City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the North Bend City Council for June 16th, 2026. Will the clerk please call roll?

Would you be kind enough to lead us in the flag salute? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening, everybody. Welcome. Let's get to it. Mayor Pro Tem, would you be kind enough to make the motion to approve of tonight's agenda?

Yeah, motion to approve City Council meeting on June 16th, 2026, agenda as written.

Thank you very much. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. We're going to move on to consent agenda, but before we do, Council, do you have anyone here who would like to remove anything or speak to discussion? Okay, seeing none, let's move on. Appreciate that. Consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve consent? Second. Thank you very much. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously once again. Thank you very much. Audience participation, as always, we are delighted to have participation from our community. And if there's anyone, of course, you're right there at the bottom. Great to see you again. But hold on just a quick moment as I proceed with the how-to and the why-to. Go for it. Please state your name and please spell your name for the city clerk. And you have three minutes to speak for the record. And welcome again.

Thank you so much. Anybody else in online? I guess I'll zoom to that quite literally. Not tonight, Your Honor. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Let's go on to announcements, presentations, and appointments. Number four is presentation, chamber tourism overview. Ms. Kelly Coughlin, I'm glad to see you tonight. We all are. Please come to the podium, and we'd love to hear what's up with the chamber. Thank you so much. Hopefully my deck is here.

Thank you, Kelly and Christy. Council, I'm sure you have some questions.

Where did you get your data or how did you collect it? And when did you do this?

Yep. Sorry. I'm very naive. When you say that tracking the gaming, what are we talking?

Um, you download candy crush and you go candy crush. Yeah. Scroll down the bottom. It'll say all the data that it's collecting from you and you're giving it when you download that game onto your phone.

They track your purchases, where you go. They do. Calling, contact. But it's all spelled out. Not all games, but they'll spell out.

I had a question. Yeah, I read recently an article where there were some. land being purchased somewhere that might affect the trail? Is that going to affect this game plan?

Thank you. Anybody else from council have any questions? Okay. Mr. Elwood.

Thank you for the presentation. Super informative. Yeah. I like to think that my stage voice is better. Thank you for that. Super informative. And I do appreciate the data and it'd be interesting just as a sidebar, maybe in CED or something where we look at our retail leakage study and maybe we could, cause I think we had similar kind of data, but I don't remember. the impact of that. But so that's for us to kind of chew on, but also for you, if other communities and cities are doing retail leakage studies, there could be other available data for you that you don't have to spend $20,000 to pur

For sure. And then when you think about the economy and the cost of everything, people aren't traveling as much. So there's a lot of variables that go into

Mr. McFarland, online, are you there? If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to speak up.

Oh, yeah. Another map that had the Heritage Trail and it looped into downtown. I like that. If and when, I should say when, Downtown Foundation gets the Main Street designation program, how does that overlap with the Heritage Trail plan? And is there overlap or is there...

When you say we, the foundation and the chamber?

Any other questions from council? Okay, seeing none. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Christy, for your presentation. Appreciate it. We're going to move on to commissioning committee reports. Community and economic development. Let's start with Council Member Torteson tonight. And thank you.

Okay. All right. So today we had a community and economic development committee meeting. At 4pm and first we started off with a presentation from the train museum and sharing with us what they've been doing. A lot of the things that they've done in the past things that they kind of have some ideas for the future and potentially how that increased train frequency to our town potentially could bring more visitors to our town. Again, connecting with everything, right? So it was a nice presentation. And then we talked about parks elements. Basically, we're going to be going through and reviewing t

Thank you so much. Let's see, Council Member Drostik, would you provide, let's see, Finance and Administration, and then Eastside Fire and Rescue, please.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, the Finance and Administration Committee met on June 2nd at 2.30 in the adjournment room. On the agenda, we did a review of budget to actual status report by fund for the period of January through April 2026. So hopefully all of council had a chance to look at that in their minutes. Then we talked about an update to the budget calendar status for the 2027-28 budget planning process. And then finally we did a 20, 27, 28 budget 101 with the first session being on June 2nd. And then the next one will be, it was originally scheduled for June 7th, but because that is fo

Mm-hmm. Thank you very much, Council Member. Public Health and Safety, Council Member Elwood.

Thank you, Your Honor. Public health and safety meeting met June 2nd at 4 p.m. A few items. Of course, we have wonderful updates from our police chief and our fire chiefs. There was other topics of water safety. We also have it on the agenda and actually to talk more about, I believe, on the bike lane, 140th. And the next meeting for July has been canceled. And so the next one will be in August. Unless that gets canceled too, but okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. TPW Transportation Public Works Council Member Coleman.

Thank you, Mayor. TPW last met on May 26th at 3 p.m. We had four items that we placed on the consent agenda and three items that we decided to place on the main agenda and The first one on the main agenda was a resolution awarding construction contract with SaskCon LLC for 2026 sidewalk gaps project that we spoke at our last council meeting on the second. Then we spoke about resolution awarding construction contract with Active Construction Incorporated for the Starfish Roundabout project. We also dealt with that at our June 2nd City Council meeting. And the last one we will be discussing toni

Mayor Pro Tem, Council Member Tremolata.

Yeah, we had a work study on May 26th. A few topics covered. We went over budget planning as part of Mr. Cha's 2027-2028 budget development workshop. We discussed at the time the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which we are in the thick of right now with Mr. James Henderson. We also reviewed the North Bend Downtown Foundation 2026 contract, which we – voted on at our last meeting to continue on the events for the 2026 year and we will be picking up the long term vision of the foundation and the future contracts as the next or subsequent work studies ahead. And the next work study I believe is next we

You are correct. Absolutely. You do know that. We'll come back to regional committees, but Planning Commission, Parks Commission, Economic Development Commission, Mr. Henderson, you covered all.

Thank you so much, regional committees. Anybody wish to comment about their committee? Oh, Ms. Torgerson, and then I'll defer to Mr.

Okay, so on May 28th at 7.30 a.m., the King County Regional Law, Safety, and Justice Committee met. Judge Jason Holloway is the chair of the committee, and we had three guest presenters. King County Superior Court Judge Avril Rothman, rock. Her topic was about unlawful detainers and civil protection order status, uh, department of public defense, King County department of public defense, Steve wide lick. We'd lick was a presenter and then King County prosecuting attorney's office. Douglas Wagner was the presenter. Um, the, the eviction and harassment surge from the superior court, um, They sai

So there you go. Thank you so much. Mr. Jocelyn.

Thank you, Your Honor. The Sound Cities Association Public Issues Committee met virtually on June 10th. Robert Feldstein, the executive director, reviewed recent appointments to regional boards and committees. There was a conversation amongst those present about the proposed 2027 proposed solid waste rate response letter that I mentioned in a prior meeting. It does not apply directly to North Bend as we have our own wastewater treatment plant, but rates are going up. hugely across the county and lots of folks are very concerned as they should be. There was then a conversation around the Decemb

Thank you, Council Member Jocelyn. Yeah, you certainly may. I won't refuse that. Thank you.

Brief. I just wanted the council to know that the Snoqualmie Valley Aquatics Collaborative continues to meet. They met on Wednesday, June 3rd, and Council Member Colon and I attended ongoing discussion. Addition this year to the discussion is the mayor of Snoqualmie and one of the council members was there. So it truly is now a collaborative across the valley discussion. discussion. So more to come. Just wanted the council to be aware that that continues. Thank you.

Thank you so much. That's awesome. I think we covered that. Let's move on to introductions. Let's see. Our only item for tonight is AB 26058, an ordinance. Mr. Moore, would you like to further that conversation? I won't spread that too thin for you. You have a lot of time to speak.

Thank you, Mr. Moore. Excellent. Any questions from Council for Mr. Moore tonight? Ms. Torgerson?

So in one of my regional committee meetings, a mayor from another city was very concerned about because of a, I won't say what company name, but a fiber company came into their city. And when they did do some installations, they unfortunately hit some water mains and caused a lot of public works issues. And so my curiosity is, do we have like in our contract with them, if they do anything as such that we're protected and they'll pay for any sort of issues?

Thank you very much. Any other questions from council? Clarifying questions, of course. Anybody online? Mr. McFarland? None? Okay, seeing none, let's go to TPW head, Ms. Colon. Motion. Motion.

Yes. Motion to approve AB 26-058, setting for a second reading and consideration by the City Council, the ordinance to approve a franchise agreement with Forged Fiber 37 LLC at the regularly scheduled July 21st, 2026 City Council meeting.

Can I get a second? Second. Okay, Ms. Rustick. Ms. Cohen, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. Excellent. I cannot wait.

I'm excited, actually. It's basically a housekeeping item. It's a change in companies that are using the City of North Bend's right-of-way. This franchise agreement sets expectations for both parties. It also protects both parties. And I support this ordinance and consider it housekeeping, as I said. Thank you.

Wonderful. Ms. Rustick, would you like to add anything to your? I don't have anything to add. Thank you. Terrific. Okay. Ready to take a vote here? Anybody else want to have anything to say before I go there? Nope. Okay, let's go for me saying motion to approve AB 26-058, setting for a second reading and consideration by the City Council, the ordinance to approve a franchise agreement with Forged Fiber 37 LLC at the regularly scheduled July 21st, 2026 City Council meeting. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes absolutely unanimously. Thank you very, very much. Moving on to Mayor, Council, and Administrative Concerns and Initiatives. Let's go to Mr. McFarland online since you're way far away, literally.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to go off video, so make sure that hopefully the connection stays better. It's been going in and out all night.

Thank you. Comments short and sweet tonight. I caught an event blurb today. And with apologies to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and their 1964 Motown anthem. Summer's here and the time is right for Dancing in the Streets. I hope you find time to go to Haystack Americana Music Festival on July 10th as hosted by many, many venues provided by your downtown North Bend merchants. That ought to be a blast. Sounds like a good thing. Another event put on by Danny Colkey. I love blues walk. I love jazz walk. So I think this is the end.

Thank you very much, Mr. Elwood. We'll start with you, please.

Yeah, thank you. First of all, I want to say thank you for coming before us and sending emails on behalf of your friend. Accessibility is an important thing. We want every resident, anybody that visits our community to be able to participate fully and wholesomely. So thank you for that. And I want to give you my card before you go, before we cut out. So thank you for that. Also appreciated the presentation on the Chamber's actions. And I do want to follow up with you on your, we're becoming a house of brands instead of a branded house. I have some questions on that. So I'll reach out to you, K

Wow. Okay. Thank you very much, Ms. Torgerson.

And then there's me. So, first of all, thank you guys for speaking tonight. And also, I want to thank Richard Anderson from the Terrain Museum. He spoke today in the CED. That was very interesting as well. And we did talk about having the enhanced beverage system. out into our community, which would play upon what you guys are talking about and sort of what he's talking about. But what I wanted to talk about is last night I took my dog out to go to the bathroom and then I brought her in and I have a camera and literally within two minutes there was a bobcat right behind my house going on the p

excellent miss colin thank you my spiel for today is about e-bikes and e-scooters my favorite talk topic so we have been having beautiful june weather this far the days are longer and the temperature is pleasant and a lot of people are out enjoying it every age group is out walking biking e-biking or using e-scooters We need to share the roads, sidewalks, and trails with each other. So reminders for the riders, please wear your helmets and use the strap provided with that helmet. Do not ride double on any device, no matter how tempting that might seem. Also, for the riders, please be cautious

Great, important information. Thank you, everybody. Ms. Rustick.

Yes, thank you. Yes, well said, Councilmember Cullen. So, scarves up, North Bend. Finally, it is World Cup time. I'm sure you've all, I just know that the... There you go. So the Downtown Foundation and the Chamber have been working for over two years easily to prepare for this event. And I know they've got some different things in town for people to enjoy. Great. Okay. Um, but also our local businesses have, uh, you know, TVs that they are showing the games and it is really fun if you can't afford to go see the games in person, uh, really fun to actually just go and watch the games with, uh,

That's awesome. Thank you very much. Um, let's see, Mr. Jocelyn.

Thank you, Your Honor. A few things. It was touched on the Snoqualmie Forest northeast of A full city that's for sale. It's 48,000 acres. The asking price is just under 43 million. Thankfully, not 432. There's an excellent article in the June 5th Seattle Times about it. That forest belonging to Weyerhaeuser was sold to Hancock. It now belongs to Campbell Global. Throughout the majority of that time, the owners have decided to sell at different prices. you know, an annual pass or daily pass, but to allow access to folks to ride the trails and recreate on those lands. And so that's what's at ris

Thank you, Mr. Jocelyn. Pro Tem, Tremolata, what would you like to say tonight?

I've got a few things. First, if you have not seen or heard, James Henderson has been hard at work, and AdventureNorthBend.com is live, and it is fantastic. Very impressive. Check it out. Just some great stuff there. So congratulations, James. This is awesome. I will push it out to the public as much as I can. Great job. Also for Chief Ed Hall in the back and the KC Sheriff group. I had a very good call with a small business this week and they just called and said, you know what? I just wanted to let you know that the sheriff has been amazing and we see them everywhere. Not that there's any sp

Oh, my gosh. I'm following that up. Here we go. Thank you for that. I'm excited to invite you all to North Bend's inaugural 4th of July Family Fun Parade, Tikes, Strikes, and Tails as part of our America 250 celebration. Join us at 1045 on July 4th. To join the parade, we'll gather at the closed section of Ballarat Avenue South, just outside North Bend Bar and Grill, beginning at 10 a.m. Bring your bikes, trikes, scooters, wagons, roller skates, friendly dogs. Why not? Of course you're friendly. And your patriotic spirit for this fun neighborhood-style parade throughout downtown North Bend. Fa