City Council - Regular Meeting

On all three items, and there are no reportable actions.

Thank you. It is 09:08, and we are moving on to public comments. This is an opportunity for anyone to speak to the council and raise any issue under our jurisdiction. Two minutes in English, four minutes if you require translating support. Are there any public comments?

Seeing none, we're gonna move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda item four. Are there any comments on consent? Are there any questions? Is there a motion to approve the consent?

Motion.

Can I get a second?

Second.

Great. Roll call, please.

Council member Tarver?

Yes.

Council member Reyes? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Perez? Yes. Mayor Calderon? Yes. Motion carries four zero. And for the record, mayor pro tem Perez arrived at 06:30PM during closed session.

Thank you. We're gonna move on to discussion items. This is, following up from previous discussion at an earlier council meeting where staff was directed to, review laws regarding yard sales and also the parking of commercial trucks. We requested the staff come back and provide additional options for the council to consider as well as educational and outreach to inform the public. With that, Isaiah, you're going to provide the staff report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council. My name is Isaiah Medina, contract planner. So, as you mentioned at the February 10 meeting, we brought forward two discussion items. The first of which was regarding yard sales in the city. At the conclusion of that discussion item, council directed staff to explore creating an online permitting system for the yard sale permits, as well as creating some educational materials to inform members of the public on what the requirements are under the current municipal code.

I brought this item back because wanted to speak a little on the online permitting system specifically. So currently permits are processed through the police department. So residents will go and receive and pay for the permit at the police department. And with that, police department staff will input that into the police's computer, so that as residents drive or as the officers drive around, they can automatically see that if a yard sale is permitted or not.

Isaiah, that's the way it has been done. That's the way it's done in the past. But general permits, where are all the permits pulled from?

It depends on the type of permit.

So, the types of permits, where are the permits besides dog licensing and or chipping? Where are the permits?

Business licenses, dog licenses are handled with the city clerk. And then development permits, conditional use permits, building permits are handled with the community development department.

So, of the permits are either city hall with the clerk or the planning department. Is that correct?

I believe so.

Okay.

So, in order to move forward, like I said, council directed staff to explore shifting the permitting system from PD over to community development department and to utilize the department's OpenGov permitting system. This would allow residents to apply and pay for their yard sale permits online quickly, easily and securely. After discussing internally with staff, it was requested that the permit system may be kept with the police department for the moment just because there are those operational requirements at the moment. And then, so further along with that, the public education campaign staff is preparing informational materials that we can hand out to members of the public, informing them of their requirements as they are right now. And so, is recommending that the Arvin Police Department continue overseeing the yard sale permitting process for the time being unless counsel would like to direct otherwise.

Like I said, this really is for ease of use. Arvin Police Department officers are the ones who enforce the yard sale permits because yard sales most typically happen on the weekends. And if we were to have court enforcement officers be responsible for that, we would have to pay for overtime or additional staff. So that's my report. Thank you.

Are there any questions from the council? What's the cost for yard sale?

It's a $10 permit. Dollars 10? Yes. That permit allows one yard sale up to three days. Again,

permits in the city are requested for in the city hall front office, and the others are in the planning department. I think what's happened is that when you have now this permit that's being requested in the police department because you're saying that's how it's always been and or it's being enforced by the police department. The question is, how can the city create systems, taking advantage of existing technology that perhaps didn't exist years prior to make this as efficient as possible where folks can access the information, the police department can access it. And perhaps I don't know if Chief Huggett could weigh in about whether or not it's appropriate for the police department to be issuing yard sale permits. I imagine that the police department is dealing with emergency calls and public safety issues, not issuing a yard sale permit.

That said, I imagine folks are going to go to the planning department because they're going to assume it's permitting, or they're going to go to City Hall where they know that they go out there to get permits for different things, they're not going to assume they're going to go to the police department. So it is going to require, obviously, for us to do the education piece, which I haven't heard what the strategy is for public education around this. But perhaps maybe it's something that it's tabled until the new chief arrives, and they we reassess this within the department. But my concerns are that it just causes confusion when you have all of these different places where folks are pulling permits. Are there any other comments or questions from the council?

I agree with you. I think we need to think about it and maybe transition to like online and let just a certain department. It's a city hall deals with the dock permits, correct? All the licensing. All of the licensing. So why not continue Yes. To send it to City

I feel like that makes a lot of sense. And then from there have the system since it is going to be digital, like send in like the chief, these are the addresses like this was paid, accountability? And

that was discussed and it was a matter of administrative overhead. So, first with the creation of the permitting system, Staff would have to spend, I estimated about six to eight staff hours, but that was an estimate creating the permit and creating the process within the OpenGov system. And it wasn't clear and it's not necessarily sure that permit fees will cover that cost.

Okay. But the same thing is true at the police department. You still have the overhead. You still have administrative costs. It's the same thing. It's just that it's one department that's handling all of the permits because it's already there. They already have that system in place. You're just adding now the yard sale permit. Now assuming the hours that you're approximating now of what it's going to cost in terms of overhead, right, that also assumes that folks are going to go out there and pull it because there's going to have to be that education piece because right now, there's yard sales all over our community and folks are not pulling permits. So you're making those assumptions, but it's shifting it to one department or the other.

Regardless, you're going to have the administrative burden of administering this permit. The question is, do we want it to be within City Hall that's already doing the permitting and the licensing and they already have processes in place for the others, you're just now adding the yard sales versus now including it in the police department, where, again, the police department is dealing with emergency and public safety issues. They shouldn't I just think that permits should be in one place so that it's centralized and people actually understand where they're going to go to pull it. Giving the list of the police department, when the issue is about enforcement, making sure that the departments are communicating across the hall from one another and that a list is being provided, there's so much technology now that's available to us to make sure that, that's provided to the police department so that they know who has those permits over the weekend.

That is definitely possible. And it's a matter of, I want to say, ease of use. So currently, the process is that someone applies for the permit, pays for the permit, it's automatically entered by PD staff into the police vehicles. And so as they're driving around the community, they're able to see whether or not a license has been pulled for a particular yard sale.

Okay.

So if we wanted to move that system over to OpenGov, we'd have to take those permits from OpenGov, give them over to PD and then they would have to manually input those into the police department system. Whereas right now, it's just as they're pulling the permit, can just do it right there when they're at the counter rather than daily or something.

Who's they when you say they are talking about dispatch?

Yes.

Yes. Well, yes, I again, I would suggest if we could perhaps go back and explore us having a central place where everyone's pulling permits. And right now, you're talking about manually having to input it. There's

We're not sure if there's a way to interface the two systems, OpenGov

and can say that you're going to be pulling permits Monday through Friday when the actual City Hall is open like other permits and other licenses, that's when you pull this permit. And then that's also something that could just perhaps even be emailed over, right, to either the Chiefs, the Chiefs Assistant or anyone at the police department could also get that information, correct?

Well, what you're trying to say is that the interphase will not probably not communicate with this interphase,

which It manually have won't to be automatic. Yes. So someone will have to manually receive that list and manually input those permits into the police system after it goes through the open It's

full time code enforcer, because right now it's the police department since we don't have a full time code enforcer that could go out there and enforce it.

Yes. So, question. Is it broken now? I don't believe so. It's just like, again, another matter of education. Think Chief Huckett can speak on this, but I think the system as it is now works when it's utilized.

So is it broken now? The question, it hasn't been enforced. No one is pulling permits. And also, my understanding is that it was changed from police department because it wasn't the police department. And so they were the police department had requested that they no longer be pulled from the police department because of what you're talking about, the administrative burden within the police department. Is that correct, Jeff, Where it was shifted from the police department and it was requested that it be happening at City Hall?

Actually, I'm not aware of that because we have the issue has been we just have not been enforcing yard sale permits at all. So this issue of which has actually predates my being city manager. It's been we just haven't administered that for like four years.

Given the high we see the activity of art sales all across the city. We see how active the community is in yard sales. Is this something where we believe that it should be within the police department and the dispatchers should be the ones pulling these permits and issuing yard sale permits within department? And is this the way other cities are also doing it? Have we looked at other cities in the way they're doing it?

Other cities do it differently. Some pull the permits through the finance department. Some pull them through City Hall and the City Clerk's Office, some pull them through the committee development. It just depends on what works for that city. I think I can say that I'm sorry, just I lost my train of thought.

Yes, it depends on the city. It's all over the place really.

Okay. What do you think? Everything. What what would be better?

I personally think that we've always done it at the police department. I don't think there's any issues with us. Unbeknownst to me, I we have not been doing it for the past four years. But I think we're the ones responding to the traffic congestion, unpermitted sales. So I could see keeping it with the department, keep it where dispatch could enter it and then effectively dispatch us to those areas. We use it with our mobile RIM system.

With the what system?

Mobile RIMs. It stops our system, their database. So if we have an address, it will show yards up permits. So if we're patrolling a certain area and there's a lot of traffic congestion or anything like that, we could pull that address up and it'll say if there's a permit or not on file. And that's something that we used to do in the past. Unbeknownst to me, apparently we haven't been doing in the past three, four years.

You haven't been doing it in four years? Correct.

So you haven't been enforced in it for four years.

My guys still did. However, that was never translated to me with the previous regime. I don't know where we lost translation with that. But since I've been here, we've always done it. And that's what I operate at.

So everyone's trained there. They go in there. They know where the system is showing up.

Give residence history, and it'll tell you, hey, certain things to look for. Or they'll tell you yard sale permit on file. That's how it used to be. Yeah.

Okay. So you're saying continuing continuing and it's not a burden to dispatch in the police department?

I I would like to to gauge their their thoughts. I have an opportunity to

So can we do that then? Can we table this until you go back and have that conversation with your department and perhaps share that information? And I would even suggest, perhaps, Mr. Medina, you could look at other cities to see what are they there must be models out there where, just based on efficiencies, cost savings, that we could come back and then following up with Chief Huggett. If you if, like Mr. Perez is saying, if that's the if you believe that, that's the ideal place, obviously, we're going to follow the lead of law enforcement.

You, Zaz.

Thank you. I have a

question for Mr. Pelletier.

No, sir. You're going to we're going to go item by item. And that's again, we're going to respect a quorum in the council moving forward. We're going to move to discussion item B regarding Arvin Municipal Code. This is parking of trucks and city limits. Mr. Medina?

So again, on this one, we had discussed it at the February 10 meeting. And at the conclusion of that discussion, council requested staff come back with some educational materials and outreach campaigns to inform truck operators parking within city limits of their requirements under inform the council that following that February 10 meeting, we did have a meeting with a couple truck operators within the city and we're currently trying to interface with more so that they can provide their input as to how they would like to see things done at the moment. Following council direction, we're not likely to bring forward any amendments to the code at this time, but we want to keep the truck operators informed next a a

that's reminder so that everyone is clear what the current ordinance and what the law is now in place where the signage is, where vehicles where commercial trucks are allowed and where they're not allowed to park?

So currently the ordinance prohibits parking of certain vehicles and that is anything over five tons or 10,000 pounds. And so that's prohibited on residential air street areas. And there are specific locations within the city where these trucks and their trailers are allowed to park. And so that's primarily along South Derby Street, the industrial area on the East Side, the industrial portion. And then

They're allowed to park.

Yes. As well as it was currently a portion of Sycamore Road not near any residential areas. Near? What's the distance? I believe it is I don't think we have any specific distances right now, but it's not on the residential streets.

So not along all of that residential all of the new housing on Sycamore along that brick wall that divides the housing development for Sycamore all along there, that's not allowed?

Yes. So when the ordinance was drafted, none of that housing was there. And so that was determined to be a good enough spot for these trucks to park. But now that the residential development is there, it's no longer allowed.

But there's signage there that shows that that's residential now and they're not allowed to park on the South Side Of Sycamore?

Correct.

But they could park where there's no residential on the North Side Of Sycamore if there's no residential? As

public long as right of way and there's no private property, property, then yes.

Okay. Where else?

That was it for the moment because, again, the city has developed since the ordinance was drafted and adopted. So, that's currently really it right now.

But all residential, all of the new residential development, all of the new housing, anything over five tons cannot be parked within residential. That includes the cabin that's parked up in the driveway, that's not allowed?

Correct.

Okay. I

have a question. How about El Camino Real?

El Camino Real again is the same. It's within And the new residential so truck parking is explicitly prohibited in that area.

Update signage? Is that what's happening? Have you gone around to see where the actual signs are posted so that we're doing our part to inform residents and they're not dinged simply because there was no sign there and there was confusion?

Yes. I believe on Sycamore there are signs. I'm not sure on El Camino. I wasn't looking at it closely, the times I've driven by it. So

I have a question. So we have there's about maybe like 12 to 15 trucks that park there. So, could we on Sycamore, on where we're talking about the Sycamore between Comanche and we'll say

Mesa Court.

So, where could we find a place for them to park? Because right now, it's we chose that, right, because that was the end of our city.

Before you.

Yes. So, right now, it's like, there's a problem, but where's our solution to that? Like, is there a way we could find somewhere that they go, park here, park over there, so like we give some type of feedback to them or

So Isaiah is saying that all along South so all along South Derby, 223 all the way through basically through Sycamore, that's called the industrial side of the city and on the East Side all along that dirt railroad tracks that they're allowed to park there?

Yes. It's a little tight in that area just because of the railroad and where the road currently ends. So, we've always

had that

and we've Sycamore. But now you're taking Sycamore out, so I'm saying, is there somewhere else that we could say like, oh, you could park through this side?

We're exploring currently some areas. So, staff was potentially thrown around, I don't know if I should say. Yes, you should. So, So, we Comanche Drive, the west side between Sycamore and El Camino Real, we currently have right of way in that area beyond where the street is currently.

Where they're going to be building the storage units, that whole area there that belongs in the Greatfields? Okay.

Yes. Go

So, we currently have right of way in that area. Yes. And I believe there are currently trucks and trailers that park there right now. Additionally, on Sycamore, East of I forget the street. I think, yes, East Of Derby, South Of Sycamore, Sycamore, the South Side Of Sycamore.

Over where you have Grimway packing and

the south side of that street where the

Yes, Labs.

Yes, Salter Labs out there, okay.

That one, we're not sure if we have the right of way in that area to accommodate trucks and whether or not it would currently support truck parking because of how close they fund that area.

That would be really difficult. And there's massive tractors and machinery that constantly going

through that. Yes. Staff is exploring potential areas. And we're also as I mentioned last time, there were discussions with a property owner who was interested in developing a truck parking lot within the city.

What's where are those conversations?

I have not heard from the property owner in a while.

So, me ask you a question, please. So, can you tell me how it is you can tell a truck driver not to pull over in a truck route area, you realize Sycamore is a truck route. Yes. So how do you how do you enforce the law in which you say, oh, no. You can't pull over on the side of the road. How do you do that? How does that make sense?

Pulling over?

Yeah, it's a matter of parking like overnight parking. I don't want to say that we'll ding someone for pulling over with an issue. It's a matter of continuous overnight parking or long term storage on the public street.

Pulling over, Mr. Let

me ask you this question. Okay? Why can't you park there overnight?

That's how the ordinance

is. If it's a truck route, why can't you park there overnight?

The ordinance the truck parking ordinance chapter 12.16 explicitly prohibits

to about slide. So,

Sycamore? The Yes.

Yes. So, if you're parking on the North Side of that property, how is it that you can't park there as a truck driver?

Well, Because it he also said it it's it's gotta be our right of way. So, that's private property. So, the property on the North Side Of Sycamore between South Derby and Meyer, you have apartment complexes and they're gonna expand those because that's already been approved and there's a sign up. So that's private property there on Sycamore on the North Side Of Sycamore between South Derby and Meijer. It's residential.

I've never seen one truck park up by those apartments. Not one.

No. I'm talking about across

On the Meijer. On on Sycamore.

No. I'm mister Tarver, I'm talking about on the North Side Of Sycamore, there are so you have the apartments that are on the corner of Meyer And Sycamore, okay? Then you have those fields that are open, And then you have those packing sheds out there on the corner of South Derby and Sycamore. That land that's open right now, they're going to build additional apartments there.

I don't think anybody parks there. No. It's too far close to the road. No. Think they park over here.

They do. They park. So what Why can't we

So so it's a truck route done. If it's a truck route, why don't we accommodate? Would we could we?

Well, sounds like that that you don't wanna make accommodations. You you've got an area that's zoned industrial and you're telling truck drivers they can't even go down there. How does that make sense?

Which portion? Which point? Sycamore East Of Derby? East Of Derby is West

Of Sycamore West Of Tejon.

So, there's a small portion right at the intersection of Sycamore and Tejon that is industrial. But the rest of it is all zoned residential.

It's all residential now.

There's a small number like

two You're talking about from the apartments back this way? You're where

South Talking Derby West of South Derby going towards Meyer and Comanche is zoned residential now. But the industrial area is on South Derby. So, but you're saying truck route. The difference is you can drive your trucks if you need to pull over. What we're talking about is parking now in areas that are residential. Our ordinance said that you can't park where it's residential.

Okay. Let me ask you one more time. From Salter's Lab all the way over to the apartments, is that zoned residential?

A portion of it is. That large empty field is all zoned residential. And then the couple of parcels before Derby to the east of that is zoned industrial and then everything East Of Derby is industrial as well.

That's where they're looking

So, you turn down that lane and go down the Reeves Distributing, that's all residential too, right? I mean, that's all Industrial. Industrial. Yes. So, all the way down to the apartments, okay, I'm telling you, I haven't seen any trucks parked by those apartments.

No, they're parked along the fence the South Side of Sycamore. They're parking all along Alright. That

So, if they're parking on that side of the over there on Sycamore. Okay. And there's a problem with the residents there.

Alright?

Going to

do

discussion was started by resident complaints wanting to amend

that. The ordinance.

We're Exactly.

And they should call call in and say there's no ordinance. And police officers will go out there and cite that for sure. I think it boils down to education and knowing what's on the books already.

Yeah. Right now what we're saying is on the books is commercial vehicles are not allowed to park in residential is what the law says now. So we're not changing the law, except that the city just grew and expanded to more housing. So we're saying we're just applying the law that exists. We're not changing it. We're just saying we're gonna enforce the law where you cannot park commercial vehicles on residential.

And I think the signs indicate that also over there on Sycamore, right? Was I correct in saying that there's signage already up there?

Yes, I believe the five time limit So, is

does that only just mean just pass Sycamore? Or does that mean that whole subdivision out there, that has that applied to that? Yes. Absolutely. Mhmm. So you don't have to go all the way down to El Camino and put a sign up for a truck driver to know you're not supposed to be in a residential.

But they're doing it, which is why the signs. Right? They're doing it now. Yeah. They're parking out there.

I do see a lot of tow trucks. I mean, semi semi trucks parked on their driveway. And I and I spoke to officer Huggett earlier today because I know I it happened to me. The semi trucks parked very close to Sycamore and La Mesa. So when you're coming out of La Mesa, it's hard for you to see the traffic because they're obstructing the traffic because they're too close to the actual intersection of Sycamore and Mesa Court.

Yeah. And that's another provision that's already in the ordinance. These large trucks over six feet in height are not allowed to park within 100 feet of an intersection.

Yes, that's what Mr. Hug had mentioned.

So, sounds like to me enforcement is what

That's right. Needs to be Yes,

I know when Tucson was here, you guys enforced that, didn't you? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

So, it's just a matter of enforcing it. Do we have to invest in signs where there's been new housing development where it just the city grew faster than us putting up the proper signage?

So, the subdivisions themselves, the developers are supposed to put those signs in. And I'm not sure whether or not that was always enforced. But they are supposed to and they are supposed to be signs up. Yes.

The only thing that I don't see, Chief, on those signs is I don't see a penal code. Anyone? I don't see a penal code on the sign. Penal code?

So,

to be fair, there probably should be a penal code so that they know it's legit. Because I remember a time when they went up here to the Arvin High, and, Olav Ades and those guys put all those no parking signs and all that stuff out there with nothing. Just put them up. So anyway

So then so right now, a 100 everyone is everyone is in agree agreement not to change the trucking ordinance, leave the trucking question.

I think a a question.

Enforce it.

Yes. And I so that we're crystal clear, anything that's owned residential, no commercial vehicle over 5,000 pounds is allowed to park. And where you are allowed to park is in the industrial area of the city that's on South Derby, East of South Derby along the railroad tracks, that section there. And you're exploring potentially other areas over on South Derby and Sycamore, of that area to see if you have a right of way where you can add additional parking. When will you be able to come back with an update for us so that we can also share that with the public so that we're letting them know there's additional places where they could park?

I can do that. I guess we'd want want to get like official confirmation that we have the roadway dedicated. So I'd want to say the first meeting in April. Okay. Just because time

of At the the first meeting in April? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you so much for

clarify, at that meeting, you'd want me to discuss where we have the right of way that

we the that have the right right that That

we could amend the ordinance to specifically allow parking in that area.

If it's industrial, yes. Well, we can add additional parking because we have a right of way so that we could then share that with the public since we're going to start enforcing residential areas and it's going to limit like Mr. Tarver and Mr. Perez said along Sycamore where traditionally people parking prior to all that housing going up.

Okay.

And perhaps maybe also reaching out to that developer that wants to build a trucking spot. Maybe I don't know if is it permitting? Do we know perhaps checking in with them? I mean, we need to have that parking. And I know that that's something that's been in the works for years now. Is that right?

Yes. So I hear from them every once in a while, but then they kind of drop off the map again. So yes, I can reach out, see what what their holdup is and see if there's any way we can assist.

Okay. Alright. Any other comments or questions from the council? Alright. Seeing none Or comments from the public? And I'm gonna ask for you to keep your comments to two minutes.

I'd speak to Isaiah and his article that comes out in citation, parole article with CEO Paul Allen. It's all AI. It's all AI grafted. And the way I'm talking about this ordinance happened in 1997 about the five tons. And let's talk about what has happened from 1997 until right now. We've been weighed DOT since the sixties. Our trucks have not changed weight at all. We have weight distribution. Your EV bus that weighs 39,500, that's a single axle. That means you're carrying your bus weighs 39,500 pounds.

That means your first axle is only 12,000. Your rear your first axle is only 12,000 pounds. Your second axle is 25,000. So if you look at my semi, three nine Peterbilt, 18,000 pounds. My first axle weighs 12 axle weighs three five, third axle weighs three five. If you really go to a DOT and talk about what does real damage, your garbage trucks passing through my street every day that weigh thirty, forty thousand pounds, your EV buses that weigh almost 40,000 pounds, your FedEx vehicles. We need accountability exactly how Tim Talbert talks about. We need enforcement and accountability. If we're talking about I talked to Isaiah, where's your engineer? I want him in a meeting.

Let's talk about these roads. You're building these roads for only five tons. These garbage trucks weigh more than that. There's a reason why your alleys are destroyed and you guys don't wanna pay for the pavement because you guys keep breaking the water lines and the water district keeps paying for them. I've already talked to the water district, and they already told you the garbage trucks keep destroying them. So the way it is, you're trying to ban us. You there's a video that talks about us destroying the sidewalk, destroying the street. Let's get an engineer here, and let's figure out what exactly the problem is. You guys are building these streets for five tons. I'm a tell you right now, your EV bus, I see it going through South A, and I see it going through Franklin all the time.

Those are truck routes it's going through? I don't think so. That's a 39,500 pound bus driving around. Same thing with your school bus. I live right there on La Lila and La Rose. It's a bus, and it's constantly, I have videos.

Thank you very much for your comments.

I just want accountability and enforcement. I think we all need a we need

a Thank you very much. Thank you very much Thank for your you. Thank you so much. And so that we could be clear, critical city services, like every other city provides them, and we also provide critical city services as well. With that, are there any other comments?

Seeing none, we're going to move to council comments. And before we do, I know that the representative of the American Red Cross did leave but did request if we could read the proclamation so that it would be on the record and for the community for public awareness. I'll read it quickly. American Red Cross Month is March 2026. And whereas we celebrate the American Red Cross by honoring our neighbors who make its humanitarian mission possible in the city of Arvin, Every day, their acts of kindness change lives, bringing relief, comfort and hope when help can't wait.

This compassionate spirit runs deep in our community, just as it has for one hundred and forty five years through American Red Cross, whereas home fires are one of the leading disasters experienced throughout our local communities. The Red Cross, Kern County and the Eastern Sierra Chapter volunteers have selflessly responded at all hours to assist those who have experienced or have been displaced by home fires. Whereas during 2025, an average of $730 in assistance per household was provided, resulting in $207,390 in total assistance, responding to two zero one home fires. The Red Car OS aided with two eighty five cases of home fires, which included nine zero seven individuals assisted. The Red Cross volunteers also supported fire prevention and preparedness events, serving at multiple sound the alarm events and on demand request, installing free home detectors, providing recipients with education on home fire safety best practices.

Whereas today, those who serve at the Kern County and Eastern Sierra Chapter of the American Red Cross light the way during emergencies,

whether it's delivering shelter, food, comfort after these disasters

Eastern life saving blood supply for patients facing conditions like cancer treatment, childbirth complications and traumatic assisting military members, veterans and their families with 20 fourseven global support. Whereas these collective efforts are a powerful reminder that the strength of our community lies in our shared commitment to one another. As we mark the Red Cross month, let's celebrate our local heroes and resolve to continue lifting each other up so no one faces an emergency alarm. Now therefore, we, the City Council of the City of Arvin, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Red Cross Awareness Month, and we encourage all citizens of the City Of Arvin to reach out for its humanitarian support and support its humanitarian mission. And witness whereof, I've set my hand hereunto and cost of fixed the seal of the city of Arbonne on this March 2026.

This month is also Women's History Month, whereas Women's History Month provides an opportunity to honor the achievements of women of every race, class, religion, ethnicity and background who have shaped our past and inspire future generations to lead and serve and whereas this annual observance recognizes the significant contributions women have made throughout history through leadership, innovation, public service, education, business, the arts and sports, community advocacy. And whereas Women's History Month also acknowledges the resilience and determination of women who have strengthened our nation, state of California, the city of Arvin through their vision, service and commitment to progress. And whereas the twenty twenty six Women's History Month theme is Leading the Change, Women Shaping a Sustainable Future, highlights the vital role women play in building strong, equitable and sustainable communities. And whereas this theme honors women who have and are reimagining and rebuilding systems to ensure long term environmental, economic, educational and societal sustainability, whereas women have also served our country courageously in the United States Armed Forces and continue to contribute to our nation in countless ways and whereas the accomplishments of women continue to be recognized globally, including the twenty twenty six Winter Olympics in Italy, where U.

S. Women accounted for eight of the 12 gold medals won by The United States. And whereas the city of Arvin encourages residents to celebrate the achievements of women, reflect on their lasting contributions and reaffirm our collective commitment to advancing equity, opportunity and respect for all women. Now therefore, we, the City of our Council of the City of Arvin, hereby proclaim March 2026 as Women's History Month in the City Of Arvin. And witness hereof, I have set my hand here onto and cost to fix the seal of the City Of Arvin on this March 2026.

Okay. With that, item six five a sorry. Six item six, council member comments. Council member Tarver? No

comments tonight, but thank you for showing up and being patient with us.

Council member Reyes?

I I echo mister Tarver. No comments, but thank you everybody for staying here till the end. It's greatly appreciated. Thank you everyone. Thank you for being here, acting chief mister Huggett.

Council Member Vice Mayor Perez.

Thank you guys for coming. And no comments at this time.

Yes, Thank you, everyone, for your patience. We know that we had a long closed session. We will go back to the practice unless there are emergencies pending that require urgent attention for us to always have open session with public comments at the start. I do recognize our city engineer. I just want us to say thank you.

We know that people have had questions about Haven Drive between Mayer and Comanche and when that's going to be complete. And we're just thrilled to hear that within two weeks, that will be paved and folks will enjoy a new road there. So that's really exciting news for our residents. And that work will start this month on Comanche and that a lot of our families and children will benefit from the sidewalk there and the improvements on Comanche and South Derby. Thank you to staff for reviewing options for us.

Look forward to those updates at the April. And obviously, all staff, thank you so much for everything you do. And it is Women's History Month, so let's go out there and celebrate those women in our lives, our sisters and others. Thank you all so very much, and have a good night, God bless you. We'll see you here at the next meeting on March 24. The meeting is adjourned at 09:52. Two.