City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Lakewood City Council meeting of Monday, June 1st, 2026. And I don't know.

Atkins.

Atkins. Ms. Atkins, could you please read the roll?

Council Member Branstetter. Here. Council Member Lauricella.

Here.

Council Member Lindholm.

Here.

Council Member Pearson.

Here.

Council Member Taubo.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Bell. Here. And Mayor Boeke.

Here.

You have a quorum.

We're all here. Thank you very much. And now the Pledge of Allegiance.

I, of course, 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.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for being here today. Our first item is a proclamation recognizing Juneteenth National Freedom Day. So I'd like to call down the folks involved. Dora... Grollard, Jenny Gasek, Duke White, and the St. Joseph St. John Episcopal Church and present the proclamation.

And then we'll have a photo afterwards. Welcome, and Michael Parks.

So as whereas Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and whereas historically Juneteenth was widely celebrated in the African-American community as Emancipation Day, commemorating the day in 1865, when Union Army General arrived in Galveston, Texas to share the news that the Civil War had ended and to announce the enslaved African-Americans living there were free. And whereas this day known as Juneteenth stands as a powerful symbol of delayed justice, resilience, and the enduring pursuit of liberty. And whereas Juneteenth reminds us of our country's past, commemorates African-American freedom, acknowledges the resilience and determination of those who have faced injustices in our society and pays homage to those who have paved the road to freedom in America. And whereas the observance of Juneteenth provides an opportunity for all people to reflect on the history of slavery in our nation, to honor the strength and contributions of African Americans, and to renew our collective commitment to equality, justice, and opportunity for all. And whereas now is the time to reflect on the progress that must continue to ensure that we have all equal access to participate fully in our society. Now therefore be resolved that the Lakewood City Council does hereby acknowledge June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day and urges all residents to come together to celebrate community and fellowship by attending the fourth annual Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, June 20th, 2026 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lakewood City Hall right here in these chambers. Proclaim this first day of June, 2026. Thank you very much.

Do you have someone to speak? Are you going to speak for the group? We need someone to speak. Thank you so much. And then we'll take a picture.

Okay.

We are so honored that this is our fourth annual National Freedom Day for Juneteenth. We are now a ministry of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, where everyone is welcome, and I'd like to thank our crew. I mean, we've been doing this since January, when the first year rolled around. We're just so excited. We're going to have a keynote speaker. We're going to have gospel singers. We're going to have entertainment. We're going to have a step youth group, and it's Do, Kedora, we'll see. Oh, and food, too. Yep. Vendors. Yeah. Please come early. And I'd love to see the youth group come because you guys are our future. You know, you might be taking our spots. Anybody else? We're good.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Next is the youth council report and recognition. So myself and deputy mayor bell and Shannon are going to meet down at the podium. And are you guys, do you have a report tonight? Yeah, they do have a report. Okay. First let's do the report. Yeah, I have names. So Elijah, St. Anna and Ira, Irie Henkel. How bad did I handle that? Just manhandling names here today. Sorry.

Good evening, Mayor Boki, Deputy Mayor Bell, and council. My name is Elijah Sta'ana, and I have had the honor to serve as this year's executive chair. While this is only my second year on the Lakewood Youth Council, I've had the pleasure to serve both years in leadership, first as a secretary and then as the chair. And unfortunately, this is my last Youth Council report ever, so I'm hoping to make it memorable. So this year's Youth Council has been quite the adventure. We started off the year with 56 members serving across the council, which is the largest it has grown since its inception. Delegated across the city's eight advisory boards, our youth liaisons were able to add on to ideas to support the city's growth. Additionally, our members have volunteered throughout several of our all-hands-on-deck city-sponsored events, such as Truck and Tractor Day, the Holiday Lights Parade, and the Beloved Communities event. We are very proud of our members for being so active in the community. Finally, our annual youth summit was held this year on April 18th, 2026 at Pierce College. We had a successful summit capturing the attendance of over 120 students with our theme of you're going to be okay. We led students through an interactive experience of vendors, a powerful speech from Dr. Gaines and several peer led breakout sessions. And getting a headstart for next year, we have selected a new board with Irie Henkel serving as chair, Natalie Lopez as co-chair, Daniela De Jesus as communications manager, and Alicia Nianjo and Jonathan Redoblado as secretaries. My partner, Renita Benevente and I led them through Youth Council's first Executive 101, where we taught them the basic responsibilities of the executive board through situational testing and public speaking icebreakers. This year's Youth Council has been filled with a lot of service, learning opportunities, and personal growth. For myself, these past two years have taught me more about leadership in my 18 years of living than anything else. Under Shannon's guidance, along with my leadership team, I learned a lot about finding my own voice and realizing that I actually have something to put on the table. These leadership skills are lifelong, and I was able to take charge of my own youth-led events where I led American Kapwa. It paralleled the same skills of leadership, communication, and most of all, fostering a community. Also, thank you, Councilmember Ellen Taubo for attending the event and being there. Before I pass it on to Irie, I'd like to thank Shannon for every lesson, conversation, and memory that I shared with her. She pushed me to be the leader I am today, by stepping back and giving me the opportunity to show that I am capable of the position that I'm taking today. So thank you so much, Shannon. I will carry your lessons throughout my whole life. Finally, I'll pass it on to my chair, forthcoming, Irie Henkel.

Good evening, I'm Irie Hankel and I'm currently a junior at Harrison Prep. This was my third year in youth council and I was lucky to serve as the vice chair. I'm pleased to say that I was recently elected as the chair for next year's youth council. With this position, I have several goals in mind, but today I'll keep it brief. First, I would like to say that as a leadership team, we're already off to a strong start. As Elijah already mentioned, we went through thorough training, the Executive 101, and we've already decided next year's date and location for the Youth Summit. To really hone down plans not only for the Youth Summit but also for Youth Council overall, Ava Qualls and I will be working with Shannon over the summer in a new high school summer internship. We will go over what we have and haven't liked in our years in Youth Council, produce ways to keep the large group engaged and involved, make a timeline of next year and much more. We hope for the next year to go smoothly and according to schedule. And more importantly, we hope that the next year's Youth Council will be a much stronger, close-knit group that is truly passionate about having a positive impact in the community of Lakewood. Thank you all so much for your time and support. And now I have a short video to show you.

My favorite thing about Youth Council in the last three years that I've been in it, I'd have to say has been seeing my community so passionate about making an impact in improving our community. And I think also how it's helped me improve my public speaking and leadership skills. You should do Lakewood Youth Council next year because you are more connected with your community. What I think I have grown most in as a Youth Council member is definitely my social skills. The thing I most like about the Youth Council is being involved in the community and helping to better it. My name is Lucy and one thing that I would tell future Youth Council members is to stay involved in your community and be a part of it. Okay, something that I would say to future Youth Council members would definitely be to apply yourselves. Our favorite part of Youth Council was all the volunteer opportunities we were given. We got to get closer to our peers and we also got to meet new people in our community.

I also feel like we've also been able to connect with the people in Lakewood a lot more. We've been able to connect with the community a lot more, get to know a lot of the people that live around Lakewood as well, which is really nice.

I really just love like how everybody's in it to just like help the community and just be a better place.

My favorite thing about Youth Council this year was having the ability to help out my community while being with my peers. In my second year in Youth Council, I've definitely developed more as a member, and I got out of my seat a little bit. I used to be very timid and very soft, but now I'm definitely more confident speaking in larger crowds.

I mean, this is my first year at Youth Council and I've met a lot of new people. So I believe that's definitely my favorite thing that I've done here. Just meet people, volunteer. I love volunteering. So that's definitely let me go out, explore and just broaden my horizons.

Something that like helped with youth council for me was like social like social things because I feel like before youth council I was very like shy and introverted and I think that being in youth council definitely like helped me step out of my shell and be more a leader so yeah.

I think being in Youth Council really helped me step out of my comfort zone because I was able to talk to a lot of people that are above my age range and are in my grade. So I just think expanding my friends was a really big plus from being in Youth Council.

My favorite part of Youth Council was all the new friends that I made being part of a community where we could all bond over stuff and plan new activities for people. Some advice I would give to somebody applying for Youth Council is that you should really go to all the events so you can help build your community.

Some advice I would give someone joining Youth Council is to be bold and be outgoing and be yourself.

Okay, I need Deputy Mayor Bell and Ms. Bennett to help me. And we're going to hand out the awards here. So we had a very large youth council this year. And I think Councilmember Branstad could probably go back where it was in the teens at one point in time and has grown over time. And it's absolutely wonderful that so many people want to participate. Just this last week, I had dinner with a youth council member who's now a college graduate and kind of on his way. And so it was just great to meet with him and talk with him about how life's going. We're very, and I think justifiably as a council, very proud of the youth council and the people who have come through here. So in this year's group is no exception. So with that, Ms. Bennett. And you're handing the courts to the seniors. Okay.

I'm gonna, yeah.

Lucille Asadi.

We're going to end up there because there's going to be a big old picture.

Ayman Baharon Valeria Becerra Lucia Bell. Renita Benevente.

Axel Schuyler-Cabillas.

Bella Camara. Alexander Charles. Zoe Clifford. Ivan Cortez. Jahir Cortez. Damian Cruz Guzman. Daniela De Jesus. Mary DeVega.

Lincoln Estrada Perez.

Amaryllis Flores Garcia. Valentina Gonzalez Alfala. Estrella Gonzalez Sanchez. Irie Henkel.

Congratulations.

Leona Kigozi.

This is Antonio.

Antonio Lanier.

Natalie Lopez. Emily Molina Vasquez. Evelyn Molina Vasquez. Marco Munoz. Jasleen Nguyen. Alicia Nyonjo. Ava Qualls. Annalie Ramirez. Madeline Raymond. Marius Raymond. Jonathan Redoblado. Alicia Rivera. Valeria Robles. Emilia Robles Bermudez. Anya Sarmiento Ramirez. Elijah Stahanna. Alicia Stanford. Ingrid Valdivia Torres. Bentley Webster.

Yes.

And Emilia Zapata.

Thank you very much. And I think we'll try to get the council down here for a picture or maybe we should just stand behind you. Thank you all of you for your time and effort and hard work this year. I know you're getting points for it in some way and help you with college or other things that you do in life, but we really do appreciate the effort that you put in every year to put on the event and all the different events that you show up to to volunteer. So we want to make sure we thank you as a council for the city of Lakewood for all that you do during the year for us. And for all those going on, good luck. And for all those coming back next year, welcome back. Sounds like you're already working this summer. So thank you. We'll take pictures behind you.

So pass along, Sylvia.

Our joy is not heard throughout YouTube land.

Thank you very much. Next is the Clover Park School District report. Mr. Darren Lowry. Thank you for being here, Director Lowry.

Thank you for having me, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, City Council members. My name is Darren Lowery. I'm the Clover Park School District Director number four. I'm here tonight to present what is happening in the Clover Park School District. Try not to massacre too many names. I'm coughing. I've got a little bit of a cold I'm getting rid of. So here we go. Graduation ceremonies on June 3rd and 4th. Congratulations to our graduating seniors who participated in high school commencement ceremonies this month. All ceremonies will be live streams on the district's YouTube channel. On Wednesday, June 3rd, Harrison Prep will hold its graduation ceremony at 6 p.m. at the McGavock Conference Center. On Thursday, June 4th, the following graduations will be held at Tacoma Dome. One o'clock will be at the Gravel Lake Academy, Gravel Lake K-12 Academy. 4 p.m. will be Lakes High School, and 7 p.m. will be Clover Park High School. We appreciate our community members, partners such as Kiwanis, Lakewood Multicultural Coalition, and Lakewood Rotary that provide awards and scholarships for our outstanding graduates. Employees of the Year, by the way, everything that I'm reading will be on the website as well. 2026 Employees of the Year, three Clover Park School District employees were named the 2026 Employees of the Year. Our Certificated Employee of the Year was Christine Jones. She's a third grade teacher from Dower Elementary School. Our Classified Employee, somebody knows her. Our Classified Employee of the Year is Nicole Dixon, and she's a paraeducator at Alpharetta. Our administrative employee of the year is Holly, I think it's Nielsen, and I'm sorry if I apologize if I mess up her name, but I think it's Holly Nielsen, principal at Lake Louise Elementary School. Employees of the year were selected by an independent panel of judges from the community. Something I feel really great about is seven schools earn state awards. The following schools are recognized by the Washington State School Recognition Program for their work in closing the opportunity gaps supporting student growth and academic achievement during the 2024-25 school year. Beachwood Elementary, Carter Lake Elementary, Four Heroes Elementary, Idlewhite Elementary, Meriwether Elementary and Park Lodge Elementary Schools, as well as Thomas Middle School all received awards just recently for the school recognition program. The 2026-27 budget process, we're in the middle of developing our 2026-27 budget. The school board approved a plan to implement approximately 12.6 million in reductions for the 2026-27 school year to address external financial pressures from state funding cuts and chronic underfunding and also increased costs and volatility of some of our federal funding. These adjustments will be made through attrition, reducing department and building expenditures, staff reductions, and shifting class sizes at the secondary level to a model moving closer to a prototypical class size. The district held multiple budget workshops between March and May and gathered input through community-wide surveys. Additional information in the budget process is available on the district website. A public hearing will be held on Monday, July 13th at 5 p.m. with board consideration at 6 p.m. meeting that same night. Lemonade day is June 6th. Grab a cool glass of lemonade with Custer and Addlewide elementary school students who will be operating lemonade stands on Saturday, June 6th from 11 till 2. Custer will operate a drive-through stand at their school while Addlewide students will operate individual stands outside local businesses. Locations are on the district website. Lemonade day is an opportunity for students to build business skills. District retirements reception will be on June 8th. District will host a retirement reception for all the employees will have or will be retiring during the 2025-26 school year. The reception will be held at Clover Park High School's Gathering Hall on Monday, June 8th. Festivities begin at 4.30 p.m. CPSD students and community leaders honored at WASA event. The district honored four community members and four students at the Washington Association of School Administrators Award Ceremony in May. Diane Formoso from Caring for Kids, Pierce County Council Chair Janie Hitchen, and Cheryl Johnson Carr and Joe Rosardo from Woodman Life received WASA Community Leadership Rewards for their leadership and support through their roles and organizations. Mal Jackson, Clover Park High School, Michael Sanders, GLA, Alicia Nyong'o, hope I pronounced that correct, but Harrison Prep, and Kennedy Brown at Lakes High School received WASA Student Leadership Awards. The All-In-Team Project, which was a ceremony we held on May 20th, featured powerful speeches from Superintendent Banner, I can't imagine who wrote this, but powerful speeches from Superintendent Banner, students and Lieutenant Colonel Daniel McIntosh, deputy commander of the 19th Mission Support Group, local trumpet virtuosos, Morris Northcott also performed taps as part of this ceremony. Students installed more than 7,000 individual markers honoring fallen soldiers, sailors, and guardsmen and Marines during an active operation since 9-11. 2026 Summer Lunch Program. Clover Park High School District will offer free lunch for children 18 years and younger this summer at several district schools. The program will be offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Services Program. Meals will be served on a first come first serve basis and must be eaten at the school. Locations and dates are on the website. Kindergarten registration is open for 2026-27. CPSD elementary schools are registering new kindergartners for the 26-27 school year. Register your child by completing the online registration form on our district website. To begin kindergarten, children must be five years old on or before August 31st. Child's birth certificate and immunization records are required at time of registration. June 10th is last day of school. Schools will operate in an early release that day. And then the new school year will begin on September 2nd. Follow on like Clover Park School District on the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube channels. Please consider liking and following and adding pictures that you would like to see. And then school board meeting, our next meeting is on June 8th and then at 6 p.m. and on June 22nd at 5.30 p.m. I think last day of school is June 10th. I mentioned that and that's about it. Any questions? Please don't ask me any questions.

Thank you, Director Lowry. And some of us may have questions.

Oh my God, no questions. We never ask Mike questions when he comes to see us. So I'm sorry, Council Member Branstad, we never ask any questions. I think he got off easy this time. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. And congratulations on the student leaders. They are an amazing group of kids. Aren't they in Shannon Bennett's work? It's amazing. So fun to watch. So thank you.

So next is public comments. Public comments are accepted by mail, email, or by live virtual or in-person comment. Send comments in advance by mail or email to Brianna Schumacher, City Clerk 6000 Main Street Southwest, Lakewood, Washington 98499, or bschumacher at cityoflakewood.us. Comments received up to one hour before the meeting have been provided to the city council electronically. The clerk will read the names of those who have submitted comments in advance. Ms. Atkins.

The city received public comment in advance from the following, Christine Adams, Gimmie Beshaw, Pam Beal, Blaine Bowman, Marilyn Boyd, Robert Brown, Linda Thompson, Mandy Candler, Timature Dunlop, Carol Eckert, John Forrell, Mason Hargrove, Hunter Henderson, Maureen Hicks, Alice Gatlin, Carolyn Jeanette, Laura Johns, Kara Johnston, Laird Kelly, Bonita McPhail, Jacqueline Margoyle, Kirsten Miller, Dasha Milson, Julie Moylan, Joanna Orr, Maria Pasquali, Brooke Pawlicki, Carol Porter, Charlotte Silva, Heidi Stevens, Barbara Turner, Chris Van Giffen, Dale and Pamela Wright, Brian Parsons, Jenny Bellman, Kanani Cockett, Barb Crowell, Carol Else, Thomas Erber, Michael Fishbaugh, Ella Garlilova, Noel Higgins, Madeline Hanely, Hai Ho, Nick Call, Chris Knudsen, Sean Lundblad, Jamie Mackey, Christine Moody, Katherine Parks, Amber Chapel-Ruthford, Jake Seberg, Gail Schuyler, Nancy Norelli-Smith, Jennifer Andrews, Lauren Atwill, Liddy Austin, Elk Barnes, Linda Bringer, Nicole Bell, Angela Buxton, Joshua Christian, Chris Colt, Antonio Dean, Jay Faulkner, Ariana Fasaga, Tom Galdabini, Kendra Getty, Jody Hess, Christina Johnson, Jeff Kelly, Rena Kelly, Kimberly Cooter, Sally Larson, Mary Manning, Frances McLaughlin, Stasha Marino, Chris Morris, Christina Morrison, Brenda O'Brien, Ali Orozco, Barbara Orr, Skylar Osterman, Emily Pfeiffer, Natalie Rosales, Elizabeth Storm, John Strobel, Anna Thurston, Christina, Christopher Volk, Jana Roark, Arielle Whedon, Jeff Bauer, Jen Bowen, Heather Bush, Jenny Call, Alex Davis, Andrea Hines, Phil Hardy, Natalie Jones, Wayne Larson, Larry Levine, Lev Kellendy, Ben Labu, Abraham Rizalili, Robert Moore, Gloria Morris, Jeanette Ruggier, Karen Ripp, Annalise Simons, Linda Storer, Susan Ward, Tommy Oakley, Lindy Sheehan, Aaron Sanchez, Mitchell Huber, Chris and Jim Hay, Matt McCarthy, Ronique Bardinan, Wayne Davis, Patrick Casados, David Aiken, Casey Crook, Trisha Parsons, J.S. Anderson, Linda Sheehan, Leslie Young, Valerie Haynes, Valerie Anderson, Chitako Goodson, Eric and Chen Chandler, Judith Manetti, Kika Mon, Christina Manetti, Alexander Misiewicz, Gary Oak Coalition, and Patrick Philly. This concludes all public comments received in advance.

Thank you, Ms. Atkins. Can you tell us how many folks are waiting online?

There are a total of seven online, and they'll raise their hands if they're wanting to speak.

Seven hands up now.

There are seven participants logged in. However, they usually raise their hands as we go, so I'm not sure. It looks like there's two currently raising their hands. That could change.

Okay, please. Members of the audience may comment on items relating to any matter related to city business under the public comments period. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. If you'd like to provide live virtual public comments, you'll need to join the Zoom meeting as an attended by calling by telephone dial 1-253-215-8782 and enter meeting ID 868-7263-2373 or visit zoom.us and enter meeting ID 868-7263-2373. Upon entering the meeting, please enter your name. Use the raise hand feature to be called upon. For those participating by calling in by telephone, to use the raise hand feature, press star nine on your phone. When you're unmuted, provide your name and city of residence. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes to speak. Outside of public comments... All attendees on Zoom will continue to have the ability to virtually raise your hand for the duration of the meeting. You will not be acknowledged and your microphone will remain muted except for when you're called upon. I'd like to start with in person. So the first person would be Kate Reed. Thank you, Ms. Reid. You have three minutes.

Good evening, council members. My name is Kate Reid. I'm a Lakewood City resident. I'm here about the proposed tree removal at the Dower School. I would think that we could start designing our sidewalks much better so that we do not have to cut down our trees. I mean, we are in a climate area that we've talked about climate a lot. And all I hear about is trees coming down. So I would like to see that happen. The other thing is the city council has a tree ordinance, 18A7A, to protect significant trees. My suggestion to the city is to amend that ordinance to include the city right-of-way trees proposed for removal and to be heard by an independent hearing officer to allow public comment. I think it's really important as our community is growing that we take care of our environment. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Reid. Mr. Mark Pfeiffer. You have three minutes.

Good evening, Mayor Bulkey, council members. my wife just stole all my thoughts. But the one thing that I, after looking at the Lakewoods, the ordinance on tree preservation You know, it's really hard on property owners, private property owners, but it kind of leaves the city out of it. I don't know who or how the city decides whether they're going to take down one of their trees as opposed to... somewhat draconian rules and regulations and penalties, if you will, for private properties when they want to take down a tree. So I think that it's important that there be some sort of transparency so that Everybody benefits by knowing that there's a process that determines whether or not it's worthwhile to take down a tree, particularly oak trees, but other significant trees as well. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pfeiffer.

Chris Fruitrich.

You have three minutes. Set.

My comments to the council are regarding the 75th street bridge element of the city's transportation improvement plan. You may recall that two weeks ago, a few of us showed up at the meeting with a lot of emotion. However, we also showed up with very few details. about the bridge and its associated elements. We asked a lot of questions, but we got few answers. I would like to make a modest proposal to the council. I would like to propose that the council amend the transportation improvement plan for 2026 to exclude the 75th street bridge item. And when you choose to bring it back, and please don't rush that on my account, that you give residents impacted by the project both adequate advance notice and more details about the project, such as maybe a traffic study, a map, or an illustration pointing out how that particular site benefits Lakewood, perhaps a rendering of the new structure, and details about the widening of streets and inclusion of sidewalks and bike lanes. Basically, I'm asking for enough information so that we could have a real discussion about the project and not just another one-sided night of torches and pitchforks. I know things have to change as we grow. I guess I would only ask to have a voice when major changes are decided. And with that, I yield back my time.

Thank you, Mr. Frugrich. Mr. Ryan Ulrich.

Hello, thank you. I'm a resident on Turquoise Drive. I'd just like to reiterate our family strongly advises against proceeding with the 75th Bridge route as it would have a profoundly negative impact on our homes and local neighborhood. We implore you to try and explore alternative routes and options that would be less detrimental to homeowners and the green belt located on 75th and Turquoise Drive. There has to be and must be a more cost-effective alternative that does not require a very expensive bridge and long road, especially when it would be situated in close proximity to residential homes. As public officials, We remind you that your role encompasses not only representing the community, but also being homeowners, neighbors, and stewards of our living environment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ulrich. Amanda Mackey.

Good evening. My name is Amanda Mackey and I am a resident of Lakewood and Oak Brook. I am here to express my deep concern regarding the proposed six-year transportation project and the bridge across Chambers Creek. Having previously lived on Silicon Lake, right at the dam, I saw firsthand the negative impact of having a road right over that waterway. I and my neighbor used to pull trash regularly out of the lake because it was right up against our docks and we would have to rescue and or dispose of dead birds and fish that were injured or killed by the pollutants that were in that lake. I would like to know if a comprehensive environmental study has been completed evaluating all the power lines, the sewer lines, and the environmental impact that a road and bridge would have over that area. I worry that the estimated $16 million budget is far below what would actually cost to build a bridge and maintain the bridge in that area. In my daily commute from Oak Brook, I have not found the current traffic levels to be excessive, and I am concerned about the erosion of the land, the aquifer. and cutting all of our native oak trees, the pollution of the creek and the lake, and the impact to the natural habitat and wildlife in our community. It is my belief that the environmental risks posed by the construction project far outweigh the potential traffic benefits. I will gladly drive farther and extend my drive and my commute while repairs are made at the dam at Silicon Lake because I care about the people who live in my community and our environment. Our community values the natural beauty of the native trees, the bird sanctuary, Silicon Lake, Chambers Creek, and Kobayashi Park. I urge you to reconsider this element of the transportation project to protect our current infrastructure, our environment, our wildlife, and the quality of life for the Lakewood residents who live in Oak Brook. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker, I just have a first name, Sue.

Good evening, Council. I want to start out saying that I'm so highly disappointed with this city. Heidi Anne understands why. The doctors I want to let you know are saying I'm permanently disabled for you not helping me being assaulted by that chiropractor. And you guys are celebrating Juneteenth where my quality of life has been severe. I can't even work anymore. but yet you guys are voting for all this money for y'all's pay. I wanna let you know that you have a corrupt cop The gentleman out there, it's really horrible because he's very kind, but this officer is very arrogant and he's full of his self and he's a liar and he breaks the law. He tries to hurt people because he's full of his self and he needs to be stopped and he needs to be handled. He lied to the city and said he wrote me a ticket for something that I didn't do and that he hand delivered it to me. He made a lot of errors because he's not telling the truth. I never got the ticket. And the only way I found out about the ticket was Olympia sent me a letter saying they're going to suspend my license that I needed for work when I was able to work. I never got a chance to have my rights to fight the ticket because he's not telling the truth. He made a whole lot of errors and I will not sit on this. I will not allow my license to be suspended when I did nothing wrong. He put me in harm's way while he laughed and watched us almost hating each other. Something's not right with him. He was yelling and screaming, accusing me of doing, he never talked to me. He never asked me what I was doing. He just came screaming, I was jumping. Like he couldn't control himself physically. He was so angry. And I couldn't figure out why, because we had no communication. And then he was accusing me of doing something I didn't do when they're the ones that should have handled it. When I told him you should have been out directing traffic, none of us knew what to do. He then told me to basically stop talking. He really made a huge error. You might want to check into that because I recorded him because I didn't trust him. And this is exactly why. So everything I'm saying I can prove and I will prove it. And he will not get away with doing what he did to me. He had no right to write a ticket, then lie to the city and say he handled it. He never handed me anything. And I have the video to prove it. He threatened to send me something in the mail, which he didn't do because he said on the paperwork and I didn't even get, I didn't even know what I was being accused of until months later. This apparently was supposedly happened on January 25th is when he wrote the ticket. He supposedly gave it to me. I didn't find out until April when the Olympia sent me something saying they were going to suspend my license because I didn't respond to something I never received. When he received it, until april 7th from in the court the clerk didn't even want to give it to me he was just sending me the records i said no i need to know what i'm being accused of for months now um i'm hoping that the city does something this time thank you very much alexander misquits can help me with that last name

Mr. Mayor, council members, I got me off guard. I was at the bottom of the list. I'm at the front of the list. I agree with Mr. Fruitrich. You should take this bridge, 75th Street Bridge, off the agenda indefinitely, forever. We have a representative government. We vote you in and you represent and do what's best for us. I hear a lot about business, business, business, but I don't hear a lot about our environment or our citizens and how you're improving it. A couple of years ago, you extended the riparian zone, protected zone, another 50 feet from bank to bank, okay? 250 feet. You have surveys on how many trees do we have on our property? We have 33. Statements on urban forestry, city urban heat resilience strategy and native climate resilience planting. But yet I see a lot of sidewalks that are doubling in width. I don't know why we need twice as much width. The ones we had before were just fine for everybody. Chambers Creek will die if you bring that bridge, okay? The pollution will kill the salmon, will kill the other species that are supported by the salmon. The native vegetation will die. And the non-native vegetation will, because it's stronger, will grow. Everybody uses that area. It's a green zone. It's a green belt, okay? It doesn't belong to you. or me, it belongs to our future generations. And you have a duty, you have a duty to preserve that. Okay. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Vicky Stanich.

Good evening, Mayor Boeke and city council members. My name is Vicki Stanich. I live in Lakewood. And I'm speaking on behalf of the cutting down of healthy trees, specifically Gary Oaks. I'll read an article about adapting to trees. It's called Chop or Adapt. When State Representative June Speakman reached out to ask how her town might have dozens of mature street trees threatened by sidewalk repairs, might save dozens of mature trees, she touched on a dilemma facing communities across North America. It's a classic clash, roots lifting concrete panels, sidewalks becoming uneven, and a city's instinct to solve the problem by removing the trees entirely. But should we chop or adapt? The truth is sidewalks and trees don't have to be enemies. In fact, every great city and town in the world is full of great trees. They shade, shelter, and dignify our public realm. They're a sign of maturity in the best sense, living infrastructure that increases in strength, value, and ecological benefit over time. What can we do? Instead, we can reroute sidewalks or meander them. We can install permeable pavers or rubber sidewalk tiles. We can elevate or ramp over roots. We can narrow sidewalks slightly. And saving trees is a smart move economically. It's not just about beauty or sentiment. Trees provide real measurable infrastructure benefits, especially for stormwater management as highlighted in a recent analysis by Urban Three in Springfield, Missouri. A single mature tree intercepts 770 gallons of rainfall and absorbs 1500 gallons of stormwater each year. That absorption reduces stormwater system costs by up to $1.6 million a year. And I just wanted to mention there are other remedies, but I wanted to mention another thing that I would like to suggest that the City of Lakewood keep a database of destination of logged oak trees, because apparently Gary Oaks make world-class whiskey. So it's very valuable wood. And I would like to know where that wood is going. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Stanage. Paul Bryce.

Hello, Mayor, city council members. My name is Paul Bryce. I'm here, as you guys all know, to talk about cannabis. But for a quick minute, I would like to discuss this bridge. I live right off of, right by the Presbyterian Church off 104th. My family owned Hunan Garden, a very prideful Chinese restaurant, half Chinese, half black. As we should all know, Phillips Road, 83rd, 87th, are all going to be major throwaways for that bridge for them to all come down, like just driving amps to then go down whichever way for really, I don't understand. Oakbrook is such a small community. Even though I don't live in Oakbrook, live nearby, like trying to keep all the prestigious values of our areas, I think is something we should really try to keep. But just having... all that traffic come through, which I think would really help Steilacoom more than anybody. And like, clearly, Oakbrook and the residents, they clearly see you're going to just destroy all the values. And even someone like myself could leave Walmart, cut straight across, figure out how to get away that side traffic and make all the Oakbrook just throwaways. But to cannabis, I would like to say, for the guys that don't know, we compare cannabis to a lot of other drugs. Alcohol kills 178,000 people a year, 26 million worldwide. Opioids, 70,000. Tobacco, 490,000. 8 million worldwide. Sugar, 180 to 184. Fast food, 124,000. Zero for cannabis. You can ask Google. Gemini, AI, how many has it killed in the last 10 years? You're gonna get the same answer, zero. So hard to understand we're 21 and older, we're protecting from what we consider a medical, drug, call it a drug, or a miracle. We even see places like Lewis County now understand like places like Packwood where they have to drive so far. I mean, this is financially first. All the people that have to leave Lakewood to go spend their money in Tacoma to not smoke their weed in Tacoma, but come here back and Lakewood seems kind of ridiculous. And again, this is 21 and older, Too much study has been absolutely done. And it just seems really senseless that, especially Juneteenth, behind social equity or anything, there's just too many reasons why to still withhold cannabis. And kind of back to, I don't know what we're doing with our value of Lakewood, but Lakewood Town Center, we're low income rentals, not condos. We're going to see that whole entire parking lot become a pandering area where people are going to have all their birthdays and parties, everyone's going to be parking throughout the parking lot. And you know, my, my stores are called happy trees and they're actually said to be the nicest in our state, if not the country. So hopefully we can give that another look.

Thank you, Mr. Bryce. Is there anyone else in chambers who would like to speak tonight? And if so, please line up behind the speaker.

Hello, my name is James Dunlop and I am a Lakewood resident. So on May the 20th, I went to the Downtown Neighborhood Association, which was being addressed by the director of the Pierce County Library System. And as we know, there is a great hole where the Tensler Library used to be. There's a question about whether or not the library is going to be rebuilt. And the director gave some numbers about the cost of rebuilding. And for a 20,000 square feet building, she said baseline for 2025 would have been $31 million. for moving forward to 2033, between $38 and $43 million. For a 30,000 square foot building, 2025 figure, $43.7 million. For 2033, between $55 and $59 million. So that is a lot of money, as she conceded. And she put a lot of the blame, as far as I could see, on inflation. Now, contrast this with the situation with the Tenzler Library, where in 2022, when we were told that it was beyond repair and had to be torn down, the first figure for the repairs of the Tenzler Library were between $10 and $15 million. And then the number went up between, I think, to $22 million. Many people question these figure of 22 million or even the 10 to 15 million. People who knew about building and construction, they suggested, and they came to this council chamber to question those numbers. And there is a big discrepancy here. And it seems to me that the Pierce County Library system are now proposing on spending far more than would have cost if the Tenzer Library hadn't been kept. And who is going to pay that difference? I mean, that means the city residents, property owners, whatever, are going to have to pay through maybe through taxation, through the raising of a bond and so forth. It's going to be down to the city. So the city is going to have to pay for what seems to me is a big mistake that the Pierce County Library system has made. We could have got around this problem if... At the time, the city council had threatened to de-annex. The mere threat of de-annexation would have probably meant that we still would have had a Tensler Library. And it would have saved, I believe, Lakewood residents, I think, potentially millions of dollars. And so the question is, why didn't the city council stand up for Lakewood? It really does sort of demonstrate the point that there is an incestuous relationship between the city council and local municipalities.

Thank you, Mr. Dunlop. Ms. Minetti. I'm reading off the list here. So after we're done with the list, then you can.

Hello, everybody. I'm Christina Minetti. I'm speaking on behalf of Gary Oak Coalition and Liquid. We urge you not to approve the six-year transportation improvement program until the sidewalk and roadway projects affecting Gary Oaks and other mature trees at the Custer Road Sidewalk Project and elsewhere, including the bridge, are redesigned to ensure that those trees are preserved. Once those oaks are cut down, of course, they cannot be replaced. As you know, it takes literally centuries for a tree to grow and you just cut it down. Not you personally, of course, but somebody can just cut it down in a single afternoon. It's not just about a few oaks and a sidewalk. It's about whether or not the city of Lakewood is truly carrying out the intent of the Washington state laws that affect Gary Oaks. And I'd say that it's not Washington state law and best available science that what Lakewood is supposed to base the regulations on are clearly established. Should I wait? The importance of protecting garyocabitat, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's best available science guidance states clearly that Garyoaks west of the Cascades should not be cut down except for stand enhancement. The clear intent of the state law and scientific guidance is preservation of this rare ecosystem, not to allow general attrition through piecemeal infrastructure projects. When a rare ecosystem with only 3% to 5% of its original habitat left continues to have oaks being cut down, this is clearly an impact. Just three oaks out of the group of 40 or so on that corner, for example, is already 7.5% to 10% of that one group. But there are a lot more, right? There are always going to be more until there aren't any more. That's how cumulative impact works. Little by little, it seems it's only one oak here, and it's just like three oaks there, and there are 40 more just right next to it. But in 2026, we already have lost hundreds and hundreds of oaks since the city's founding. Just in the last few years, last 10 years, hundreds and hundreds. The city has failed to adopt and implement policies that fully embody that intent. They continue to allow avoidable losses of Gary Oaks and public's rights of way. They blame it on private property, but this is their own public right of way that they're cutting the oaks down in. This concern was directly acknowledged by former Lakewood hearing examiner Phil Olbrecht in his 2022 reapplication materials. He warned that Lakewood's oak policies would likely not withstand scrutiny in a higher court. That warning should not be ignored. It reflects the growing gap between protections envisioned by state law and the city's actual practices, which even after the 2022 amendments are severely limited to the point of being essentially meaningless. The city can still change course. It's not too late to start living up to its responsibility, but that has to start tonight. Former director of Morse Wildlife Preserve in Graham, Tom Gondrip-Galdabini, wrote in a comment, these trees are to be treasured like historic monuments, which is essentially what they are. The city of Lakewood seems to view them as inconveniences.

Thank you.

Oh, and the second one, this is from me, Christina Manetti Lakewood. I've lived here about 54 years. I'm here to ask you not to approve the Transportation Improvement Program until it has been amended to avoid impacts to Gary Oaks at the Dower Elementary Sidewalk Project, as well as the other projects in that program. Why? There are cultural reasons you might be forgetting. The city seems to completely disregard the fact that these oaks are evidence of indigenous stewardship over thousands of years. They were actually cultivated. They were basis for their food system. They were part of that culture. And when you see one, that means somebody was taking care of it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be there because the furs would have overtopped it and killed it. Despite appearances, these oaks are old at Dower. I went to Dower, by the way. Did I forget to tell you? I went to Dower when I was little, yeah, all the way through the 1970s. They are approximately 150 to 280 years old, and I've known them the whole time, just like I think Miss Talbot. They haven't grown. It doesn't look like, you know, a fir in 50 years would be just like huge, right, compared to... No, these don't really grow very fast at all. They are... Just because they're slow growing, it shouldn't count against them. People say, oh, they just look like they're scrawny. But they are ecologically important. They're a keystone species, as you know. They're supporting hundreds, and by some counts, even more than 1,000 species. By cutting down those oaks, you are also taking away the habitat of all the hundreds of organisms that depend on those trees. They can't just move over. The other habitat is taken. So you're killing not only trees, but other living beings. Cumulative impact in Lakewood is real. You can't just say, oh, that's fine. It's just three oaks because we've lost hundreds already. There's three here, one here, nine there, 33 there, 114 in Springbrook, 54 at Oakwood. Just to take a few examples, we must not lose any more because they're going to be gone eventually. WDFW guidance says, you know, that no Gary Oaks should be cut down west of the Cascades. I don't know how many times people have to tell you this. This means that when you encounter Gary Oaks, everyone must think, OK, how are we going to avoid impacts? WDFW guidance says that mitigation sequence should stop at the first step, which is avoidance. The obvious cheap and obvious solution at Dow would be to have people instructed to use the existing sidewalk on the opposite side of the road. People from elsewhere are shocked when I tell them that my city allows them to be cut down for warehouses, roundabouts, sidewalks, and apartment buildings. You're famous, but not in a good way. Cutting down all these oaks and lakewood makes it less livable, hotter, uglier. They're good for our mental health, but who cares? Is this what the city wants? Think of the oaks and other trees as fellow living beings, and please instruct people not to cut them down.

Thank you.

Ms. Haley Ivey.

Hi, I'm Haley Ivy. I'm a resident of Lakewood and I do not have a car at the moment and I wanted to keep it that way because I appreciated the public transportation in this part of the country. So I have to speak as a person who is walk commuting and bus commuting, I am outside. nature versus pavement directly right before me. So I wanted to loudly second, third, fourth, fifth, what everybody was talking about, about the Dower Elementary trees. being cut down for pavement. And now we have a bridge that is going through neighborhoods, wetland, and both of these are related. There is a huge amount of traffic all over the country. So I'm not just trying to pick on Lakewood, but I live here. And what we're doing is instead of trying to solve traffic any other way, we're deciding to make more pavement to kind of add more of those cars on there. And that's just going to keep going. And the same thing happens in reverse is when you cut something like a tree down, it doesn't come back. It doesn't come back as a sapling. I went to the trees the other day on Custer Road. The road was very busy. I would say it was around 5 p.m. It must have been after school hours. I didn't see a single person walking down the other sidewalk the entire time. There is a gravel area that you can walk on already where the sidewalk is going to be built, which is... I don't know how you can get up that hill and destroy three trees just so brazenly. Anyway, it does not feel safe if there's a sidewalk there. So I just, it just feels like Lakewood's decisions is as if a child is being promised more candy by a stranger. It just feels like I'm walking through my own city and I'm afraid to turn the corner at one of my favorite parks because the trees are cut down. I actually went to Edgewater Park, I talk about that one all the time, where they cut the trees down at the swimming beach. I took a video of disgusting trash up near the Edgewater. And so all that to say, I would love the city of Lakewood to take into account the environment, the natural environment that we're in because we keep paving it all over and there will be nothing left. As a person that walks, I have to take my sweater off and I'm thirsty for water when I'm in the sun. I get under tree canopy and I have to put my sweater back on. It's beyond science. I mean, no, it's... face to face when you're actually out there in it, other than in a car to be at home to go to work to go to the park, like you got to be out there. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Miss Ivy. Abraham Major Lele.

Hello, good evening. My name is Abraham Lele. I'm a city resident of Lakewood. Well, let's take a minute in honor of those 11 member of our community at large who are no longer with us. They deserve that because they try to serve our community and their family if they were not living paycheck to paycheck like 76% of other Americans. Thank you. Speaking of life, let's think that if we could not breathe for five minutes, just five minutes, these trees, they are breathing for us. They breathe for themselves, true, but they are also breathing for us. It's not to be cruel to them. Please, The area that we are talking about on 75th Street is a confluence of three creeks, Chamber Creek, Fleet Creek, and Leech Creek. That's a critical area. If there is no water, birds, animals, they cannot survive. And the only way they can survive also, they have to be on the move. and they need water. They need a safe place to move. If you put bridge over there and people at 8 o'clock rushing to the work and in the afternoon rushing back to pick up their kids and these animals crossing the road, and I'm sure you have seen a lot of them, they are going to run over them. This is not going to do any good for our environment. This is not going to do any good for us. Please reconsider that and also the Dower School. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Zachary Kinman.

good evening mr mayor and city council my name is zachary kinnaman i've been a resident of the city of lakewood for 28 years i live on 77th street west which is right across the street virtually from the john dower school i am totally opposed to the removal of these wonderful oak trees We need the canopy, there's no excuse for this. We can do a meander type as was just previously suggested, an environmental, with my environment type of plan. I walk frequently along that road with my dog and it is incredibly dangerous no matter how far from the curb I am because people go like hell down Custer. And they go like hell down John Dower, sometimes with kids present. Nothing's ever done about that. I never see a cop out there with a radar gun. You could make a lot of money. We could fill some of the budget problems that all cities seem to have these days. And as for putting a $17 million bridge across Chambers Creek in the middle of nowhere, what's that going to do? Join Obama? one part of the city to another. So we have another stream of traffic going towards Bridgeport and I-5. It's not a good idea. That intersection at Bridgeport and 75th is an amazing gamble each time all of us cross or get out to go left or right. There's not a set of lights that work consistently the way the traffic wants to go. We don't take anything from Mutual Materials because they're a giant corporation and they're not gonna give up their land without one hell of a big fight. But we're gonna put a bridge over Chambers Creek because nobody's gonna say anything, right? And we're gonna spend $17 million over a creek that is struggling every day to remain viable and thrive. And I just wanted to say one thing about these oaks. They take 300 years to grow. They take 300 years to live and 300 years to die. That's 900 years alive. Consider that type of a monument compared to our minuscule lifetimes to this living organism. And thank you very much for the opportunity to speak in this.

Thank you. That's everybody on the list. So anybody else who would like to speak, come up, introduce yourself, and you have three minutes.

Hello, everyone. I guess I can back up a little bit. My name is Gary Livingston. I reside at 72nd Street Court. My backyard is literally... the circle would touch. where my property would be the roundabout. So speaking on behalf of my neighbors, some of them were here last week, but we definitely opposed to that. I appreciate those that came in the name of the trees. I do love nature. I love the greenery, I love the canopy, but myself, along with my neighbors, our concern is You know, the traffic, the taxes. To me, the benefit is probably about five minutes of waiting in traffic or postal waiting in traffic. And it's just not a big deal to me to put such a project forward. I know a little bit about construction. I do it myself. And $17 million, that would probably be the cost to the construction company. And so I'd love to see the layout of that. I would believe that if you guys went forward with this, that it would be another, hey, we need 25 more million. You know, the sidewalks would be appreciative down Phillips from Zircon or wherever that street there that that that would be nice all the way to the end there. But definitely oppose that. The biggest thing is the taxes. I'm sure our property taxes will be raised for something that we totally don't want. And with that, IU, thanks.

Thank you. Is there anybody else in chambers that would like to speak?

May I?

Please, yeah. Introduce yourself, you have three minutes.

Thank you, Mayor Boki. My name is Jasmine Smith, and I've been living in this community for over 50 years. And I'd like to speak to the saving of the Gary Oaks trees. We need our trees. We need our canopy. We need to be able to breathe. The wildlife needs their habitat. And didn't Lakewood get an award for one of the best cities in conservation? What are we doing? That would make it a farce. So I would just like to say, in addition, I don't remember anyone voting on having more sidewalks, sidewalks in places where there's a lot of traffic. And I don't see a lot of people utilizing the sidewalks that had already been put up that had just been constructed in the last couple of years. And thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anybody in chambers who would like to speak? Okay, so I'm going to move to online. It looks like we've got three hands up, but we only have two people identified. So why don't we start with Ms. Judith Anderson?

Hi. Making concrete creates enormous amounts of greenhouse gas. To make cement, can you hear me? Hi, can you hear me? Okay, well, I'll just continue. To make cement, you take limestone, which is mostly calcium carbonate.

We'll go back to Ms. Anderson. Let's go to Tikamir Dunlap.

Hello, can you hear me?

Hello?

Can you hear me?

I can hear you.

Yeah, I don't think they hear us at all because I heard you as well.

Oh, that's weird. Okay, thanks. Okay, so that's weird. They must have pushed the wrong button.

He's like, we can hear each other.

Yeah. How fun. Well, that's great. I wonder what they're going to say. I don't even see the picture anymore. I don't know what to do. Are you guys hanging up or are you going to hang out?

Well, I guess I'll wait to see if maybe they fix it. I don't know.

Okay. Then I will too. Mayor, can you ask them to speak again?

Okay. So I'm going to go to Judith Anderson first.

Okay. Can you hear me now? Hello? The other people waiting can hear me, but not you.

Okay, we can hear you now. You've got three minutes.

Okay. To make cement, you take limestone, which is mostly calcium carbonate, and you heat it to roughly 1,450 degrees Celsius in a rotating tube the length of a city block. The limestone gives up its carbon as CO, and what remains is calcium oxide, which is the active ingredient that mixed with water and gravel and sand eventually becomes concrete. The CO is not a side effect of the process. It's half the chemistry. Roughly 60% of cement emissions come from this calcination reaction. Only 40% comes from the fuel used to heat the kiln. You can swap out the coal for hydrogen. You can solar power the whole plant. And the limestone will still give up its carbon at the same rate because the rock is the source of the greenhouse gas. So my ask is for you to stop pouring concrete. I do have a second part, which is not related to the Gary Oaks, which that was. I also ask, okay. And it was a couple of weeks ago or it might've been a month ago. I also ask that you allow the people who were asking about fixing American Lake to do so. The state of Washington is in a drought. We didn't get enough. We didn't even get half our snow. There will be fierce arguments, if not wars, over fresh water, but probably not this week. But you've got a lake. It's poison. There's people who have the means and the will to fix it. Let them start fixing the lake now before it's too late. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Chikamere Dunlop.

Hello. I assume you can hear me now. Hello, my name is T. Henry Dunlop and I'm a resident of Lakewood and I'd like to make a comment about cumulative impact. So just in general, I feel like there's this sort of issue where, you know, the oak trees that we have here can live several hundred years and As a person, if you're lucky, you might be able to live 100 years. And human timescales and the timescales of the trees are... Human timescales are obviously much shorter. So what we see day to day and consider to be normal... kind of prevents us from seeing the change that happens. So for the average person in Lakewood, if a tree was cut down 20 years ago, they've probably forgotten about it. What the city is like today, like today's normal, is going to be fewer trees than was around 20 years ago, but people keep adjusting what their normal is as things slowly go away, and people don't realize what they lose. So, you know, like by Dower Elementary, where, you know, they're thinking of cutting down a few oak trees to make a sidewalk. Oh, what's a few oak trees when there's a hundred still there? You know, that's pretty much a rounding error. Who cares? But when that adds up, it's a big difference. I'm sure if you went back 50 years and if you showed somebody in Lakewood what the city looked like today, they would be absolutely shocked. Where did all the trees go? And if you took somebody today and you took them 50 years in the future with the way things are currently going, they would probably be shocked, where did all the trees go? And if you go just next door to Tacoma, whenever I go to Tacoma, I'm always surprised how few trees there are and everything feels so barren. And we're lucky to have the number of trees we have here today. And I just really hope that we're able to preserve that. And you can't... You can't say that just cutting down a few trees is insubstantial because yeah, sure, that might be true if you've never cut down a tree before and you'll ever cut down a tree again, but just look at the big picture. If you cut down a few today, a few tomorrow, a few next week, you're not gonna have that many left because they take hundreds of years to mature. In the span of 20 years, what happened 20 years ago feels like a while ago, but the trees at Dower Elementary School look basically the same today as they did 20 years ago because our timescales are different. So look at the cumulative impact, and yeah, that's all.

Thank you. Alex Kenney says, Alex Kenny.

Yeah, I'll unmute myself. Dear Mayor and City Council, my name is Alex and I'm a Lakewood resident. Please amend the traffic project to remove the 75th Street Bridge. This would kill local wildlife, increase noise, pollution, and cost to maintain it and displace homeowners. This plan will forever change the Oak Brook area in a negative way. Please reassess this plan to look for cheaper alternatives that do not spend $17 minimum million and do not have a large impact on the wildlife. Thank you, and I yield the remaining of my time.

Thank you, Mr. Kenney. Okay, we have Zoom user. So Zoom user, I need you to identify yourself. And you have three minutes.

Hello. Hello.

You got three minutes.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yeah, I need you to identify yourself.

My name is Amy Ulrich. I spoke two weeks ago regarding the six-year plan overpass. And I just want to let you know that it would go right up against my house if you guys do this. And I work tirelessly to work in this neighborhood. I mean, my husband and I both deserve our property to have peace and quiet in our property. And then this plan would ruin so many homes and the different types of trees, the local wildlife, our safety. The Oak Brook Greenbelt needs to be preserved. Please help keep us safe and keep our sanctuary of our little sweet environment that we have here. Please find another route that won't harm so many families and trees and be more cost-effective than a bridge. That's all I have to say and thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Aldridge. Okay, that's all the... And I'm going to declare... public comment close. Thank you very Ms. Atkins. Could you please read the consent agenda?

A, approval of minutes of the city council meeting of May 18th, 2026. B, approval of claims vouchers in the amount of $4,822,145.84 for the period of April 16th, 2026 through May 15th, 2026. C, approval of paychecks in the amount of $3,161,090.81 for the period of April 16th, 2026 through May 15th of 2026. D, motion number 2026-40, authorizing the execution of an intergovernmental agreement with the Washington Military Department for emergency management aid and assistance. E, motion number 2026-41, authorizing the execution of an amendment to the agreement with Aqua Technics in the amount of 55,600 for the 2026 American Lake Management District ALMD milfoil treatment. F, motion number 2026-42, authorizing the execution of an agreement with Gundersen Law Firm in the amount of $182,000 for municipal legal services. G, motion number 2026-43, authorizing the execution of an agreement with AMS Consulting LLC in the amount of $182,000. and $1,653.99 for the stormwater asset management system. H, items filed in the office of the city clerk. One, community services advisory board meeting minutes of March 19th, 2026.

Thank you very much, Ms. Atkins. Are there any items council member wishes to remove from the consent agenda? Council member Talbot.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to remove item E for questions and just simply questions.

So item E is going to be removed. That's motion number 202641 on the milfoil treatment. So after that, are there any other items that members would like to remove from the consent agenda? Okay. I need a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda as amended.

Mr. Mayor, I move to adoption of the consent agenda minus item E. Second.

It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda minus item E. And then, so all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Aye. The ayes have it, so now we will move on to motion number 2026-41. Are you here to speak to it, Mr. Ott?

Good evening, Mayor Boki. I'm available for any questions on this motion, the addendum of Aqua Technics' contract.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Talbot.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you, Mr. Ott in reviewing this item and exhibit B in the item, which is a rate sheet, but not necessarily a scope of work, but it kind of, I think from the tasks listed for the rates kind of gives enough of an idea. So simply my questions at this time are the early season survey and the year end report. and also the post-treatment survey, will those deliverables be, will the ALMD make those deliverables available through their board or their meetings to the public?

Yes, that's correct. So all the items for the ALMD are available on the city website. That includes all the reports, et cetera. The spring survey is a visual survey. So aquatechnics and typically a city staff go around the entire lake and identify milfoil locations. And sometimes we have to do rake surveys and it's as it sounds, we throw a rake on a rope and pull it up and verify it's milfoil. That's then logged through a GIS system for the lake. And then we have a map of the treatment areas for the springtime. The fall survey is very similar. And then usually at the end of the year, December, January is the final report. And all those items are available for every year on the city's website. Great.

Thank you, and then the second question I have is, we have been enacting this contract since 2020, and this is the seventh addendum. Is there a limit to, or I guess is there a number of options total with this, or is this contract subject to as many addendums as advertised?

So if I understand your question correctly, is can we continue to do addendums of this contract? And my understanding is yes. The contractor performs well. The treatments work well. However, at any point, we could go back out and go through another competitive process and solicit bids. I don't know if we would necessarily get lower prices, but that is an option. So by continuing with this contractor, we save some of that overhead. through not going through the advertising process. The ALMD budget is, I'm going from memory, $23,760 a year. So it's a very tight financial budget to, we try to minimize overhead costs.

Thank you very much. And the reason I ask is only because, um, just being mindful of, uh, contracting for, you know, at least wouldn't five years or more, um, in some cases, depending on the topic and subject matter, it can, um, warrant better competitiveness to, to re advertise. So thank you. I understand. I understand with that, Mr. Mayor, I will move to approve this item.

I was second.

And moved and seconded to approve motion number 2026-41. Are there any other comments any members would like to make? Okay. All those in favor of motion number 2026-41 signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. John Potter, guys have it motion number 2026 dash 41 is approved. John Potter, We will now consider resolution number 2026 04 miss adkins, could you please read it into the record.

Resolution number 2026-04, Adopting the Right-of-Way Americans with Disabilities Act ADA Transition Plan.

Mr. Ott for an overview.

I don't have a prepared presentation for this as we have gone through a number of study sessions through the planning commission process and through the council review as well. So at this time, and I should add, we had an exhaustive public comment period. We received one comment through the process and that was from Pierce Transit. The process of soliciting those comments were through social media, articles in the Cascadian, the weekly city bulletin, and then emails directly to those that are interested parties. So at this point, we've done a thorough process and that we're at a good point that the council should consider approving this to move forward.

Thank you, Mr. Ott. Appreciate it. Do we have a motion for resolution number 202604? So moved. And moved and seconded. So is there any council member discussion on, it's the Adopting the Right-of-Way Americans with Disabilities Act ADA Transition Plan. I believe it's something we're required to do. Thank you, Mr. Branstetter. Council Member Branstetter.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As Mr. Ott said, we've looked at this. It's gone through some public comment period. There, in fact, was a public hearing held by the Planning Commission that no one spoke at. But in doing this plan, this plan actually has to do with the ability of persons with disabilities and quite frankly, other people because of the amenities for them help others to be able to get from here to there in the city, to be able to go and do that. And it's consistent with our comprehensive plan that looks at making sure that all new streets have sidewalks, that we are moving forward and dealing with safety issues and things to be able to go and do that. It's also a long-term document that requires being updated every three to five years is what it says in the plan to be able to go and do that. And I think that we'll look to do that. Also, in the context of some of the public comment that we heard today that question the utility and value of sidewalks and amenities to help individuals with disabilities or people with problems to be able to move around. that we're in a situation of where we are being required, in this case, by the federal government, but also by urging from the state in terms of state legislation. And state legislation gives you priorities that conflict with each other. They have environmental problems. things that they asked you to do, but they asked you to do things with housing and land use and safety to be able to go and do that. And so it's somewhat ironic that we're looking to approve a long-term plan to ensure that there are sidewalks and usable sidewalks okay, for folks to get around. At the same time, we're looking at a lot of discussion that are saying that certain environmental things should trump having sidewalks for people to be able to go and do that. But I think that this plan is consistent with some of the goals that are already in our comprehensive plan. I think that it works well and it will, I guess if I have a question now that I think about it, will this plan be referenced in a future update of the comprehensive plan as the non-motorized transportation plan and others are?

Yeah, my understanding is that is correct. And then also, as you had mentioned, this is a living document that will be, you know, self-assessment yearly and then updated every three to five years. So we will come back again to council with this document in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I plan to vote in favor of this.

Thank you, Council Member Branstetter. Are there any other comments about the ADA transition plan? Council Member Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with what Mr. Bransetter was saying, and I think that part of this is important to help relate this plan to other plans that we have, like our transportation improvement plan. And so some of this kind of feeds into what I'll be talking about in one of our next items. But as we look down Bridgeport, It's Matt, you know, the sidewalk condition is mapped as a fair to poor pretty much consistently from Pacific Highway all the way to 100th Street. There's a number of driveways that are generally don't meet requirements from 100th Street to Gravely Lake, and they're scattered pedestrian buttons that are not meeting requirements along this corridor. It's a fairly when you look at the city as a whole you know with driveways sidewalk conditions ped bus and buttons it's probably one of our worst streets as a whole and so i i'd like us to take a a different approach than simply saying you know what we're going to fix the sidewalk here and that's not going to be part of our transportation improvement projects this is just going to be a sidewalk ada project and we're just going to go in and fix the sidewalk i'd like to make sure that we consider other options, I guess. And so anyway, I'm kind of setting myself up for our next item, but that's my point. So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Pearson. Council Member Lauricella.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Not a question, but just a thank you to city staff on this. So I've been on council for three years, and I've seen a noticeable improvement across our city in terms of accessibility for people with disabilities. And I've heard directly from members of our community. First, they reached out because they were concerned about certain crossings that didn't have an audio component to them that said it was safe to cross. That has since been fixed. They thanked me. I thanked council. So congratulations. Great work, Mr. Ott, and to your department as well. Keep it up and I will be voting in favor of this. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lorisell. Any other comments? Okay, so I'll just add this, the ADA, and I think you did a nice job in the packet of explaining kind of the genesis of, I didn't realize that there were things going back to 1968 about accessibility rules. That was the first thing. This is for cities all over the place, a major long-term effort to make accessible for people with disabilities. And it's taken a long time because it's expensive and this really rededicates us towards doing that. And I appreciate the, I think we all appreciate you putting this together. So it gives us a blueprint going forward and it'll take time, right?

There's no- Exactly.

Yeah. So thank you. So without any other comments, all those in favor of resolution number 202604, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. So thank you very much, Mr. Ott.

Thank you.

So next up is resolution number 202605, Ms. Atkins.

Resolution number 2026-05, approving the six-year 2027 to 2032 Comprehensive Transportation Improvement Program, TIP.

Mr. Troy Paczwinski. Mr. Paczwinski, just brief comments.

Absolutely. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Before you this evening is a resolution for the adoption of the 2027 through 2032 Transportation Improvement Program, which is required by state statute. for ensuring that you're staying within your comprehensive goals for transportation, as well as to ensure that you're adequately planning for your transportation moving forward. This evening, we've heard quite a bit of comment as we have on the May 18th public hearing. The program's been before you in the study session on May 11th and before the planning commission on April 15th. The agenda bill has included three alternatives for you to assess which way you'd like to go forward with this. One alternative is to adopt the plan as it's been presented. A separate alternative is to adopt the program minus project 2027-3, which is the 75th. And the third is to adopt a resolution that would allow the city staff to present to Washington State Department of Transportation, the 2026 through 2031 Transportation Improvement Program, which was adopted last year under resolution 2025-10. With that, I ask for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Bakwitzki. Are there any questions for Troy? Thank you very much. So I need a motion and a second to... Mayor, I move to adopt Resolution 2026-05. It has been moved and seconded resolution number 202,605. So I'm now looking for any amendments. Council member Branstadter.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to amend the chapter to delete Project 2027-3, which is the 75th Street Phillips to Custer item.

I second that.

It's been moved and seconded. So let me make sure that we're all on the same page, literally. There's the tip map. I'm working off the tip map index on page 227, where that seems to have the most- Language on 209. And there's language, but the amendment that Council Member Branstad has from us would eliminate all mention of it anywhere. So- I'm looking at MAP ID number three, 2027 project, TIP project number 2027-375, the Phillips to Custer. It has been moved and seconded. Are there any comments? Council Member Branstetter.

Mr. Mayor, This was a new addition to the TIP this year. It has not been in the previous TIPs. That one of the purposes of the TIP or one of the standards for the TIP is to have a list of programs that are consistent with the comprehensive plan. That We have heard a lot of public comment regarding there weren't a lot of details about designing and or the why of this project. And that I think that that means that this project is premature to place on the tip at this time. because in the comprehensive plan, the comprehensive plan doesn't identify a need. The comprehensive plan says east-west mobility in the city of Lakewood is always going to be problematic because of the geography of American Lake, Gravely Lake and Lake Steilacoom. And it doesn't address the issues, the comprehensive plan doesn't address the issues of the fact that two of the corridors that travel east to west have significant items of infrastructure that may be at risk to go on. And so I think that before we can really make a good case to ourselves and to the community that there needs to be an assessment and probably something that asks the planning commission to look at including some narrative in the comprehensive plan transportation section about the risks rather than just noting that that it's difficult to go. But but to address the risks and to do some work to identify options and perhaps they may need A year or two to actively do that, perhaps with the assistance of a consultant that sort of take a look to do that. I'm not saying that taking the 75th Street Philips to Custer project out of consideration forever is a problem, but I also think that there might be some other things to be able to go and do that. So I'm looking to take it out of the TIP this year until such time as the comprehensive plan is updated that more clearly establishes a need for a project that this project is intended to address or some alternative project that can also address it.

Thank you, council member Randstad or anything else. Council member, Laura Sella.

Thank you, Mayor Boki. This has obviously been something we've been talking about for a number of weeks. It's taken a good amount of time for the public to be able to express their opinions on it, both two weeks ago and tonight. And to me, the people who may benefit from this are the ones who are speaking out against it. I appreciate Mr. Pokswinski's study and understanding. Thank you. I appreciate Troy's study and understanding of the needs to address potential increased traffic. But I've seen no indication of significant growth in Lakewood west of Chambers Creek, which would drive additional traffic through there, other than people going to a baseball game, perhaps, if we went down that route. So to me, this doesn't make sense to have on the tip at this time. And I think... if we get to the point where we see these challenges and traffic stacking up, we can find better ways to address it without potentially damaging the ecosystem of chambers Creek and people who live adjacent to it and that community. So thank you.

Thank you. Council member Pearson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I totally agree with both Mr. Brandsetter and Mr. Laura Sella on this one. Um, I also, you know, To the point of limited growth opportunity out West, I think that as long as we keep that in our mindset when we are planning for our growth. That we can manage expectations and we can manage traffic to not make it significantly worse so we're not having. horrible traffic down Silicon. You know, I think that that's all the more reason to target areas like the downtown, like the station district and not have MFT along bridge or along Silicon, like was kind of suggested or considered earlier this year or last year, whenever it was, you know, if we can be strategic about where we're putting development and growth, out west of the lakes is fairly built out, you know, by our standards. There's not really much green space to develop. Not many large lots that are going to be subdivided much more. So I think that as we do our planning, that that's a critical element. And I would be supportive of keeping this off of any future TIFs. so long as we're adequately planning elsewhere. So thank you. Thank you, Council Member Pearson.

Council Member Talbot.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The comments that we've heard and received through email speak volumes from the community, but it's also the voices that we haven't heard from the community where I think that there is enough of, I think there is what we've heard a good sample that represents even from what we haven't heard. I think that the sentiment is clear that the impacts from this project really are not don't meet the need that has been adequately justified at this time through our comprehensive plan so far. Like council member Pearson just said the way in which we plan for growth. And the way in which we plan for capacity on our roads and even in our transportation network doesn't have to just be vehicular movement, the way in which we plan for multimodal circulation throughout our network. really needs to come together in a better, more comprehensive transportation network that is seamless and fits with the way in which we target growth for the density and the areas trying to get and drive the best and most highest use of land, but also where we are trying to drive jobs in the city and economic hubs. And I spoke about that in my last comment. So for those reasons, I do support removing this project from the TIP. But along Council Member Pearson's line as well, you made a point in our previous session that the way in which we coordinate projects across plans so that we are building and designing thoughtful transportation projects that serve the needs of everything that what we've identified. So in other words, we should be pulling, we should be identifying projects from our non-motorized plans, along with our ADA plans, along with missing sidewalks, along with operational capacity improvements and seeing where all of these needs overlap on our network and where we can create operational, multimodal, really complete streets projects that serve the network at its best and highest use. And so that's the direction that I would like to convey to staff moving forward in future in future updates of the TIP that we're thoughtfully culling through all of our plans and ensuring that all of our improvements are coming together so that we're not just piecemealing improvements at a time on the roadway network, and then trying to stack all of these one thing at a time improvements into one long list of a TIP.

Okay, we are speaking to the amendment. Is there any other comments on the amendment? Okay, so we have an amendment to strike tip of project number 2027-3 75th Phillips to Custer. And I will say watching the bridge at the end of Chambers Creek, and there's a dam, and a bridge and everyone agrees they must go both the dam and the bridge. They're both deficient, highly deficient, highly, you know, And it has taken years and like three studies and they finally got a grant from the PSRC to actually begin forward movement on this bridge. And it has taken probably, I don't know, better part of 20 plus years. So no truer words spoken when someone says, yeah, you're not getting that bridge for $16 million. I don't think the studies alone would be covered by 16 million. So I do agree with Council Member Branstetter's comments. These long-term issues do not go away, but they're also tied to the comp plan as to where we're putting growth. And right now we're putting growth in in other areas that we feel are closer to transportation hubs and those kind of things so with that all those in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye aye all those opposed say nay the eyes have it so um do we have any other amendments council member pearson thank you mr mayor um

I moved to amend resolution 2026 dash oh five to add a project to the city lake woods transportation improvement Program. The new project could be titled I five to gravelly lake gateway streetscape improvement project. Um, this project would extend along the Bridgeport way corridor from Pacific highway to the colonial center at gravely lake drive and Bridgeport way. And this kind of goes, um, well, that's my emotion, but this, this kind of goes along with what I was. talking about earlier in the sidewalk, the ADA plan, is that there's large chunks of that road that are decrepit and not meeting standards, as well as this corridor is really probably one of our most visible and heavily used entrances into the city and would play a major role in shaping first impressions in our community. a number of things that would come along with that. So I'd like to have the opportunity to discuss it more a bit.

Mr. Mayor, I would second that motion to amend.

Thank you. So it's been moved and seconded. There is an amendment and I'm going to call this 2027-56. That doesn't mean it's placed at the bottom. It's just, we got to give it a number. So I'm going to call it 202756, unless staff has an issue. Bridgeport I-5 to Gravely Lake improvement project. So I'm wondering how do we place this in order? Because we don't have it scored, but we'd like to get it in there. if a majority of the council would like it in there.

Yeah, absolutely. So it could easily be placed in that order. And next year when the tip comes around, we could rescore it or we could rescore it as we have with the other projects on the list and push that forward if you're interested in doing that. So two kind of options there.

Meaning if we give it to you tonight, if we approve it, you'll When you put it in final form to the state, you'll send it with that?

Correct. It would just be on the list. The state doesn't generally care what priority anything's in as long as it's on the list. Oh, okay. They have no particular concern on priority in anything. Okay.

Any comments? So, Ryan, would you like to speak to it more? Council Member Branstadter.

Mr. Mayor, conversely to the motion to remove an item because it didn't have a strong basis in the comprehensive plan, this motion actually has a strong basis in the comprehensive plan. Our comprehensive plan has a... an urban development goal of establish a system of gateways and urban corridors to provide identity to the city, foster appropriate commercial uses, and enhance the aesthetic character of the city. And there are a list of 10 corridors. But the first one is the full length of Bridgeport Way, which is exactly what this is addressing. Some of the other corridors have already been addressed, but Bridgeport Way is in need of being addressed. And I think it's important to put it into this plan to create the visibility of something that's needed.

Thank you, Council Member Branson. Any other comments? I want to make sure everyone else has got to talk before we go back to you.

Council Member Lauricella. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Council Member Pearson for bringing this up. As we have talked about previously, there are a number of main thoroughfares through the city. And some of us define the downtown area as this big triangle between Gravely, Bridgeport, and 112. And this would address a major portion of that that really needs addressing. So while I may not say it's a super high priority, and I think we need to revisit that process, which I'll address later, I do think it makes sense to add it to the list.

Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Pearson, I think you have the vote.

Thank you. Yeah, and I just wanted to, so, you know, today this corridor is really primarily oriented to get cars out to the highway, but like as far, as fast as we can, and it really lacks a consistent pedestrian facility and any sort of improvements that to support our higher densities that are targeted to the downtown to get people better connected to our regional transportation network, like the Sounder. So as we think about what this road project could look like, Um, I don't think the, the, the primary goal is getting people out to the highway as fast as we can, but rather how do we bring pedestrians in and out of the city bicyclists in and out of the city? How do we make it a greener, you know, nicer, you know, uh, entrance to the city? How do we promote, um, you know, folks walking and shopping in the area? Um, Yeah, the overall intent of this would just be to create a more welcoming and recognizable entrance into the city, as well as hitting many of those deficient ADA items along the way. So thank you. Thank you. Council Member Talbot.

Thank you, Council Member Pearson, for bringing this project up. So I will, in full disclosure, in my practitioner's pencil, I am I am cautious only because the levels of service, when we add projects to the TIP and when we make up projects that we are trying to do, they should come from a purpose and need and a lot of that need being identified through the analysis that we have, that we've completed in our comprehensive plan. I think level of service wise, I think there's very little on the corridor that you're suggesting. So I just want to say with caution that we just amended to remove a project because it was made up and now we're making up a project, but with good intent here. I am gonna support this amendment, but I just wanna be cautious of that. But to your point, I am gonna support it because I think what we are all trying to do here is sustain and maintain value of economic value along our corridors and along the areas that we're trying to, that we expect to absorb growth. Bridgeport Way is one of those areas. Silicon Boulevard is the same. just waiting, the idea that the land use market will make itself known or that we should wait for the market to present itself to develop along corridors like Bridgeport or Silicon so that we can see improvements. That's a very long-term, short-sighted strategy in trying to stimulate economic development. So you do need the transportation investment. You do need the frontage investments. And so to me, I see it as more, as not so much of a beautification project as Mr. Pearson, you've suggested, but I know that is part of it, but it really is, we really are trying to reinvigorate some economic investment along our major thoroughfares. So for that, I will support that amendment.

Thank you, Council Member Taubo.

So with that, Council Member Lauricella. Sorry, just one more quick comment. To the amendment. To this amendment, right. So I was just pondering it in my head and thinking Bridgeport doesn't end at I-5. From an equity standpoint, we want to make sure the folks in Springbrook also have accessibility. I was just looking at our satellite maps and street view of this area, and it does look like there are good sidewalks in Springbrook. probably don't have to extend beyond I-5, but I wanted to make sure we kept that in mind so we're not leaving folks out. Thank you. I think we're good to go.

Thank you. And I would note on this, this actually, and Council Member Branstetter may remember this, we did some focus groups years ago And one of the things that came out of it was this section of Bridgeport that the group of people who were involved in this said, we really need to beautify that section. And it's been a long time since that group was formed. I can't even remember what it was, but that was one of their items was beautification of Bridgeport. And for all the improvements that we've made, that hasn't been one of them. And so that never continued. So tonight there'll be somebody out there who nods their head in agreement because there was a group of folks that really thought this would be a good idea. So with that, all those in favor of the amendment, which is to add a new item, 2027-56, Bridgeport I-5 to Gravity Lake Improvement Project. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. Okay, that is passed. Are there any other amendments that anyone would like to do? Council Member Lauricella. Aye.

Well, thank you, Mayor Boki. I've got two things. The first, I don't know if it requires an amendment, but it's more of a process update. So I'll lean towards our city staff to help. I'd like to propose that when an item is added to the tip, we have a communication strategy that hits everybody within a certain radius of that project, because I don't think that happened for the 75th Street project that was added and then hence removed. And I'm not sure if it's happened with other ones. So do we need an amendment to do that or what's the process for that?

Council Member Larcella, if I understand your question, you're talking about the process that would be followed forever more kind of a thing. I would handle that as a separate action. I wouldn't necessarily roll it into this particular process. piece of legislation. And you can certainly share with staff through the city manager when that could come forward. But the process itself is sort of an umbrella over what's being brought to you tonight as the result of the process. So that would be my recommendation.

OK, thank you. I'll bring it up in my council member comments and see if we have enough support to request the city manager do that. Beyond that, my second item. So first, just a statement. So when a process consistently generates outcomes that our residents actively oppose, we need to stop, listen, and fix the underlying process. And right now, our TIP scoring matrix, the statement from our own city staff. It favors projects simply because they qualify for outside grants. And my opinion, which I think several council members share, is that we should not let external funds dictate our city's priorities. And we need a prioritization matrix that actively awaits community alignment, geographic equity, economic development, and ecology concerns. In previous meetings, so on May 11th, Council Member Taubo, Council Member Pearson, and I believe Mayor Boeke requested that we look at how we prioritize the projects in the TIP and the weights that go to each of the categories in there, as well as proposing other categories. I also emailed the city manager ahead of that meeting requesting the same, and I don't know that that's been addressed. So with all that said, I would like to move to postpone the vote on approving the 2027-2032 Transportation Improvement Program until the regular council meeting on June 15th, or if needed, a special session on June 29th. That would allow us to direct staff to dedicate next week's study session for reviewing and revising the TIP prioritization metrics so we can apply them before final approval.

Do we have a motion? Do we have a second?

I'll second that.

I moved and seconded to continue this item to the meeting of June 15th with, I guess, rescoring done at next week's meeting, our study session. Is there any discussion? Council Member Lauricella?

Uh, thank you. So from the feedback that was given by their council members to do this and from my inquiries with the city manager, it sounds like this would be achievable if we were to have a prioritized, uh, set of categories and weights next week. Um, as long as it is digestible by them and we're clear about what we want, they should be able to process it in time to meet our requirements to get it in before the July 1st deadline.

City Council Chambers, There any other comments Councilmember brand or Councilmember lindholm you haven't spoken tonight so.

City Council Chambers, Just very briefly i'd love to hear feedback from staff if that does indeed not complicate the process or if there are other things we should be considering.

nothing would complicate the processes provided we had clear guidance moving out of a study session that we were moving forward with something that didn't involve community outreach. Unfortunately, this time is not available for something of that magnitude. If we had guidance of, hey, look, we wanna include some kind of geographic equity in this scoring, if we wanna include economic development in the scoring, something of that magnitude, We can make that work.

Council Member Branstetter.

Mr. Mayor, yeah, I'm not in favor of this amendment. One, because approving a TIP is an annual event. We need to move through into it, but the TIP is at its core, a list of projects that revising a scoring matrix to prioritize them, and earlier we heard that, and the state doesn't care about the priorities, we do, but to do that well, If we're going to do it, we should do it well. And that's going to take more than us sitting at one study session and doing something to try to make a short-term adjustment and redo numbers for what I believe is a solid project list that we have in front of us, that I agree that the work ought to be programmed, and it maybe ought to start within January, that we put that on the planning commission's work plan to begin to look at a review and work with staff regarding do that, and then bring us back with a revised piece to do that. And as we do that, we can provide some advanced guidance to the Planning Commission about where we think there are weaknesses in the current scoring process so that the next tip a year from now is developed with a thing that we have taken our time and done a good job of revising a new project to be able to do it. That will last for years.

Thank you, Council Member Branstetter. Council Member Talbot.

I would only say that I do understand Council Member Branstetter's comments. Procedurally, there is sense in that. I think I could support further discussion of the scoring criteria. Because when we make decisions to be procedural and move forward, And then we say, well, we can talk about it later, but then later may never happen. And so for that reason, I'm supportive of just having the discussion to agree on the criteria so that we are setting ourselves up and giving staff some very clear direction for the next update so that we're not having this conversation again next year.

Council Member Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I appreciate Mr. LoCel for bringing this up. But I do also, I would lean towards Mr. Branstetter's idea about how to move this forward. I think that I agree that we have a good list of projects. And I think that we heard from city staff that really the most important thing that we do is establish a list of projects. And that's kind of the key. I think it would be worthwhile to start this out with the Planning Commission and have them kind of run through what a scoring matrix could be and some different things to do there. So I think it would warrant more than a few meetings or a month worth of work. And so for that, I'm not in favor of the amendment, but I do support the idea of the amendment at a future date, essentially.

But any other comments? So for all the discussions that we had, for all the public discussions we had, there were only two items on that entire list that anybody objected to. One was the bridge, which was always a little bit far-fetched, right? In my mind, my words, not anybody else's. Staff did their job. but it's a huge lift for this city. The other one was not because they were opposed to pedestrian amenities, they just don't want us to cut down three trees that are in the right of way. Of all that, using the scoring criteria that we had in place, there were only two objections, two projects on that whole list and we got rid of one of them. So I'm not sure that the scoring system failed And then, when I look at the scoring it's safety 30% multimodal accessibility 25% funding 15% traffic volume 10% project readiness 10% system preservation 5%. comp plan 3% environmental 2%. We could wrangle for weeks trying to come up with the right percentage because I would sit there and say, first of all, staff would have to go through the definition of each one, what's included, because it's not always completely evident. And the other thing is some people would say, well, project readiness is really important. We shouldn't put things on there that really aren't ready to go. I might say system preservation. And I think in the future, we might have to talk more about preservation because we've done a lot of great investment, but we are starting to see some things wear out. So project readiness. So I'm with council member Branstad on this. I think if somebody wants to change scoring criteria, we need to look at what other cities do with their criteria, what might be recommended by public works professionals as to what's good criteria. And then we as a council need to kind of decide, but that takes time. And I also worry about the credibility of this body if we have public hearings on a measure and then just say, oh, never mind, we're going to go rescore it and come back a week later and pass it. I mean, that's just like the height of stuff could come back in. What if the bridge scored great? The bridge scored great. It goes in and then no. So we need to be very careful about that because there's a credibility element to this for this body. So for that reason, I'll be voting no on the amendment. So I'm going to let it go. All those in favor of the amendment to, do you want to restate your amendment please?

I just wanted a chance to at least rebut the statements that were made against my statement. Uh, so first I appreciate Mr. Branstetter statement that we should do it well. Uh, I agree we should do it well. Uh, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything at all. Um, so I would think a best effort would make better sense in my, in my mind. Um, And additionally, uh, well, the state doesn't care about the priority that we put forth in this. I like to believe that council does. And I really believe that our residents care how we rank these projects. Um, with that said, I understand everyone's feelings and we can build on it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a point of order. The matter before you right now is not an amendment. It is a motion to postpone to a definite time.

Oh, sorry.

And it freezes play on the underlying legislation, but it's procedural.

Is it a motion to continue? I take it as a motion to continue it to resolution number 202605 to June 15th. We don't send stuff to study session, right?

Yeah. You can put it wherever you want. The motion before you is moving to June 15th. Yeah, and under the rules, that would be postponed to a definite time. So he's asking June 15th. To June 15th, okay.

All those in favor of the motion to take resolution number 202605 and continue it to June 15th, The council meeting on June 15th is signified by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Nay. Nay. I think. Okay, let's see a roll call, Ms. Atkins.

Council Member Branstetter?

Nay.

Council Member Lauricella?

Aye.

Council Member Lindholm?

Aye.

Council Member Pearson?

Nay.

Council Member Taubo? Aye. Mayor Boeke?

Nay.

And Deputy Mayor Beall? Nay.

So the nays have it, four to three. Okay, so with that. So any more amendments? So that wasn't an amendment though, excuse me. So if there aren't any other amendment, Council Member Branstad, or do you have an amendment or do you just want to speak to?

I just would just like to speak to the basic.

Okay, we're going to now act on.

Resolution as amended.

Okay, we are now going to act on resolution number 202605 as amended. Everyone gets a chance to comment. Council Member Branstetter.

I think that I would, I'm certainly in favor of the resolution as amended. I think that it's important to though, to address the significant amount of public comments around the project on Custer and John Dower. There was a significant number of people that requested that this be removed with a caveat that it not move forward until certain design changes were made. And I'm not proposing to amend the list in that regard because the TIP is not a place where design decisions are made. that in terms of that project, there is still going to be a window before a contract is bid and approved. And there may or may not be some adjustments to those contract there, but that's the appropriate place to do that, not taking it off the tip or putting a, caveat in the tip that's there because the tip doesn't address design specifications, even though that was an area of significant public interest that I think that we'll need to address as we move closer to an actual contract.

Bill?

else would like to speak um to the to the whole thing as amended thank you council council member pearson thank you mayor um yeah i'm i'm in support of the entire package moving forward as amended i think that we made some great amendments tonight um i appreciate the uh compl the compliments the comments i don't know if we received a single compliment but um the public comments on the bridge project and i i i wish that uh the process could have been a bit smoother you know it's it's never um i don't enjoy seeing people you know crying about a project that i you know have an instinct that was going to be removed anyway so i i was sensitive to that i wish it could have gone a little bit differently um but to the point about the communication that we make on these you know we have 56 projects on our tip and if we went through and notified every single person it was in some vicinity of every single project, I mean city staff would be spending the entire year. Providing notification on all these projects and so we do post things to you know the city's page that try to get the news out in in different ways, but Um, the individual notifications for projects that are as this, you know, as some of them are kind of conceptual at best, um, you know, it that's, that's challenging. So, um, but we can always try to do better. I don't know what better looks like, but we do try to do a good job at, uh, at providing notice on what we are talking about. So. And then as far as the tree comments go, this dower project has gone through many iterations, and I believe there were 51 oaks identified to be in the vicinity of the project. And design considerations have been made to save a vast majority of the oaks to I believe that the what I got was that there was four oak trees that were to be removed as part of this project. Removing oak trees. is never taken lightly and our road projects. I think that every single time we take out one or two, um, we hear a lot of comments about it. And so I wanted to say to thank city staff for doing everything they can do, um, within our, the limits of our right away, um, to minimize the impacts that, you know, as best we can. Um, you know, if we totally avoid trees in the right-of-way, you know, now we're talking about displacing people potentially to try to, you know, put a pathway through someone's front yard. And what does that look like? You know, does that make the road project, you know, just not feasible because you're talking about spending a million dollars buying someone's house and displacing people. So there's a lot of challenges with meandering sidewalks in a very narrow bit of right-of-way that we do have the rights to work within. So anyway, thank you.

Council member Laura Sela.

Thank you, Mayor Boki. First, in response to the notifications for folks with projects on the TIP, my proposal, which again, I'll speak about in council member comment, was when new projects are added to the TIP, not the 60 or so projects that are already there. So it would be ideally less impactful, even if it's a project that goes all the way from I-5 to Granby Lake Drive. I was going to wait to talk about the Gary Oaks along Dower because we weren't talking about individual projects. But since Councilmember Branstad and Councilmember Pearson have already discussed it. So to me, this isn't just about saving old trees. It's about making things safer in front of Dower Elementary in a school zone. And so one of the things I'd mentioned before is that as a city, we should be holding ourselves to at least the same standard as our residents. So if we're removing a tree, if a homeowner or a business removes a tree, they have to pay mitigation fees into a tree fund. I don't believe the city currently has to do that. I've suggested it before. I think it's important that we hold ourselves to that same standard. Beyond that, as we talk tree fund, we currently have about $450,000 in it. When I brought it up before to the city manager, I asked what are appropriate uses for those kinds of monies? Can they be used to protect trees in areas our transportation projects and he said essentially yes so my proposal for that project is that we reach out to the clover park school district who owns that property of dower elementary to see about an easement that goes up onto that property to run that sidewalk or pathway behind the oak trees which provides an extra buffer for kids and people who are traveling along there and then protects those trees that we have stated are important to us as a city and made our city tree. So it's not something we would vote on as part of this, but I think it's direction that we can provide for that project before moving forward. Understanding it may add delays, but it's the important thing to do to protect our city tree and further protect our kids. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lauricella. Deputy Mayor Bell.

Thank you, Mayor Boeke. So I just wanted to say thank you to my fellow council members for bringing up great things for discussion and for staff for answering those questions and letting the public know that we are definitely listening and we are responding. I feel like that was very evident. We've heard everybody through their public comment, their letters that they've sent in for things that have been online. So I really want to let people know that we appreciate that. and that we are learning about some of the gaps that are there. So making sure that everyone has proper notification, I think that that's definitely something else that's been highlighted throughout this whole process. But that's it for me, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? Council Member Talbot.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that I would like to get through passing this tip. Overall, I was going to ask for a general status update on the Dower project in general in relation to all the comments that we've heard tonight. As far as I'm aware, there is not a project page available on the website yet. We still haven't heard what the status is of this project as far as design. We heard about it, I think, in January or February at a study session, and since then, I don't know if this project has progressed beyond 30% when construction has started and whatnot. So at a broad level, I think that it's I think this is timely that it's time to get a status update on the project as well. I would also like to know about the planned construction method for traffic control and closure because we have also been hearing about another planned project on Custer. So I'd like to get some status update eventually.

Yeah, we can do that. We're speaking to the resolution right now. Any other comments? Okay, so I'll comment. It's important to note that there's some items here that are funded. I mean, especially all the Sound Transit projects. When I look at this, I don't see as many funded projects. If you take the Sound Transit projects out, we don't have that many funded projects in here. We have Mount Tacoma, Interlochen to Whitman, We have the Custer to John Dower to Bridgeport project. So, and two really important projects, Military Road, Edgewood to Far West, I think is important because we've done so much work in that area. And then it just stubs out into no improved road at all. And then 100th to 59th to South Tacoma Way, which is one of these gateways as council member said, um, Pearson added earlier tonight, the other, one of the other gateways, which was Bridgeport that remains unfunded. That's something we've tried to get funding for. It's really difficult. And then it goes into a lot of the stuff that's occurred, um, because of sound transit money that they offered. And we agreed, uh, we agreed to, um, PB, Harmon Zuckerman, I also want to note the 75th thing and and and or excuse me the custer john our bridge board is more than just a sidewalk project, so the folks that we don't want to cut down trees want you to believe it's only a sidewalk project anybody who's driven that at rush hour. in the morning and in the evening, when there's a lot of traffic going either way, the way that that thing is not designed is that the two inside lanes, if one person wants to turn left and the other person wants to turn left, everything stops, everything stops. Now you could try to do it, but you might not see a car and you get hit and various things like that. That has been a bad intersection and has bothered this council. for decades, right? So we finally have a proposal that's going to add a turn lane each way so that traffic doesn't have to back up for a quarter mile in each direction. So it's more complicated than just saying, hey, we're just, hey, we don't want a sidewalk there. So, PB, Harmon Zuckerman, There's, there's, there's a lot to it so that that's all I'll say. And so we'll get updates in the future on that. I actually think for for as much as we've wrestled around for it. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, It's all it's a long list, but it's again not a PB John Gerstle, Not a funded list which happens a lot and there's going to be some I think hopefully stuff that's down below there, I see the type park elementary sidewalk maybe that's a safe house to school thing that would score well I don't know. PB John Gerstle, 112 the other one, you know another one that we've now started discussing more is butte drive, which has no pedestrian amenities at all on the whole length of that thing Washington and 104th. you know, we have to get those in there so that we can begin discussions about how we're going to get these funded, how, what, and then what our priorities are, because there's, there's a lot on here, but there's not a whole heck of a lot that's funded. So I'll, I'll just leave it at that. I'll be voting yes on this and we'll leave it at that. So all those in favor of resolution number 20, 2605 as amended signify by saying, aye.

Aye.

all those opposed nay nay okay the eyes have it six to one thank you very much there is no unfinished business there is no new business mr russell reports by the city manager

Yeah, Mayor and Council, just a few items following up on this. One thing I've talked to many people about, establishing transportation plans. We'll get you samples of other processes and plans that have been developed, you know, from history, from other best practices, to give an idea as we start talking about moving forward into future iterations of what that may be. In terms of things before us, Street Festival last Friday night. Farmer's Market starts tomorrow. Concert Series starts next Tuesday. As those desserts in the driveway starts on June 9th. And that same week we have Neighbor Associations downtown on Wednesday and Lake City on Thursday. That's all I have, Your Honor.

Thank you. Council member comments. We'll start with council member Talbo.

I have no report tonight.

Thank you. Council member Branstetter.

Yeah. Yes, Mr. Mayor. One thing that I am looking forward to is on Wednesday at St. Clair Hospital, the unveiling of this year's photographic art by students from Lakes High School. That's always been a... A revelation in that it's a judged event of where they are and the imagination of the folks behind those cameras that come up with those pictures always amazes me and looking to be able to go and do that. Uh, and then, uh, I'll be attending the, um, the shape executive board meeting on Friday, which is actually going to be held at the, uh, in person at the, uh, Sumner city hall.

Thank you. Council member Branstad or council member Lindholm.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Really enjoyed Street Fest last week. Also did a tour of St. Anne's. If you haven't toured St. Anne's, I deal with a really important population, mostly in Tacoma, but certainly regionally. I would encourage you to do that. Tomorrow morning, I'm touring Caring for Kids at 9.30, if anyone would like to join. And attending the Farmer's Market tomorrow, that'd be fantastic. There's a Continuum of Care meeting on Thursday and Shape on Friday. That's my week.

Thank you. Council Member Laura Sella. city manager, Russell?

Yeah, I hate to go back, but in the last two weekly reports, I said, we bring up the unified regional approach to homelessness. They've requested scheduling a presentation before the council. And so I just wanted to make sure I brought that up of council wanted to receive that. And when you want to receive it, I don't know if they'll still have these initial we're looking at next week, but I don't know if their schedule may have filled up from that, but yeah.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, they are looking to make presentations to the 10 city councils that are currently active in that process. And it has to do with encouraging us to improve a resolution similar to what the county has done, but also to provide the opportunity for entire councils to ask questions about what a unified approach would now look like and do a benefit analysis. So I think it is not dissimilar what happened when SHAPE was created that and it is probably in our best interest to be an early recipient of that briefing as opposed to waiting till the end. Are they coming next week?

Well, I can reach out to them. You know, they initially put it out over a week ago. So I don't know if their schedule is filled up. I can reach out to them and schedule accordingly.

Yeah, because I think council member Hitchin would, yeah. So, yeah, you should ask, but just schedule them.

Actually, I know that's been a topic of discussion amongst council, so I wanted to reach out before.

Yeah, I would schedule. I mean, if they can't make it next week or if next week's too full, put them in another study session, I think. Yeah.

Council member, Laura sell back to you. Uh, thank you. I'll also address, uh, uh, the city manager's question. So, uh, unified approach to homelessness came and presented to us not too long ago. Uh, and I have no qualms about them coming back as long as their presentation isn't exactly the same. And they addressed the questions that we had that weren't answered the first time.

Yup. I don't think that was, uh, that was the, COC.

Okay. Were they connected to that? I feel like that was part of them out of my depth.

We did receive a report, and so I did send out an email with some information they provided. I don't think it gets to the meat of success, which was your key point.

My thing is, how do you measure success? How is it measured for the individuals who are experiencing homelessness?

Yeah, what was provided was other areas that have a regional approach, but not the success components. I think it's a very fair question, and we can let them know that that would be an expected question they would receive. All right.

thank you uh to my comments uh first on the custer project i appreciate that it's been 10 plus years and it's not as safe as we want it to be but because it's been 10 plus years i don't feel like another six months to do it right seems like as big of an issue if it makes things safer a question i brought up before around the sound transit projects in the tip uh Our, our engineer, Mr. Paxman ski mentioned that sound transit projects are currently about a million dollars under budget for the city of Lakewood. And I'm wondering where those funds go and whether that is an opportunity for items in the tip that are adjacent to those projects to now have funding, for example. One item on that list is the Clover Creek Drive crossing for the railroad tracks. And we have the Nyanza Park project on the tip that connects right to that. So I'd be curious if that is an opportunity. What else do I have? Appreciate the presentations tonight and the proclamations for Juneteenth. On the 20th, I'm looking forward to that. Congratulations to our Youth Council graduates. I did get some feedback about our camera location. of all things. Residents told me that they preferred the camera in the back of the room so they can see all the folks in the front row so they know how many people are here in the room with us. I know other jurisdictions and municipalities and other public government agencies have more advanced camera systems that actually zoom in on people who are talking, which I think might be valuable for us and valuable for the public to know what's going on. Well, I do appreciate being front and center on this camera. I don't know that I'm necessarily the face that represents the council the best, so I appreciate looking into that. I was surprised when I looked at the agenda for this week for the first time. This is the fourth June that I've been here that we didn't have a proclamation for LGBTQ plus Pride Month. I think that's something that I personally think is important. I think our residents think is important. Uh, so I'd like to suggest that we come back on the 15th with a proclamation for June, um, to match the ones we've done at least for the past four years in a row. Uh, so I probably need backup for that in order to provide direction to the city manager. Yeah. I mean, do we have a consensus? I we've done it before.

Is that, yeah, I don't know why I didn't make it this year.

All right, thank you. As Councilmember Lindholm stated, the street festival was fun. I got there towards the tail end, but I did run into the mayor, deputy mayor, and Councilmember Talbot there and caught the mayor buying some wonderful things for his wife. And then eating the strawberries himself, but that's okay. Yeah, they were delicious. Yeah, they were good. Yeah, delicious. I will... I'm looking forward to the farmer's market launching on Tuesdays. I'll be at the Public Safety Advisory Committee on Wednesday. And I'm considering being a fly on the wall for the American Lake Management District meeting just to see how that goes, but not intercede at all. So that's what I got.

Thank you. Council Member Pearson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Well, I had a busy couple of weeks. So after our last meeting, city manager and myself enjoyed an immersion tour with the 62nd Airlift Wing out at McCord and went on a little training flight with them. It was learning experience for me. I hadn't been out there on the base doing activities with them so um that was really pretty cool we got to do a mission briefing talk to some other folks there um there was maybe like 30 people on the flight or something and took a little flight around and opened up the back hatch during the flight so it was a pretty pretty cool experience so if you get the chance in the next year a couple years then do them every couple years i would i would encourage you um He had P rub last week. And SS MCP kind of the SS MCP and then the second the 62nd airlift wing immersion tour they both talk about you know. how important it is that we are engaged and welcoming and provide a good community for the military and their spouses and their families and stuff. And I think that what we do here is really important when we stay engaged with those folks and show them support and stuff. So I would just encourage everyone to keep that up, I saw. the celebrity out there mary moss you know it seems like yeah everyone knows her out there so um yeah she's been doing that for decades and decades so nice to see her out here out there um i went to the puget sound regional council general assembly last week yeah last week and you know it it was a lot different than the past couple that i've been to um you know about six months gosh maybe a year ago i don't know when it was but the report came out that the puget sound area had lost like 18 000 jobs or something which had never happened and all this stuff well the They're actually taking that very seriously. Right. And so, so they had, um, a fireside chat with the CEO of Nordstrom, the, uh, president, one of them, one of the presidents of Microsoft, and then, um, a VP of, of JP Morgan chase. And it was a very, very interesting conversation to list, to listen to and, and, and. the mediator, Josh Brown was kind of, you know, asking some questions about what we can do as a state and, you know, local jurisdictions and stuff. And it brought me back to one of the decisions that we recently made with passing a sales tax. But one of the considerations that we kind of wrestled with was the potential for B and O tax. And, and really that's one of the, the kind of only things that we have left as like a negotiation piece, right? How are we as a city different than all of the surrounding cities that have B&O taxes? And what can we do to help bring businesses in that was kind of what they were getting at with, well, what are, you know, basically as a state, we have to say, okay, we're a high tax state. And how do you encourage folks to stay or to come? And what do other high tax states do? And basically what they said is that Washington has kind of shot themselves in the foot, so to speak, there's you know the five different taxes we we have chosen as a state to be in the top five or ten and across every single tax category and other high tax states they're they have zero for like a state tax so what they're saying is that come build your business and your empire here and we're not going to tax you to death you know to hand it down to your to generations because we want generations of of entrepreneurs and and business folks to stay here so anyway very interesting chat um the the the president of microsoft i thought was did an excellent job he was probably my favorite one of all of them but um it people are taking it seriously and and they're seeing jobs leave the puget sound region and and people are getting uncomfortable now so it's it's going to be interesting um to hear what else comes from psrc in the coming years so um thank you that's it deputy mayor bell

Thank you, Mayor, I had heard that too about the PSRC meeting that it was really. really good and informative, so thank you for giving us some in depth information on that I appreciate it. So for me, I just wanted to say thank you to staff today for the I really appreciate the Ada transition plan. and getting that through something that's been being worked on for a long time. And tomorrow I will be at the farmer's market. And last Friday I saw a lot of my fellow council members at the street festival, judge the car show. It was amazing. It was great to see a lot of people there. on a Friday for kind of our grand opening, the 30th anniversary kickoff celebration. So I really appreciate the community for coming out. And I hope that they continue to do that, really come out for the farmer's market and the summer concerts. It's just going to be a fabulous summer in Lakewood. And I did have one question. I know that Shannon mentioned that, or the youth council mentioned that they'd already picked their date for next year. So I would love to know what that is and, and make sure that we're clear so we can all go. So she said it was already picked. I don't know, but that would be great. So yeah. Thank you, mayor.

This year we had our retreat on that date. So, um, had a good time at the SS MCP and I have to admit the breakfast. I have to admit that was the first time I had ever gone and, um, Really do feel glad I went. Nice to see a lot of old friends really there. And the general talking about, you know, what all that's going on. He didn't have much time. And off he went. I went to a grand opening and the good news, the grand opening, cutting for goods automotive, which moved into and count and deputy mayor bell was there And it's a business out of Puyallup, and they have their mechanics, and they started in Puyallup, and they opened their shop. They opened another shop here in town right next to the old Allen Realty building and filled an old empty shop there, and they had to do some work. Had a great time at the street festival, clearly. Made mention. Strawberry lemonade. the strawberries that had the sugar on them, and I had a brat. So that doesn't count for a lot of sugar, but I was in a lot of trouble. So I really was working at it Saturday. And then, not being safe, I fell off a ladder. And I'm paying the price for that. Caring for kids tomorrow. Um, and then the, the lakes high school event, which is always a wonderful event. And I've actually met the, I did have a meeting, uh, introductory meeting with Matthew Metzger, the head of St. Clair hospital. And I'm, I'm glad to report that things are actually going well there. And, um, he is, he's a neat guy. You'll meet him tomorrow night or Wednesday night when you're there. If you, if you go, because he just really is, uh, Just very energetic guy. So with that, I think, are there any other comments? Okay, with that, we are adjourned.