City Council - Regular Meeting

It's now 6 o'clock, and I'll call the meeting to order. Clerk, please take the roll call.

Mayor Frederick.

Here.

Councilmember Elliott. Here. Councilmember Walton. Here. Councilmember Gassick. Here. Councilmember Wargo. Here. Councilmember Burrow. Here. Councilmember Thakur. Here. And Deputy Mayor Winkler has asked to be excused.

Council Member Wargo. I make a motion to excuse Council Member Winkler.

Council Member Elliott. Do it again.

I'll second that.

Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, say aye. Oppose? Deputy Mayor Winkler was excused. Thank you. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,

Next is the time for public comments, excluding new business and public hearings with the three minute time limit clerk. Has anyone called in or emailed in?

No.

Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak? Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. Council Member Wargo.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the agenda for July 28, 2026.

Council Member Thakur.

I second.

Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? The agenda is approved. The first thing tonight, item 6.1, is our executive session. That will be for 30 minutes, and this is to discuss litigation under RCW 42.30.110.

Mr. Mayor, state how long you're going to be in that executive session. Yeah, I said 30 minutes. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

The water.

Yeah. All this. Yeah. Yes.

The executive session is now concluded, so we'll move on to item 7.1, a briefing for the Paddleton Esqualisee Medicine Creek Potlatch, Healing Through Our Waters by Honoring Our Ancestors. And our city administrator will give us a briefing on this.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I do want to do a briefing on a kind of go over a press release we did, but I also want to make this if there's any questions along the way, the Council has, please feel free to interrupt or have conversations. I'm going to have Carrie bring up a map that we have. um you know and working with the tribe and i know there's a lot of information on here but i kind of want to focus on on some of the things happening as we go along so just for the community and everyone who may not be familiar this friday july 31st we are honored to be partnering with our friends within the squally indian tribe and hosting the canoe ceremony landings at the beaches along the sequaletry trail creek creek trail apologize This is part of a longstanding intertribal tradition that brings together indigenous nations from throughout the Pacific Northwest. This annual gathering is a deeply meaningful and cultural event that celebrates tradition, history, resilience of the Northwest indigenous communities. During this canoe journey, tribal members participate in traditional songs, dances, gifting ceremonies, shared meals, storytelling, and other cultural practices that strengthen relationships and honor generations and traditions. What's important to know is that they have tribes coming all the way from northern Canada. There have been boats on the water since July 12th. Currently about 70 different families will be coming in with additional support and canoe boats as well. So expect quite a bit of things. So just from an overall view, if you look out here right now, you're going to see some of the, or if you've been on the Sequality Trail, some of the work already happening right now. Sandy cans were delivered. If you've been down the trail, there's been work and cleanup on the trail. On the beachfront, there's been a lot of cleanup on that, and there's a viewing area down there as well. So there's also some ski fencing, if you will, in some of the areas just to try to provide additional safety. so um just from general information the city hall parking lot on the 31st will be closed to the public that is a big part of this is tribal elders so this is going to be an elders and vip parking out here we are going to have parking to the south here in our gravel lot the tribe will be working with the city to um to navigate and to direct people into that if we have an overflow we'll be we're advising people um to go to powder works park of course the local community members if you can if you can walk here that would be that would be better just to try to deal with traffic. Throughout the course of the day, we expect about 6,000 people to be on site. There are some other areas as well. Solo Point is another area that's a closed off area, not open to the public, but another one is gonna be a soft landing at the beach in Steilacoom. That's gonna happen in the morning. So if other people want other locations, so they're trying to sort of divide it out if you wanna see the canoes come in as well. So the activities will take place throughout the day with the main canoe landings happening, still being a little bit debated, but between 12 and six, so noon to 6 p.m. is the index of time. That's in line with when there's gonna be a negative tide out. We will have a farmer's market that will be set up in the front lawn right here of City Hall. And then the parking spaces that are the closest to City Hall are gonna be food trucks as well. So food trucks in that, that'll be happening from noon to 7 p.m. So basically, we're kind of moving our farmers market here. There will be some tribal vendors here as well, fry bread and some other tribal information here. There will be information boosts. There's going to be security throughout the area. and also there will be tents for first aid and that in case there's any sort of thing. We are expecting decent weather right now, 83 degrees is expected to be the high, so not the 95 or 100 we had last week, which I think was one of their big concerns as we go through. This room will be used for tribal elders for viewing, so the TVs will be available for closed circuit. For the public, the EOC across the way, which is in between our police and fire, will be open to the public again for people who don't want to go down to the beach to be able to watch a closed circuit landing of that. We do anticipate the trail is going to be heavily trafficked from people and also for tribal elders to get down the mile and a half. There's ATVs. Some of those are being delivered and are currently in our police parking lot. to take down tribal elders who want to go down to the viewing areas. Down in the viewing area, there is an area for the tribal families to attend, and then there's a public viewing area. They are asking to make sure that if you are not part of the tribes to be respectful and stay into the viewing area designated for The community, they do want this to be a community event. They do want to share their traditions. They just want to be mindful of letting the families, as they refer to the tribes, to have the best viewing areas as literally their families come in for this long journey. We also just want to say that We really, there's gonna be a tour of the 1843 Fort site. There's information on our website right now. Those tours happen at 1030 and 130. So just additional cultural things that are happening. And we do anticipate throughout the course of the week, we'll still get more information or more deliveries and things coming in as people see these items as we get ready for that with Friday being the biggest day. There will be cleanup happening prior to that, but a bulk of the cleanup will be happening over the weekend. And even on Monday for the tribe, this is just a kickoff for a week-long event for them. So they're hosting additional events down in the Esqually tribe where all of these families, including other families, are going to be coming down and camping and participating in cultural and heritage events throughout the course of the week. I think they do plan on inviting some community members and council members. So as I get more information for that next week, I will let you know. So I think I've covered most everything with this, but I'm happy to answer any questions you have or comments or other things involving this event.

Council Member Barrow.

I just have a couple of questions. You're going to close off the parking lot here for the vendors that are bringing in and going to set up. I know for our vendor booth that we're going to be hauling cases of water how close can i get and how soon are you going to block the parking lot so amy will be reaching out to set up you know in advance but we will be allowing access for the vendors to come in during that during that period great thanks council member walton

Hey, super excited, Keith. You mentioned Santa cans coming down, things like that. Will there be easy access to garbage cans? I imagine people, given that 12 to 6 will bring, I mean, I go down, I was just down a few days ago, there's just, people are not always very respectful. And when you have that many people, how do you foresee being able to have easy access for people to pick up?

Yeah, there are going to be sandy cans, of course, same thing with trash cans throughout. There will be a delivery of trash receptacles that will be in the police area as well as a main area, so collections to be able to go for the overflow of trash. The tribe will have members and will have members of staff who will be working on just maintaining the trash, if you will, along the way. So there will be trash receptacles all throughout the area. On the trail itself would be at the top of the trail and the bottom of the trail is where those will be. Same thing with at the end of the trail will be a medical tent, an informational tent as well. And there'll be sandy cans at the end of the trail as well. We discussed having them along the trail, but decided it'd be better not to have that.

I'd say most on the beach areas where most that would be then. And so the garbage will be picked up, spread out fairly often during that whole event.

Yeah, and there are refuge containers that are bringing in multiple large refuge containers just in anticipation. Those will be stored, like I said, in the police area. But that trash is a big concern and working to make sure that the sandy cans, I think there's 25 in total, you know, our trash is kept up and also any sort of issues with toilet paper and things like that.

And last question, you said arrival, it's hard to do when your canoes 12 to six, is there any way that the city could put out an estimated arrival of 3pm? I mean, if people I mean, the whole point is to see the canoes arrived, you know, if there's any way to connect with the tribe, and let's say they're in still like they're an hour and a half away. I don't know how to do that, but I really don't want people to go at noon and then you've got kids and you know, you miss the whole event. Is there any way to maybe make that a little bit more efficient with like a city message sent out?

Yeah, the tribe isn't here tonight. They're having their last meeting with the paddlers. So the information we had today is they are anticipating the first canoes will arrive at 12 and be done at 6. Got it. That's really the time frame that they're trying to keep this in that relates to the negative tide that's going to be in. They want to do it during the negative tide period and before the higher tide comes in. I think there was some pushback about different times, but Hanford McLeod, who's running this, has said, no, we're going to set up. And that's also what they're going to use. If you go down to Stelicum, that's an area for them to sort of meter because they know how much distance is left. It's also a chance for you to put on your regalia, make sure your boat looks good before the final half hour paddle, which is what they anticipate the timeframe coming from Stelicum to here will be. And then also to kind of meter and coordinate The canoes will come in and do a circle before the main canoe comes in. You'll see support canoes out there as well. Make sure I don't say boat, canoes out there. And then there'll be a ceremonial landing and a gift exchange and then kind of a coordination. And generally what they're going to try to do is the families or tribes that are coming from the furthest areas, so the ones coming from Northern Canada will be the first to arrive and the ones from closer areas will be one of some of the last ones to come in at the 6 p.m. timeframe.

Council member Thakur.

So we are talking about the arrivals of canoes, but also whatever arrives has to depart. So I don't know when all the how many canoes are coming in and when are they going to depart from here? and the time between arrival and departure, if they are parked at this area or location. I don't know. I'm just clarifying.

You have a great question. So if I'm pulling the curtain back a little bit, while this is a ceremonial landing in the landing area for the elders and for the tribal recognition and ceremonies and speeches, the actual canoes will be taken out at Solo Point. So Solo Point is going to be the area where the canoes will be taken out of the water and put onto to different areas to transport them back to the tribes. So here is the ceremonial landing, but then some of them, they will take the canoes, actually paddle the canoes down to take them out of the water at Solo Point.

Council Member Gassi.

Will there be seating available down at the water or no?

There will not be seating for the public down there. There will be seating for the tribal elders down there.

Is there transportation for disabled persons that want to see it that are not tribal?

We could definitely talk to the tribe, seeing if we could use some of the ATVs for those kind of things as well. So yeah, I'm happy to reach out about that.

Just curious.

Yeah.

Thank you. Any other questions for Keith? okay well seeing none we'll uh move on to the new business item 8.1 is a memorandum of understanding between the dupont emergency services foundation and the city of dupont and uh if you haven't heard about this before keith will give you a kind of a thumbnail sketch of it a overview of what's going on and then we can we can vote

Yeah, this is just a new group that's coming together, the DuPont Emergency Services Foundation. This is a group that's coming together to help support our emergency services to our police and fire. Pretty common to see these in different cities, had one in previous cities. Basically, their mission is to help support emergency services. They look to do a community engagement in education, do fundraising activities and special projects and enhance public safety and preparedness. work with our police chief and our fire chief and already have just in terms of ways that they can support additionally our police and fire services so and then do public outreach and messaging out there just to help get a good relationship between our emergency services and the community. So just a simple minimum of understanding. This has gone through legal counsel review. What before you is what's been approved with that. And so I'm really happy to answer any questions as this is a new organization, a 501C3 coming in with the mission of supporting.

Any questions for Keith on this? Okay. Well, I'll entertain a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding. Council member at the court?

I make a motion to approve the memorandum.

Council member Walton?

I second that motion.

Is there any further discussion on it? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote on that. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Okay. The memorandum of understanding has been approved. The next item is mayor's report and comments. I don't have anything further. Do we have any council member reports tonight? Council member Walton.

Yeah, two things really quickly. I really appreciate the information that's been coming out from the city, particularly around the arrival of the canoe journey. It's been very detailed, very specific information about what's happening on the trail. So all of you collectively from the city that have been doing that, thank you. I read it as someone who pretends I don't know. And it's just been really well done. And it's just been a consistent message. So thank you for that. It's been very, very clear. And then lastly, I had a chance to go to a soft opening, Rob and Christina Jones, South Sound Taps on Wilmington. Great little place. Nice young couple. Grab a pizza somewhere or some Mexican food, go in, have a cider. I tested the ciders out just because I served my community and wanted to make sure it was all good. really really good um my brother had some beers out of an act of service as well um but anyway it's a great little place um very warm very engaging um so if you get a chance i think they're opening grand openings on the 30th july 30th but nice young couple and great place to go and gather in community so council member barrel

Hi, I have quite a few little things I want to mention. First off, on July 31st, yes, the museum is doing the tours the two tours that Keith mentioned, but we're also doing over at the museum that day kids crafts that are related to tribal history, and so we have several crafts and will be open from 10 to four that day as well, so if anybody wants to head over that way we've been working on our crafts all week and getting them prepared. And then on August 1st, the Patriot Landing has their Hot Rods for Heroes coming up. And if you get a chance to go over there, that's a great event to check out. Then on August 5th, over at the home course, the chamber, let me get this right, the chamber is going to put on any, come on phone, okay. a small business forum presented by the DuPont Chamber featuring Kelly Chambers, the Pacific Northwest Regional Administrator of Small Business Administration. She's hosting this at the home course on August 5th at 8 a.m. And it's being sponsored by Basel Light. And I really recommend that if anybody's interested, that's a really great opportunity to meet somebody in the leadership role in the state. And lastly, on August 8th, we have Dino Day at the museum and we have a full day of activities for families and kids to come visit. We also have the Burke Box. So the Burke Museum is giving us their dinosaur box. And so that'll be really fun to explore. That's what I have to. Oh, and I want to say thank you for the vote of confidence in the memorandum of understanding for the DuPont Emergency Services Foundation. You will see us throughout the city promoting the things that we looked for to get for the city police and fire. We're going to be at the barbecue. We'll be at several other events here within the city. So thank you very much.

Council Member Elliott.

Yeah, just quick announcement that August 6th is the date that cars who have been, cars and trucks who have been sitting on our streets for years will be notified that they'll have to move or else. So August 6th is coming up soon. So just that's good information. Thanks.

Any other council comments?

okay we'll move on to the city administrators report or comments do you have anything more keith no i'm looking forward to um the 31st been a lot of a lot of work and and really enjoyed immensely working with the tribe so just been a wonderful event and hopefully we'll have a great event on the 31st so with that mr mayor i'll be happy to answer any questions any other questions for keith