really cool. Let's see right here. Um on the Is that a Oh, there we go. That one right there. That little case has got a bugle in it and that is from the Lebanon Middle School. Correct me if I'm wrong, Tony. Uh, and it's one of the students that went to the Lebanon Middle School and all of that stuff is like the shirts and the hat and all the stuff that they wore back in the day when they had a bugle core, I believe it was there. And then on the right, we've got some telephone equipment. Um, some of the early Lebanon telephone equipment in history. Uh, and there's a few other little knick-knacks in there, but it's it's not a a huge thing, but she's been gracious to give us this space so that we can at least share it, have some flyers out, and kind of tell the community what we're doing. Yes, please. Can you go back? Oh, absolutely. When you look at the telephones, yeah, in that the black case, the one that's

kind of black, that actually was the original hotel. Oh, okay. I did not know. Well, that's how some of the stuff that we have been Oh, oh, okay. I'm so used to doing programs without a mic. Um, the in that uh one case you can see a pink phone, a yellow phone, and then the black one. Okay, that is the original pay phone from the Leon. And the case with the bugle is from the last band leader and music teacher at the at the building. Okay. Um, and he gave us a lot of stuff. And her husb uh Lebanon for telephone and gave us that's where those telephones came from. A huge telephone collection. So that's all I have. We have a professional curator on our team because she knows her stuff. I don't. That's so what we're looking for uh we're looking for a building uh that's about 800 to 2,000 square feet or plus. Uh we we basically need an area that we can show stuff and then we also need an area in the back where we can on the assession of stuff and bring it in, clean it up, work on it, store it because not everything in a museum gets put out. And that was one of the things I learned didn't even know that um that museums don't just put everything out. There's a whole collection and you rotate things in and out of your your collection into that. So, you really need those two spaces. Um, we need easy entry doors, elevator if possible, a securable area. Uh, because we're talking about if we share with somebody, we need it securable. Uh, AC, heat, community control. Uh, and of course, we need inexpensive or free. Uh, we've been asking around. We've been looking at different buildings and they come and they go and you know it's just a difficult market right now to find anybody that's willing to do this but we

are a 501c3 so we're still looking and asking around. Uh we're continuing to search and um for a home. Uh we want to continue to provide community programs and we want to when we get a building we want to have it so that we get work with the school district and have classes so the students come in not only just the community but the students will come in and be part of their history curriculum which I think would be really cool to have that uh about Lebanon uh being taught in the schools because it's not right now. Uh create a capital project plan and budget once a building is found. uh apply for grants and fund raise in uh to assist in the configuration of the museum building. And once our collection is full of catalog, we'd like to make it available online also, which would make it kind of nice, but you can't do that until you have a space to photograph and catalog and get everything set up. So, that's that's been our problem. We've looked at many buildings. We've looked at um the Elks building that's over on uh what is it over off just off of Main Street there, that one that just sold. Uh we've looked uh the the first one that we originally wanted was the library uh the old library hospital building because that's got so much history in it. We thought that would be great. Um and then we've looked at uh oh three or four other buildings. And then the reason I came here honestly was in the beginning we heard that the LBCC was selling and we would love to have that annex as uh the museum and then have the mill that's right next to it as part of like a display so that we could have things and and show people and tour things, but we we could use a building. So we were looking at that and they're asking like for a bazillion dollars. So I I don't think that's going to happen. Uh and I've tried contacting them and they just will not get back to me. So they don't they don't I don't think they care about Lebanon as much as we do. So, uh, which makes sense. They're they're a company, I guess. Um, so our mission statement that we came up with eight years ago, and it

still stands, is to preserve, educate, and engage the community in the history and the culture culture of the Lebanon area. And our hashtag is our Lebanon story. And we have a website. We have Facebook pages. And um, that's about it. I know I kind of went through a whole lot quick. I just didn't want to take too much time, but I just wanted to keep everybody up to date on what we're doing and uh and where we're going, where we're trying to go. But our biggest thing, and it has been since day one, is to try and find a building. Uh over the years, buildings have been promised. Uh one of the buildings that just sold over on Sherman Street that's got the block glass on it. Uh I don't remember the address of that one, but it's got the block glass and the little rounded part. That was actually offered at one point. I think the bar across the street was offered at one time way before I'm talking years maybe in the 70s or 80s. Uh there was a train car that was supposed there was a caboose I think that was donated and uh the the train rail company at the time had it. We don't know what ever happened to that. So there's a lot of things that were always in the works but it's never happened and we want to make it happen somehow. So questions. I have one. I for some reason I've been under the impression that the old Scrogggins feed store was part of your museum operation, but that's not You guys don't own that. It's not. There was an organization called the Scrogggins Mill Foundation, I think it was, and they had it and they've sold it to Rick Franklin Corporation and um I I we don't have anything really to do with it. Okay. All right. And we had talked about trying to do something with it, but we looked at that building and that foundation and the size of those timbers inside. uh we would never be able to have enough money to do anything with it. Yeah, Rick can probably do it, but I there's no way we could. Uh so, uh we would partner with them if there was something, but I I just don't see that as a museum. You know, we really need temperature controlled and stuff. And that building is like a screen door,

right? As you're seeing it and screen door on the roof, too, I think. Any other questions? And the next time we have a um a talk, we hope that you guys can come out and and enjoy it because they're they're really fun. They're very interesting. We get a lot of different types of speakers on different topics and uh it just makes it really interesting. Well, the I I do know this that that on the downtown walk, I I usually help out with that. Oh, yeah. We do that downtown walk every year now and BLT works with that with us. Um and that's always a fun thing. And and every year it seems like it grows a little bit bigger. Yes. It's because uh people people are told they're like, "Hey, there's upstairs to some of these buildings and really a lot of people don't realize that." What's that? Nobody ever knew that big dance hall. Yeah, exactly. So, is there any other questions, comments? Do you have a Uh, so one of the things we'll be doing, Paul, in the next 3 to 4 months is, uh, Jason Williams and I will be updating our surplus property list and looking at those and and we'll look at all the buildings and things that we have in surplus and and probably bring that back to the city council at some point. So, uh, that'd be something for the city council to consider at that time. Uh, I know there's a couple that have potential. So, um, we'll we'll get that list updated and and and move forward with that. Thank you. Again, thank you guys for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Good to see you. And everybody that's on the board and it helps out with this. Thank you. Thank you. All righty. We'll move on to public comments. Citizens may address the council by filling out a testimony card prior to speaking and handing to city recorder. Each citizen is provided up to five minutes to provide comment to the council. The council might take additional two minutes to ask clarifying questions. The city recorder will accept and distribute written comments at speaker's request. Tonight we only have

one. Um, are we able to put a timer up or do I need to use the old thingy here? Yes, I'll put one up there just so when you come up and speak, they'll they'll have a timer up there for five minutes and uh I will cut you off. What's that? Do you want to hand the gavl over? Do you want me to cut her off? Well, no. If you do, it might it won't get awkward here. It might get awkward at home. So, so the the only comment or the only public comment uh I received tonight is Shelley Jack with the downtown association. And I'm used to him cutting you off. Oh, come on. Okay. Hi. I haven't been here for a while, so there's quite a lot of things that the downtown association has done over the summer. Uh I guess kind of to kick it off was the the pow-wow that we kind of partnered up with the Lebanon School District and it was the first Wamut Powow that Lori Regalado kind of headed that and did a fantastic job. It was a huge success. It was at Boulder Falls and it will be a annual event going on. I think she's even looking for a larger location because it was so successful. The next event we had was the winewalk and we sold around 200 um tastings and lots of people came downtown. It was we doubled what we had the the year before. We had three, four different spots with live music, photo booths, uh the wine tasting, food tasting. It was uh it was a great time. The car show, we had 112 cars that signed up. We had over a

thousand people wandering around downtown and around 30 different vendors that came out and we had live music and um the streets were definitely full of a lot of activity. We had seven different concerts that took place at Academy Square. Uh the best attendance we've ever had there was, you know, around I think the the biggest one we had was around 600 people that were there. We had consistently between f 12 to 15 different vendors that were out there. Uh raise stage, we had lots of sponsors for that, a good turnout, more than than we anticipated and hope next year we'll I don't know. I'm reach working for that thousand people mark. So hopefully we'll get it. Uh the movies at the mill we had at Scrogggins Mill. We teamed up with the Sanam excursion and they had their Friday night at the mill and then we had the movies and uh there was around a hundred people maybe a little a little more at the last one for that. So it took a little just a little bit to get it out there but once it got out there uh people definitely enjoyed those. And then uh this month we had the harvest festival. It was our first harvest festival that we had. It was a Friday night. Saturday, uh we had over a thousand people that were in the downtown. Um we had the chili cookoff and cider tasting between um the the harvest festival and the car show because that was the only way that I could uh track where people were coming from. We did have people from 35 different towns that came into Lebanon, four different states and uh we actually the band that we had at Cafe Rock, which Cafe Rock is the one that uh paid for the bands to come out there and have music, but they were actually from

Brazil. So we even had and there they took five rooms at the hotel for two nights. And then the car show, there were eight different rooms that were booked for the car show for people to stay. So, between just those two events that I've been able to track, you know, people coming in and out for the tourism for what you guys, you know, give us money for, uh, I was able to at least track that on our two events. And I think next year I'm going to have a QR code at the like the beer garden and the the food vendors where you can scan it and it just simply say like where are you from? So, we can kind of get an idea of who is coming to our concerts. Uh we will have the veterans banners go up hopefully tomorrow. We have 45 of them going up. We have about 80 that have been requested, but we're vetting the vets to make sure that we can make sure that they should be going up in in Lebanon. Uh we have the scarecrows going out on the lamp post and we had our first crosswalk art that was done by Gary. He's He's left, but he did the first one. It's It's amazing. Love it. And we've got more that are going to be going out through downtown. So, I I got to hurry up. We got the Halloween Hustle coming up, the downtown trickor treat, and we are working with the holidays in the park for Christmas. So, we'll be starting all of that here very soon. Questions? I don't have a question. I have a comment. Um, I want to thank you and all the Lebanon Downtown Association for all the work you guys are doing. I got to go to one of the concerts in the park this summer and I wish I could have made it to more because it was it was great. The band was great. Uh, there were lots of vendors and it was just a great time and and I I was glad that I was able to make that. I wish I could make more of them. Well, thanks for coming. Yeah.

Any other questions, comments? car show wise, I only hear on the internet buzz that uh is there any way to cut the whole shut the whole street down or is there that just too much red tape and you know I said I was going to, you know, after seeing the comments and things and I mean I can look into it. Um I don't know, I have no idea how difficult it is and it's kind of that you know it's kind of the same thing with the vendors. Uh, sometimes the merchants complain about the vendors because it's taking business away from them, but then the vendors I think bring business into the downtown. I personally don't feel uncomfortable down there and I think it's kind of good that they come through there, but I can understand some people thinking it's people drove through and seen it and so they were like, "Oh, the car shows down here. Let me go park so I can go." I had three car entries that were just out driving their car and was and came and signed up. So, I I don't know if that would hurt it or help it. So, it's it's always tricky, but I did say that I I'm like, I'm going to actually look into it and see exactly what is involved in doing it. I mean, the Strawberry Festival does it, so I think it's something worth looking into. Yeah. I mean, it would be good. I mean, then you could walk around more freely, but I don't know if it would hurt, you know, because people do drive by. And that was a lot of comments on the buzz like, I love driving slow through downtown and seeing all the cars and all the the stuff. Yeah. And I know people were mad because they couldn't get through there. Well, there's a lot of ways around it. Oh, I know. Anybody in anybody who lives in Lebanon knows you don't have to go down Main Street. Yeah. And I can't make very many people happy. But this year too, I am with the with the con with the jamboree ending. I'm going to I've already went and seen who their sponsors were and I'm going to go and see if we can we can get any of them for our concert. So maybe we can get it bigger this year or next year than this year. I just want to say thank you for all you do. The concerts were great. I made several of them. And then the fall festival this last weekend was awesome. Um I really appreciate the data that you

bring too. Um especially like the how many people are staying in the rooms and stuff like that's really helpful because as you point out, you know, that's the tourism money that goes back into the downtown. So thank you for making that connection for us and thanks again for all you do. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? All righty. Thank you so much. Thanks. We'll move on to our uh public hearing uh for ordinance number eight for 2008, ordinance bill number 3039. Public hearing regarding this amendment to the comprehensive plan and zoning map is now open at 6:40. Excuse me. Will the city attorney please reading procedures? Thank you. Tonight's hearing will be pursuant to the quasi judicial hearing uh procedures set forth in 1979. At the start of each hearing, council members will be asked to disclose any exarty communications, conflict of interest or bias. The applicable uh substantive criteria for this hearing will be addressed in the staff report to council. Testimony may may be in oral written form, but must be directed towards the criteria outlined in the staff report, the comprehensive plan, or the city's land use regulations. Any issue raised must be accompanied by statements and evidence sufficient enough to allow the council and party members an opportunity to respond. Please note that failure to raise an issue including constitutional issues by the close of the hearing will prevent any appeal to the land use board of appeals. All righty. Thank you. Do any counselors wish to declare exparte contact conflict or bias? Is there anyone in the audience that objects to the notice that was sent in this case or to the jurisdiction of this body to hear and consider the case? Will the community development director, Kelly Hart, please present your your thing? Sure. Uh, good evening. Before you tonight is a amendment to the comprehensive plan uh

map and zoning map. Uh, this should look very familiar to you. You did this two years ago, but for a parcel two lots down. Um this is for a car wash facility. Um in the mixeduse zone, car wash facilities are not allowed, but in the highway commercial zone, car wash uses are allowed. And so the proposal is to amend the the lot that has been authorized uh by the planning commission to uh change the zoning from mixed use to highway commercial. Um and so the the property is within the urban growth boundary and the city limits and it's currently designated mixed use and the proposal is to designate it for the comprehensive plan designation as commercial and the highway designation as highway commercial. Uh the planning commission conducted a public hearing on August 20th and found the application complied with the decision criteria. They also reviewed uh two other applications. One of them was a minor land par. Nope, that's not right. A property line adjustment to um combine two properties together um to create this parcel and then also a conditional use permit to uh review the car wash itself. Um they approved both of those applications contingent on the city council's consideration of this uh application tonight. Um and they recommend the city council approve the the comprehensive plan and zone change as well. Um there is a slight change to the conditions of approval um since we did use the template from the previous application. Um there are two conditions that are sort of carryover that don't

actually apply. Um one of them is related to um a condition for uh development of Berdell Boulevard which this property doesn't actually connect to. So uh it doesn't actually apply. Um and then there's a condition related to requirements associated with an NPDS permit. Um but it doesn't apply because the lot's not big enough where the previous lot was. So, um, we would have a little bit of a cleanup to remove those two, uh, conditions, uh, which we will do as part of the the after process if the city council approves the application. Um, so that would conclude my report. Recommendation would be to approve the comprehensive plan map and zoning map amendments. Is there any questions of staff? Is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of this issue? I know I know that there's someone online. Sorry, we do have two folks online. Um, but they Oh, it looks like Nick is raising his hand and they're speaking in favor of the issue. Okay. Correct. There we go. Yes. Hello. All righty. Uh Nick Wram with Barhousen Consulting Engineers. We're the uh civil engineer and architect uh for Thoroughbred car wash um that will be working on the design services uh for this uh development uh pending uh approval pending your approval of the comprehensive plan amendment and reszone. Um thank you Kelly for the for the nice presentation. We did go to planning commission and obtain a recommendation of approval for the um applications um that are before you this evening. And I'm kind of here to to answer any questions. I can speak to an overview of our proposal um a little

bit. This is uh going to be a proposed 3,000 square ft uh conveyor car wash um tunnel that'll also provide uh 15 vacuum spaces that are free to use for thoroughbred uh members and customers. Um and we intend to utilize the access that's already established within this development. Um and um and we'll also have three employee spaces um as well. There'll always be an attendant on site uh during uh business hours, at least one. So we have three parking spaces provided as well. And uh again, thank you for the opportunity and and happy to um answer any questions you may have on on our proposal. Any questions from councel? All righty. Is uh Mr. Hayes, are you speaking in favor of the issue? Yes, I am. Uh I'm the director of development for the car wash and I believe it would be a great addition to the wonderful city of Lebanon. It's Lebanon, not Lebanon. Lebanon. Sorry, that was a a mic issue. strike this proposal. All righty. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh is there anybody would like to speak in opposition? All right. The public hearing is hereby closed at 6:47. All further discussions will be limited to council and staff at this time. Is there any discussion to be had? Kelly, I think cleared up because on this picture, I'm not really great at reading these pictures, but the access to it that it shows a driveway right off the highway that that would only be directed one direction.

Yeah, you would only have right out when people be diving across and that access coming from the other direction would actually come from the light pass there or the where Walgreens is. Correct. Frontage Road. Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. Any other discussion? All righty. Um, will the city attorney please read the title of the ordinance? Sorry about that. I was talking to the chief about very important things. Ordinance number 8 for 2025. Ordinance bill number number 3039 comprehensive plan and zoning map amendments to change the designation from mixed use to commercial highway commercial for a 1.35 part acre parcel on the east side of South Sanmium Highway north of Berell Boulevard. I need my reading glasses when I do this. Or bigger print. I think that's it. Is it Are you good? I think that's it. Okay. Okay. Is there a motion? Move to approve. Second. Motion's been made to approve. It's been seconded. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion to approve has passed. Okay. Thank you so much, gentlemen. We're going to move on to regular session resolution number 2025-14. I will be recusing myself on this one and handing over this portion of the the regular session to our council president. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just give me a second here. Uh just at the bottom there. Yes, I see. Sorry. So, we're discussing resolution number

202514. City manager Ron Whit, can you please give the report? Yes, I can. Thank you, council president, counselors, and mayor. Uh what we have before you here tonight is a recommendation for uh declaring a property surplus. Uh the said property in question is the Sanm Travel Station. As you know, we have moved our council chambers into here. Um we've looked at the uh use of the Sanm travel station as far as a municipal use moving forward and we do not believe that there is any use for uh it as far as the city's concerned. A little bit of background on the building. Uh the renovation was done with grants uh back in the early 2000s. uh Kelly Hart and myself have gone through uh ODOT and also the historic uh Shipo and determined that from their um guidance that we would not have to pay back any of the grant funds that were utilized on the building. The only caveat was that the building would have to have a uh remain historical clause on the deed and so that would that would be the only caveat if we sell the building. So, um, one of the things that we have to do as this body, uh, you all have to do is if we bring a property to you, you must declare it surplus if you deem that it's it's surplus. Um, so by declaring it surplus, it allows us to proceed with public notice, hearing, and ultimately the sale of the property. Um, in this case, we do have a current appraisal on the property. Uh so my recommendation would be that we work with a realer and uh actually andor some of the other folks that we've been working with and move the property forward for sale. Um if we come to a point uh once we've declared it surplus, the next step in this process would be

to have a public hearing. uh that public hearing would occur in October and that's a chance for the public to comment on the the proposal um to declare it surplus. So right now what we need to do is declare it surplus. Um with that um what it does is authorize me to take steps to uh proceed with a sale. Um ensures the sale will be conducted. We can solicit offers. We can have people give us offers. Um move forward with that process. So the requested action here tonight is to adopt resolution 202514 declaring the Sanmam travel station as surplus property. Um and with that I can answer any questions questions for staff. You said it was October for the meeting for public comment. So what we would do is come back in the October meeting with a public hearing if we have if we have a letter of intent from somebody or if we um have somebody that really wants to purchase the building and we would come back and hold that public hearing and at that point we would move forward with potentially a purchase sales agreement uh depending on what it what it comes back. So that could be as soon as October. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have questions for staff? Okay. Will the city attorney read the title of the resolution? Glasses this time. Resolution number 2025-14 declaring city- owned property as surplus and authorizing its sale. Okay. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion that we adopt resolution 2025-14. Second. Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I Any opposed? Motion passes.

Bring this stuff back over to the mayor. Now that I've torn his agenda apart. Sorry, it was on two pages. Thank you so much. Welcome. All righty. Uh with that being done, we will move on to department reports. City manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. Uh, one of the things that I wanted to bring up tonight, uh, since the museum board was here, uh, we have been asked to donate the totem pole that was in Strawberry Plaza to the museum board. It's currently out at our Cheetah Lake shop. We do not believe that it would be viable to try and repair and put back out in the elements. They, however, would like to repair it and put it in their future museum, wherever that's at. So, we have, it's not an asset. It's not on our asset list. So donating it to them is no no issue. We wouldn't have any other use for it. Uh it would probably get thrown away for lack of better terms if we did not do this. So uh we will store it out at Cheetah Lake. I've talked to Jason about that at our cheetah lake shop out there uh until they do find a building. So that's one thing that that happened. Um we will have probably a presentation next on the uh September 24th meeting. Um by the way there is a noon meeting at September 24th. Uh but one of the presentation uh will be Benton Clean and Strong. Uh they have reached out to me. What that is is an organization that is trying to advocate for the expansion of coffen but um I asked that they come give a presentation to the city council. there are serious economic consequences if we don't expand coffen but if it closes. Uh so before we offered a letter of support and or a resolution supporting that I would like them to give you a presentation on what they're doing and

what their their uh expectations of us are. Uh so that'll happen at the September 24th meeting. Uh, at the last meeting, I believe Brandon told you that our auditors were thinking that they would going to be behind. Um, I think Brandon has kicked and poked and prodded and maybe has them to where we will meet that December 31st deadline as opposed to missing it. So, uh, this is for the last year's audit that's that's getting ready to start. Um, I covered the second council meeting. Um, Kelly's departure, which we're all sad. Uh, we're going to throw a great big party. Yeah, we're going to throw a huge party. We're going to post it on billboards and everything else. No, with her departure. Uh, we are we will be doing a recruitment uh here coming up soon. Uh, also um Ryan was here tonight. He did not allude to this, but uh the council of Oregon governments will fill in for the planning uh for us. They have a planning section. So, we met with the the planner that will be doing our planning commission meetings and approve uh reviewing and approving any of our administrative applications uh this morning. Seems like a great guy. Looking forward to working with him. And um his name is Dan. Dan. I I Yeah, we won't go into that. Uh, Kelly, it's a long story. Uh, other than that, unless you have any questions for me, um, that's all I got. All righty. Doesn't look like we have any questions from council. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, we'll move on to items from council. Is there any items that, uh, counselors want to bring up? I just want to remind everybody uh that the 911 flag of honor event is tomorrow starting at 10 at the Circle of Flags

outside of Boulder Falls and it'd be great to have everybody there. Thank you. Nothing else. All righty. Is there any uh additional public or press comments? Please come forward so you so the microphone can hear you. Come on. So, concerning the Lebanon U museum. So, while we all know that Bob Smith was a well-known person in this town, it's not Bob and Betty Smith for the Lebanon U Museum. It's Bob and Betty Adams. Great people. Okay. Told you it wasn't a big deal. Well, we we needed it on the record. Uh, any other public comments? The press? You You didn't have anything? Okay. All righty. The next scheduled council meeting will be a noon work session on September 24th, 2025. With that being said, this meeting is adjourned.