City Council - Regular Meeting

Monday, January 26th edition of the city council and Hermiston Hermison City Council and urban renewal agency. Uh we appear to have a quorum with all members present. I would ask that everybody join me in a flag salute. I pledge allegiance 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. [sighs]

Okay. One, two, three. Done. Uh, Mr. City Manager, do we have any changes to the agenda? Okay. So, um, starting off, citizen input on non-aggenda items. Anyone wishing to bring anything before the council that is not on the agenda is asked to do the following. Please limit your comments to not more than five minutes. State your name and place of residence and direct your comments to me. Do we have anybody? I I do. Okay. Looks like you're it. So, anyone can make Yes. a non-aggenda item.

First, uh Roy Baron, I want to really thank you for putting up that post about uh city of Herston. I'm going to set the timer. What's that? Can I have you give your name and your address? Oh, Jonathan Tolman. I live in Boardman, Oregon.

Okay. and I'm here to advocate for the citizens of Hermiston before problems arrive. Okay. Just at the time um you posted uh Mr. Baron which I really appreciate uh about the um the issues advocating for what's happening for Hermanson. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about me. So I'm not talking about the agenda items. I want you guys aware of the Pandora's box that you guys are beginning to open uh with certain things uh happening. Okay. So, let me speak. So, his this was his agenda item. I'd like to add that to the record. Okay. Here's my response. Okay. Uh thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment uh about what's happened to me that relates to that. Okay. The uh the RV park. Okay. Uh this is just not oscillation. I understand that there's temporary workforce that is happening. the need is real and that is additional RV advocate uh capacity is needed. However, projects are being advanced along major regional industrial growth pressure zones, infrastructure commitments and public arrangements that deserve full transparency. Have you guys signed a non-disclosure agreement? Who do you represent if you've signed a non-disclosure agreement? Do you represent the people or do you represent the city? This is just a rhetorical thing that I want you guys to be made aware of. Um, by doing these type of things, uh, when you harden these areas in infrastructure, you guys are going through a UGB uh, boundary and a TSP upgrade. Um, you harden the areas as far as corridors. I know that doesn't mean a lot, but it's very layered as far as how you guys get your financing. Uh, I've seen it firsthand affect me uh, and my uh, business. Uh, public and private, just like I said, non-disclosure agreements are very important. Water capacity. I really urge you and I'm going to add this to the record. Uh go to more perfect union and watch what's happening in Georgia. When you take from the aquafer, it's very important that

you know how much water is in the ground. Right now it seems great, but you don't know what it's going to be like in 10 to 25 years. If you read the Rolling Stone magazine about Moral County, you're seeing that circulation that's happening. Not to say that they aren't doing it or adding to the growth, but what it is is it's causing on a multiplier scale because of our natural resources. We have a great spot here in um right next to the uh the river where we can grab a lot of water, but we have to do it responsibly. Okay. The housing market's impacts. I again ask that you guys go on to more perfect union, watch the Google one about the Hillsboro and then the schools. What it's doing with that, it's driving up rent so the locals have to compete with the transient workforce. Now, I understand the RV is going to help a little, but what it does is it jacks up prices so that the locals have to compete. I have a duplex. I could rent it out a 100 times over and it it's really sad because I try to rent to local people, you know, but at the same time, if if someone's going to pay you $100 a day, $3,000 a day for a two-bedroom, one bath, it's really hard as a a capitalistic man that I am to turn that away. That's something that you guys have got to think about with this. The RV doesn't do that. It doesn't supply. It's a temporary workforce. Please go into that more perfect union and watch those type of things. The next thing is electrical rates here. Um it's not so bad because we have the co-op, but at the same time, we were in 2019 getting 15% of our energy from the wholesale market and now we're getting it 40% from the wholesale market. We still had to pay 11% more. I shouldn't have to pay. Um Electric had $9 million in the bank in 2019. Now they have over $500 million in cash investments. Please don't take my word for it. Go on to their websites. Go on to see that's investment. Okay, that is coming from big corporations that is raising our

rates 11%. Okay, I or you guys, none of you, if you're representing the people, hopefully not with non-disclosure agreements. Okay, you have to wake up to who's really paying those costs, who's actually going into it. Now, I know everybody says, "Oh, but they pay this, they pay into this." If you go to that Rollering Sewings magazine, $2 billion worth of infrastructure needs is what they were getting just for Mororrow County. And then we're happy that we get a $175,000 grant from Mororrow County and Umatillaa. That just does just seems awful if you're going to go by the percentages of it. Why do we have to take crumbs? We have the resources. If you look at all the areas and I again go on to Facebook, go on to the see these groups that are against it and these more perfect union. It has to be done responsible when it takes from our aquafer, when it takes from our our river. We can do this in the most appropriate way. But when we uh don't do it right, the next thing is is something very personal to me because it's affected my property. My property got a $30,000 offer. Okay. And that and condemnation happened. They paid me pennies on the dollar for it going through the veins of uh Boardman. Boardman makes uh used to make $20 million. Now they make over $90 million a year. Just real quickly. Okay. They say that they follow the code. I'm adding this all this to the record. The code shows that they unpermitted use to put a power line. Yet they didn't. They put it anyways. They condemn property. right here. They said it was for residential use. It went directly to an Amazon data center. I just I have so many customers that come to my coffee shop and say, "Wait, they're going to eminent domain me on a power line for a data center. What do I do?" This right here shows you they say one thing and they do another. The last one is is a comprehensive code. They said they had to put them under lines. Do you really think they put them under lines? They went right through my property. And I'm

going to say this, okay? Because they went through the inside of my property. They didn't go around and they impregnated it and raped it with cement and put cement in it. I can no longer have certified organic on my property because of that. And that is very frustrating. That's why and again please forgive me my passion that I have here. But when it affects you and it affects the people in higher taxes, rates, rental, utilities, these are things that we have to be aware and I challenge you to hold yourself accountable and say, you know what, I have signed a non-disclosure. We need to do better. We need to represent the people of Hermiston because the problems that are going to happen in Boardman that are happening right now will affect you guys here very, very, very soon because you're putting that um property and that excise tax that you're going to make from the uh energy fee. It's it's huge. And again, I'm all for Dan Centers. I'm all for Amazon. I just want it done responsibly with uh without problems for your constituents that you rec uh represent. We are in a great opportunity here in Eastern Oregon. And I I love working I would love to sit if you guys ever come to the Farmers Cup coffee shop right here. I would love to sit down and talk to you. I don't mean to be confrontational in any way, shape, or form. I just want everything done responsibly. Thank you so much for listening to me. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. She's cleared the comment sections on YouTube of those links because those are very important. It's going to happen here uh in in a way that's really going to affect us all. Hi, Ma. Thank Thank you. I appreciate it. God bless you. Anyone else? Okay, Mr. Mayor, sir, we do have a written comment that came in a little bit before the meeting, both at a paper at your place and a uh email.

Um, just want to notify you of that. Make sure that then the person who sent it in knows that we made you aware and that you have a copy of it.

It has been noted. I do have a copy of it in front of me. Thank you. Okay. Uh, seeing no other comments for citizen input, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh, consent agenda items A and B. Do we have any council questions on consent agenda items A and B? Seeing none, any public comments on consent agenda items A and B? Also seeing none. Any council comments. Okay. Uh does anybody need to remove any of the items? Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A and B?

Motion. Second. Let's see. I think I got Miss Linton for the motion and council Hayward for second. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

No items removed. Moving on to public hearings. Comprehensive plan map and zoning map amendment and annexation 4N2813TL13000 Farm City Pro Rodeo 1835 East Airport Road. Are there any declarations of conflict of interest or exparte contact from the council? Um, I'm just going to throw a potential conflict there.

Okay. Potential conflict. Any others? Okay. Hearing guidelines will now be presented by city staff, planning director Clint Spencer. Mr. Spencer, thank you. The city council is holding a hearing to consider a request for a comprehensive plan map and zoning map amendments and annexation to the city of Herston. The city council will consider the request and render a decision based on the criteria established in 1568 and 15005 of the Hermiston Code of Ordinances. The applicant proposes amending the comprehensive plan map and zoning map designation and annexation of approximately 19.5 acres of land located on the north side of East Airport Road approximately 1,320 ft west of South Road. The applicant is the city of Hermiston. The applicable substantive criteria relied upon by the city in rendering the decision to amend the comprehensive plan map and enex the property are contained in 1568 and 15005 of the Hermaniston Code of Ordinances. Testimony and evidence must be directed toward the criteria described above or other criteria in the comprehensive plan and land use regulations which the person believes apply to the decision. Failure to raise an issue by the close of the hearing at or following the hearing in person or by letter precludes appeal to the land use board of appeals luba based on that issue. Failure to raise an issue with sufficient specificity to afford the decision maker and the parties an opportunity to respond to that issue precludes appeal to LUBA based on that issue. failure to raise constit constitutional or other issues relating to proposed conditions of approval with sufficient specificity to allow the local government or its design to respond to the issue precludes an action for damages in circuit court. Prior to the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing, any participant may request an opportunity to present additional evidence, arguments, or testimony regarding the application. The city council shall grant such a request by continuing the public hearing pursuant to OS1977976B

or leaving the record open for additional written evidence, arguments or testimony pursuant to OS 19776 C. For this hearing, the process begins with the staff report followed by testimony from the applicants and any other supporters of the application. This will be followed by opponents of the application. Finally, rebuttal by the applicant will be allowed. The public hearing portion of the procedure will then be closed and the city council will consider the information and testimony received, adopt findings of fact, and may render a decision on the comprehensive plan map and zoning map amendments and annexation.

All right. Okay. This hearing is now open. City staff will now present its report. Mr. Spencer,

thank you. Um, Heather, can you move the mouse over as well? Thank you. Okay. So, tonight the city has prepared an application to amend our comprehensive plan map and zoning map for 19 and a half acres of land that is on the north side of East Airport Road. This is located directly east of the access road to EOTech uh and the heroes complex is currently within our urban growth boundary but has a comprehensive plan designation of future commercial industrial and a county zoning designation of F1 which is a general farm use designation. We are proposing to amend the comprehensive plan map from that future commercial to urban commercial which would be an implementation of that future designation and then annex it to the city as outlying commercial land with a fairgrounds overlay zoning designation. That fairgrounds overlay will allow it to use other development that would be compatible with EOTech. This is basically an EOTech uh expansion operation. Uh the property is currently owned by the Farm City Pro Rodeo and the city has been negotiating with uh Farm City Pro for development of an RV park on the south third of this property, the area that's adjacent to Airport Road for an additional 100 units. And this would be some of the grant work that uh city manager Smith had negotiated in 2025. We're proposing annexation of this property so that the property will be eligible to connect to city and water sewer, city water and sewer, excuse me, which is currently developed throughout the EOTech site. As you may remember, it is a prerequisite for receiving any city services that annexation to the city and to be within the city limits is a requirement. So that's why we are

proposing that. Now the land itself is located in a rural but urbanizing portion of our urban growth boundary. Uh it is currently irrigated agriculture and has a a single family dwelling and outbuildings in the southwest corner. To the east are additional single family dwellings on both sides of uh airport road. And then as you move to the west, it does start developing commercially. There are also some additional uh manufactured dwellings along Airport Road. And then to the north is the Eotech site and the airport. The zoning in the area surrounding this is entirely uh either commercial or future commercial what we're seeing now. So we we are just implementing that as part of the requirements for amending the comprehensive plan map from future commercial to commercial. We did prepare a traffic report what we call a trip generation letter and that looks at the intersections of road and airport road as well as highway 395 and airport road. And we are proposing as a result of that trip generation letter to condition annexation with a trip cap on this site of 645 average daily trips and 107 peak hour PM trips. So any development of an RV park on that would have that condition of approval on it. Uh 107 peak hour trips atund at 100 unit RV park is entirely doable. It's within It's well within the capability. So, we would not be exceeding that trip cap pretty much with any development that may occur on this. Whether it be athletic fields, whether it be overflow parking, or even

potentially future EOTech buildings in the future, uh those should all be able to meet the 645 daily trip cap. So, we are recommending that the council approve this annexation. Subsequent to any council approval, it will have to go to Umatillaa County for co-adoption of the amendments to the map as that is uh county F1 zone. Now the county has to consent to those map changes and we would start that process immediately upon adoption of the ordinances. Okay. All right. We're at the public testimony part of this. Uh people wishing to speak are asked to state their name, emailing ad or their mailing address and limit testimony to 5 minutes. Are there any proponents who wish to speak at this time? Uh Vasher Rain. Uh my address is uh 2255 South Highway 395 Hermiston. Um and I just have a written statement um I don't know if it's going to be related to this but it's just a statement um that I had written for representing all the hotels. So um first of all um my name is Vicos. Um, I'm representing the hotels and motel of Hermston and Umatillaa and I appre uh I appreciate the chance to share how the RV park will impact us and I'll walk you through why this matters for the whole community.

Okay. So before we before we get started is this are you for this or against this or in the middle? Uh so I'm against this. Okay. So not your turn yet then. Okay. All right. Um, so first a significant so let us let us get the pros in first and then we'll come back to you. Okay. Okay.

Thanks. All right. So, anybody else that is for this? Okay. Against. Now it's your turn. Okay. So, uh, good evening council. My name is Vicos. I'm representing the hotels and motel of Hermiston and Umatillaa. I appreciate the chance to share how this RV park impacts us and I'll walk you through why this matters for the whole community. First, a significant portion of our guests are Amazon workers. Crews uh crews who stay for extended periods. They help us maintain consistent occupancy particularly during slower times. So if they shift to the RV park that will that's a direct uh that's a direct reduction in business for us. Second there's a big tax difference in hotels. Guests pay lodging tax on short stays but after 30 days that tax stops. RV parks are the same. So if someone's parked there for months, the city loses the city loses lodging taxes because after 30 days, you know, you they don't pay that tax anymore. Um, and that's lost revenue for the city. You know, that's that's lost uh tax dollars for you guys. Um, the third thing is if we lose occupancy, we have to lower rates to compete. That means less revenue and fewer jobs. Hotels are big local employers. If we lose revenue, we cut hours and that ripples out. Fewer wages, less

spending at local restaurants and small businesses affecting the whole economy. Fourth, all of the hotel costs, insurance, utilities, property taxes, franchise fees, etc. are all rising. We are small business owners. Our livelihood depends on our hotel's success. In conclusion, we have to think long term. If hotels and local businesses struggle, it's not good for Hermiston. Amazon will move on. But but we need a we need a strong economy after. We want to grow together and not compete against the city. So, let's make sure we grow together. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other negative? I came this evening. Oh, my name is Karen Jones. I live at 1010 West Highland Avenue in Hermanston. I came this evening in support of the hotels and the other business people that are here tonight in opposition. I think he raised excellent points and I hope that this is something that you'll all consider because this is going to have really long-term, not only short-term, but long-term impacts on their ability to stay in business and potentially ours our economy also with the lost revenue. Thank you. Thank you. Any others? Okay, seeing none. Uh any uh neutral? Sorry, I should have done neutral in the middle. Seeing none. Okay, this hearing is now closed. City staff will now present finding of facts. Mr. Spencer,

I don't have a lot to present on the findings themselves. You have exhibits A and B to your staff report. There are 10 pages of findings of fact uh demonstrating compliance with the city of Hermiston comprehensive plan and statewide planning goals for the uh map amendments. There's an additional four pages of findings of fact uh exhibit B in support of annexation demonstrating compliance with the Hermiston code of ordinances and the state statutes for any any annexation that's required. All right. Okay. Council discussion. Anybody have any anything they want to throw out there? Ma'am,

have one question. Um, Mr. Spencer, are the entire 19.5 acres, is that going to be used for the two RV parks? No, there is one RV park that is on the EOTech proper site and then this one is about a third of this lot. So imagine about 300 the south 300 ft or so would be the RV park area and then the rest will be vacant land. Okay. Thank you.

Any other staff or council questions or discussion? Okay. All right. Uh, can I get a motion to adopt the finding of facts? Motion to adopt the facts. Second. Okay, Ben. Moved by Councelor Hayward, seconded by Councelor Roberts. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Unanimously in favor? All right. Uh, can I get a motion to impose condition of approval? Conditions of approval. Motion to condition approvals. Second. Okay. Been moved by councelor Hayward. Second by councelor Meyer. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Next up, uh, ordinances and resolutions. Ordinance 2378, comprehensive plan, map, and zoning amendment, Farm City Pro 4N 2813, tax lot 1300 at 1835 East Airport Road. Mr. Smith.

Yes. Any additional questions related to first this ordinance is the the plan amendments and the uh those the kind of the planning items. The next ordinance will be the annexation. And if nothing Mr. wants uh your script is a little off on the process. Okay. So, we wanted to make sure we go through this the newer process we're trying to follow on ordinances.

Okay. So, are there any council comments? Councelor Roberts. I just want to say that I appreciate the people who spoke during the hearing because uh that is not something that I had thought of was how this might impact um the hotels and I know that we've talked in our goal setting sessions and other uh work sessions and meetings about helping to support tourism and whatnot. So, uh, assuming that this were to pass, it's just incumbent on us to make sure that we continue to figure out how to support the hotels because that is also important. Um, so even if it does pass, I just wanted to to say how much I appreciate and and support the hotels as well. So, before we go any further, anybody else's phones still turned on? Can we please put those on silent?

Thanks. All right. Uh, other comments, councelor Hayward.

Um, just like Josh said, supporting the hotels here locally is top priority, too. But I also think this is going to be a big win for Hermiston, too, because it's going to allow people during the fair week who come in out of town that's there for all week to be able have the trailers up there and be able to be there with their livestocks and everything more. uh especially the farmer city ro rodeo to have those guys actually be up there and stay instead of trying to figure out how to cram all those people in there at the same time. So I think it's a benefit for the community at the same time. I do support want to say thank you for the people that spoke up against um thank you for the city for putting this packet together and everything. Excellent job. Thank you councelor Brown. I'm inclined to agree with the counselors that have previously spoke uh with their comments. I also just want to give a a thank you also to the Farm City Pro Rodeo because without that organization facilitating the purchase of property and transferring it over uh I don't think this could have happened either. And so they had a a very good relationship I believe with the property owner and could better do that uh versus the city as its own entity. So, uh, that's a big shout out to the Farm City Pro Roer to be able to make this happen as well. Um, this will also open up a little bit more inventory in our master plan for EOTech to be able to do more things for the community. And so, I I do think uh there are a lot of pros to it. There are a lot of things uh that we do have to keep a pulse on. And so, I agree with the counselor's comments uh and see what we can do to to support our hotel years in the community. Mr. McCarthy,

um I just want to maybe By Myron or another staff member can um correct me or answer this question, but the council basically has already had a journey to get to where we are in this where we basically said we would like to move forward with the development of an RV park with the assistance of funds paid for by Amazon. So that process has already started. Tonight is bas essentially deciding where that land's going to be and and making sure that can happen. Is that a correct statement? Yeah. I mean, this is taking steps to implement that agreement that the council approved a few months ago. We're in the middle of the process.

Yes. Okay. And initially we didn't plan that we would need to bring additional land but this as we worked through the details that this became part of the process. Thank you Mr. Linton.

I want to thank the the gentleman that came and spoke about the hotels and how it would affect them and their business. And I also would like to just ask a question. Do you know how many RVs are going to be set up? Like 10, 20, 30 or?

Well, what I want to I want to clarify what what what we're doing tonight. Um, so this action is is to change some some planning amendments and and then um annex the land into the city in preparation for the development of a of an RV park. The RV park that will be on this land is approximately 100 spaces. Now, we also have another item to talk about some additional RV more related to activities directly on the EOTech campus and I'll we'll go into that when we get to that agenda.

Okay. So, one more just one more question. So, you said there'll be approximately a hundred. So that'll be for the AWS people to uh bring the they will have priority to utilize this these spaces. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Any other council comments? Councelor Drum.

Um yes. I would say thank you to the ones that came and spoke tonight. um know that we heard from the um owners of the hotels a few meetings ago. Um so know that it did not go on deaf ears. We are trying to be responsive to to your guys's comments, but as stated uh we are way into the process um now, but it is a city council goal to continue to keep the hotels in mind. um to simply benefit the community as a whole. So, I just as everyone else has stated, I just wanted you to know that we do have you guys in mind

and I too appreciate you coming to to speak to that. Um now as to it this won't be only for um Amazon other other people can rent there but Amazon gets priority. Is that not correct? That's correct.

Okay Kelson I echo the sentiments of the other counselors and and appreciating the hotel years coming tonight to talk and and I understand where you're coming from. I I would like to say even without the development of the RV park, I think that the acquisition of this property and the reszoning for development is a good move and a a forward-looking move for our city and ultimately our county. We currently have, I think, the best county fair in the state. And I think uh one of the best rodeos in the nation, and acquiring land around EOTech to expand our footprint there is a good move regardless of whether RV parks are placed on that or not. I think that'll benefit the city for the next 30, 40, 50 years and the county. Thank you. I clearly can't add anything more to that. You guys have pretty well knocked it out of the park on saying what we need to say. So, uh, we'll move on to public comment. Any public comment in regards to the comprehensive plan and zoning map amendment? Seeing none, Mr. Tubby, you have something to say. Me off.

No, there we go. I was being preemptive on All right. Uh, yes. So, Mr. Mayor, at this point, I would uh with your consent read the title uh of ordinance number 2378. And then at that point, um, I do have the other language for the potential motion. If, uh, you would like me to read that for the

Would you please, sir? Okay. So, at this time for first reading of ordinance number 2378. That's an ordinance amending the city of Hermiston comprehensive plan map to convert certain lands from urbanizable status to urban status located within the urban growth boundary of the city of Hermiston in accord with the provisions of a policy six in the city's comprehensive plan. And the motion would be we'd ask uh that the motion to adopt ordinance number 2378 at a single meeting and become effective 30 days after adoption by the city council. Do we have such a motion?

Motion to adopt 2378. Second. Okay. We have a motion by councelor Hayward, second by councelor Meyer. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. That is a motion that would become Now we need to motion to adopt the ordinance or is that does that take care of it? That takes care of it. Okay. So this become 30. This this will become 30 days after co-adoption by the Umatella County Board of Commissioners. Correct.

Yes. All right. All right. So, that's that. Okay. Ordinance 2379 addexation of Farm City Pro Rodeo 4N2813 tax lot 1300 1835 East Airport Road from the public hearing section above. Mr. Smiths. Okay. Um, if we could have uh Mr. Tubby read the title now and then if there's any and then we can have the discussion and then uh entertain any. Perfect. Mr. Tubby, would you please read the title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh first reading of uh ordinance number 2379, an ordinance annexing certain real property abuing East Airport Road, describing said real property, withdrawing said real property from special districts, and designating zoning. Mr. Mayor. All right. Council comments on this. Seeing none, public comment. Seeing none, uh I am requesting Mr. Tubby to read his last statement that goes along with this.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh the motion would be to adopt ordinance number 2379 at a single meeting and become effective 30 days after adoption by the city council. So moved. Second. Been moved by councelor McCarthy, seconded by counceler uh Hayward that motion 2379 be adopted and become 30 days effective 30 days after co-adoption by the city council and county Umatella County Board of Commissioners and their ordinance number 2358. Okay. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. This one's 237. Ours is 2379. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Sorry, I'm scratching things notes here. All right. Uh, we're up to resolution 2402. Authorizing installation of stop signs. This is something we talked about here a couple on last meeting. Now we're moving forward. Mr. Smith, are we ready to talk about installing stop signs? Yes, Mr. Morgan.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, as you mentioned, this was a topic that we discussed um at the last council meeting. So, we're requesting authorization to install a couple of stop signs at the intersection of Southeast 8th and Tamarack. Uh, as well as installing some additional stop signs at the intersection of uh Southeast Columbia Drive and Southeast 10th Street. Uh no changes to the intersection at Tamarack and 8th, but at the previous meeting, uh there was a request to um add an additional stop sign to the intersection of Columbia Drive and Southeast 10th in order to make it a full four-way stop. Uh so we went back and reviewed the uh recommended changes with our uh traffic engineering folks through Anderson Perry. Uh they've were supportive of making that change, so we're bringing it back to you as a four-way stop at that intersection. So, with that, we'd ask you to approve uh resolution 2402 uh to improve the changes at both intersections.

Council questions. Seeing none, public comment? Seeing none, council comments. Council drum. Um I just want to say um that this was a result I believe uh from someone making the comment on through the city app. Correct. Correct. The one at Southeast 8 and Tamarack was from a neighbor.

So, I appreciate um how the city once again, you know, it's paying off to have the city apps so that it's convenient for people to raise concerns, contact um the city administration and also bring to the city's attention the need for some stop signs. So, I appreciate the fact that people are using the app. Um, I hope that more people um are aware that, you know, it's so convenient. And so I just want to um say thank you also for whoever's responsible for looking at the comments that are being made there because this is a result from that. So I appreciate how uh responsive um the the staff has been with, you know, the people's comments. So thank you for that,

Mr. Hayward. Yeah, I want to say thank you Mark for and the group that came back to with our suggestions on the 10th Avenue street. Then also I have to say second on the app, it's a great way for citizens to be able to communicate with your city councilors to your city by suggesting stuff that you think you see out there in the community. It's a way you guys can have your voice heard. So I got to say whoever did it, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Any other council comments as related to the stop sign? Seeing none,

can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2402 and lay upon the record? Moved second and off for a motion and councelor Hayward for a second. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It is your government in action.

Nice job. All right. Uh motion passes unanimously. Oops, wrong place. Okay. Uh okay. Resolution 23 2403 adopt revised public works standard and technical specifications drawing standards manual. Mr. Smiths. Yeah. Mr. Morgan.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council, uh this is a part of a periodic update that we do to our public works standards manual. Uh so this is a set of documents that we use when folks come in to say develop a new subdivision or they're going to develop a business on you know vacant lot. Uh we refer to these standards and this is what they you know are required to install in terms of public infrastructure uh that type of thing. So, uh, the periodic portion is that we do, um, hear comments and requests, you know, as we're going throughout, uh, uh, the year from either individual developers, from city staff, you know, things. Mainly, they're just clarification type of items, but in order to make sure that they become actual city policy. We don't change the city's policy until we update uh, this manual. And so, that's what we're bringing forward this evening. I know it's a very thick uh document uh but rather than go through and itemize out every single little change and just address each one of those, we felt that it was best to just simply bring the entire uh document to you. If you scroll through, you can see all of the recommended changes. I would characterize really all of them as fairly minor changes. And so, um I didn't want to even pull out just the the most important ones because they're all relatively minor revisions. Um, so if any of you have any uh specific questions about any of those changes, um, it's in your council packet. So if you wanted to refer to that one and ask a question, I'm happy to answer questions. Other than that, I'd ask you to approve resolution 2403.

Councels.

Yeah. Thank you, Mark. Um, on page, sorry, this is going to get into the weeds a bit. On page 346 of the packet, there is a drawing of a sewer gravity sewer mainline cleanout and beside it is a sewer service line cleanout. And the suggestion for improvement on the gravity sewer mainline cleanout is to remove the tracer wire. Is that because the tracer wire is has not been required in the past and the drawing has been incorrect or is that because um the tracer wire is now no would now no longer be required after tonight's meeting if we adopt the changes.

Oh, sorry. I go through the HTML version of the packet so I had to go to the PDF. So you said page 346. Yeah, sorry. 346 314. So, sorry, I was going through. Can you repeat the question?

Yeah, a figure SSO4. Thanks to councelor McCarthy on the left, the gravity sewer mainline cleanout has the suggestion to remove the tracer wire. Is that because after tonight's meeting, if we adopt the changes, the tracer wire will no longer be required, or is that because the drawing has been an error and the tracer wire has never been required? Uh the tracer wire has been required in the past, but moving forward it's become superfluous and they're recommending that we don't require that of uh private developers anymore. Do you know what's caused it to become superfluous? You know, I'm not sure. Um couldn't tell you specifically on that one. Okay. Thank you.

Seems an important thing though to for for locating to uh keep from punching holes in the sewer. Yeah, I think uh that was a request from the sewer department staff, so I don't think they have any concerns on the tracer wire for that specifically. Okay. They're the ones that's got to fix the hole, right? Yep. Okay. Councelor Linton,

I just want to say I went through the whole packet and I'm telling you, going through all of that, I was like, geez Louise. But I came up with a couple of questions and uh don't mock me. and uh I had a chance to call uh uh scenic manager Smith and he answered my questions. So I just wanted to go on record and say thank you very much. Okay, any other council questions? All right, public comment on our humongous document. All right. Council council comments in regards to this. Council Roberts,

just briefly, um, Mr. Morgan, I I appreciate uh that you included the entire document instead of a summary, I I actually like to haveire document that I can refer to. And while I'm certainly obviously no expert on this stuff as I read through it, um, it is nice to to be able to see the actual changes made. So, uh, it's my preference and I I just appreciate that. I too am the same way. Any other council comments? Seeing none, can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2403 and lay upon the record? So, move second.

Let's see. I'm going to give that one to Councelor Linton and McCarthy. Councelor McCarthy has a second. Need a tally mark. Is that what you're doing? I should. Goodness. Let's keep this on on path, please. Uh, roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Resolution 2404, renewal of IGA for IT services with the Oregon Trail Library District. Minister Smith.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Um, we're in the kind of in the season. We're updating our various uh agreements with the different agencies that we serve IT services to. And so this is the Oregon Trail Library District out of Mororrow County. And um this basically gives us an extension with uh three additional years plus the ability to um continue that on. But it also what it the most important thing is it adds a 3% inflationary increase to try to help us keep up with uh the cost of providing the services without going back and renewing the agreement every year. So, uh, this will put them at $23,731 per year. And, um, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Council questions. Seeing none, public comment. Seeing none, council comments. Councelor Kelso.

Yeah, thank you very much. I just wanted to um share my appreciation with the city management for setting up this um the IGAS that they have with especially with the IT department when you guys went out and formed the IT department several years ago. Um I think it was great uh a great vision to and a bit of a risk honestly to um share that cost and and hoping we'd have IGAS in place to to sort of cover the cost of the people that we have on staff. But it's worked out great in my opinion and I just wanted to applaud you for your willingness to do that and your vision. So, thank you. Keep agreed. Any other council comments? Okay. Yeah, I agree with you on that one, Mr. Council. That is the getting getting that accomplished is a big feather in our cap. Uh motion to adopt resolution 2404 and lay upon the record.

Second. I heard councelor Don first and councelor McCarthy for the second. Hayward or councelor Hayward. I mean I mix you two up. Sorry. You don't get them. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Next up, North Eotech RV Park Contract Award. Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So, this um like I alluded to earlier, this is talking about um that's not the right one. I'm just gonna jump in here and say there's a potential conflict for me here on this one. Okay. No.

Um Okay. So, uh, when a few months ago, we came to you to talk about the fact that due to operational concerns from some of our partners at Eotech, um, putting both kind of our event camping area and the, uh, Amazon related spaces in the same location. Um, caused some operational challenges for the for our partners. And so we we went into splitting that so that the event camping related uh location and that's what we're showing up on the screen right now. If you notice that there's the the barns are up there in the upper leftand corner. So you this is really where the RV spaces have always been allocated in the EOTech master plan. And so these spaces would um uh they're they're directly designed to assist the fair in their uh efforts to have have the families that are caring for animals and so forth at the fairgrounds during the fair have spaces to camp. And then they'll also be used for event related uh or events that might have camping uh folks who are camping in relation to those events. And so, uh, since we had to split it, um, this project is the most time sensitive because we want to try to build it and have it complete before the fair begins next year. And so, uh, this we went forward uh, more quickly with this design. And, uh, so before you is the bids to construct what what's up there right there. And um you can see we we had a lot of good biders uh responding. So that was great. I think for the price we're well under our uh engineers estimate for the project.

And so what we're uh asking for tonight is the approval of uh Big D's excavate excavation and the 3.9 million as the price. And uh with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Council questions. Councelor B or Broom. So, I have maybe a couple questions. So, if if it's fine, if anybody else has any others, please jump in. Some of them are going to maybe be leading questions, but my first question really is as a process of of the city when we go out for a bid and do this kind of u project, Mr. Mr. Smith, usually we have to go with not usually, but we have to go with the lowest bidder. Is that not right? We uh we have to go with the lowest responsible bidder. And so sometimes there may be circumstances where the lowest price might not be a responsible bidder. So, we can, but we we do have to make justification if we do not go with the lowest bidder.

Thank you for that clarification. I guess I really like this project and I like everything that we're doing about this. The only thing that I feel like would make this even more beneficial, I feel like, to the to the city or to constituents would be if we could actually pick uh the the construction agency from being locally. Uh because Amazon is going to pay for both of these RV parks and I would feel great if we could pick something under near underneath the engineers estimate that would be something more local, but I don't know if that's within our power to do that. Is that right? We we would I mean short of having very um specific reasons we we we would not be able to do that.

Right. And I would I would remind you that um Amazon committed a certain dollar amount. We need to stay under that. So um I would hesitate to take anything but that low lowest number.

I understand this is there's about $2 million underneath the engineers estimate. I think the allocation was about eight or n million. So I'm just kind of throwing that out. A lot of this is is purely theory. I know how the the city operates in terms of how we have to pick uh certain certain uh projects or certain people that go out to bid. But that's the only thing that would make a little bit more sweeter for me. But that's just something that I've thought about and I just kind of wanted to put it out there. Um I think the city is trying in every way that we can to try to do that. This is I wish something that we could do, but this is just something that's not really underneath our authority. up. Uh people wonder why at times why we can't do that. And so I think I've gone on the record and mentioned that before that this is the process that we have to follow, but this is just another one because it's a very special circumstances of how we're going to do this. Uh that I thought would be a great opportunity, but I understand the the process that we follow.

Thank you, Hayward. Um the one question I have is will these be all these RVs have power and water? Yeah, every one of these spaces has uh power, water and sewer. Okay. Then to take care of the grass when everybody leaves, we'll be using canal water to do that. Yeah. Whatever is We may not have a lot of grass in that area. It might be more uh zeroscape rock so it's easier to maintain. Okay. Thank you. Council Meer, there is adequate parking for all of these spaces, correct? Yes. Okay.

And you know, the way the fair does this, they can they uh kind of cram those uh RVs in there, they can get almost double the amount of what of what the spaces are in that space. But there are double the spaces for parking, too, right? Or not? What do you mean d for parking? Well, I guess there aren't cars there, right? So, they because of the circumstances of the fair, the cars get parked in a in another parking lot. Okay. This will be for the RV. This is just for the RVs. Okay. Other questions? Council Kelso.

Yeah. So, the engineer's estimate of 5 million 5.8 8 million essentially was about 30% 30% higher than what our winning bid came in $2 million. Is that does that give anybody pause? Is that a cause for concern or Well, I mean it is. It does give a a little bit of concern. I've talked with uh Anderson Perry about it. they there were some unknowns for them that they weren't sure of and so they um they kind of walk a fine line of of where to put that estimate so they went a little bit more conservative on this one in particular. Okay. Thank you.

They're they're very they're a lot more confident in the responses because of how grouped they are to show the actual costs of the construction. So that was that's another thing they pointed out. I guess a follow- on question then would be have do we have any prior experience with the winter big D's excavation? Uh yeah actually Big D's did uh the dirt work and all the related parking and alley work around city hall. Oh they're out of the Tri Cities is where they're at. Would you characterize the job that they did as adequate? Adequate.

Thank you. Other questions? Council Roberts. This is half of the $8 million project essentially. Um and we are right at 3.9 million and that's to get us done here in 2026. We anticipate that the second half um especially with inflationary costs even at 3% that you know that could go up. Um are are we on at risk of going over that 8 million for the second half? We're always at risk. Okay.

Um it won't be a big delay. Um I anticipate in within two months potentially of bringing contract before you for the second phase of this. So hopefully not a lot of inflation in those two two months, but you never know. Okay. And then quick followup. Um this is just more of on on the drawing itself. Is the uh RV park going to be inside the fenced area then or how is that going to part of this project will ex will extend the fence and put it out on road. Okay. Instead of where it has been it will all be fenced.

Are we concerned during fair about traffic then on road at all and how that's going to impact? Um, we we've tried to work I mean work with the fair on, you know, all of the uh how they would bring vehicles in and stack them. We think there's enough room along that road uh that runs along the north side of this drawing to stack the RVs as they come in and they get parked. So, we feel pretty comfortable. There's not a lot of in and out during the fair. So, it's mostly just when they're coming in is the most difficult

and you know why I'm asking that. So, any other questions? Councelor Linton, I too had a concern with the $2 million difference there. And my question is, if it does go over with the second half, will Amazon pay more than the 8 million? It say it went over extra 500,000. as a guest to make. We haven't had that conversation with them yet. I'm hopeful, but I I can't say yes or no on that.

Thank you. Other questions? So, this is going to be this is going to be the opposite end of where they've been doing the campers, right? Right. Uh the campers have always been on the other side of the barns now. And there may be a few still left there. Um but all of the camp most of the camping will move move here. And for um I'll stretch where we go with this. This is not going to be basically open for year round use. This is going to be event this will be event only

basically event only spaces. Yeah. I mean, if for any reason we had to take down spaces in the other park where say 10 of them were not available because of repairs or something, we might use these for that short amount of time, but not ongoing. Okay. And you said that there's going to be parking for the vehicles that pull the campers in elsewhere for for with for the fair when there's so many. If we were to fill it up, we would do the same thing on another event. We don't have any other events right now that would max out that space

like like the airport. Yeah, that airport the airport corner has been where those cars have gone. Okay. All right. Any public comment? Seeing none, council comment. All right. Uh, can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2405 and lay upon the record? Motion to adopt. Second. And moved by councelor Hayward, second by councelor McCarthy. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes.

Yes. Okay. Motion passes 71 with councelor Linton and object and against. Yes. What she said. All right. Next up, discussion of potential code amendments relating temporary food vendors. Mr. Smith.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So, we um have been working for a few months on some potential changes to address the um activity that we've seen with some food vendors that might not have been following all the rules and maybe and then some other vendors that concerns came before you a few months ago related to that. So, I'm going to ask Mr. Spencer to kind of walk you through what we're what we've put together and then we're tonight looking for your feedback and input. This isn't for adoption tonight and then we'll follow your lead. If there's if if seem comfortable with it, we'll bring it back for formal adoption. Mr. Spencer.

Yeah. Uh tonight we just wanted to bring before the council some potential amendments to our nuisance code. These are not amendments that we'd be looking at in our mobile food vending code. Uh that's actually working pretty well as far as uh regulating and permitting uh the food trucks in the various locations in town. But you may remember last summer that we had a lot of issues that were arising and complaints to code enforcement, complaints at council meetings, as well as complaints on social media about vendors that were setting up on a temporary basis in parking lots. uh sometimes even on the street. And uh you may may have seen an article in the Tri City Herald uh back in October about this that the Tri Cities was dealing with it. And this was actually a regional issue that uh sprung up unexpectedly during the summer where everywhere from Seattle all down the I80 to I90 corridor and all the cities and down into Hermiston. I I was in Clamoth Falls last summer and saw similar operations where they were bringing uh food that had been prepared off site, vending from a temporary location and uh operating through the night, clearing out about midnight or so. And due to the nature of our regulations, it kind of neatly fit into a hole in our codes. And so it wasn't really possible to use our mobile vending licensing as any kind of enforcement mechanism. And we had been talking with uh county health, uh PD, code enforcement, city attorney, even looking at other cities too, trying to see, you know, what how do we patch this hole in our thing that has the potential to create an immediate public health issue. So, if you have un uninspected

food, uh unlicensed food handlers, uh improper food storage, uh just using our mobile vending code, it doesn't address the immediate public health need. So, we kind of looked at what other cities were doing as well as what our end goal was, uh, city attorney tovy and I as far as giving an immediate ability for enforcement when we see unsafe food activities occurring. And so, we drafted up this ordinance which does two things. It adds into the nuisance code that unpermitted food is an immediate threat to public health and can be cited on the spot or even closed down if it's determined that it whatever is going on is egregious enough that needs to be immediately handled. The code enforcement andor PD can do that in an after hours situation. It also uh brings in the ability to site property owners. Uh right now if you were going to site, say somebody set up a food truck on a on a lot without um any permitting under our current, you could site just the food truck itself. But by bringing it into the nuisance code, we also have the ability to enforce with the underlying land owner if they are allowing something that is egregious and a danger to public health to continue. So really, that's the two things is that it gives the city the ability to request immediate presentation of all licenses, especially the food handling ones. County health uh inspects everything and if it is not being inspected then that would be be deemed to be an emergency and the ability to enforce nuisance on property owners as well if they are letting their property be used in an

unsafe manner. Uh city attorney, do you have anything you would like to add? I shook my head no and then I turned on my microphone. No, that that's exactly right. uh what Mr. Spencer is saying, we just wanted to try to put something together that our code enforcement could use, uh our police department could use something that was clear enough that when they're out talking with folks, uh one that they could either educate or two, if it's necessary to site or shut down. Uh and so those are just kind of some of the the resources we're trying to give folks uh as we've been hearing these complaints.

Okay. Council questions. Council Kelso. Yeah, thank you. On the last paragraph of the staff report, the first page of the staff report, which is page 379 in the packet for you folks, it says, "As with other mobile vending code requirements, these restrictions apply only to vendors preparing food in the field. So, if I make my food at home and bring it out and sell it on the side of the road, as I've seen done, do these rules not apply?

No, that would that would still apply because anytime you're preparing food, whether it's if you're preparing food in any way, shape, or form, it has to be in an inspected kid kitchen and then it has to be uh go through all of the proper health certifications for how you're storing it. So yes, that is one of the complaints that we have had is people who are sending selling food out of their cars for instance, you know, and they just have a cooler

that's keeping stuff warm that is prepared and uh requires it. When we say prepared in the field, that means basically prepackaged. So Girl Scout cookies, if I'm got a push cart with Snickers bars on it, those are all prepackaged. Those are still exempt. But anytime as soon as you cut into anything, whether it be a piece of fruit, whether it be opening a Snickers bar before I hand it to you, it at that point requires a food handler certificate and inspection. So if I'm selling cherries that I've picked in Ziploc bags on the side of the road, is that prepared food or is that That would not be prepared food because that's an agricultural product.

Okay. Thank you. Sir Hayward,

on that note too, let's say a little girl or a young boy decide to do a lemonade stand. Does this pair to them? That is why we have in the uh code because we don't want to be discouraging of small business uh or learning capitalism I guess. And so it's always in the co in the code that we have drafted up. It's left to the discretion of the enforcement. uh whether or not something like that constitutes a b a public health emergency because yeah, a kid selling Kool-Aid because their parents are having a garage sale is very different than a for-profit operation selling something out of a cooler in the back of their car.

So, there's a discretion there written into it. No, thank you, Counc. I would like to know um if if fines are going to be put into this as well. Uh like how much would it be if uh you go out because so these are adults. They know what they're doing. They know that they haven't gotten licensed. They haven't done through the health inspection. So, and they're making money to live uh or whatever reason they're doing it and they're going out at midnight as someone is has come in and said, "So, is there going to be like put into the the document $500 first offense or second,000?"

Let me uh turn that over to city attorney Toby because we do have class A and class B violations that we're proposing, but I'm not familiar with what those dollar amounts are. Thank you. Again, the what we've put out is just a proposed draft and so things can change depending on input. But right now, a violation of this nuisance code would be an A violation. And I was pointing at Miss Viles because I can never remember what the dollar amount on the A violation is. 440. 440 is presumptive fine. Is the presumptive fine. So $440.

Okay. I guess my follow-up question then would be, can it be raised higher if we voted to make it like say for us $1,000? Yeah. Are we limited, Mr. Tvy, in following those class violations in in municipal enforcement somewhat? Uh, so the A violation again does have a maximum fine amount and I'm looking at Miss Viles again, which I can't remember what we have set. I apologize to the council. I don't dig into the dollar amounts too often except for No problem.

When we need some of these presumptives while she's looking that up. Uh, counselor,

thank you. Um, I just think it's important to recognize that all we're trying to do right now is to direct staff to prepare an ordinance for adoption. Um, so I think some of these questions could potentially be presented to us when that ordinance presented and we can we could just say, hey, can we motion to move forward with this? And then we can we know what the knowledge of those fees were once we actually have it up for consideration for adoption. because all we're doing right now is telling them to write something. So, and the class A violation is $2,000. So, up to that's the maximum. Okay. The maximum you said

correct, bro. I'm just going to give my opinion on this. I mean, that's kind of what uh was asked of us. And so, I think I follow a little bit on the other side of kind of where a lot of the comments have been have been heading towards. Not because I don't value public health or anything like that. I think that is very important. Um I don't think it is very appropriate to levy huge fines against a lady that might be selling tamali out of the back of her car. Um I don't think that's appropriate at all. Um, and just to be also frank, like, uh, the food vendors that have been popping up around town are extremely popular. Um, and so I say that not because that's going to override obviously anything that comes with public health, that's going to come first, but I really want us to stress more of of a of an attitude of collaboration uh, with what these vendors are. I'm presuming a lot of these vendors probably don't speak English. Uh and so I I would like us to try to meet them a little bit more in the middle. Uh I have spoken to city staff in the past when this has come up. So I'm not saying this out loud implying that there hasn't been a conversation about this or I haven't heard from city staff hearing that they are trying. But I do think that we need to try harder. Um, I do think that we need to send someone that might be bilingual that can actually communicate with some of these vendors. I do think we need to work on the education before enforcement. Now, I'm also presuming that if the count if the the city has brought it forward to us, it's because there has been a lot of this, a lot of education attempts. So, I I don't think that this is coming up for

nothing. But I expressing my opinion, I I I don't want us to be very hard on on mobile food vendors like like that. I don't think that's right. Honestly, um I think regulation and enforcement is important, but we have to do other means of trying to work to together and collaborate with these other entities. Um, so I I just uh I guess in terms of how strong some of this language is and just the discussion of levying up the fines and the fees and the punishments, I I'm not really in favor of that. Um, is there a consequence to someone that continues to over and over again or maybe purposefully does not want any of these licenses? Yes. But if there's someone that's having maybe a difficult time trying to attain these licenses or doesn't really understand, um I think that's where we need to do a little bit more and maybe it's more education that that will might be needed. Um but I I think we should try to take a step forward and try to meet them in the middle. Um and again, I'm not I I'm not saying that I don't think that the city hasn't done that. I just my opinion is I think we need to be a lot stronger in in the communication aspect versus bringing in the hammer.

Is there a question in there somewhere? That was my opinion questions right now. Okay. Well, that's my opinion.

Yeah. Um my question is and this is not anything new because I I also kind of had some suggestions. My question would be would it be appropriate um sort of like what was done with the um recycling rates? Would it be appropriate for us to host like a work session type of a thing where we let people know that the discussion will be on on this particular topic so that a staff member can present this information and uh mention what the requirements might be. mention what you know the um citation might be so that they have an opportunity to listen to the information besides also I think a lot of the vendors that we see are Spanish speakers so I think it would greatly benefit if we could have this information in Spanish too if it can't um you know I'd be more than happy to if a session is able to take place to interpret, you know, for a staff member. Um, because I think this will greatly impact our Spanish speakers. So, do you know whether that would be an appropriate thing or

Well, councelor Drawn and and the rest of the council, I think we've shown a very strong effort to educate and work with and and not be a hammer. And so, yeah, we will do all that we can to educate and we'll do all we can to make sure that they know that they can come and hear and that, you know, we can provide translation and all those other things. Absolutely. I'm, you know, we don't see a lot of turnout when we do that. So, we'll do our best and try to get the word out. And then uh to councelor Baron's concerns, um we have we did try last summer a lot of education with some of you know and this wasn't the the person selling tumalies out of the back of their car. This was somebody a highly organized business that was operating and they were ignoring on purpose our rules. And so, you know, we tried to work with them, talk with them in various locations. They were in various sp places around the city. And so we'll and but I'm not saying that we're automatically going to go to the highest fine on on those either, but I think we need to have that kind of option for whoever code enforcement, other officers to be able to uh have that opport have that tool in their tool belt. But I know that I I know I trust our officers. They do a good job of working with people and trying to help uh help them understand the rules before they drop a hammer.

Other council questions. Council Roberts, you mentioned earlier about prepared food. Um does that include like I I've seen people sell like strawberries and oranges and things like that. Where does that fall in in in this kind of That's exempt. That's exempt. Okay. With those and we do receive complaints about some of those sales and if they're on private property, that's a a completely exempt activity. When they are selling from a sidewalk, we have a a different code that uh actually is prohibited to vend from a public right of way at all. And so code enforcement had been doing some education last summer on that that you need to be on private property.

Perfect. And that was my follow-up question is if they're on public way. Um I saw a vendor at uh Fourth and Jenny for instance, which is I think a dangerous intersection to have people pulled over. So kind of time, place, and manner type issues. [snorts] We do have that in our code already. Yes. Okay. Questions? Any others? Okay. Public comment. [clears throat]

Karen Jones. Um, my one question is I know a lot of small people who have in-house small baking businesses. Will that impact them since in Oregon that's allowed as long as their annual revenue doesn't go over $50,000? We don't regulate internal kitchens at all. if they have an online business or something like that. But when they sell it, when they sell it at like Maxwell Center and different things, no, they're exempt.

No, this is this is somebody who is setting up, you know, in a parking lot, not as part of an event with prepared food. And that is actually, you know, there could be an a situation where somebody, you know, sets up at Safeway and just has a table of of biscuits or something. And yeah, you you have to have your kitchen inspected by the Oregon Department of Agriculture to do that.

Okay. Thank you. I was just wondering about that. Also appreciated um Commissioner Baron's comments. I share a lot of those concerns. Thank you. Other questions? I have one. Um, you know, we we you speak of, you know, outside exterior type thing. Um, I know that uh Safeway does barbecues out in their parking lot from time to time. Where would that fall in something? that would most likely already be be uh permitted because that would be a temporary event which would be exempt from a mobile vending, but anybody who's working at Safeway and you know doing a barbecue or something like that is going to have their food handlers certificate and the and the county health department will have come in so they'll have the necessary paperwork.

Okay, perfect. All right, council comments. Heyward. Um, I did get a lot of complaints from citizens out there out there about this and I'm glad that the city is doing something about this. I've know one fact that one citizen brought my attention, one person was selling raw meat out of their truck, not refrigerated, and didn't even know the rules on that. Brought attention. I was like, really? So, I'm kind of glad that we're looking at this. I do think public safety for food is should be a good thing that we're looking at.

Council Roberts, I also greatly appreciate entrepreneurs um and people wanting to to make money supply for their families. Um but we do have to do it in a in a safe way and make sure that uh that everything is above board. um other businesses have to meet certain standards and at the end of the day they're operating a business to make money and they should have to meet certain standards and that's all this is in in my opinion is not saying they can't do it not saying they shouldn't do it not saying that customers shouldn't go buy their food it's probably wonderful food but we need to have a standard and when they don't meet that standard we have to have some mechanism to hold them accountable because if we don't have a measuring point for them to to meet. Um there is no halfway that we can meet them if we don't identify what that standard is. And so in my my opinion, that's that's what we're doing is is we're just setting the standard that that we expect for these businesses. Miss Linton,

I want to say that um I did uh barbecue sales. I had to go through use a commercial kitchen. I had to um be inspected to make sure that everything was lined up for safety reasons, health reasons, because if it's not, somebody can get bachulism, get sick, and things like that. And because you don't speak English in a country that's the language is English, doesn't mean you should be exempt and be able to not go by the rules. And I think that the effort has been made, has been said to let people know that. And if you're coming out at the midnight, most likely, you know, you're avoiding all of that. And that's a deliberately a deliberate act. In my opinion, I think that as a capitalist country, we should be able to have businesses and to make money, but then we all should have to follow the same rules. not exception for you because you speak uh um an Egyptian language or any other type of language but we all have every country has rules and if we go to their country uh we're going to have to follow their rules. I almost got stuck in the country because I miss following the rule. U so everybody has rules and so it should apply equitably uh to all people. That's

you know one of the reasons I really do appreciate this country is it is a country of laws and it's a country of rule and law and order. It's got rules and it's got accountability. But one of the things that I know being maybe one of few people up here on this dis is being a child of immigrants is growing up not knowing the language. And uh obviously everybody needs to try to to try to figure it out. But when you are someone that doesn't understand the language, you come culturally maybe from another country and that's typically how things are practiced. It's it's going to be education that needs to happen. And again, I'm not saying that people don't deserve consequences for habitually breaking the rules. I think that is important. But I think what needs to be understood, too, is we need to try to meet our community where they're at. Um it doesn't matter if they speak English, Spanish, or wherever. We try to meet them where they're at because they are our community members. And so, um I just want to just reiterate that because I I I don't want to come from a forceful point of view on this issue. And I appreciate the city manager sharing his comments uh because him and I have had discussions about this already and I do know that they have tried on their end. I'm just kind of I just really want to fiercely, you know, stand for what I believe in when it comes to this and uh I'm like councelor Duron where I would have a conversation with these entities uh just to make things work out or help out. If they do want to receive a license and they do want that help, great. But if they are trying to evade, you know, accountability, then then we do need to enforce, you know, they they do need to be held accountable. And I completely agree with it's just the ones that I feel are are the ones that need to be educated on this matter. And so, um, that's the that's that's my opinion on this matter. Any others?

Guess it's my turn. So this in in doing this the our primary purpose is public safety. We're looking to create a create a a level of public safety and be able to to have a mechanism as council Roberts most mentioned a mechanism to enforce that public safety. And the the whole idea behind this is not to shut down the entrepreneur or anything like that. The whole idea behind this is to give the enforcement side the actual tools to be able to do their job to do to protect our safety. And in doing so, the the other side of this one and and coun and Mr. Smith and I have had conversations about this one also is that you know if if we do nothing then and we we're giving tacid approval and then we have somebody that gets sick because we didn't enforce or we didn't have rules. We we chose not to create some some method of some some method of being able to enforce have enforceable rules. If we don't if we don't do that, we put ourselves into a position of liability and then we start worrying about how many zeros has to be put on a check. And I would just assume not to do that. take take the time to craft this properly, make it in such a fashion that it it gives our officers the opportunity to use their discretion, use education prior to doing any any type of of serious enforcement. I mean, like, you know, we had we've had the the vendors in the past that that they're, you know, they they they they thumb their noses at at our authority because we did not have authority to to use. And so, by by doing this particular action, by m by moving

this forward, I think we will be putting ourselves into a better position to keep our citizens safe, to keep to give our officers the tools that they need to enforce that safety. And I think this is an important thing for us to to look at and to move forward. So So we've already had public comment. You guys want to give somebody a public chance? Yes. Okay. Come on forward.

My name is Yen Ranel. and I live at 1655 Southwest River Hill Drive in Hermiston. Um, I came here about a year ago um because I'm a I make fresh salsa and I live in Hermiston and I met with the Oregon Department of of Agriculture a year um about 18 months ago. um trying to figure out um why I have to go to a different state because my my sales are in Richmond, Washington because they have commissary kitchens um not in not like I mean it's very um selective in Hermiston. I haven't had um as much opportunity in Hermiston like I do in um in Benton County, Washington. Um so their suggestion was um to get my home approved um like as a commissary kitchen.

You bring

Oh okay. So um yes, the Oregon Department of Agriculture suggested me um getting approved um get my home kitchen approved, but my home is very my home kitchen is very very small um for um as much salsa that I make. But I'm trying to learn. I'm trying I I live in her in Umatella County. I'm trying to figure out how I can grow in my own um state, county, um neighborhood. Um regarding the food trucks, um my uncle doesn't know. I mean, it just came to my mind listening to everybody's comments. Um I do remember that article that you mentioned about Tri Cities. And so one of the um notes that I remember from the article is that um they notice consistency like from here to um Seattle because so I feel like a lot of the popups around the area, they're not from here. They're they're travelers because they saw those consistency. They saw the consistencies in the staff and operations and um failure to cooperate. So I I feel like because of that Hermiston residents are impacted which I don't feel like that's fair but um the language barrier like that has been mentioned can be a factor um like uh my uncle like I mentioned my uncle doesn't know that I'm speaking but um I would like to speak um my uncle owns Tacos Paricin that's been in business for over 30 years and um he has mentioned And I mean, obviously, he's been able to stay in compliance for over 30 years, but every year it's harder and harder and more expensive. And we have um popups that are uncontrollable, but

are they paying the fines? I mean, the the permits, are they being inspected? I mean, there there is um it's just not consistent or fair. But the language barrier, his language barrier, he doesn't speak very um fluent English, but he has been able to maintain um his business in in perfect standing obviously because all those records can be public. But um it can be done. But um my question is how can the city or the county support small businesses that don't know? I know. I mean, I'm trying to learn and I still can't establish myself here and and I'm and I'm fluent in both languages. So, there's a struggle. There's the a gap um between the county, the state, and the community. And like it was mentioned earlier, these popups are very popular. Um, so there is a need, there is a preference. They could have the customer can choose to go there or go choose to go um and be a customer at Nookies. That's the customer's choice. I mean, we can't control that. that it is it is very popular, but I'm not sure I'm trying to learn how um how the county or have a suggestion how the county or and the state can be supportive to um people that want to learn entrepreneurship or want to offer a product that they believe in.

Okay. Well, I don't have I don't have the answer to give you. There's there is there is there isn't an answer at this point in time.

But, you know, we're we're always looking for for ways and and again, this the what we're talking about here today is not a we're not looking to shut things down. We're looking thing to make things safe and to deal with the ones like you said, the ones that are taking away from the other businesses because they don't have to they don't feel like they have to follow the rules or they may not know the rules. And the whole part of this is is to be able to, you know, we can we can provide them with with the with the proper instruction, proper education for what they need to do. But if they choose to go against that, then we need to have the ability to say, "Now wait, this guy over here is doing it right. This guy over here is doing it right. You're choosing not to. So yeah, we're going to write you a hundred $400 ticket or, you know, whatever the whatever the case may be." But it's not, you know, the whole idea is not to be the hammer first. It's to it's the it's the education piece. You know, Chief Edmmon has made a [snorts] huge thing over the over the years that, you know, his his his uh his primary deal in everything that they do is the education first prior to and then the enforcement.

Yes. And and and I clearly understand that the food safety um for the public that's very understandable. My my um confusion is why is it getting harder and harder and more expensive? Obviously, as time goes, um rates are going to go up. That's logic. But I if if if business have been has been standing for over 30 years, why is it getting harder? That's just my confusion. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. [sighs and gasps] So, we have no uh actions to take on this. This is just a a section or do do we have uh well I mean what we

we can we can come up with a you need a consensus of us or what is yeah I mean we'd be looking is there any changes that you'd like to see is this something is it in the general form that you'd like to see and then we can bring it back more in a a formalized format to be adopted. Council, sir. Um, I am largely satisfied with the information as as it's been presented, but I think staff now has some additional information based on council comments to come back with a formal uh presentation at a future meeting.

Well, I mean, I'll I'll share with you. I mean, my feeling from the discussion is there wasn't a lot of change. Now, we're going to work hard at trying to do some of the things that have been suggested, but that really isn't in the language that's been presented. So, um, but I that's I I'm just making sure that we're we don't miss anything uh that people want to see, but we will try to do a a good job of reaching out and letting people know of what we're talking about and giving them an opportunity to comment and and be a part of it and then uh also working on the the way we move forward with the important final the final product. Right. Okay. Everybody good with that? Yep. Looks like you got your marching orders on that one, sir.

Thank you very much. All right. December 2025 monthly financial report.

Yeah, Mr. Palasios. Oh, sorry. Good evening.

Um, Mr. Mayor, uh, for I have for you tonight the December 2025, uh, monthly financial reports. Oops. So, first up is the well, first up, um, we are 50% of the way through the fiscal year for 2025 2026. Uh, Hermanson renewal agency. Um, I would like to point out for uh in the URRA, our property taxes came in at approximately $54,000 for the year through the end of December. Uh, we budgeted 312. And the only reason I'm mentioning that is because we budget those on a historical level because we have no idea what the assessed value is going to be depending on what the assessor comes up with because it is an urban renewal agency. Um, the only other comment I have is we are still waiting on the anticipated bidding. We're That's supposed to be say spring. I I didn't change it on here, but I did change it in the report packet. Yes, sir.

Oh, well, that's really good news. I guess my question on that was is there was there an addition I know you said like an appraiser can appraise whatever it might be, but was there any new buildings or any new businesses that kind of would make that appraised value go up or was it just higher than what we anticipated? I'm going to pass the buck on that one, Mr. Spencer.

I'm not aware of anything in the downtown area that has increased significantly in value. I do however know that right now the county is going through a reassessment process that they did starting last year. So it would not surprise me if some of the properties have just been reappraised in that intervening time. And so what we always do in the urban renewal district because of the uncertainty going forward and we don't want to overbudget is we set this year's forecasted revenues to be the actual revenues that came in the year prior. So each year we look at okay we we thought we would get 400,000 last year and we got 475,000. We'll set this year's expected revenues at 475,000. So that's how we do that and it just came in a lot higher this year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Spencer. Um for the as I pointed out for we are six months into the fiscal year. Monthly revenues ended over projection by about $1.7 million. Uh again, this is uh going back to the URRA comments. This is primarily due to the receded property taxes. We get the bulk of those in November and December. Um, as of the end of December, we had received 98% of the budgeted property taxes, which approximates the past three fiscal years, which averaged 96%. So, we're it varies anywhere from that 96 to 98% historically, as you can see, 98, 94, and 97. So, we're we're right in there. Uh, monthly expenses were over projection by 877,000. This is still from the effect of the setting up the new building fund. the new building inspection fund uh that we transferred at the beginning uh of of the fiscal year in July of $2.7 million. City council and non-EP departmental are over budget due to annual the annual LLC membership and then that transfer that I just mentioned. Pool and public safety center um are over budget due to seasonal activities. Um and then in the uh single time purchases for the PD building um some furnishings and things like that that uh the chief is paying for from out of from out of that budget. Um we anticipate that that should um drop back under as as we move through the rest of the fiscal year. special revenues uh funds. Uh EOTech, we have collected our first reimbursement payment for the camp campground project which was spoken about earlier. That's a little over um a million dollars so far that we've collected and that is reflected in that the budget to actual report that was provided uh for the utility and street funds. Street funds we are currently $77,000

below projected revenues. This is due to um federal gas tax turnovers which are just on an annual basis. We should be getting those either in this month or February typically is the timing of those when we collect those funds. Um HS fund expenditures, those were $75,000 over projections. Uh this is due to the annual debt service that's that we pay on an annual basis. Regional water fund. Um just one comment for that. We were about $54,000 under revenue projections. This was due to one of the customers um had an unanticipated um uh equipment repair. So, they shut down their water usage for a period of time and so that dropped those revenues. Um and speaking to the water department, we do anticipate that to smooth out before the end of the year, but we'll keep an eye on that one. Um with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Morgan for capital projects update. Yes. Uh single biggest thing to report on capital projects is we have a new capital projects manager. So that's really exciting and I introduced him last last council meeting. So hopefully uh we'll start getting some updates from him. But it's been good having him uh get on board and start to get familiar with a lot of these projects. So uh the Gear and Harper realignment project, it's uh fully rocking and rolling. So, I think we anticipate bringing a uh we'll put it out to bid here shortly and should bring a contract award sometime probably early April uh to the council. Uh so then we'll be into construction throughout the summer and fall on that project. So, uh North First Place project continue to have discussions with Union Pacific on rightway acquisition. Um our regional water system backup generators uh still in design. We just got some good news uh from the federal government though. they are uh awarding us $665,000

to cover uh all of the cost of that project. So uh that is that's good. Uh once that project is uh designed, we'll put it out to bid. Um and it'll still be quite a while because the current lead time on those generators is nearly a year uh from the time you order them. So that's just going to be a long long project. Uh the Orchard Avenue water line replacement uh we're moving along. Should be putting that out to bid here. uh shortly. Again, also probably bringing that uh to council for a ward uh sometime in March. Uh then we'll be into uh actual construction late spring, summer and fall. Uh well sex coronation structure designs getting close to putting out to bid. Uh Dogwood and really that should be Dogwood and Northwest Second Street uh because those designs uh with the local improvement district up in that area are moving forward uh concurrently. Uh so that design continues to move along. Uh again should be bringing that to council for a contract award here in the coming months. Uh Southeast 10th Street Bridge, that design continues to move along. Uh that's one that's going to be kind of counteryclical to our regular construction time frame because that'll go to construction when the water is out of the canal. So that'll be a wintertime construction project next year. Uh East Evelyn Avenue Gravity Sewer Line uh project. Uh we should also be bringing that one uh for a contract award here in the spring. So, be watching for that one. And the aquifer sorger recovery project. Um, it's wrapping up. Um, we're into kind of the testing phase uh now. And so, uh, we should hopefully start pouring water down the hole here in the spring. Uh, let's see. Well, number four controls uh continue to run into delays from our contractor with Tapony. Uh, so we'll uh continue to wait on that potentially waiting on that one until the end of this irrigation season. Uh so we're looking at uh potentially two years delayed on that project because of

the contractor. Uh lift station number five project um is uh in holding pattern just uh because of some other um projects taking precedence and bringing up design capacity with Anderson Perry. And then lift station number seven, that's the one over on Northwest 11th Street. Uh that one continues to move along, but uh don't have any anticipated timeline for bringing that forward to council. uh our hanger project up at the airport, that project's complete. I think I mentioned that uh last council meeting.

And then Sherman Park, um the the bid package is done and they are um preparing to put send it out to plan centers and get it out to bid, anticipating again an early spring award of that contract. And then uh the public safety center flooring cabinetry continuing to get installed um again March April of 2026 for our movein date. We'd happy to answer any questions.

Any council questions? Council Roberts. I'm kind of concerned then I guess about lift station number four because when we started that project it was already um unreliable and inefficient I think is is what was put in the in the report. So what uh what are I guess what is the the hold up from the contractor and what are we doing to kind of Yeah. So you're referring to well number four. I'm sorry. Yes. Well number four. Yeah. Sorry.

Yeah. The contractor forgot to order the controls. And so that's a problem. Uh fortunately, we don't have uh much concern that it's going to go out. Um so in my 13 and a half years, I've never collected on liquidated damages. There's a lot of drawbacks and challenges and associated with um collecting on those. Uh so we're continuing to work with the contractor. Uh they've worked well with us on other projects in the past. Um, so we're moving forward just under the assumption that uh we will refuse any change orders from cost increases. So that's our current plan. Okay, thank you. Any other questions?

Okay, perfect. Public comment. Oh, okay. Council comments. All right. Can I get a motion to accept the December monthly financial report? Motion to accept. Second. Okay. Moved by councelor McCarthy, second by councelor Meyer because he got it out faster. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. All right. City committees and liaison. Anybody have any committee reports? None. Okay. Mayor's report. Uh last few weeks have been a bit busy. We had the uh we had the uh um MLK walk which went extremely well. I saw a significant portion of you folks there participating in that. That was great. We had the uh first uh first meeting with the LOC president. She chose to have choose Hermiston as her first meeting uh in the public or meet with the council. So that was or the members of the uh

region 11.

Yeah. What she said. Um so it was that was that was great. She chose us first. We had that over at Harkin Ryder Center. It was a a lot of a lot of people. We had even folks all the way from Union and and such. So, um, we did our city chat, first city chat for the year. Looks sounded like there was a lot of participation and a lot of good information out of that. Congratulations everyone. Uh, finished up with our uh, we did our goal setting here just the other day. Um, that was that was a it was a good session. I think a lot of good came out of it. Um I'm real happy with with everybody. Uh then we had the fair appreciation dinner was just uh on Saturday night. Several of us also there in attendance and lots of uh deal. The the new the new fair uh

grand marshals. Uh no I was actually looking for the uh no you guys are all like my wife. If you answer my question before you No, the uh motto uh slogan. Slogan. Thank you. Um so so it grow it, show it. Sew it, grow it, show it. Thank you. And so nice. Uh wow, that took forever to get to, didn't it? [laughter]

When you have to sew a seed and then you have to grow it and that takes time many. All right, let's let's and then uh so city chant have also I've had several conversations with a lot of folks uh through uh social media stuff um regarding the water rates and such and I think I was able to answer a lot of questions and I do uh I do encourage anybody that has questions that you know and let anybody that's watching listening know that that uh you know my email is listed on the city website and I welcome any emails. I may not get right back to you immediately because I do have a thing or two that I try to get caught up with, but uh I will answer you. Um I would much rather have a a verbal conversation than an email or text war because those just don't work out well for me. But uh I would love to have conversation with anybody just to, you know, give you the best information that I have. um you know, if we trust if we trust uh the the keyboard warriors, we're not going to get a whole whole lot accomplished. So, um and then finally, and somewhat importantly, Seahawks going to the Super Bowl. So, [laughter] that's my report. Mr. Council President, what you got?

Thank you. I just um want to apologize um in in my new career. Couldn't quite make it out for the sec second part of the goal setting, but um appreciate those of you who are able to catch me up on it. Um a couple quick things coming up here in the community. Um next month on the 7th, swim lesson, swim lesson registration starts at 10 a.m. And then the Herman Education Foundation banquet happening also that same day at 5:00. And then of course the chamber has their speed networking lunchon. That was a very successful event they did last year. Coming back again this year on the 18th at the community center. Okay. The 7th you said for swim lessons.

7th for swim lessons at 10 a.m. and uh 5:00 p.m. is the Hermiston Ed Foundation. Hermiston Ed Foundation banquet. Okay. Council council reports councelor Hayward.

Um just like the mayor said, when you guys have a problem for the committee that's listening and stuff, if you have problems, come to us. Come to the city council, get a hold of us. Get a hold of the city. Let us know. We are open to hear from you. If you don't come and speak, we can't hear what you're saying. We're not mind readers. Feel free to come and talk to us. Email us. Get a hold of us. let us know how you guys are feeling because if you don't, you might not know all the information that we're getting and stuff that we can inform you. Please, I've had numerous conversations over the last couple weeks with people that are like, I'm afraid to come talk to the city council. I'm afraid to come there. We are all open. You can email us. You can get a response from us, but we do like having meetings in person. So, thank you.

Other council comments? That's for Baron.

Yeah, as was mentioned earlier, we had a Martin Luther King Day march uh on not last, it was not this month, last Monday, right? And so uh it was a good march. I feel like that uh program keeps getting better and better. Uh so it's a shout out to HCAC for putting on uh the event uh and having the whole community there. Uh, a lot of great people were there that spoke. Um, so I thought it was a really good event. Um, and it just kind of remind reminds you kind of in in times that are really difficult like right now, it's it's really important that we always come together. Um, also was really uh excited about our um, goal setting retreat that we had. A lot of good conversations. Alas, I couldn't make both days. But, um, I was really happy with, uh, the results of just being there that first day with everybody, the department heads, uh, hearing where we're at, um, where we're trying to go, uh, and listing all the accomplishments. Sometimes you forget all the the the good things that you've done in a year because it just kind of goes by so fast. So, it's incredible to think that the library is already constructed from last year. By the end of this year, we're going to have the police department already kind of up and going. So, it's those are just really big projects that are starting to get done. So, uh just a really fun time, I think, just kind of planning of what the city's going to look like for the next few years. Uh so, I appreciated the time to hang out with you guys, talk to the department heads and all their expertise and hear from the city manager on where we're going as a city. Thank you. Other council comments. Counc

I too want to thank first of all the staff that was able to make it and carve out a day and a half um to sit with us. I think that we can't make any progress without your guys's help. Um you know, you get our recommendations, but you guys are the ones that do the work. you guys are the ones that um do the research and present us with a bunch of information so that we're able to make decisions for um what's best for the community. So, I appreciate the work that you guys do on a daily basis. And I also I think you know it's great for us to be able to have the opportunity to sit down. We normally don't talk to one another uh you know only when we come and sit here and and that's all we know of each other. But it's really nice to be able to sit with the department heads and you know and talk about what has been done and where we want to go in the future. So thank you so much for that opportunity. And later this week I will be uh going to Gearheart, Oregon to um attend the um the LOC board meeting um there. So happy to be able to do that. Where is that again?

It's Gearhart, Oregon. By seaside. Oh, you mean over on the coast? I was like, I have no idea where that is. North coast. Thank you, Roy. I was in the same boat. Take pictures. I'd love to see the city.

Okay. Any others? Councelor Kelso? Yeah, I wanted to echo the sentiments of the other counselors. I appreciated the uh the goal setting session that we had and uh good the good discussions that had and some frank exchanges of views and I I appreciated all of that. Um I also wanted to mention that I was able to attend the unified basketball game at the high school last week and um I just wanted to praise our community for coming out and supporting those differently aabled students. It was heartwarming, a very heartwarming event and um it's just a great time and I I think I don't think there are any more home games this year, but if you can come out at all next year and and watch and cheer them on, I think it's it would be well worth your time and uh it's very edifying to see those kids play and have a great time together. So, um that's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Anybody else? Nope. Missa, our our youth advisory. What you got for us, ma'am?

Hello. My name is Jacqueline Kedo. Um I'm a junior at Herman High School. Going to be really short. Um winter um isn't very active with the high school. It's usually a lot of catching up with late work last minute. Um but some activities such as like the unified game. Uh I think you guys should definitely come and support. We do have away games, but we do have a lot of home games next year too and the years after and whatever. But I think it just it shows a really good um point in our community also for the youth that you know like we're bonding. We're building a community bigger and bigger. Like I cheer and I think it's so nice seeing everybody just come out and support people that get opportunities to do what they've been wanting, you know? I think it's really nice seeing that. And I think as a youth, it's just more like it's inspiring. It makes me obviously want to like just think of stuff that can help others um with opportunities that they thought they would never have. Um but other to sports that have been covering the schedule, a lot of like wrestling, basketball. Uh but other than that, um we've been having a lot of blood drives. February is definitely the month of blood drives, too. We have a theater has is having a play next month. I think 20th, 22nd. If you guys want to come out and support, I think it'd be really cool to watch. But that's really it. That's that's been going on.

Okay. Well, we appreciate you coming in and and keeping us advised. So, uh, keep keep the good information coming and we appreciate you very much. Um, Mr. City Manager, just, uh, I sent you a quick email this afternoon, uh, about NLC that's coming up. So, anybody who's interested, let us know. We have two slots available for being able to attend. And I' I've gotten a couple emails, but just let me know. We'll we may have to make a decision about about where that Yeah. rock, paper, scissors or whatever. So, I just sent you the email this afternoon. That's all I have. Thanks.

All right. Unless anybody else has anything for the good order, we are adjourned.