City Council - Regular Meeting

spent the last year doing data collection, public outreach, and other tasks to basically analyze what this existing conditions are within the city and where we can improve and go from here. To do that, we've brought in a consulting team from KDson and Associates, and they have subcontractors with a firm called Herbs Works, and they will be on Zoom tonight rather than in person. But here we have uh Nick Foster sitting next to me. He's with KDson and we'll be kind of presenting the PowerPoint showing the update of where we're at now. Okay. For one quick second, Lily, did we get uh anything working? Okay. So, just just so the folks in the audience and anybody that may be online right now, the online portion is a little bit uh having some issues. Um, Lily, Miss Alakan, sorry, Lily's working on it. So, uh, um, there may be some of you folks that can actually hear it and not see it. Um, I don't believe you YouTube is is still down completely, right? But, but it's being worked on. So, um, we may be able to hear people but not see people. With that, I think we're ironing out how the slides are going to advance. No, you did not say that. Yes.

there. So, just Okay, great. All right, great. Well,

thank you all for having me here. My name is Nick Foster. I'm a planner with KDson and Associates. Um, excited to be here tonight to talk with you all about the update to the transportation system plan. Um, go ahead and go to the next slide, please. Uh so few things we'll cover today. We'll just kind of do a quick overview of what the project is all about. Uh the purpose of it. Uh then we'll get into the engagement uh that led uh helped guide the plan led to the final product here. And then we'll do an overview of the major components of what's actually in the final the final plan. and then I will turn it over to um our team and partners at Herbs Works to talk about some of the code amendments that will be coming for you with the adoption and then we'll move on to our next steps. Go to the next slide, please. We want to make sure that the council and planning commission have plenty of opportunities for questions. So feel free to jump in on any slide as we're moving forward.

Great. So yeah, transportation system plans, they are meant to be, you know, long range forward-looking plans. Um, not all survive uh nearly 30 years as the last one here did. Um, sometimes they're updated more frequently, but again, it is supposed to be a longer term look and you know, what are we going to build out over the next 20 plus years? Uh, they cover all transportation modes. uh R mostly primarily focused on surface transportation but touching on a range of different modes too. Um there it's a higher level plan. So we get into a vision setting goals for this transportation system in the city. Uh then resulting ultimately in a prioritized set of projects to move forward with um and some discussion of potential funding sources. The scope of the transportation system plan is all public roads within the Hermiston urban growth boundary. Uh so that does include ODOT and uh Umatella County roads in addition to city-owned roads. And we did capture the expanded UGB area uh from uh this past fall within our study area too. The project started in late spring of last year but really got going over the summer uh where we did our existing and future conditions analysis. Um and then in the fall we got into um some engagement work uh developing a vision for the project and beginning our uh actual project and plan development work uh which really culminated in the wintertime uh with some more outreach on our draft set of projects and plans and then uh moved into the DR draft transportation system plan itself uh which is what we're here to talk about today. So this here is the uh vision statement

that was drafted for the transportation system plan. This was um not necessarily just developed by us um on the project team or or or city staff working alone, but was run through an advisory committee made up of different members of the community uh ranging from city staff to schools to um other community members as well, partner agencies. Uh so this this vision statement was was run around and I just want to emphasize a few parts of it which is the safe, efficient and reliable network is really what we were going for here and I think you'll see that in the resulting projects that have come up in this plan. We also defined six guiding principles shown here on this slide. So these were used again to develop projects and then also to uh prioritize the projects too. So we also scored projects against these different criteria uh generally keeping them all in mind as we work through the the draft projects. Any questions on the overall vision or anything before we talk about engagement? Great. Okay. So community engagement was a big part of this plan. We did three separate rounds of outreach uh here in the community. two of which involved um in five in-person events. Uh the final round of outreach was was online only and there was virtual open houses and surveys for each of the three rounds of outreach. Um through that we were able to connect with well over a 100 people uh through the inerson events at least that we recorded. Um that number is definitely on the low side since not everyone made a little mark for every person they talked to. We did our best to keep track of it, but we know we connected with well over 120 people uh through the inerson events and recorded over 260

comments through our our online outreach as well. We also had three meetings with our technical advisory committee. That's the group I referred to earlier that helped craft that vision statement. Um we met with them throughout the project at key points and they really helped uh drive forward the the projects we see here in the final plan. Now I'll walk through each of the rounds of engagement in a little bit more information detail. So our first round was this past fall about the end of September. We did two different youth workshops at um elementary schools here in town. And then we also had uh we reached out to the FCCLA group at the high school and they also participated in our online openhouse. Got a lot of comments from them as well. So we had very good student engagement in that round of outreach to capture that perspective of what it's like to travel around in the city when you are wholly relying either on your own two feet or other people for getting around. Um so it's a good perspective to get. Then we also did outreach at the high school football game. Uh the city also did some outreach for us as well at Melonfest and we had our project website and virtual openhouse running. Uh the purpose of this first round was just to get an idea from people of where do you see challenges today in the transportation system and what would be your priorities uh if you could if you were in charge what would you prioritize uh to improve transportation in Hermiston and the little icons you see there on the bottom of this slide highlight some of the key findings people wanted it was uh more better sidewalks off- streetet trails better street lighting and more local street connections um other ways to get around away from the main roads. Our second round of engagement uh was when we presented the draft the first set of draft projects. Um we did inerson outreach at the tree lighting

celebration. We were able to sneak outside and get most of it in before it started uh precipitating on us and and got a few of our boards a little wet, but we were able to get good outreach during all that. We also had our um virtual uh openhouse and website Part of this, we did a um in-person budgeting exercise. Some of you who were at the tree lighting ceremony may have seen that we had uh multiple buckets set up where people could were given $100 in $20 bills, fake $20 bills. And um we asked you if you were a city manager, how would you spend this money on improvements to intersections, to bicycle and trail projects, to walking projects or to roadway projects? And on the screen here, you see the results uh of where people put the most money uh intersection projects rising to the top. Um we did, you know, we did have some people just who thought they had to put the money in to get a candy cane or the gold coins laying around. So we we tried to pull that out afterwards when it was obvious they were they just thought they had to play the game. But um for the most part people took it pretty seriously and we really enjoyed it. We did a similar exercise online uh but without the the fake money or the real the real candy. And uh the prioritization came out a little bit different. Uh roadway projects popped up to the top followed by walking and intersection projects and and bike projects at the bottom. Uh it's probably worth noting that online it didn't emphasize that roadway projects also included some projects that would also include sidewalk improvements and things too as part of them. So it was a little more comprehensive idea of what a roadway project is from the online version. And then we had um maps up of our draft projects. uh people placed stickers uh where they um had priorities uh and and

that tended to be on the two state highways, but also Highland and Orchard um especially their intersections with first uh Punkin Center Road and the Umatillaa River River Trail also received multiple uh multiple dots and comments as priorities. Um we also gave people a couple of project concepts that were a little more detailed. We asked them to uh weigh in on some other ideas. So you can see um Clint there talking with someone about Northeast 10th and Elm and what would you rather see there roundabout or a signal and we had some drawings of different intersection alternatives and uh generally found the roundabout to be preferred at that time. Um we also looked at different options that's the board to Clint's right there on what to do about the Orchard Avenue first place area. This was a a area a lot of people wanted to talk to us about. Um, and we we gave them four different options. The one they preferred the most actually involved um disconnecting Orchard Avenue from US 395. So, cutting off that connection there to to remove some of the weaving traffic that's coming in from 395, making that left down First um and making it difficult to turn from first back onto Orchard. Um and granted, you know, we are this was not the purpose of this plan was just to do these two particular projects, but it does give us an idea uh for future work of what people are interested in these areas. And then finally, our third round of outreach was to present here's the refined set of projects, what we learned after meeting with you all. And uh we also developed 10 projects uh in further detail and we presented those and we asked people um for their feedback on them and generally found uh projects first in Highland and then reconstructing fourth and 10th streets both both popped up as uh the highest priorities in people's mind in that round of outreach.

With that, any questions on the uh engagement done for this project? Yeah. Would you mind um in summary format explaining the difference between a pedestrian project and a roadway project?

Yeah, great question. So, roadway project in this plan is generally anything that involves rebuilding, extending or building a new road of some kind. They sometimes include and we'll get to this actually here in a slide or two. They sometimes include the addition of sidewalks as part of the modernization of the road. A pedestrian project, but that's not the only thing it includes. I guess that's that would be the the difference is the roadway project may include new sidewalk, but as part of that project, it's also including maybe turn lanes or other elements, too. A pedestrian project is a standalone. We are just filling in sidewalk gaps or adding a trail of some kind. Yeah,

if I may, Mr. Foster. Yeah. Clarify uh on your last slide there. Um you you mentioned three intersections. First in Highland, fourth and then 10th. First and Highland would be west first and then fourth and 10th would both be east. Fourth and 10th. Correct. Okay. Yes. Thank you.

Great. Now we'll uh talk about the projects. Um the first set of projects we'll talk about is what's makes up a good the bulk of the plan which are roadway and intersection projects. Um as I just discussed these projects though do have considerations for all users of the roadway. Uh whether it's by car, walking, biking, uh riding transit. Um they generally prioritize areas of um you know there's more activity or or those projects that will have major impacts to the area. Um, so this plan, you know, it doesn't lay out every single potential future local road in the city. It's focused primarily on those roads that are collector and above, though it does lay out some local streets as well. I think that's probably one thing to keep in mind um too. Um, several projects are bringing streets up to city's current standards uh compared to what they have been before. Um, another major goal of the roadway projects is to just improve connectivity throughout the city. And you'll see there's a lot of roadway extension projects for that. We've also brought in the projects from the transportation safety action plan you all adopted last uh January as well as from different um school related projects and considering how people are getting to and from schools as well. On the roadway side there are 61 projects in the plan um roughly broken into these different categories. most of them falling into the what we call what we're calling modernization. So that's taking an existing road and bringing it up to the city's current standard, which is generally going to include things like sidewalks, potentially bike lanes depending on the street, uh center turn lanes, things like that. Um, but bringing it up to what the city's vision for a collector arterial roadway is. So that's what the projects are. reference

that's on northeast or east 4th and east 10th bringing those up to the city's current standards for those um roads and then a good chunk of them are also either extending existing streets um or or completely brand new streets um so you know extensions of Gman Punin Center um several others also particularly in southern Hermiston are also in there and then we have some safety related projects from the transportation safety action plan and some a few roadway realignment projects as well. You as we just discussed not all the roadway projects necessarily are just about the motor vehicle lanes or about adding motor vehicle connectivity but um you know most about twothirds of the roadway projects do include filling in sidewalk gaps or adding sidewalks where they don't ex exist. um close to half include bike lanes and then um some also include adding in multi-use trails. And then we have 43 standalone intersection projects that are separate from the roadway projects. Uh the focus of these is oftentimes what we call intersection control changes. So going from a two-way or all-way stop controlled intersection to either a signal or a roundabout. You'll see in the plan sometimes the plan lays out, you know, which control type is preferred, but a lot of times um particularly on the ODOT highways, it defers to a future intersection control evaluation study. You'll see that term in that intersection projects table a lot. So, for an ODOT highway, at the time you're going to upgrade the intersection, they would want to see a study done to determine exactly what form is the best uh for that intersection, whether it's a signal, a roundabout, or some other type of

intersection form. Um, so you'll see you'll see that language in there a lot, but that that is a good chunk of the intersection projects right there. other ones. Yeah,

thank you. I just had a question on your last slide. Um, and maybe this is just a little bit more of education with me and how this map works out, but I see a lot of dots uh kind of where you are where I'm seeing a lot of where I'm seeing 395 basically coming into town. Um, and there's a lot of people, a lot of community members that have expressed like concerns, especially like on the turnoff into EOTech and it kind of being a difficult thing to like navigate and see, especially at night. Um, seeing those dots is I guess it's in the transportation safety plans uh plan to to do something about that. Is that correct?

Correct. Yeah. Every single one of those dots on 395 is a change in intersection control from what it is today. Yeah. Signal roundabout. ODOT's also considering I think in some lo case some cases potentially just restricting what movements may work at that intersection and putting full access to another one but that's still to be determined but yes thank you

all right and then on the non-project side we also have what we call programs and plans so that includes making some changes to the city's functional classification map for the roads which um dovetail with you know future vision ision for the street and how wide lanes are and things like that. Uh so matching up roads to how they actually function today compared to what they did when the classification was previously defined. Matching the federal classifications too, uh which is important for funding. Uh let's see, increasing setbacks for residential uses. Um developing some standards for street connectivity for new development. um piloting the use of permeable materials for off- streetet parking. That would be a future code need, making some updates to the city's uh standard street crosssections to uh build a little more flexibility in to them. Um and then uh potentially working with ODOT to look at alternative mobility targets on Highway 395. Um what that is is ODOT has what they call mobility targets which are based on the cap what they want the intersection to operate at from a they call they use volume to capacity ratio. So how much volume is going through the intersection compared to its capacity and they set these targets kind of statewide based on their classification for them. uh 395207 is projected to not meet its target in the future. Uh sometime in that 20-year horizon probably I see it one head nodding not a surprise probably to most of you drive through there it's it's approaching it today. Um and the question you run into and and we'll see like we're also projecting Glattus will get be getting close to its target in 20 years too and again how development occurs could change that it could accelerate that or make it different. Um so you know your options then become

well do you add turn lanes uh or something like that to the intersection to meet the targets or do you say hey some of these areas are just built out and we don't want to impact the surrounding land uses. Uh it's going to make it costly and so we modify that target. Um those are in use. There is a process the state has for defining those. And so we do have a uh you'll see in there a program or plan to work with ODOT to to do a further look at Highway 395 and future circulation especially around the downtown area as well. Just kind of take a holistic look at over the long term. you know, are we going to make these intersections bigger or do capacity improvements or are we going to say this is we're going to rely on expanding our local street network to kind of provide that capacity? And then finally, you'll also see in that there's a a program to uh change the threshold at which the city requires a transportation impact analysis. uh it drops the number the minimum number of trips down a little bit makes it consistent too uh across city documents and generally puts it in line with other cities of similar sizes in the area too.

Yeah.

Could you elaborate a little bit on the increase in residential setbacks you know the the purpose of that too? Yeah, Clint. So, one of the things that we've addressed a lot over the last few years are citizen concerns with uh large trucks extending over the sidewalk and that's because we have a 20 foot setback now on uh driveways from the property line. We're looking at increasing that to 25 feet to accommodate the large vehicles that do create a sidewalk connectivity issue. Additionally, when we are looking at houses that butt up against an arterial or a collector, we're thinking of increasing the basically the sidewalk width to create more of a buffer space so that you don't have travel lane sidewalk fence in increasing that area to create a buffer strip for plings to make it a little more comfortable to walk on. So, in other words, to help a little bit with parking issues that we're seeing crop up in the residential areas.

Correct. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, good question. That one, that particular one came directly out of one of our technical advisory committee meetings early on.

Okay. Thank you. I uh heard you had a kind of a statement about two streets kind of in the near future uh maybe going to be over its capacity. And so that made me kind of beg the question in my head. Um at the city, we've been trying to do a big effort in trying to get more housing in in the area. Uh and I'm sure you already know, um the state of Oregon passed a law where now there is no R1 housing. And so at any point anybody could build a duplex where we would typically see a single family home. Um and so I guess with that being said, do we feel like we're going to have to come back to this transportation safety or transportation plan sooner rather than later because we don't really know what houses are going to crop up, whether they're going to be more single family or more people are going to elect to build multi-purpose family or multi-family housing. really for the most part we're starting to take the TAC within our planning documents and within within our development process to assume the highest density when things build out. And so basically even if you have you know a 12 lot single family subdivision when we're looking at how do we size the utilities we're thinking we need to be thinking about those as potentially 24 units. The other thing we're doing through this plan is increasing the functional classification of several of our streets so that as we look at, you know, 10th Street for instance, it can be widened to the point that it can handle those additional volumes as we see more residential growth in the northeast corner. And then we'll get to the code changes in a little bit, but we're talking about increasing the connectivity requirements for residential development so that you right now we have a 600 foot block length. We'd like to maybe re reduce that to shorter so that there's more

cross streets. Oh, and that creates more opportunities for vehicles to drain out in different locations. So, we're trying to accommodate that through multiple angles.

Yeah. Thank you. And I appreciate the the comment also on parking with with a lot of these multif family houses like you can see and even in the Emerald development that we have over there by Field of Dreams. It's just it's just absolutely packed. There's like no parking anywhere in some of these newer places. And so I just also addressing that. I mean, this is something that we this is the hand that we were dealt with a lot of uh the multif family housing that's going to develop everywhere. But just kind of addressing that to make I guess to make sure that there's plenty of space, no accidents, people just bumping into each other, that kind of thing. But thank you.

Yeah. And if you dig real into the weeds in the uh technical documents, you'll find we did do a special uh future growth forecast work with Mark and Clint to that assumes a lot of development in northeastern. Yeah. Okay. The walking and biking system. So here again, we're filling in gaps in the system to create more complete streets for for everyone. Um, we talked about really a lot of it's leveraging roadway projects to incorporate walking and biking elements, but there are some standalone projects. Go to the next slide. So on the walking side, we have 11 standalone sidewalk gap filling projects. Um, so these are roads that where we there otherwise isn't a project listed, but there are gaps in the sidewalks that um, TAC members or other members of the community thought were important. Um, we have 10 projects u, 21 projects really that are focused on crossings. Uh, 10 of those, oh, sorry, 11 uh, read my numbers right. uh 10 involved curve extensions in the downtown area to kind of shorten those crossings up sort of like what you have here just outside of city hall with the with the new street here. Um and then again you have you know 40 road 40 roadway projects with sidewalks 11 with multi-use trails. Then on the bicycling side and the trail side, you have four standalone bike lane projects, 18 total trail projects, plus again a number of roadway projects that have either trails or or bicycle lanes as part of them.

You might remember from the parks master plan that it includes trail systems and KDOS has been working with the with the parks master plan documents that have been adopted so that those projects are incorporated into the state.

Yeah, that's a very good point, Clint. Most of the trail projects come from that park center master plan. Um and then on the program programmatic side. So again updating some of those street crosssections to to incorporate the latest in uh design for people walking and biking and then uh come up with a a program and process for um enhancing crossings and filling in sidewalk gaps on school routes. on the transit side here. Uh so we did pull from the Umatilla County transit development plan as well as some planning work that Kayak has done. Um identified four potential mobility hub locations from those documents. So that would be areas where there could be connections between different transit services or other types of transportation provided. Um, also there is a CTOR through Kayak would at some point like to have a Tri Cities to Hermiston route too. So that's incorporated here. Um, as well as a stop improvement that they identified on the programmatic side. Um, so developing a program to improve transit stops throughout the city. And then we uh we heard you know that things are currently working well with the arrangement of the city running the uh kind of taxi based paratransit service. Uh so continuing that and adapting as the city grows and as the program evolves and then continuing to work with kayak to provide that fixed route bus service in the area. On the rail and pipeline side, we didn't identify any standalone rail or or pipeline projects necessarily. Um we do have about 17 projects that may affect railroad crossings and several more that will also require railroad coordination. Um and then again just recommendation to continue to coordinate with pipeline operators if there ever is a project that's going to be in the vicinity of one.

Any questions on that before we talk about code amendments? Okay, I'll turn it now over to Marcy Mcinnelli who's online uh with Herbs Works and who she'll talk about the code amendments. Hi everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can.

Taking that as a thumbs up. Okay. Hi. Um yeah, one of the last steps in the TSP is to update um the the land use code and related codes so that they kind of match up with certain aspects of the TSP. Uh we're currently wrapping up the code audit which has looked at specific sections of um the the code. I'll go through which sections in a moment. Uh but the next task that follows this is the l the line by line amendments where we strike through text or uh amend text with new text or new chapters and provide that for the planning commission to you know adopt and for adoption. Our focus uh in this project is the residential neighborhoods and that's kind of welltimed and that it will set the stage for um getting your streets and connectivity requirements uh updated so that when you're you you do make way for the duplexes and the middle housing and I understand you have a um another state grant for code updates regard related to middle housing. um these changes will go hand in hand with those land use changes. So the sections that we audited and will be amending include the subdivision chapter um streets, the public works standards including the crosssections and then the traffic impact analysis provisions. Next, if anyone has a question, um I'm sure you'll let me know as I go through this. As I mentioned, um we're focused on the streets, particularly streets and alleys

and also connectivity, what we call um kind of basically getting around in neighborhoods. And also we're focused on where those residential neighborhoods and major streets major streets being collectors and arterials where and how those meet. Next, when we've looked at uh the street issues, issues with your current standards, there are several things we've identified that we'll be fixing. And one of those is that you have a one-sizefits-all street standard for residential neighborhoods. And when I'm talking about residential streets, these are local streets. They're tech typically low volume even though you may have duplexes on them. Um they still have much lower volume than other streets in your in Hermiston. Um right now they're quite wide. They allow they invite speeding and that's unsafe. We would like to introduce more street options because one size street does not fit all the neighborhoods that you're likely to see um over time being built. Also, developers like to have some additional options and if they're not in your public works standards, then they can't be built. So, we're right sizing the street requirements for residential development and low traffic volume streets because your current street standards are are really not quite um diverse enough for that kind of development. And this bullet point that says constrained right of way, clear guidance on priorities, that's to help when uh a developer, an applicant is following the um street crosssections.

It's helpful to know which uh places to and you have you're you're being you're building to the um street cross-section, but you have a limited right of way. That's to help prioritize which items in the lineup of uh the lane, the travel lane, the sidewalk width, the plant strip, which of those is can be minimized and and which of those is should be fixed. And right now the guidance really is biased toward driving lanes only and that would lead you to um some pretty wide streets that have no plant strip and no sidewalk. Obviously that can't work. So we're going to make those priorities a little more clear. The goal here is walkable, bikable, safer, greener neighborhood streets. An important part of that is that plant strip, which is the strip of land between the curb, the back of the curb and the sidewalk. And as Clint mentioned, um that's a big focus of these new street crosssections because we'd like to ensure that that is built. It's where the street trees go. It's what provides um that green leafy neighborhood uh feel in the future. And this is after all a long range plan. And when that park strip or plant strip is uh adequately sized and then there's room for street trail trees or there's room for swailes uh storm water collection swailes for example um that can add value to residential neighborhood over time. Next, connectivity is our other is another focus. And what we mean when we're talking about connectivity is essentially people can get around their neighborhoods safely and easily. That

you can get to destinations like to school or to shopping or to the bus stop, but that it works for everyone, whether you're driving a vehicle or you're walking or biking. And obviously that connectivity metric is a little smaller and finer grained when you're walking. So issues with your current standards are that your blocks are by default very large or or very long which means that um for people walking that requires an out of a lot of out of direction travel to get say from home to school and that can be inconvenient and um there are things we can do to make blocks smaller and introduce interim streets smaller streets. Uh also when blocks are smaller and there are more streets, they can share the traffic so there's less traffic on any one street because our goal is to keep traffic volume low on residential streets. And then another focus is where those residential neighborhoods meet a collector or arterials of particular um set of issues. These are busy hight traffic volume streets next to homes. In these conditions, that park strip or plant strip becomes a very important part of the street design. It's an important buffer. Uh it protects pedestrians as they're walking along the street. Um, and as Clint mentioned, um, in a way the de the street cross-section today defaults to a curb, a sidewalk, a fence, and we're trying to correct that. So, there's really room for um a generous plant strip, street trees, and landscaping are very important here to provide that buffer between people walking using the sidewalk, whether they're waiting at a bus stop or they're

um walking along the street. So this is a pretty specific plan that we intend to develop where a plant strip, a buffered sidewalk, street trees, and HOA maintenance are kind of outlined. Also, maximum spacing between intersections is important so that you don't have a lot of intersections or driveways um entering that busy roadway. and also specifying that no rear yards would um be allowed along the collector only sideyards and one driveway per two lots onto collectors that create a shared driveway and that's a pattern that you already have um in Hermiston today. So again, good streets help residential neighborhoods appreciate in value over time. Um so a lot of that wasn't in any of the TAC discussions or anything else. Um just right sizing streets etc. So um I am not comfortable with just a general discussion with that without seeing a lot more specifics.

Yeah we we will be doing that uh producing more specific standard drawings as we move forward. Uh, one of the things that I've recommended that we consider also is with the street standards is basically moving them to an appendix of future amendments because some of them are good ideas. Uh, whether or not they're ready for adoption today, I don't know. But I think that having them while this project is funded for a future project that Herbston could look at might make sense. One thing I wondered kind of following up on that right street parking issue park. Was there any thought about you are right.

Yeah, that would pretty much have to be a consideration. I didn't hear that question. I'm sorry. That reminder everybody, we do need to be speaking into the microphone so that the listening audience and everybody here can hear you. Mercy. Uh the question was from one of our planning commissioners and he was wondering with the uh narrower streets with a right-sized street if there would be a potential for parking restriction to only one side of the street and I said yes that would be a consideration. Agree.

Um my question is about the alleys especially in the downtown corridor here. How do you propose to deal with those? Um, this project won't actually be dealing with the downtown alleys, just the alleys and the residential neighborhoods. This would be if if a developer chose to do alleys in the this would be a new standard, not for existing alleys. Well, that does nothing to alleviate. That would definitely be a different project. Okay,

other questions. Okay, continue on sir or ma'am whoever is next.

Yeah, thank you Marcy. Um, so that wraps up our presentation. So for next steps, we are working with the city and ODOT to finalize the transportation system plan. Well, not necessarily finalize it, put it into that adoption draft form that will then come to come to you all here in the next month or two. uh go through your uh adoption process once we get all everything hammered out and have it ready for its uh appropriate noticing with DLCD um since it will be an amendment to your comprehensive plan. Clint, I don't know if there's anything else you want to add on those next steps and what they can expect.

We'll probably be looking as it says here. I don't think in spring I mean there's only a couple of meetings that we would even have available in spring. This would definitely be a summer adoption and it will go before the planning commission. It will go before the city council as a comprehensive plan amendment and then the code amendments would be treated as a separate uh amendment to the code. It operated through a different process that's called the legislative amendment. Uh we'll be noticing them out as they come up. Any final questions for us?

Yeah, that's what's more of a comment. Is that okay?

It it was on your discussion on rail and pipeline. It just had my two cents. I wish that there were uh viable rail or something along the lines of that. Um we at currently at least transportation to Portland, the the best thing that you got is either you drive or you fly. And so it'd be fantastic to have really viable, affordable rail options. And that's why I kind of think of that as something that'd be years down the line, multiple cities cooperating for something like that to happen. Um, but we we can't really undertake that just by ourselves. Um, I think of uh the money that we get for uh I can't think of the the name right now, but it's uh what we get to really fund the kayak. Um, and so I think that would be great for maybe rail to be an option in the future at some point or another because we we do have the kayak, but I mean I'll just be frank. I I don't really see very many people utilize it. It doesn't mean that we should take that option away, but I'm looking for improvement on the current ideas that we have. And so, um that that's those are just my two cents on that. Um just a better way of of getting around not just within her Hermison, but to our our bigger cities nearby. I know at the federal level they in the last in 2025 they were talking about revitalizing or reconsidering the Portland to Boise route. I'm not sure if there's been any progress on that or not with Congress.

Certain state department of transportation may have applied for the wrong grant to look at studying that. So it got back burned.

Any others? I I did have a question. I guess just kind of a follow-up question, but in preparing the the um TSP, did you look at how Hermiston's public transit compares to other similar communities? Do are we similarly situated to other cities of this size or in worse shape or better shape or That's a great question. We didn't do a deep dive into the transit service here because it um because it is provided by Kayak and they do their own planning and so we yeah we didn't get into a a a great look at that. Um unfortunately I think it would be difficult for for anybody to come up with anything. We don't have a whole lot of uh rural options of cities even close to our size that are not away from a major metropolitan area. such as us. So this that that would be a a difficult prospect at best to to come up with something that's you know to to compare apples to apples. So but you know it is a you know it is something that we do need to look at in the future is how do we how do we move people in this area from one point to another not just as a not as as councelor Brolan said not just within our city but within our within our region. Um, you know, I mean, yeah, we have the we have that union that Umatillaa spur that goes from Umatillaa to to, you know, Hermiston out to Hinkle, but, you know, that's that's that's largely a commercial uh operation. And I don't know that we could find a way to to capitalize on that. And then putting down rail anywhere inside the city is going to be uh I don't even think it'd be difficult. I think it'd be almost impossible. But yeah, coming up, you know, we we definitely need to come up with a way to move people around that doesn't necessarily involve personal

transportation, but you know, a a larger scale operation that than what we've got right now. Yeah, Kel.

Yeah, thank you. Um, in my mind, one of the biggest traffic issues in the city of Hermiston is the amount of commercial traffic on Highway 395, right through the center of town. Um, things have been done to improve that highway setbacks and the improvement of intersection turning radiuses and things like that. Um, but at what point do we stop sort of or does does the state stop bandating that highway and just go for a bypass like what's happened in Redmond and Bend and other cities that are on major highways? Yeah, that's a great question. you know, right now that's certainly something that's not, you know, popping up high on the list of things that they'd be able to undertake at this moment in part because you do have I82 off, you know, to the west. It's just shorter to go through 395 if you're going that other way. So, yeah, that that topic came up a couple of times, but there wasn't a lot of serious um interest in necessarily funding that at the moment. Yeah. Yeah.

If I may, this is Cheryl with ODOT. Um, the county is also in the process of updating their TSP and they do have a placeholder in there to start talking about doing a refinement study to look at options that would help um provide a parallel route. Okay. Thank you, Cheryl. Councelor Roberts. Uh

mine is just a brief request and that when this draft is uh finalized, can we get the copy as quickly as possible simply because I think the current one, if I'm looking at it right, is over 300 pages. So, it's a pretty big document, I know, and just so we got plenty of time to chew on it. Um if we can get it advanced well ahead of of time for for adoption. Yeah, we will definitely try to work on that. Thank you. Any others commissioners? All right. I Mr. Smith, Spencer, I have it. No. Thank you.

All right. Then I believe we will call this work session adjourned.

Stuttle is my middle name. All right, it is 7 o'clock, so we're going to start the Monday, March 9th edition of the Heriston City Council and Urban Rene urban renewal Agency meeting to order. Um, with the declaration of quorum, uh, one member excused, Mr. Hayward is excused. Um, so can everybody join me in a flag salute? Pledge

algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, as a reminder, those of you that have electronic devices, please Turn those off. Set phasers to stun. Whatever it takes. Be keep them quiet, please. Thank you. Um, Mr. City Manager Smith, do we have any changes to the agenda? No changes.

No changes. All right. Next up. All right. We're at the uh first opportunity for citizen input on nonaggenda items. Anyone wishing to bring anything before the council that is not on the agenda is asked to please do the following. Limit your comments to not more than five minutes. There will be a timer. Uh state your name and place, address of residence and direct your comments to me. Anyone? Seeing none, moving on. Uh consent agenda items. Consent agenda items A through D. Do we have any uh council questions on consent agenda items A through D? Seeing none public comment on consent agenda items A through D council comments. All right. Does council wish to remove any items?

Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A through D? So move. So move. Second. Moved by council McCarthy. Seconded by councelor Don. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Congratulations to uh Mr. Wolverton and Mr. Gutierz for their appointments to the two standing committees. Remember, we still have lots of committees available. An opportunity to help shape this city. Uh no items removed from the consent agenda. We'll move on to resolutions. Resolution 2411, establishing Hermiston Enterprise Zone. Mr. Smith. Yeah. Mr. Morgan will present item. Mr. Morgan.

Did you guys hide his clicker?

All right, Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of the council this evening, we're asking you to approve resolution 2411 pertaining to establishing a new Hermiston Enterprise Zone. So, uh, important to understand resolution 2411 creates a new enterprise zone that we'd be referring to as the Hermiston Enterprise Zone. Uh, this new zone would replace the existing greater Hermiston Enterprise Zone as of July 1st. Uh the existing greater Hermiston Enterprise Zone has been in place and active since July 1st of 2016. Uh the enterprise zone uh law at the state allows for enterprise zones to be uh in place and effective for 10-year increments. And so the greater Herston Enterprise zone is expiring here at the end of June. So what we're asking this evening in one sense is replacing uh that zone, but it really is a totally new zone. Um, and so I'll get into a little bit about why there's differences and it's not really correct to to say that we're just simply renewing uh the enterprise zone. It's creating a whole new zone. First off, we'll go through a little bit of background and basics on what the enterprise zone is and what it is not sensitive. Uh probably the the most important thing to understand with the enterprise zone is at its core the underlying foundational uh purpose uh that state law allows for the enterprise zone program to exist is first and foremost a jobs program. So it is uh to incentivize businesses to create jobs in local economies. So that's number one the the driver of the the program. Uh after that, uh the enterprise zone program has gotten a lot more complex and convoluted over the years as the legislaturator's uh chosen to add more and new things to the to the law. And so uh there are some other components that allow for incentivization for uh businesses to not only create jobs but

additionally additional incentives to incentivize higher wages uh than than otherwise would be the case. Uh and then uh again very important to understand that uh the enterprise zone is generally uh only uh available for what they refer to as traded sector um job creators. So uh we can go into exactly what that means but generally speaking for most people to understand that means this is not applicable or not available for any type of retail restaurants any of those types of things. It's really for uh manufacturing industrial those types of aspects. I have to say generally because there is one specific exemption uh to that and it pertains to hotels and I'll get into that in a little bit. So, uh the enterprise zone legislation as I mentioned is uh pretty complex and convoluted. Uh but there's multiple different programs and options uh that you can engage in in underneath the enterprise zone program. And this is not even all of them, but this is the these are the ones that I'll uh get into because they're the most uh prevalent to term. Uh so first off, the the basic enterprise zone program is a three-year property tax exemption. Uh then there's also what would be referred to as the extended enterprise zone program, and that allows for uh full exemption of property taxes for either four or five years. And then there's additionally the Eltres, the long-term rural enterprise zone program, which allows for full exemption uh of property taxes for between 7 and 15 years. And then as I mentioned also there's the ability for some zones if they choose uh to engage in some u duration of property tax exemptions specifically for hotel developments. So a little bit more detail on each one of those. So the the three-year basic enterprise zone exemption. Important to keep in mind, you know, this is the the meat and potatoes core of the enterprise zone program statewide. Uh and it's also important to understand that um the

enterprise zone legislation essentially creates access to the basic three-year exemption by right. So as long as a uh business meets all of the criteria and qualifications for the enterprise zone program, meaning they're a traded sector business and they create at least one job or expand uh their existing employment by 10%, uh they are guaranteed to be able to to receive that three-year uh property tax exemption. Uh but again, that's the the basic requirements for the three-year enterprise zone exemption. Uh you have to create at least one job or if you are already uh an employer within a zone, uh then you have to expand your employment by at least 10%. Example of that would be, you know, back in 2014 time frame, Shears Foods, they already had about 340 employees and they were going to be doing an expansion. So, uh, in that instance, in order to qualify for the basic three-year exemption, uh, they had to add at least 34 jobs. And so, that's one job or 10%, whichever is greater. Uh, for the basic three-year exemption, there are no wage requirements. So, it's you got to create at least one job or expand by 10%. Um, and those could be minimum wage, I suppose, if you wanted to, but we typically don't see that around here. Uh, and then just some examples of some that have received the three-year exemption. We haven't uh seen any or approved any in almost 10 years at this point. So uh we have seen a lot of uh small industrial development but we have not really engaged in uh granting any three-year exemptions in the last 10 years maybe. Okay. Uh next one the extended enterprise zone program the four and fiveyear and this kind of just builds on itself. So again, still have to create at least one job or expand employment by at least 10%. Uh but this is where you start to get in some additional requirements in order to access that property tax uh benefit. Uh in this

case, the the compensation, the total compensation, which is both the wages and any the cost of any benefits for the employer uh has to equal at least 130% of the countywide average wage. U so the total compensation has to be at least 130%. Uh but just the wage portion alone has to be at least 100% of the countywide average wage. So you can't pay, you know, your employees wages that are, you know, below the average the countywide average wage, but then claim that the total cost of their health insurance and other things takes you up to 130%. Um you have to have the total amount has to be at least 130%, but the wages at least also have to be um at least the countywide average wage. Uh, additionally with the uh extended abatement program starting here uh two years ago uh the legislature added in a requirement for a school support fee. Uh and so this is a program where uh any new uh extended abatements um if they get approved then the company has to pay an amount equal to at least 15% of what the company would have paid otherwise in total tax obligation uh that goes to the state school fund. And so I'll get into that a little bit more here in a little bit. So then the ELRES, the long-term rural enterprise zone program. Uh this one uh again still a lot of the same uh basic requirements, but additionally it gets more uh detailed uh depending on the county that you're in and several other components. So, uh, I'll just speak to, uh, how a lot of these would pertain to the Hermiston Enterprise Zone. In Hermiston, in order to qualify currently, in order to qualify for, uh, Elres, you have to have a minimum in investment of at least $12.5 million. And then the the minimum job creation aspect is somewhat of a sliding scale. Again, depending on which county you're in, um, it's on a sliding scale in Umatillaa County that's tied to

investment. So the larger the investment size uh leads to a different minimum job creation aspect. And then additionally the wages and benefits are similar to the extended program at 130 and 100%. But then additionally the LRES agreement allows for the local zone sponsors to additionally negotiate fees um in lie of taxes. So, for example, uh the Lamb Weston uh facility out uh by the freeway, uh they've invested about $300 million in their facility back in 2018. They received an Elres agreement. And so, they are paying uh about a million dollars per year to the Greater Herman Enterprise Zone. And when you average that out over the course of 15 years, it ends up being that ultimately they are paying uh in fees in lie for local government services that are equal to about 42% of what they would have paid otherwise. So they're still paying a significant amount. They're not paying any property taxes, uh but they're still paying nearly half of what they would have paid otherwise to support local services. And then additionally for the ELRES program, again, beginning about two years ago, uh any new LTRES agreements uh include a requirement to pay a school support fee to the state. So, a little bit more detail on what the school support fee is. So, it applies, like I said, to the extended and the LRES programs. In this case, uh, companies receiving those benefits have to pay, uh, 15% of what their total tax liability would be, uh, to local schools. Uh, and again, important to point out that's their total tax liability. It's not that they have to pay 15% of what they would have paid for local school levies. It's that they have to pay 15% of their total tax liabilities. So, for example, in Hermiston, if the, you know, Hermiston school district's permanent rate is $4 a,000, you know, they're not paying like the equivalent of 60 a,000. Really, they're paying 15% of $22 a,000. So, really, they're paying equal to like $3.75.

So, so they're paying an an amount that's almost fully reimbursing or covering uh the entire amount for the local school tax rates. Uh but it's important to keep in mind also although those dollars are physically going directly to the local schools, it's really um getting taken by the state. So So the the companies pay that 15% to the local school districts. The local school districts then receive that revenue and they report that revenue to the state as revenue in lie of tax. So then the state uh turns around and reduces the amount that the state sends to that local school district through the state school fund directly proportional to how much they they brought in. So the local school districts receive really no additional benefit than any other school district in the state. So uh just a little bit more background on that. This is just showing you know the existing uh breakdown of the tax rate in within Hermiston. Um so the the way that the state school fund works, you know, the state school fund exists to kind of equalize the amount of funding available for students across the state so that um you know regardless of where a student is in Oregon, you know, on a per student basis, uh the operational aspects of education are relatively equal across the state. So the state school fund backfills local school districts that are unable to generate enough local tax revenue uh to cover those costs. So, uh, when that's the case, state school resources subsidize local educational operations. So, uh, the way that that would kind of work out here is let's imagine, you know, you got a widget factory wants to develop in in the Hermiston Enterprise zone moving forward. Say it gets assessed at a total value of $100 million. than the total property tax bill uh that would otherwise be due on that $und00 million widget factory at a rate of $21 per thousand. Uh again,

ignoring uh compression just for simplicity. So the total annual property tax bill would be about $2.1 million. So with the school support fee, uh that company has to pay the Hermiston School District 15% of that $2 million that they would have paid otherwise. So they pay $300,000 to the Hermiston School District. Hermistston School District then sends that $313,000 to the state school fund. That $313,000 gets divided by all 545,000 K12 students across the state to end up with a rate of 57 cents per student. So then the state school fund turns around and sends back to the Hermiston school district about little less than $3,000. So um it's technically correct to say that the school support fee supports the local school districts. Um, but it's also technically correct to say that it doesn't support the local school districts anymore than it does Brookings or Bend or Lake Oiggo, I suppose. So, that's the school support fee. Uh, and then also, uh, moving on a little bit, just talking about the hotel designation, you know, um, allowing, uh, our enterprise zone to offer property tax incentives to hotel developments is not something that we've engaged in previously. a lot of other zones across the state do have that um component. Uh so what we're recommending uh moving forward with the next 10 years is to include uh provision to allow for hotels to access enterprise zone exemptions. Uh but we are hoping to to limit that to a specific area within the zone. So I'll get into that in a little bit. So uh just kind of a recap of the basics on the enterprise zone. Important to keep in mind the enterprise zone program is an umbrella of a program. Um individual exemptions within that are all totally unique to um whichever business expansion is taking place. Um

and they all have their own um uh components and flavors. So uh they're all different. Uh additionally important to keep in mind again the the what you're approving this evening is just the overall umbrella program. It's not actually approving any actual exemptions. Uh so the extended and the long-term rule exemptions, any of those for actual projects coming in that turn into actual property tax exemption agreements, those have to come back to city council for approval. So tonight, you are not approving any exemptions for Amazon or Lamb Weston or whoever. um you're just simply approving the fact that the program exists so that then you know large investments in the future would be able to to come back and ask for those at future at a future date. Uh and then uh like I mentioned does not approve any agreements that are over the four-year exemption. I have to say over the four-year exemption because as I mentioned uh the basic program you know those are guaranteed by right but we don't see a whole lot of those and those generally tend to be the the smaller dollar programs. Okay. So, formation of a new zone. Uh I'm kind of referring to this going back to the future at least in terms of area. uh because this um proposed Hermiston Enterprise Zone uh area uh for the the program actually significantly reduces the geographic boundaries of the enterprise zone to only uh be within the city limits of Hermiston uh but also only covering uh all of the industrially zoned land within the city as well as a little bit of the commercial uh properties. Um, but also the reason I say it's back to the future is because the original Hermiston Enterprise zone dating, you know, as recently as 2009, um, was only, uh, located within the the city limits of Hermist. It wasn't until 2009, uh, that there was a potential for some expansion that we expanded the area to include some properties outside of

the city limits. Uh, so this is really just taking us back to what the original intention of the Hermiston Enterprise zone was, uh, to only be located within the city limits of Hermiston. So, uh, this is just a map that shows the existing, uh, greater Herman Enterprise zone. It's kind of hard to see on that map, but you can see the, uh, uh, red outlined area. That's the, um, urban growth boundary. The dashed blue line is the city limits. And so, uh, you can see that we're fully covering all of the city limits with, um, the enterprise zone, but also then down on the bottom, you can see where we really shot out down Feedville Road out towards the freeway here in the last several years. um and included quite a bit of area that was outside of uh the city limits. So that's the existing uh zone boundaries. And so this is a little bit more zoomed in, but this is the proposed uh boundaries for the new Hermiston Enterprise Zone. So uh the actual enterprise zone, I realize this may get a little bit confusing here, but the the actual enterprise zone area is only the hashed area. So the the blue shaded area shows you the existing city limits. Um, so all of that area currently is covered by the greater Hermiston Enterprise zone. We're recommending to pull back even tighter um and only have the the Hermiston Enterprise zone only cover those hashed areas and those are areas that are either industrially zoned or in the downtown core area. Uh we're also calling for including the enterprise zone on that area as well. And that's really specific to the uh hoping to include the hotel incentive uh to try and incentivize some potential hotel developments in the downtown core or more hotel developments. Uh and actually uh we'll go back one slide. Um important to keep in mind too what we're proposing here. Um you know this doesn't mean that that's the the boundaries of the zone you know locked in stone for the next 10 years. Um these

can be expanded in the future. Um, enterprise zones are relatively easy to expand from a geographic standpoint. Uh, but you can't unring the bell. You can't go backwards. So, that's part of the reason why we're proposing them the way that they are. Um, we can always expand and if we expand, then we have to um have either Umatillaa County Commissioners or the Port of Umatillaa Commission as our co-sponsors on any decisions with the zone. Uh but at this point we're beginning from the most um the tightest perspective and only including land inside of the city. The greater Hermanston Enterprise Zone has uh gone through several expansions in the past and it's a fairly simple process. So important to keep in mind we can always expand into the future. So a little bit background on uh the formal process of forming this new Herman enterprise zone. Uh really we started uh work on this you know really back at the beginning of 2025. Uh but uh we went to the Port of Matillaa Commission on January 13th where they granted their consent which is a requirement of the U enterprise zone legislation. Uh then on January 14th we sent out mailers to all of the underlying property tax districts inviting them to a public meeting uh to learn about the proposed Hermiston Enterprise zone. Uh on February 12th, we held the public meeting. Um and that was uh attended by representatives from Umilly County Fire District number one as well as the uh county radio data district. It was a good discussion. I think everybody left with a good understanding of where we're going and not too many questions. So u so that was a good a good meeting. And then uh throughout the month of February uh and really earlier in January uh we'd had a number of discussions with the school districts from both Hermiston and Stanfield because this uh enterprise zone includes some portion of both school districts. And so at their board meetings in February, both the Hermiston

and Stanfield school districts uh approved their school support fee rate. I won't get into exactly what all goes behind that, but they both um approved their school support fee at 15% for any u long-term enterprise zone programs that move forward. So, a little bit of uh background um here on finances. Uh and really, I'm just going to kind of get into this because um we're really talking about forming a new district, but I'm sure there's going to be questions that come up uh that I may as well address now. So, uh, for the existing, um, uh, greater Herman Enterprise zone, um, I think there's, um, uh, a lot of misunderstanding on how much revenue is being generated and where that revenue is going. I think mainly just because our friends and neighbors to the west of us at the Columbia River Enterprise Zone and Boardman as well as the uh, Greater Ematil Enterprise Zone, they've had several long-term rural enterprise zone agreements much longer than we have. And so, uh, frankly, the greater Hermist Enterprise zone did not really start generating, uh, any revenue other than the revenue from Lamb Weston until this fiscal year. So, uh, this fiscal year is the first year that the Greater Herman Enterprise Zone received any revenue at all, uh, from any data center development. Prior to that, we were receiving a little bit from, uh, Lamb Weston, but fiscal year 26 is the first year that we received any revenue uh, from any data center developments. So in fiscal year 26 uh combined between uh data center developments as well as Lamb Weston uh about $3.6 million came in in local revenue to the greater Herman Enterprise Zone. Of that about 1.6 million uh went to the city of Hermiston. About 1.6 million went to Umatillaa County as the co-sponsor. Uh a bulk of that about a million of that total is from the Lamb Western agreement. Uh and then underneath that uh in November we cut checks to all of

the other uh underlying uh taxing districts. So Stanfield School District received a check for $166,000. Um county fire district number one got $113,000. Uh the Hermanston School District actually got $58,000 and then so all the rest of them got a little bit less, you know, underneath there. But those were some of the the largest ones for fiscal year 26. Uh also I get asked a lot of times you know well how much did we give away uh with these enterprise zone agreements and I I think it comes across sounding flippant but I believe the economics is sound uh when I say how much did we give away uh it is actually exactly zero uh because you can't give away something that you wouldn't have had otherwise uh so and I think folks tend to have a an inevitability bias uh when they go out there and they see Lamb Weston operating or they see a data center operating and they look back and you know they have uh the Monday morning quarterback uh mentality and say, "Wow, look at these people. They gave away all this tax money when this thing's right here. They could have made a whole bunch of extra money. They didn't need to give away all these uh enterprise zone exemptions." Well, I think it's important to keep in mind and and I get it. Most people don't uh understand uh this level of capital investment. Um, it's important to keep in mind folks like Lamb Weston, you know, they're a global company. They have other options and other places uh that they can invest their limited amount of capital resources. And it's important to keep in mind that it is limited. There is an upper limit threshold there. So, you know, when Lamb Western has $300 million that they're investing in capital assets, you know, they're trying to find out where's the best place to to put that investment. And so I fully believe that if the Greater Hermiston Enterprise Zone had not uh offered a long-term enterprise zone exemption, uh Lamb Weston would have absolutely either uh diverted that investment to either their facility in American Falls, Idaho or right across the river in Plymouth. You

know, they have others as well, quite quite a few others around the world. So, um I feel very confident that they just simply wouldn't have invest reinvested in the Hermiston facility and they would have directed that investment somewhere else. Um, and you know, you could have looked at it and thought, well, maybe we didn't have to to offer that. And if they would have invested their limited amount of capital in American Falls or over in Plymouth, you know, eventually they would have come around and made that investment in Hermiston. Uh, but not necessarily. I mean, Lamb Weston's in a downsizing scenario right now with all these uh uh taxes on imports and exports to Canada right now from the federal government. Lamb Weston's in a downsizing scenario. So, they're laying off like 5% of their global workforce right now. So it's not inevitable that those investments would have happened uh if not for the the enterprise zone exemptions. Uh meanwhile you know the other one Amazon web services you know what we know from the the hypers scale cloud computing industry you know they generally tend to develop a large portfolio of viable real estate options. Um I'm not saying that the enterprise zone exemption is the only reason why they locate here. Uh but when you're looking at developments of that scale and that complexity, uh there's all sorts of different variables that factor into that and it's a it stacks on top of each other. So they're looking for uh which potential property has the first and foremost the power capacity available. Uh then they're looking at what other um utilities are available and then multiple other things. Then they're looking what the tax structure is. And so you know all of the properties within that portfolio are receiving a score for which ones are the most viable uh for again receiving that limited amount of capital investment for that given year. So uh if not for those enterprise zone exemptions then our uh properties within Hermiston absolutely would have been dep prioritized and moved much further down the line in terms of future investment from the uh cloud computing industries. So again, that's why I can say, you know, wholeheartedly, I believe completely that if not for the uh enterprise zone exemptions, uh those investments would

not have occurred within uh the city of Hermiston. uh and actually so I guess the the uh the cost of uh the enterprise zone exemptions uh in one sense you could actually say it's less than uh 0 uh because in fiscal year 26 if not for the enterprise zone exemptions uh every single one of those districts actually would have received that much less revenue uh than they actually did because the investments would not have occurred and so in that scenario the Stanfield school districts would be $166,000 less revenue. The fire district would be $113,000 less revenue than they would have otherwise had. So, um I think that's important to keep in mind that not only have these not cost any uh tax revenues, but they've actually generated more revenue for local service providers uh than we otherwise would have seen. So, now looking forward at the Greater Herman Enterprise Zone, it sunsets on June 30th of 2026. Uh but what does that technically mean from a you know closing these things out? does not mean that on June 30th, 2026, all of a sudden Lamb Western fully goes on the tax roles or these Amazon campuses, you know, their enterprise zone agreement suddenly, you know, expire. Um because ultimately the the greater Hermiston Enterprise Zone as a program and our ability to grant new enterprise zone exemptions uh underneath that enterprise zone goes away. Uh but all of those long-term rural enterprise zone u exemptions, those are essentially contracts between those companies and the sponsors of the zone, which are the city of Hermston and Newella County. So, so we have those as contracts that will continue to run along their 15-year um life of the contract. Uh so those will continue to operate in the background even though the great herm Enterprise Zone has uh sunset. And then uh again we anticipate that the revenue dis dispersements um as directed by the

sponsors should likely remain the same. So then looking uh forward for a new um Hermiston enterprise zone um it's murky um you know it's impossible to say what uh the ramifications or impacts will be uh of adopting a new herist enterprise zone uh because I have no idea what the legislature is going to do next time they they meet. So, I would say we got saved by the bell this legislative session. Um, we did not anticipate uh so much talk to occur around the uh enterprise zone program uh this short session. Uh but the u the legislature uh included a provision that limits access to enterprise zone exemptions for uh data centers. Um I think they uh accidentally um missed the mark. I think they were targeting um the Elres programs, but they ended up limiting it to only uh the extended abatement programs. So um so we'll see what happens next year. Um but yeah, looking ahead next year, almost certainly we will see uh in my view uh additional restrictions on the long-term rural enterprise zone exemption program uh in the 2027 legislative session. So what got approved um is a one-year u moratorum on extended enterprise zone abatements. So those four and fiveyear programs and I think those uh the word mortorium sounds really good if you're a you know salaried government bureaucrat um because you think well you know it's great to take more time and think through these things but again in the world of uh you know the the cloud industry uh they're all trying to gain market share and make investments as quickly as they can. So, if we miss out on investments in 2026, it doesn't mean they're suddenly going to just sit around and wait until 2028. They're going to move on. They're going to invest in British Columbia or Northern Ireland or Indiana or somewhere else.

Um, and it's simply not going to come back to Oregon. So, so that's something that's out on the horizon. Uh, also important to keep in mind, it'll be interesting to see how um our first enterprise zone exemption uh negotiations go. Uh because since our last long-term rural enterprise zone negotiations, uh the cost of that program has doubled um with no additional benefit to local uh revenues uh because that state school support fee has been added on. Uh so that adds about $4 million a year uh to the Eltres program in terms of cost to the companies uh with effectively none of that actually coming back to the local taxpayers. So so we'll see you know that's just a right off the bat we're already got an extra $4 million in negotiating these things. So, some additional uh feature considerations. Um, important to keep in mind the fact that a data center is going to get built um in the Hermiston Enterprise zone is not inevitable. Um, we'll have to wait and see uh what the market what the market shows. Um, additionally, like I said, new Elres agreements are twice as expensive as they were just a few years ago with no additional money coming to the local uh taxpayers. Um but additionally you know things that are completely out of our control um uh power supply capacity you know that is a huge factor in uh data centers getting located in our region. Uh additionally additional state restrictions you know the the Oregon legislature if they wanted to uh could absolutely halt all hypers scale data center construction uh in Oregon with some fairly innocuous restrictions. So, we'll see where that ends up going over the next few years. Uh, and that's where I mentioned, you know, not not all incentives or disincentives are financial. So, uh, we'll see, um, how how much the state of Oregon makes doing business in Oregon for the data center

industry just more and more expensive. And so, uh, as the state makes that more expensive, it does have a factor in, you know, what that looks like for, um, enterprise zone negotiations for us moving forward. So looking um you know kind of what would be our strategy moving forward with future enterprise zone negotiations. Uh you know I think overarching you know our target is to at least get as much local revenue as previous keeping in mind that we're already $4 million a year behind where we were otherwise because the state's taking all of that money. Uh so we're hoping uh that we can at least increase the cost on future Elres recipients by $4 million a year. um and then maybe get more from there. Uh but then additionally um one of the benefits of um doing the enterprise zone the way that we are now with the city of Hermiston being the only um zone sponsor is uh that frees up a significant amount of revenue that otherwise would have gone only to county. And so we're hoping that uh we're making that a little bit more flexible will allow us to increase the amount of revenue that we dedicate uh in the revenue sharing formula to what we call the additional annual fee. And that's really the revenue that goes to all those underlying taxing districts. So we really hope to significantly increase in future Elres agreements the amount of revenue uh that goes to the other underlying taxing jurisdictions like the fire district, the city, the radio data district, the port, the mosquito control district, all of those other um taxing entities, we hope to to boost up what they receive in future enterprise zone agreements. Uh then additionally in terms of strategy uh moving forward uh with the hotel designation um the intention really is to add that hotel designation um and specifically only allow that to be offered for potential future hotel

developments in the downtown core. So um I still think you know some of you were on the council when we went through all the work to get the Holiday and Express uh built downtown. I still think that is the single most important uh investment and development that has taken place in terms of helping to uh support the downtown business community is development of that hotel and I think additional hotels that come into the community um going into the downtown core uh will be the the single best thing that we can do for our downtown core. So so that's really our strategy with the hotel designation and then uh I'll get to it later on. Uh I'm almost done. I promise I only got a couple more slides. Um then just additional strategy in terms of area I mentioned, you know, we can always expand the zone. Um so, uh when we're saying that we're limiting it to only being inside the city limits, I am not saying that we are completely closed off to ever expanding outside of the Hermiston city limits. So I think generally speaking my recommendation would be that we would be open uh to expanding the uh Hermiston Enterprise zone in the future if an opportunity presents itself probably to anywhere inside of the the Hermiston zip code uh really. So um so I think just getting that out there I think that's something that that we should be open to um and not shut off at this point. All right, I think this is the last slide. the next steps. Uh this evening we're asking for you to approve this resolution and it's pretty much done from that standpoint. You already saw that we took it to the the port commission. We already had discussions with all of the underlying taxing jurisdictions. Uh we got the school districts to approve their school support fee rate uh after this evening. Then we simply send it to business Oregon where they just simply review to make sure we've uh crossed all of our tees and dotted all of our eyes. And then beginning July 1st, then the new Hermiston Enterprise zone will be effective. Now I'd stand for any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you for the presentation, Mr. Morgan. I was really trying to hold off to the end of the presentation, but you pulled up the map again, and so that that's why I wanted to ask a question. So, if you could go back to the map with uh the enterprise zone. I just had a question about the other sections that are in the middle of town. you explained really clearly about the downtown and potentially wanting a hotel, but I see two other spots up there and and really like like as you discussed a lot of uh what we have planned, it might be either for a hypers scale data center, maybe it's another opportunity for like a lamb western or or a business like that. And so I can see that going on the outside and and the hotel is explained very well on on the downtown. But the other two sections, I'm curious, what are the thoughts on those two sections?

Yeah, so the thought on those two sections north of the downtown is purely that they're already zoned industrial. So, we just simply said we were going to apply the enterprise zone uh to all properties that are zoned industrial and then also the downtown commercial corps. So, so it's just simply because those are zoned industrial. A followup, please. Go ahead. And my followup would be that if I'm not mistaken, I think we have the North Hira up there, the urban renewal agency up there. So, can we have a an urban renewal agency layered on top of an enterprise zone? Yes. Okay. Thank you, Council Linton.

Okay. There's an article in Oregon Capital Chronicle. I don't know the date, but I think it's a recent one for this year where it says that the Oregon business I'm just going to do a couple excerpts. Uh property tax breaks cost schools $275 million last year that study finds. Um Oregon collectively lost $275 million to property tax abatements in 2024. and that's more than doubled. Also, it talks about um let me see here because I don't want to read the whole article that the district of her in Hermiston I believe it's talking about lost out on more than $16 million in local property tax revenue from tax abatements in 2024. So I would like to know with the property tax I think it's what 60% that they pay and they they are exempt 40%. Is that correct? And then is it how many years uh do they have left on the uh the current abatement that they're in?

So I believe you're talking just on Lamb Weston. Uh all of them including Amazon. Amazon is probably the biggest one.

Yeah. So so far in the greater Heriston enterprise zone, Amazon has only received one year of exemption. Um so so that's important to keep in mind. But I suppose um taking that apart a little bit, um Lamb Weston, the first one, uh their first year of exemption was in 2019. So I believe theirs probably runs through 2035. Beyond that, what I would recommend is going and just you can just Google Hermiston Enterprise Zone and the first page that pops up will be our page for uh that explains every single one of those exemptions. On that page, it actually lists the the dates that they um come back onto the tax roles. And also from that web page uh is a copy of the annual report. And so that annual report gets into the detail of every single one of those. And so, um, in that report, you'll be able to go and get all of that information, u more directly. Uh, and then, uh, one piece I would just mention, um, I, uh, completely disagree with the, uh, Oregon Capital Chronicles article, um, because again, that that was the slide that I mentioned, um, where you can't lose something that you didn't have in the first place. So I still I think it's a economics is a more of an art than a science in some uh one sense. Uh so I think they're claiming that those investments would have happened otherwise. So that's where they're coming up with that estimate of saying here's how much money was lost. Uh I believe that those investments would not have taken place. So, I don't believe that there was any property tax revenue lost because I don't think it would have been generated if not for the enterprise zone exemptions. I'm trying to make sure I understand what you're saying. You're saying that you don't believe that um Amazon would have come to this area and built

the 10 data centers that they built if they had not been given a property tax break of 40%. Is that thing? Okay. You think they would have gone somewhere else? Yes. Oh, you said that um Amazon has just one year left on their property tax break or No, they only have had one year of exemption. Oh, it was just one year of exemption. Okay. Would you intend to limit the amount of hotels? No. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, Roberts,

my question is also on the hotels. Um would it be valuable to open that up to um DL 395 like around EOTech around uh ranch and home where we're already seeing at least one hotel built? Um would that be something to consider? The reason why I would not um recommend that is because there is active interest in hotel developments in Hermiston. It is just much more expensive to do those developments in the downtown core. And so I think we could probably see additional hotels get developed down on the south end of 395 without these enterprise zone exemptions. But I think a lot of what we talk about, a lot of the feedback that we hear from folks is wanting to enhance the downtown and revitalize the downtown. And so I think if we have an opportunity to tip the scales and direct one of those investments that's already looking at the Hermiston market to make that investment in the downtown rather than out on the outskirts. I think this is our opportunity to do that because you know what we've accomplished with the holiday and express you know now it's it's almost fully occupied you know every night of the week and so that's almost 100 additional folks from out of the area that are coming and they're eating at these restaurants downtown they're going to the coffee shops those types of things so that's where I think having those hotel investments in the downtown is the best thing we can do for our downtown so that's ultimately the reason why I'm recommending it just for the downtown

other council questions And just to follow up on the downtown hotel, I guess would it would it be possible if a business wanted to come in and and do something that was mixed? So maybe let's just say I see these in in big cities all the time, but like you see a a high-rise, a couple of floors of the the bottom floor is uh a restaurant or a shop and then the top floors end up being housing. I guess would that be would that something like that be something that could come into the enterprise zone? I don't know that but we'll find out. Yeah. So the answer is not no but

I'm sure a component of it would probably be exempt but that would get that starts to blow the mind of some of our folks. So last chance for council questions counc. So I just want to understand this better the increased revenue that might be dedicated in the future to like the fire department um the radio district um the port and the vector would that be instead of the the schools and the other existing ones that is currently benefiting from the enterprise zone or is that in addition to

No, I mean I only listed those ones out but I think the schools would still be included. So ultimately what I'm recommending is right now with like say the data center uh programs if there's a a full campus at full buildout then the two sponsors the city and the county both get $2 million a year and then on top of that uh for the AAF uh then all of the underlying jurisdictions get some additional revenue based off of a certain value. Uh what I'm recommending is taking that $2 million that the county would have gotten and basically put that over into the AAF and distribute that across all of the underlying jurisdictions. So So instead taking what the county was going to get and take off to Pendleton and keep that with local districts here on the west side of the county. Thank you.

All right. Public comment. Have anybody in public? Good evening, Mayor Premer and members of the council, city staff. I was here 10 years ago when we were looking at that reestablishment or review of Enterprise Zone. I know I know who you are. Yeah, I am Scott Stan. I reside at 586 Southwest Cottonwood Drive. I am your fire chief for Umatillaa County Fire District 1, which our headquarter station is at 320 South.

Thank you, sir. So, the fire district, I want to make it clear. We are totally in support of economic development. Anytime we can create jobs, especially if they're a family wage job, to keep our kids and grandkids local from going away from Hermiston to keep them here working and them developing their families. That's good business. And so, we are totally in favor of that. I want to do I also want to applaud the city of thinking down the road if if and when those new companies or corporations come look at opportunities here that they're looking with not having to pay the county putting some of that back into the spatial districts uh going forward. Uh that would be good. Uh we obviously as I've you've maybe heard me say before is the fire district needs to grow with community too. Uh and so for instance, like Lamb Weston, you know, our fire marshall division, they were working with plan reviews, inspections, all that stuff before they even started building. So we're expending fees or costs of doing that. And it's based on our CI citizens and paying that bill. And for the record, we don't get anything for 15 years off Lamb Weston. And so I know the latest Amazon stuff, there's some infrastructure money that goes with the hosts and the county. It'd be nice if there's still infrastructure money. Maybe we could get some of that. Obviously, with our bond, we could not finish all the remodels we were wanting to. And with the cost of fire and medical equipment today, like ambulances and engines, they've gone through the roof. So, it's hard for us to keep up with our infrastructure when it comes to vehicles and and stations, too. Um, with that, it would just be my hope and I know we've always taken some great steps forward with that that when the time does come that the city is negotiating if and when with those corporations or companies that make sure they think about the downstream effects of hopefully funding the fire district better so that we also can grow with our

community members and still maintain that level of service uh for fire and medical stuff. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Hi, I'm Debbie Pedro and I am a citizen of Hermison. I live at 925 East Pine. Um, just a community member and supportive of our uh you and um your considerations and I really appreciate your uh presentation tonight. It was a very good mark. Thank you. Um, good evening, Mayor Pimemer and council members. I believe that there is a great opportunity here, especially now as the city is creating its new enterprise uh zone. I think that's really great. I want to kind of start off with um a few statistics on our Umatila County Fire District. They respond to 6,200 calls. 85% of those calls are medical. Um, our fire district covers 320 square miles. Uh, the ambulance covers 600 square miles. Um, they also cover over 37,000 people. It's a lot. Um, I want to thank our good men and women who work um, here locally. We're really lucky to have them. And um again, I think this is a great opportunity for the uh fire district to be included when you're looking at um funding um our our district. Uh the population is growing. Our workforce population is growing. Industry industrial um needs and safety needs are uh growing as well um as well now and into the

future. I believe that the city should city should consider when negotiating uh agreements especially with our big industry partners um that appropriate funding should be considered for a fire district. Um what happens when there are um tax deferments? Um the Hermiston continues to grow and um the fire district does not receive the funding that they desperately need to continue the safety and service that our community wants and needs and appreciates. I hope that the city will consider bringing uh Umatill County Fire District uh to the table in those negotiations and so that they can continue to serve in the quality of lifesaving and timely responses. Thank you so much. Good evening. Danny Hinton. I live at 858 East Newport here in town and I'm speaking on behalf of the uh International Firefighters Association local 2752. I am one of the Eboard members for our local union at fire district 1. Our union fully supports uh the responsible economic growth and I do appreciate the presentation that Mr. Morgan gave us tonight. Uh and we welcome new businesses, new jobs, and new opportunities for our community. Uh with that growth comes the increased demand on the fire and emergency services. And we see that every single day with our increased call volume.

uh and our members feel that effect every single day on those shifts and we work 24 hours. Uh when companies receive those enterprise zone tax deferrals, that fire district does not receive the revenue that it would normally help in expanding the staffing, the training and equipment needs for those calls. Yet, our firefighters still respond to every emergency, still carry out uh every inspection, still put themselves in harm's way every single day for those calls, even though we do not get that uh support financially from those tax deferrals. Um, we are asking that the fire district just be included in those future uh funding considerations, which it sounds like they are, especially if we can save that uh what was it 2.6 million from that would go to the county. So, I do appreciate those that forethought in that system. Um, but make sure progress is safe, sustainable, and fair. Our firefighters deserve to go home safely. Um, sorry. Um, and we just endorse that economic development, but we also need to have that funding at the level that we need to be able to operate. Thank you for your time and for valuing the safety of both our community and the people sworn to protect that community. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Other public comment councelor Linton has requested Oh, okay. Sorry, sir. Good evening. Uh, my name is David Hansen. I live at 1737 West Allelujah Avenue here in Hermston. As some of you are aware, I'm a member of the citizens budget committee. So, I I believe I may understand uh more than most members of our committee how hard it is to manage the city with limited revenues. Um, as a member of the budget committee, I'm actually delighted we are going into this enterprise zone and looking for a new enterprise zone. And Mark, thank you very much for being the the lead on that one. Um, on the long run, it will substantially bring more annual revenue directly into the city and expand the pool of taxpaying constituents, which is helpful for the city overall. So from what I've read in the existing enterprise zone documents were which is about as much fun as reading as having a double hernia um there was no carveout for major funds for the fire district uh from Lamb Weston and Amazon which obviously was a major oversight. Um, I therefore strongly recommend that as the city team is now again engaging in ongoing negotiation with Amazon and potentially others, they be directed by the city council to ensure that all new contracts have a major aotment of money set aside for the fire district so they can be allocated annually to provide uh paramedic and firefighting services to the new enterprise zone companies.

I can assure you that if I was an executive of Amazon or any other company considering locating in Hermiston, I wouldn't be building anything in the city's zone, the enterprise zone. If I knew the fire district protecting my assets was not funded properly to ensure there was necessary paramedics and firefighters and manpower and equipment to protect first my employees and the billions of dollars of company assets that I'm going to invest in our town. As counselors, please don't ever forget that the district's paramedics and firefighters are the same first responders that protect each and every one of us that are sitting here here in this room today, as well as all your constitu constituents that voted for you to make the right decisions uh on their behalf as well. So it's upon each and every one of the counselors to make sure the revenue coming from the enterprise zone also provide substantial funding for their our first respond first responder teams whose daily mission is to support the health and the wellness of our community and to pres to ensure our new enterprise zone is a valuable place to do business. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Any other public comment? Let's do the short one. Hi, I'm Luan Wolf. I am not living inside of the city limits. I live at 299 East Punkin Center right across the street directly in the Punkin Center is a dividing line. So I'm very very close.

But I think what you're hearing here is the fact that it comes down to responsibility. You have a responsibility to look at what is best for your community. And what is best for your community is that it grows, that it's healthy, that you have the services that the people need, the services of we have schools, we have a great hospital situation now. We have those are going well. But I watch the fire department. I bud I'm on their budget committee. I'm actually chairman of it. And I'm a farmer, so I know what it is to try to make budgets and try to make budgets work and try to make make things flow. Doesn't always work real well, but we try. But there comes a responsibility that you need to really look at to allow those people a seat at the table when you're making decisions that are going to impact the services that they're going to provide to you. And I ask for you carefully to consider that and give the fire district a seat at the table because they know what it is. They know what their costs are going up just like the costs of any business are going up and they need to be able to cover those. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any others?

Chief Stanton, would you mind? Uh, Councelor Linton had a question for you. I would like to know I would like to know has there been an increase of of how your service to Hermanston because I think before it was like 70% of the of your calls were to Hermiston. Has there been an increase?

Uh no we run about 80% of our calls were within the city limits of Hermanston. Now that goes up every year. as our call volume goes up every year, that ratio has stayed about the same as far as when we're in Hermanston. That's largely due to the the density of people live here and that's where the nursing homes and uh care centers are too. That's a big that's our number one uh loyalty customers is those those facilities. Thank you very much. Thank you for uh accommodating us, Chief. All right. Uh, council comments. Mr. Mayor. Sir. Uh, if I could interject real quick. Absolutely. I hate to break break the flow, but

uh, as Mr. Morgan went through his, uh, presentation, I realized that the resolution that I put together and put before the council was lacking a paragraph related to the hotels, uh, hotel designation. Uh, and I think it would be good if we could add that. I could amend it. I've amended the document. Uh and then uh I wanted to have that before uh council started their comments and discussion so you could have that to discuss. Okay. So you want us to table this then? No, we're ready to go. I will read you the amended uh language and and we'll be good to to have the council discuss.

All right. So uh in the recital of uh resolution number 2411 language has been added that says whereas the availability of enterprise zone exemptions to businesses that operate hotels, motel or destination resorts would help diversify local economic activity and facilitate the expansion of accommodations for visitors who in turn will spend time and money in the area for business, recreation or other purposes. And then consistent with that in the findings there will be a new number six which will say that the city will resolve that the city as a co as a sponsor of the enterprise zone exercises its option herewith under OS285C.070 070 that qualified property of and operated by a qualified business as a hotel, motel or destination resort shall receive the property tax exemptions in the zone and that such business firms are eligible for purposes of authorizations in the zone. This option only applies to the downtown core designation included within the zone and that will be the amended language.

Okay. So when it comes time we need to as amended as part of the as part of the motion. Yeah. Okay. Right. Council got all that. With that in mind, council comments. Councelor Broom.

Thank you, Mayor. Okay, here we go. Thank you, Mayor. Uh I did want to well, first thank uh all the public who came here and and commented. I I feel like there is a very common theme in in this uh commenting and that's the theme of growing responsibly. And so um I do want to point out um as uh Mr. Hansen uh pointed out about in the previous contracts uh not having something to support uh our fire um our our police and fire. In the latest contracts that we've had and the latest Elres agreements, we've included a public safety impact fee. Uh recognizing that there is a public safety impact as a result of big businesses and big investment and more people moving in. Uh and so that's been included in our in our latest contracts anytime that we've had anything uh with Amazon or any uh other hypers scale data center. And so I just wanted to address that um that uh we have included that there. Um now obviously we look at the breakdown and uh I guess what I want to say is that the city is going to do the best that we can in negotiating uh to make sure that we get the best products for our community. uh we've negotiated as cities and so multiple cities in our area have the same contract um making it a lot easier to negotiate with big businesses like Amazon and so the contract that a lot of our local communities are are taking part of or at least the uh the framework is that there is a public safety fee uh included recognizing that in the immediacy we have a need uh even though it's great that we're going to have this invest investment come into a near future. Uh the right now is we're we're still um we're still growing right now and there's still a huge need. Um I

did also want to comment just briefly on uh the moratorum that that's happened here at the state. Um and so I understand kind of what the state's trying to do. Um, but at the same time, this has introduced a lot of economic uncertainty in Oregon. And if we introduce economic uncertainty, investments will leave our state. And so, I it was great to hear that it doesn't look like it's going to hit the Elres agreements. Um, but any type of economic uncertainty is going to cause other companies to move their investments elsewhere. As you pointed out, Mr. from Morgan in your presentation. Uh I think if the state wants to to help our communities, they should help our communities directly. Uh they should help us negotiate at the table instead of taking economic opportunities away from local communities. um putting a pause on it uh and especially if they push a pause on all three phases, the the basic uh the extended and the eltres uh would really hamper our local community's ability uh to negotiate economically uh with big businesses. And so if the state wants to help out, then they should send they should send their people here to help us negotiate uh instead of uh quite frankly putting a pause because they don't know what to do. Uh and so um th those are my comments about that. I really appreciate um the people that came out uh to speak. Uh your concerns are heard and uh I don't think that that's a stopping point for us as a council. Uh we're going to continue to try to negotiate um fairly and aggressively on behalf of our community members and and I really want to thank the city uh for taking a lead on that. uh we have uh professionals that have been to national conferences regarding data centers and talked to other communities uh because a lot of communities are in the midst of trying to negotiate and trying to figure out

what's going on or I guess how to handle Amazon uh and you've seen the growth in our community um as pointed out in some of our previous contracts where we didn't include certain things. Uh and we're learning and we're growing and I think uh we're moving in the right direction. Um, I too have pushed the city to be aggressive in in negotiating with Amazon and I and uh, thus far I've been really happy with what I've seen. Um, we have a really good strategy. Uh, we've talked about enterprise zones and negotiations on countless council occasions. Uh, and so, uh, I I really like what we have going. Uh, I like the presentation and I appreciate everyone's comments. Thank you. Any other council comments ask questions?

Yeah. Um uh Mr. Mayor, may I comment to that comment? No. Okay.

Thank you. Um the city definitely we're we're we uh we negotiate we do the best that we can. I I see that we're you know by by cutting the county out we're taking we're taking a portion and being able to put that back where it it belongs. And so, and as as councelor Bone stated, you know, we're in in at least one of those contracts, there was a a mistake made, I think, and I think we've done our best to correct that in the future as as we've moved forward. Um, and once again, you guys have made your point very, very clearly that the fire department does need to be included and we all have heard that and we all I don't think there's a single person up here that doesn't agree with that. So with that um we are at the point does uh can I get a motion to adopt the the amended version of resolution 2411 and lay upon the record?

So moved. Second. Second. been moved by councelor McCarthy, seconded by councelor Meyer. Josh, I'm giving it to you. Okay. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

All right. Definitely appreciate everybody's everybody's passion in that. We understand where you guys are coming from and now the work starts. So, okay. Resolution 2412 approving contract award for purchase and installation of backup power generators for the regional water system. Mr. Smith and Mr. Morgan, please.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council, this is a contract that we've been talking about for quite some time. This is for the actual purchase of the uh backup power generators at the regional water system. Uh these are significant uh generators. There's uh really two locations for the the generators to be installed. Uh so we opened bids on that project uh for the purchase here uh last week. We received four bids. Um uh the engineer's estimate landed right in the midst of all of those four bids. And the engineer recommends that we accept the low bid from Newman Electric for $3,955,000. I'd stand for any questions.

Council questions. Council Roberts. Uh Newman Electric's bid is about 1.1 million lower than the uh than the engineers estimate. Um so kind of a two-part. Uh first off, have we done business with Newman Electric before? Um and then second is um that that 1.1 million is is significantly less than the other offers. So do we have any concerns that that it's been under bid at all?

Yeah. So that was uh certainly identified through the process with by Anderson Perry. I suppose to your first question. I'm not sure if we've done uh business with Newman Electric in the past uh but they're uh certainly uh qualified to do the job. Uh in uh going through the bid tab, Anderson Perry identified where the uh likely deviation originated from. So they followed up with Newman Electric uh explicitly called out uh the line item where they noticed the potential deviation and asked if they would still honor their um bid price uh to which they responded uh that they are comfortable still honoring their bid price. So So we're covered from that standpoint.

All right. Thank you. Other questions, public comment, council comments. Seeing none, can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2412 lay upon the record? So moved. Second. Been moved by councelor McCarthy, second by councelor Meyer. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Amended Harkin Rider Center facilities agreement with the senior board. Mr. Smith.

Yeah. Mr. Arts, please.

Yes. Uh, mayor city members of city council. Um, we have before you an amended agreement with the senior board. Um, there we go. Over the last uh two months, uh city manager Smith and I have met with the senior board to kind of go over the agreement that we had in place uh starting in 2014. So, this agreement would go ahead and replace that. A lot of the 2014 agreement uh had to do with the uh community development block grant that actually had the Arkan Rider Center built. And uh so that was um finished and uh we are now in year seven of having the Arkan Rider Center active and and going. And so uh this kind of just goes ahead and replaces um some of that language in there. So again, this uh updates the agreement uh kind of clarifies roles, responsibilities, and expectations between the city and the senior board. And uh our primary goal here is to ensure the facility can continue to serve the senior uh community through programming and community access into that uh facility. So kind of the structure uh that we are changing a little bit is uh through the senior center programs and our discussions uh the senior board uh would receive priority weekday daytime use uh for senior programs and meals 8:00 a.m. to 4 pm Monday through Friday. uh in our discussions with them, this uh seems to be the kind of the sweet spot for them on when they like to provide programming and it works out well for us as um as well. Uh anytime after that 4pm and on the weekends, parks and recreation would then manage the building if there were

any rentals, other programming going on, um things like that. And so uh with this the city would then maintain the master schedule for all rentals and we would make sure that uh because right now the seniors take rentals the city takes rentals basement and uh upper level and so the city would then be the master scheduler of all those rentals that were coming in. uh the seniors would uh maintain their their usage of their programming during that time, but any rental the city would then uh be able to administer. Uh some clarifications uh just on operations here. Um the city has been um maintaining most um the facility uh and all the responsibilities with that it um any kind of uh maintenance uh utilities the city's been responsible for that and will maintain uh that responsibility. Uh this kind of details out the the kitchen that the board has purchased and and operates. So that uh kind of sections that detail out that they maintain priority control over that. Um and there's some kind of safety expectations in there and responsibilities with that uh inside that building. But uh this also establishes clear access and circulation rules based on what's going on in the building. Uh we have two rental spaces. So making sure that rentals upstairs and downstairs have access in and out as they need to for u those programs. And this also just confirms the city retains ownership and oversight of the facility as a whole. Uh financial structure. Uh so with the

city overseeing all the rentals, uh the revenue split would be 70% to the city and 30% to the senior board. And that goes for every rental that goes on in there. And so it would be split. So there the seniors would still see uh rental revenue on that. um even though they don't have control over the rentals, uh we're still looking to support those programs uh and provide them with some revenue to bring those in. Uh a senior programming uh would be during the priority hours and remains fully retained by the board. Uh they run programs um like Taichi and and other balance things, other programs uh for seniors. they do a kind of a drop in uh pay what you can and so all that would be retained by the seniors to help uh fund those programs. Uh any city programs and activities that uh parks and recreation or other entities within the city um or departments uh would do in there that remains uh city revenue and again senior activities will remain senior revenue. and uh some items incorporated through our discussions. Uh we had we had great discussions uh going through and um you know just some back and forth on on how they've operated and what they'd like to see going forward. Um a senior program rental discount. So this uh wouldn't necessarily be for just a senior citizen coming in and renting the the event center, but it it's for dedicated senior programming. um you know senior type events um celebrations of life um uh you know birthday parties um anniversaries of you know the senior caliber you know 50 plus years things like that it's for those

senior related events uh the city would honor some legacy community rentals that they currently have ongoing including the American Legion monthly meetings uh the Lions Club does some things in there like points there to pick up. So, we want to make sure that uh we're taking care of those things that the senior board has established and uh the senior board uh would like to have some events outside of their normal hours. Um and so just wanted to create some space in there. Um overall, this is just going to increase our communication and be able to provide back and forth uh things that are needed within that center. Let's see. And so finally, um, you know, the whole goal of this agreement was just to provide, you know, clear operational expectations, uh, continuing the support from the city to, um, support those seniors and their programs going forward. and we want to make sure that uh things aren't um tricky when we're we're trying to rent out the building for different uh community events and and private events and things like that. So the city will maintain the the master schedule and be able to uh facilitate that as needed. So, uh, with that be open to any questions.

Questions. Councelor Linton. Um, I would like to know, thank you for your report, but I would like to know, uh, what is the percentage of rental rate for the downstairs since the city's in charge of that? Yep. All rentals will be a 7030 split upstairs and downstairs.

Yo, not the cost. I mean, how schedules, how many uh people have actually rented the downstairs since the city has been in charge of it, like 10% or of the month or I I don't have those numbers. Um, since we've been going with rentals over the last uh nine months, uh, we've been seeing it consistently used um, mostly every other weekend with with different private parties and things. Um, again, I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but uh, it's being used consistently. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Kelsey.

Yeah. Thank you for your report, Brandon, and thank you for the negotiations that took place with the senior board. In the past, my understanding is that the senior board has had trouble adhering to the contract in terms of the number of meals provided per week. I see that that number is lowered to two now. um what is your level of confidence in their ability to continue to perform even that level of service going forward?

Yeah, I that's a great question uh and something that we talked uh at length about. Um they are capable of doing two meals a week. Um we've asked them in the initial uh coming back with this document to uh increase to three, four, maybe five meals and they pushed back on us saying do you want to go to the same restaurant five days a week. Good point.

And uh they came back with as well as there's other programs uh throughout the region. So, the Stanfield uh senior community center, um Ian Senior Center, there's other places doing these types of meals and the the senior community likes to go out and go to these different places. Um yeah, there's meals on wheels. There's there's other things out in the community and so um they feel it's in the best interest of everyone involved to to not um you know increase. uh there's the option to increase, but with those other things out there, um they think it's the best just to stay at two for now and uh allow the seniors to kind of go around and and visit other places.

Okay. And both the city and the senior board feel that that's sustainable. Two meals a week is sustainable, performable. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yes, ma. Thank you, Brandon and Byron, for negotiating that. I'm I'm I know that it was a test of your um negotiation skills. That being said, um they used to have a bus. Do they still have that bus that they could take the seniors around to different They don't have a bus, but we have a bus. We actually own the senior bus now. Oh, okay.

And it's available to use for them and for us. and uh our staff is currently looking to uh increase some some trips and and to provide some of those. So um we took ownership over that bus when the senior when the Harkin rider came on board and uh it's available to use and and if they need to use it, they can. Um and they also have a a van, an accessible van that they do their meals on wheels and and have transported seniors around. But um it's available and and ready to use if if they'd like to use it. Well, I thought if they, you know, wanted to go to these other cities to have lunch and stuff, maybe the um bus could accommodate that. I don't know.

Yeah. And we kind of talk about that offline and and uh they don't have any kind of um volunteers for that. Okay. or even a bus driver. But um again, it's available and and if that need arises, then we could certainly look at doing something for that. Thank you. Yeah.

Any others? Public comment. See none. council comments. Okay, I will um you know I was I was uh asked to assist with uh one of the negotiation sessions um and uh Brandon hit every everything that they said. You know, the big deal was is that they wanted the city to take over the the rental part of things, you know, the the scheduling and such. They asked for that. We had, you know, they were at at the time when we started, they only had four days a week from uh 8 to three and we bumped it up to five days a week, 8 to five, 8 to four. So, you know, we're doing that. Then we, you know, they're getting they're getting money from every rental as opposed to just the ones that they schedule. So, you know, I I think we're I think we came across I think we came up with a very very good uh system here. And I think that that both both uh entities are going to benefit from this. You know, that having having that, you know, the the fear was that we were trying to take it away. And I think that that we showed that it was just the opposite. We're trying to we're trying to make this a a situation that works for everyone involved. And so I'm really proud of the work that that both Brandon and uh Mr. Smith uh did on this. and and so I'm with that I'm going to ask is there a motion to adopt the agreement as written.

So move second. Uh councelor Don on the motion to move on the motion and councelor McCarthy on the second. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. This is one of those I wished I could have voted on too because I would have said yes really really loud. Okay time no uh committee reports. You have any committee reports? Uh you skipped the last item. Did I skip? Oh go setting. Good lord. Skipped right over that one. Yeah. Adoption of the goal setting report. Mr. Smith. Thank you.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So, this is a report coming out of your January 22nd, 23rd um discussion about council goals uh here held here in city hall. And um you know, we've had a lot of success with these and I I think we continue to to do a lot of uh good work in those u retreat settings and and have an opportunity to look into the future. Um, I just wanted to point out there are uh in the last week there's been three of those goals really we've made some progress on on them in three of them in this meeting. One of them uh earlier today and so uh the TSP we took some steps forward in adopting that. That's one of the goals. um market rate housing incentives and work on that. The hub broke ground today uh on the uh project at um uh uh diagonal and 10th and then the senior center agreement just now and then the charter review last week we um the the committee made a recommendation that we'll be bringing forward to the city council. So um continue to work on and implementing those goals and and working together So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions, but also uh request the approval of the report as presented. Council questions. Seeing none, public comment. Seeing none, council comments. Council Roberts also mentioned in our infrastructure.

Uh I think we've closed that finally, but yeah, we're ready to bring that information back to the council soon. So, we're still taking steps on some other things that are are out there. So, it was a great session and I'm excited to want to read through that list and see the work going forward. Great drum.

Um thank you. I just wanted to make a comment on the report. I really liked how um they highlighted all of the goals and all of the action items underneath each of the goals. I think it's pretty clear and I um I was very happy to see the change in the format. Um and of course, you know, I'm happy to see that uh we're making progress on all of the goals and thank you for bringing this to our attention. Sir Kelso.

Yeah, I appreciate the the value of the the goal setting session, but one of the things that I valued the most about it was getting to know my colleagues up here on the bench and um I really appreciated the entire process of how we deliberated and had frank exchange of views at some points, but really got to know each other better and um I think grew our relationships and we'll make better decisions for the city um as a result. So, thank thank you and thanks to the city for putting that together for us.

Yes. Well said. Any other council comments? It was a great session. We got we got a lot accomplished during that thing. And one of the one of the biggest takeaways for me is the wind is dumb. We still need those t-shirts. be my tattoo. That That's one of the unwritten goals. Don't Don't worry. It there's there's something there. I won't mention it.

There's something there. Inside joke, but we'll tell you because, you know, it was public. One of our one of our esteemed uh staff uh loved the city, but his statement was that the wind is dumb. And we all agree. But in any case, we we won't we won't put that person out there in front of everyone as far as he knows, but he may or may not be present. Anyway, uh okay. Can I get uh a motion to adopt the 2026 uh council goal setting report as presented? So moved. Second. Council Duron and Council Roberts. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

All right. Motion passes unanimously. Now, committee reports. Anyone has Roberts? I have two reports for you. Uh on 25th of February, I attended the library board meeting and um they unfortunately lost one of their fairly newly hired staff, but since then they have already uh hired to replace that person and also filled one of their vacancies. Um so hopefully it was supposed to be March 2nd for those two people to start. Um so hopefully we have two new people on board. Um they had their first Little Wigglers story time which is 0 to3 age. Um and they had uh 16 people attending that which they thought was pretty good. Um but they also held their first baby rave which was the 0 to four year olds. Um and they had 82 people attend

that event. So um in the past they would say 30 is good. Um so they had 82 which was very very exciting. um 82 babies or 80 that's my understanding is 82 children. Wow. So

um they said it was a very packed place. So um and then uh planning ahead they're uh still working on the strategic plan. They've partnered with uh the Oregon Trail Library District in Mororrow County to help facilitate that. Um their director is going to be helping us out on that. So um uh Mr. is going to be looking to put together a a team to uh walk through the uh strategic plan. So, uh stay tuned on that. And then on March 4th, I attended the library, I'm sorry, the airport uh meeting. Uh again, fuel sales are looking good. Actually, fuel sales are up uh because we've had such warm weather and a terrible winter, which uh on one hand is bad for for things, but for flying, I guess it was been really good. people have been flying a lot more. Um, especially unfortunately though, Lifellight, they've had a lot more uh calls for Lifellight. Um, so they've been very busy is is what I was told. Um, on exciting news for us as a city, all of the hangers are filled. All the leases are in place. Uh, and there's still a waiting list. So, um, that is good news for us. They have about 50 planes on the field right now um being housed there. Um going back to fuel recently, there is kind of a a thing to watch for is that because fuel costs are going up everywhere. Um we we might see an increase in our expenditures for for fuel purchases. Um so just keep that in the back of your mind that fuel is going up everywhere. They're looking at about an 80 cent a gallon increase could be very feasible in the near future. Um, so when we look at the budget and we see that, we shouldn't be surprised. But also, fuel sales are looking good, so hopefully that'll offset. Um, and then finally, the last thing that they're going to be looking at is what to do with derelict planes. Um,

there's a couple of planes out there that have not flown for a while. They used to be in hangers and now they're they're parked outside. And so they're discussing um what the options are for either charging for for holding those outside um after a certain time. Um how do we deal with it and and either get the planes removed or encourage the the owners to uh to actually take action to to get them where they need to be. And so there's a lot to that. That's just the the kind of summary part of that. just know that uh that they're looking at what to do to keep our airport from being a an airplane dumping ground. So, um very exciting stuff at the city uh at the library and the airport. So,

excellent. Others councelor Linton wanted to make a comment the airport the one of the mechanics is in his early 80s. He's in good health. I'm just saying if anyone knows anyone that would like to learn how to be an airplane mechanic, this is a good time because he you'll learn a lot from him. So, if you know anybody that's interested, pass that along, please. Other council committees.

Well, I got two. Uh, we had, as Mr. Smith uh mentioned earlier we had the charter review committee uh last Wednesday. Um finished product is coming to us soon. Um I it was an excellent excellent work deal session. I believe even for that session that uh almost the entire council was there to there was there was only one person who didn't show up. So that's was you know I mean we kept them separated. So there was the quorum rule was followed but you know I mean we didn't let anybody sit too close to none of us talked but uh it was a great thing a lot of

Yes. Yes. It was sweating there for a moment I think but uh no it was a it was a great uh it was a great

uh conversation a lot of lot of good ideas. I think I think the city will be happy with with the final with the final product that we come up with. So, and then uh also we had uh our second uh chart or uh finance committee meeting tonight uh city finance and we were presented with a plethora of information. We've got we're starting now to look at some of the bigger expenditures as as uh anything over $50,000. We're getting a a quarterly look at what those what those costs are, what they're going towards. And so, you know, the, you know, it's it's not that we weren't being uh transparent before, but now we're we're as a as a council, as a committee, we're taking a little bit closer look at at at the co, you know, where the money's going. So, you know, that's we're doing that just for you guys to make sure that you, you know, know that we're doing our best to make sure that that money is being spent like it's supposed to. Not that it wasn't, but you know, that that there's a there's a double check basically there. Um, and then there may be minor minor changes to the the format of the of the uh uh financial report. Not a whole lot of change, but you know, he's asking for or uh suggestions if you think there's some part of it that that's uh could be different. By all means, have a chat with Mr. Palacios. And uh I was like I said was real happy with with the way the the meeting went and look forward to uh that in the So all right. So next up uh mayor's report. Okay. Um as a reminder we have the distinguished citizens uh banquet coming up on the 18th. If you haven't uh if you're planning on going

if you haven't done so already, get a hold of Lily. Um NLC next week in DC, there's a few of us going to that. Uh we had that as as Mr. Smith mentioned earlier, we had the groundbreaking earlier at the at the hub. I was unfortunately unable to make that due to uh traveling in between here in Seattle. So, um, we got Booster Club, uh, steak feed and auction coming up on the 15th and looks like the daddy daughter dance coming up on the 21st. So, anybody that's interested in those things, please, please, please make your city proud. All right, council president report. Thank you, mayor. I got to for the first time uh, attend the campus life fundraiser. I saw a couple of I think councelor Kessle was there, councelor Hayward was there, um, and a few other people that I recognized and that was the first time I'd been able to do that. So, it looks like they had a good evening. There were some items that went for some pretty pretty decent amounts. So, I'm congratulations to them. Um, I also want to remind everyone that you have until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow to file your statement of candidacy by filling out form SEAL 101. And then tomorrow's the last day to do that. So, we'll see you I'll see you again in uh May for election night.

There it is. All right. The form. Fill out the form. Fill out the form. It's free to do. You can do it online. Fill out the form. Those those of you that have already done so. Thank you.

All right. Council reports. Any other any council reports? Council Burrell. I actually wanted to just make uh two things, but first of all was to make a correction on myself on the record. Earlier I mentioned about the public safety impact fee and about those resources going uh to public safety in which it does, but it primarily fully goes to the fire district. So it's a public safety fee impact fee, but it doesn't go to our police department. It just purely goes to the fire district. So, I mean, it's called public safety impact fee, but I just wanted to be very clear on what what that actually meant. Um, and, uh, the other thing is, um, as I'm sure all you already know and watching the news, uh, is, um, I would like, uh, to keep our armed service members in our thoughts and prayers, uh, uh, for what's going on right now in the world. Uh and so we're in the midst of a lot of complex times and uh there are going to be a lot of reverberations that are going to be happening amongst our country. Um and so I just uh keep the service members in our thoughts and prayers but we will see impacts here on our country whether it's fuel cells or anything that has to do with petroleum products. uh things are going to start to change a little bit but uh I think the most important thing uh for us uh is is to keep those members in our thoughts and prayers because there's a lot of uncertainty uh and so just wanted to mention that. Thank you sir.

Others

you can this is said this is this is where you do it. Sure. Okay. I wanted to bring up uh for discussion to the um council members to think about um increase in the uh I don't know what you would call it a salary or stipen that we receive. So I would just like to bring that up for tonight and then maybe doing in the future we can have a discussion on that. Thank you. That would need to be you guys voting on that if if you want to have a discussion in the future.

Okay. So, you're making a motion that we dis bring bring a uh discussion of a raise for the council. Okay. Oh, yeah. Discussion. Um, is that something that we would incorporate in our budget uh upcoming budget hearings? It would need to be, but what when you do that, it it doesn't apply until you're reelected, basically. So, you can't vote yourself a raise tomorrow.

It has to be after the next election. So, but yes, um it it could be incorporated if you had that discussion prior to the budget. It could be incorporated into our budget for next fiscal year. Okay. As for as a follow-up to that, that would not apply to this year's current ward elections because of when that election cycle is and also the budget meeting happening around the same time. Correct. Well, if you approved it before Yeah, I'll get back to you for sure on when that would apply. So, what we what we're voting on right now is whether you want to talk about it again,

whether we want to discuss this at a more detail at the at an at a future meeting. Right. Okay. So, I have a motion to discuss it at a future meeting. I have a second. Second. Okay. Motion by by Councelor Linton, second by Council McCarthy. Roll call. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Motion passes. Uh five to two. Two to five. Motion passes. Five to two. Five two. Yeah, you can count. That's correct.

I can't count. I only got so many fingers. Okay. Two and a half years left. All right. Motion passes five to two. Okay. Any other council comments? Councelor Kelso.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. I also had the opportunity to attend the campus life fundraiser on Saturday and um I had a great time. My wife and I did. And I just always when I go to these community events, I'm always um just so impressed with how our city turns out for the youth. If there's ever a perceived need for our kids in town, people will show up and give money. um rebuilding Funland three times for example and u heroes and all of the things that we do for kids in our town. Um there's never really a problem raising money for those things. So I just wanted to say that my wife and I both came away impressed from that event um for how giving people were for to help the kids of our of our town. Uh the other thing is I was able to go to the groundbreaking ceremony for the hub apartment complex this afternoon and was able to meet the developers. They are local to Oregon. They're a family-owned company and um I found that kind of neat. They're from the Cambi area, right down the street from where I grew up, basically. and um they're just very nice people and very well-grounded. And I think this is a great opportunity for the young people in our town who can't afford a house but need an affordable place to live here in Hermiston um while they start their careers. And hopefully it will attract people and keep people in our town and keep them from moving away um as they grow up and and instead of growing up and leaving, they'll grow up and stay and um continue to invest in our community. So, I thought that was a great opportunity and um I just applaud the developers for coming to our town and and the city for making that happen for our city staff to make that happen. So, thank you. That's my comment.

Any others, Council Drum? I just want to thank our city staff for all of the reports that they are putting together. um they're very thorough and I think um most of the time they are able to answer a lot of our questions that we might have. So, thank you so much for for the presentation that you did last week um going through the charter review process and again tonight. I appreciate it.

Any others? Councelor Roberts? Uh briefly, I was uh attended a recent board of commissioners meeting and in their uh opening they had a young lady, her name is Evelyn Hayes. Uh she's with the Pendleton High School. She's going to state FFA speech board and she gave a tremendous speech. I was super impressed. And the reason I mention it here is because I know we have local FFA and I was hoping that uh if anybody gets wind and the council was was okay with it if they wanted to come and practice because that was the whole idea for her to go there is they wanted to give her as many speaking opportunities and they approached the broto commissioners and got it on the agenda. So something to keep in mind that um to help support our youth we could um continue to support our youth. And I know we do other things as well, but um if we had somebody who wanted to give a presentation like that um I just thought it was a tremendous opportunity for her. So that's the only reason I mentioned it. But um good luck Evelyn. So

yeah, I'd be happy to have her come give us a small presentation short. I think she was going to Redmond soon for the competition. I I would have to look back and see what the date is, but Okay. Yeah. All right, councelor M, you're the only one that's got left, huh? You got anything? No. Okay. All right. I may figure everybody else had a shot. So, if I could give you We have no youth advisor, so Mr. City Manager, you've covered all the ones I had ready for you. So, all right then. With that, we are adjourned.