City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the North Bend City Council meeting for, what is it, August 26th? September 1st. Excuse me, correct me. I just want to make sure you're all live out there. September 1st, 2026. It's almost fall, so I can't even believe that. Will the click please call roll?

Mayor Pro Tem Errol Tremolata? Present. Council Member Brendan Elwood?

Present.

Council Member Mark Jocelyn?

Present.

Council Member Heather Cullen?

Yes.

Council Member Rob McFarland.

Present.

Council Member Christina Rustick. Present. And Council Member Susan Torgerson.

Here.

All are present, Your Honor.

Thank you, Susie. Would you be kind enough to lead us in the flag salute tonight?

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.

Okay, good evening once again, everybody. Mayor Pro Tem, I'm going to ask for a motion to approve tonight's agenda.

Thank you, Mayor. We will also first request to remove item 11 on the agenda and move it to our agenda for the September 22nd work study. So with that amendment, motion to approve September 1st, 2026 agenda for city council meeting as amended.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Jocelyn. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you again. We're going to go into a closed session, executive session as it is, pursuant to discuss collective bargaining and negotiations pursuant to RCW 42.30.144 with expectations of being in a closed session for about 15 minutes. We will return. There will be no decision made and we'll see you in a little bit. So thank you for your patience tonight. Appreciate that. Thank you, everybody, for your patience tonight. Let's go forward to approval of consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Second. Thank you. Motion made by Mr. Tremolato and seconded by Mr. Brendan Elwood. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Moving on to audience participation. One of my favorite things to do is to encourage our public to come and speak to us. So if there's anyone here tonight who would like to speak at the podium, you have three minutes to speak. Please state your name and spell your name for the clerk. If you don't mind, this is your time. And we welcome that. Good evening.

Good evening. I'm Elizabeth Davis. Do you need me to spell it really? E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H-D-A-V-I-S. My address is 225 Taylor Avenue South and here in North Bend. And I'm coming to just share with you that we, our library, Friends of the North Bend Library is having a book sale starting September 16th at five o'clock. You can pay 20 bucks and get in and get first choice of all the books that we're going to have on top of the tables, under the tables. We have more books than we've had in a long time. And it goes the... Oh, dear, I'm on October. The 17th, 18th, and 19th. And 19th will be Bag Day, where you buy a bag and fill it as full as you can. If it breaks, I will be there. I'll make you buy another bag. And we'd love to see all of you participate. And if you know of somebody that is... One other thing about the Friends of the North Bend Library is we do a Christmas sale, a one-day sale. And if you know of anybody that has any Christmas decorations that they no longer want, themed things, bring them to the library and we'll put them on the market in November, I think. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

Can I ask a question?

Sure. You can ask questions. Well, no.

Christmas items anytime?

Pardon?

We can deliver the Christmas.

Anytime. Just let the librarians know and they'll put them in the back room for us.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Elizabeth. Anybody else? No, thank you very much for this. Thank you. Sorry to confuse you. All right. Hi, Jane.

Good afternoon. Good evening. Good evening. I'm Jane Danforth-Kozer. D-A-N-F-O-R-T-H-K-O-S-E-R. I live at 395 Southeast 10th Street, North Bend. I'm representing the Snoqualmie Valley Museum and we are having our first auction in this century. So it's going to be small, not encompass size. And we would like all of you to attend. It's up at the Snoqualmie Inn, so it's very accessible. It's September 26th from 5 to 9. And I will hand out invitations.

Does council have any questions for Jane? Hold that for a moment. Jump the gun, Jane. My big question for you. Thank you.

Jane, is the museum accepting any donations toward this auction?

We are absolutely accepting donations. And we're also having a, what is it? What's the thing where you hold your paddle up? No, the fund and auction. Yeah, fund, fund. So anyway, we're having a matching one. So if you want to actually donate money towards that, that would be really cool. But we've already got several thousand dollars pledged for that. So we're very excited. We're very hopeful. And please come. We'll have fun. Thank you, Jane.

Anybody else from our lovely community? Thank you. Welcome. You bet.

Alrighty, mine is not so fun. Bear with me. Well, I'll pick that up when I'm done. I'm Helen Lauer. I'm from Snoqualmie, and I'm here to thank you. to represent the Snoqualmie Valley for Responsible Energy to give you an update about what's going on with the planned 780 megawatt hour lithium ion battery energy storage system known as the best, thank goodness. There's one plan for our valley, as you know. A subsidiary of Black Rock seeks to build that best with Puget Sound energy. A few things have happened recently. SVR volunteers discovered part of the proposed best project actually lies within Snoqualmie City limits. On July 31st, Snoqualmie's mayor notified King County, excuse me, Puget Sound Energy and BlackRock, that Snoqualmie actually has jurisdiction over part of the project. Then on August 18th, BlackRock announced plans to seek FSAC approval to build the best in Snoqualmie Valley. Now FSAC, get ready, it's the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. It's a state board that acts as a one-stop shop for large utility projects. Now as a community close to the proposed best, we think that North Bend should have the right to put a voting council member onto FSEC to consider the proposed best, but under current state law, North Bend doesn't have that right. Even though the best will impact North Bend and other valley communities because no part of the proposal falls within North Bend city limits. SVRE, that's the Kwame Valley for Responsible Energy. We'll continue to seek better safety laws that include everyone impacted by a bus. And we're still learning what Black Rock wants to do in our valley. And on it, if I may editorialize a bit on an amusing note, SVRE found out the Black Rock and PSC plans from public records requests, we learned that BlackRock and PSE say they might build a field of solar panels with the best. On July 10th, the BESS applicant sent King County a new SEPA checklist, SEPA is State Environmental Policy Act checklist, asserting a BESS in the Valley would support and enable the development and adoption of solar energy sources on adjacent properties. According to the Seattle Times Climate Lab, this area might be the worst place in the country for solar energy. Am I cut off?

If you wouldn't mind just closing. Okay. Thank you for that.

And yet BlackRock is saying they're going to build solar panels. I don't know why. Anyway, SVRE is an all-nonprofit entity, pro-green, and trying to protect the valley. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Anybody else from our lovely community? Thank you very much. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Miller. Council members, for the record, Ryan McKinster. I am the advocacy manager for King and Snohomish County for the Master Builders of King and Snohomish County. I'm obviously here today before you to talk about unit lot subdivision and lot splitting that you will be discussing, I believe, today in a study session. You already have my notes and my comment letter before you, so I'll just keep this brief. I first want to recognize all the work your staff has put into this, as well as your planning commission. I've been working on this issue in a number of jurisdictions, and they've really done their work and their homework. I definitely appreciate the dialog that they had getting to the point of the recommendation in front of you. I always highlight one thing that I've seen many times across the jurisdictions working on these issues, and that is the fact that there's a belief that this changes density. It does not. It basically, the density cap that exists for the zoning exists with the proposal in front of you. Actually, it goes beyond that. It specifically says these processes cannot be used to increase density beyond what you've already accepted in your zoning plan. So that's one thing I wanted to highlight. It's important, and it's something that's always missed in the nuances. This isn't a change in what you're doing, your zoning, your comp plan. This is a change in process. It's a change in paperwork that makes it more efficient. Less time consuming, to be honest, and one of the most expensive things that we have control over, not the economy, not product that's going into it, wood, lumber. The one thing we have is time on your side as well as ours. And that's one of the things that affects the cost of housing. So in addition to that, it also takes the time of your staff. And I'm sure you're well aware and you've heard it as we have as well. With all the mandates coming down from the state, there's two in front of you right now that you have to comply with. Staff is really stretched thin. So anything that we could do to help them as we help us on minimizing their resource use and time is important for both of us. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I think if there's anyone else out there and there's no one online tonight, Phil, am I correct?

Not tonight.

Thank you. All right, appreciate all the comments this evening. Let's move on to announcement presentations and appointments. Tonight, we have a presentation from Encompass and Nella Cumming, Executive Director. We're welcoming you with our open arms and can't wait to hear what you have to tell us. So I look at these giant things.

Is there a stool? It's going to undermine me.

Well, you can move the mic. Just put this right down. Yes. Thanks for being here.

Okay. Hi, good evening, city council and staff. Hello, everybody. Everybody here is so awesome. My name is Nella Cumming and I am a North Bend resident. I love North Bend, best city, hands down. So really, really happy to live and work here. I also work at Encompass as the executive director and I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity tonight to share a little bit about what's happening at Encompass right now and a little bit about how that's serving North Bend residents. Next. So Encompass is 60 years old in November. In 1966, some parents in the Valley got together, there was three of them, and they had children who had special needs and there was nothing available here in the Valley for them. And so they started the Snow Valley School for Special Needs. And we have had multiple names since that beginning 60 years ago, but landed on Encompass in 2005. One thing that hasn't changed in 60 years, Encompass specifically provides pediatric therapy and early learning programs and services that are designed to support the development of young children, infants, and toddlers up to age 10 at this time right now. Fun fact, one of the council members used to serve on the Encompass Board. Can you guess who it is? Ding, ding, ding. Mayor Rob McFarland, or mayor, sorry, former mayor and council member Rob McFarland did serve on the Encompass Board. We won't age you by saying the date. Okay, next. Next. So there was a video linked here, but I'm going to skip the video in the interest of time because I want to stay under a certain time limit, under two hours. Is that okay? So we won't do the video. It's super cute. Two minutes, but I'm going to cut it from our presentation today. But what I will tell you is that the Encompass purpose is to improve the well-being of young children by partnering with families and their communities And our vision is a community where all children thrive. And I'm going to tell you a little bit more about the specific services that we provide in the following slides. So next slide, please. Yeah. And you can click. Yeah, these are fancy. Okay, stop. Yeah. So one thing I want to make clear, because I think sometimes there's a misconception about Encompass that we only serve children with developmental delays or disabilities or children who are low income, children who are in preschool. Encompass serves young children, infants, toddlers, and young children of all abilities. There is something available for any child under the age of 10 at Encompass. But our early learning programs are specifically focused on educational readiness. Early childhood is our best opportunity to make meaningful, positive impacts in the lives of humans, young humans and older humans. 90% of brain development occurs before the age of six years old. So it's a very critical window. And so we take advantage of it through our early learning offerings. You all know we have a preschool in North Bend over on Bulch Avenue. That preschool is a combination of tuition paying families and something called ECAP. which stands for Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. That is the Washington state funded preschool for families who are living in poverty or low income families for their children to have preschool at no cost. So we have a contract with the state to provide that service and families don't have to pay the cost for a preschool day of nine to 4.30 in the afternoon. We also have some scholarship slots as well because the income guideline to qualify for ECAP is so very low. Sometimes families still can't afford preschool, but they don't qualify. So we do have a number of scholarships as well. ECAP is an investment, and it's an investment in people. Children who attend ECAP are estimated to generate a savings of approximately $195,623 per child over 40 years. And that includes reductions in education costs, welfare expenses or public benefits expenses, and criminal justice costs. So it's good economics as well as a better quality of life for kids. Long-term benefits contribute to better academic outcomes and lower rates of special education and grade repetition. That's state data because ECAP is a statewide program, so I just pulled that data from the state. Another program I want to highlight in early learning is our parent child plus program, this is a early literacy program it's free for young children's home based and it's also an income qualifying program so it's for families that live in poverty. And we are the only provider of Parent-Child Plus in the Snoqualmie Valley. We're also the only provider of ECAP in the Snoqualmie Valley as well. But Parent-Child Plus graduates have a whole host of benefits. There are 50% children who attend Parent Child Plus are 50% more ready for kindergarten than their peers. They are 50% less likely to need special education, and they have a 30% higher high school graduation rate than their peers. This is national data because Parent Child Plus is a national program. It's been in existence for over 50 years and has been studied extensively during that time. There's a lot more data. I could spend a whole presentation on Parent Child Plus, but those are just some highlights I pulled out for the evidence of this program, for the benefit of this program. So next, let's talk about pediatric therapy. Pediatric therapy programs at Encompass are for children that have a developmental delay, a disability, or diagnosis. We do bill insurance for many of these services that we have. At Encompass, we provide what we call developmental therapies. We have speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy. We have mental health services or mental health therapy, feeding therapy. Just a variety of different types of therapies. And services are provided both at our pediatric therapy clinic in Snoqualmie, but they're also provided in the community. So ESIT, Early Support for Infants and Toddlers, that's a therapy program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays. That's all home-based. That is only provided in the home. We have our van, our famous mobile therapy unit you all have seen that goes out to the elementary schools. And then we are in 21 daycares and preschools providing therapy throughout the valley. And that's a program that's growing. We call that community-based services. So, one thing, one new program that I want to share with you all, this is hot off the press, so to speak, is our Glow and Grow therapeutic groups. Now, the staff name things and I say to them, why do you name it something that's so hard for me to say? But anyway, it's called Glow and Grow. And what happened was we noticed that our summer camps, which we've had for many, many years, I stood in line to get my son, who's 24 now, into encompass summer camps back in the day, right? The enrollment has just gone down and down and down. And so we thought to ourselves, what is happening? Why are we having trouble with enrollment in our theme-based summer camps? And we did some analysis of the community and realized there was just a lot of summer camps out there now that did not exist years and years ago when we were the only game in town, basically. And so then we just said, okay, well, what is it that Encompass can offer in the summer for kids that is not available in this community that we are best positioned to provide for the kids in this community? And we came up with something called glow and grow therapeutic summer groups. and created a program, it's been a pilot, where therapists design a group and operate that group. So we have a mental health therapist, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist. And they create a group for a cadre of kids, usually small size, six to eight children, and then provide that in the summer several times a week. It's not like a full summer camp experience, but it's for kids that have Delays or disabilities, a traditional summer camp does not work for them. They have some special skills they need to learn. And so we piloted this over the summer. And so I'm going to share next slide some of the results from our pilot. Oh, there's still dots going off. Okay. Um, so, uh, we saw 61 kids in our glow and grow summer groups or therapeutic groups. And we offered six of these groups and there were all kinds of things. It was an art therapy one. There was a, um, a theater one. We actually have a staff member used to be an actress. She loved that one. That was super fun. Um, she, there was a, um, confidence camp summer or school readiness edition or school edition to get them ready. There was one for kids that have trouble going on vacation with their family because they cannot handle the change. It dysregulates them. So we had one around vacations. That one was really popular. Just a number of them. And you can see here the results from our parent surveys afterwards. Parents are very, very satisfied. They'd recommend the groups. Making new friends was the most frequently cited favorite experience. And you can see the improvements that the parents are reporting. Very high improvements in a number of these skills. My personal favorite is waiting successfully 100%. That is something I could use myself. I may be attending one of these groups myself at one point. And then the quote at the bottom, mom, all good days here. That is an actual quote from a five-year-old that we had in the camp who was asked to leave two different summer camps this summer and was only successful at the Encompass Glow and Grow Competence Group. So just wanted to share that with you. So you're probably wondering, what does this have to do with North Bend residents? What are we doing for North Bend residents? That's what we are here to take care of. And so I'm going to give you some numbers. First off, our service area. You can see the little map there. Encompass serves four school districts. Riverview, Issaquah, Snoqualmie, and Skykomish, believe it or not. And so very, very large service area. And we have about 110 staff now. Most of our services, as I shared, are out in the community in homes or daycares, preschools, out and about. And for the last fiscal year, fiscal year 26, which is July 2025 through the end of June 2026, so just recently ended, we saw 2,741 individuals in that fiscal year. And those... 2,700 individuals, a little over 2,700 individuals were given 43,259 sessions. So either a therapy session or a preschool day session or parent-child plus session, something in a program gets counted individually. And so that was 43,259 sessions. So of those 2,700 kids, 775 live in the North Bend zip code. And those were responsible or were given 13,492 sessions. So that's about 31% of our overall population. clients that we serve are North Bend clients, North Bend residents. Okay, we're on the home stretch, last slide. So I really wanna thank you for the opportunity to share our programs with you tonight, and thank you for your investment in human services like Encompass. I know that's not easy in the budgets, the way that they must be. I don't know the details, but I know it's not easy. We, like many providers, operate with very restricted funding, and it is a challenge to maintain services. We're dependent on fundraising. We're also dependent on our city governments to help support what we're providing in the communities. And because we want these services to stay available to residents at the level that we are able to provide them. This is an investment in the health of this community and the well-being of North Bend residents. It's a safety issue. It improves public safety by having strong human services in the community. And it saves costs down the road. It not only is quality of life now, but down the road it will save costs. I also wanted to add that human services in our community, the Snoqualmie Valley, we have a very strong web of human service providers that work together. We support each other completely and we cannot work without the other. So Encompass, we're kind of the little kid. organization. I get that. That's what we do. But we wouldn't want to offer our services without having food bank or EYN or reclaim. We just can't do it. The family, we are always referring and working together. And that's really important. And it's very special to the Valley, how close we are and how connected we are. Helene, we're just chatting, Helene, who's going to be up next, that there was a back to school event at the Panorama Apartments and all these providers were there and Compass was there, UAM, all these providers were there for the families that live in those, in that housing, which is lower income housing or subsidized housing. So that is just an example of how we work together. North Bend has understood this for years and years and years. And I want to say, we see you and we're grateful for that. Thank you so much for all your support.

Thank you, Nella. If you wouldn't mind just staying for just a moment in case council has any clarifying questions or any comments they'd like. I'm sure way.

I'm supposed to. Thank you, and thanks for the presentation. That was very actually informative, even though I've heard you talk passionately about the organization before. My question is, aside from the funding conversations that the council has regarding Encompass, is there anything else that the council could do to help the organization that isn't the funding piece of it?

Well, that's a great question, council member. I think that... If the city has connections with other elected officials statewide, if there ever could be a plug for better human services contracts so that we're not so dependent on fundraising and begging people for money, that would be very, very helpful. And there's two areas that are really impacting Encompass. The government contracts we receive are so underfunded that it puts us at just a terrible disadvantage in so many ways. And I'm going to too much detail with it, so I won't. But if you want, happy. But the other issue is Medicaid rates. So at Encompass, we're the only provider that, well, that's not true. We're probably the only provider right now, but once the hospital finishes their build, I think they're going to have some pediatric therapy there and they probably will accept Medicaid plans. And the rates for Medicaid are just ridiculous. It's so low. They pay about 30% of the cost of a session. So we have to subsidize that. And so any, you know, plug or, comment that could be made to help advocate for better Medicaid rates. Um, that will help the, that will help the hospital too, um, because we're just all really struggling under that. But, um, yeah, the contract, the ECAP contract pays about 70% of the cost. And, um, I really believe that if you're going to contract for a service, you ought to pay for the service that you're contracting for and not force us to take a discount. So, Thank you very much. Sorry.

Hi, Neela. Thank you. So I really appreciate Encompass and your program and you stated 60 years, which is a really long time, but I would like to plug it because My daughters are in their 30s now, and they started Encompass in North Bend in around 1999, I want to say. And they are successful in all the data that you said. It's true in my case. But also you got my eldest daughter, her first boyfriend at Encompass when she was four. Oh, okay. Are they married now? No, they're not. No, they're not. But that's where her boyfriend life started. But anyways, thank you. Thank you.

That is the highlight of my life is hearing stories like that. All the time. I hear them all the time after 60 years. You know, all the time we get. We were just at North Fork Farm for an event, and one of the people that works there, she came up to me. She said, my son went to Encompass Preschool, and now my grandson goes to the Encompass Preschool. We're an Encompass family. I just love stories like that. I did not know that. You may be getting an email from us asking for a story for our 60th anniversary.

That's awesome. That's lovely. Any other comments from Council? Mr. McFarland.

Thank you, Mayor. Hello, my friend. Hello. Don't you think you're getting away? Shout out to my also former board member, Jane Kosher. Jane Kosher. In the agency formerly known as Children's Services of Snow Valley. You can call it Encompass if you want. Now, a couple of questions, one fairly broad, but I'll make the easier one for capacity at the preschool program. Are you at capacity or is there?

That's a great question. We think that our ECAP program is right sized for this community. We have 55 slots. And because the income guidelines are so low, and it's so expensive to live here, as you hear over and over and know, that's about the capacity the community has for income-qualifying families. I was speaking with someone today from our association, Washington State Association for ECAP, and Head Start, and they are going to advocate to increase the eligibility requirements or increase the income threshold so that more families are eligible. I think I mentioned that we have a number of families on scholarship. It's heartbreaking when someone doesn't qualify for ECAP and we're talking $10 a month off. There is no flexibility in that. It's this dollar amount or not. So I think that will help. But for right now, 55 seems to be what we can recruit for. And we do tend to have a waiting list for the tuition slots, but we don't have very many of those anymore.

Thank you. Thank you for that. And just because my fellow council member gave her back story, I'll throw mine in before I ask my other question, which is, you know, one of my early involvements was used to be a babysitter's club. Yes, babysitter's. And apparently I learned pretty well. And similar to your summer camp program, I ran a summer camp program this summer for my granddaughter. And 100% of those attendees gave it high marks as well. And so I'm in competition now with you. You kind of alluded to this, but could you just give a little bit more flavor on how the encompasses funding budget has evolved over the last five plus years into sources?

Yeah. Well, it used to be we were pretty evenly fundraising government contracts and what we call fee-for-service insurance or parent payments. Now we're 50% government contracts. And about 35% fee for service. Our therapy has grown significantly. As you know, it's probably been 18 years because as long as I've been there, we started pediatric therapy outside of infants and toddlers. So once we started that pediatric therapy program, we had some rental space in North Bend for a while. And then We ended up with our beautiful child development center. We've been there five years now. So that's exploded growth and then doing the community-based services. So we're about 35, almost 40% insurance, all insurances, including Medicaid, the dreaded, hated Medicaid. And then the rest is fundraising. Okay. is grants and the gala, which hopefully we'll see you all there, and the breakfast, that kind of thing, and just donations. So that's, it's definitely, we've shrunk the fundraising down as far as we can because we want to try and minimize that. We feel like we're constantly, you know, we are constantly fundraising.

So you're not a government agency, not a public agency.

We are not a public agency. Thank you for that softball. No, we are private nonprofit.

Thank you.

I know that's been a rumor for a while.

A while.

Children's Services.

Children's Services of Snow Valley. Yeah. Sounded very government-y. All right.

Well, I'm just going to take one more quick brief look around. Oh, good. Thank you, Vanilla. I'm actually shocked that you kept me up so long. I thought I'd have the hook by now. Well, you did a wonderful job. Thank you for all the information tonight. Yeah, well, again, I'm so proud to work here.

I mean, work here and live here. This is a great city and y'all are doing a great job. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you for your kind words, Vanilla.

Have a good night. Okay, we're going to move on to number nine, Proclamation Suicide Prevention Month. And let me begin. Whereas September is known globally as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and was created to raise the visibility of the mental health resources and suicide prevention services available in our community. And whereas the goal is to start the conversation about mental health and the impact of suicide to help destigmatize the conversation, and help connect people of all ages with the appropriate support services. And whereas most youth do not struggle with suicidal thoughts or behaviors, however, according to the Washington State 2025 Healthy Youth Survey, 59.75% of local eighth grade students reported hearing or seeing information at school about the warning signs of suicide and how to get help for themselves or a friend compared to just 38% of students statewide. And whereas Empower Youth Network, a Snoqualmie Valley-based nonprofit with a mission to promote and inspire youth to lead safe, healthy, and successful lives, incorporates suicide prevention programs in its work, including How to Help a Friend, a peer-to-peer suicide prevention training curriculum serving middle school students in both the Snoqualmie and Riverview school districts, as well as Youth Mental Health First Aid, a nationally recognized training that helps all adults understand to assist youth in crisis. And whereas global organizations, as well as local mental health partners, including Empower Youth Network, work to increase discussion as stigma regarding suicide and mental health issues is far too prevalent. And whereas education about warning signs of suicide, the value of preventative measures, and the best methods to support those in need is essential to our community, and whereas Suicide Prevention Month aims to reduce stigma associated with mental health, and provide support to those affected by mental illness. And whereas North Bend, Washington, publicly places its full support behind those who work in the fields of mental health, education, law enforcement, and all first responders. And now therefore, I, Mary Miller, Mayor, do hereby proclaim the month of September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Month in the city of North Bend and encourage all residents to take the time to understand the importance of mental health, education, and recognize that taking care of ourselves and others includes taking care of mental health. Thank you very much. And we have Helene Wentnick tonight. And I'm happy to come present this to you, take a little photo op, and maybe answer some questions. I'm coming to you, if you don't mind. And stay at the podium for football. We'll get you to the podium right after. How's that? Thanks, Brie.

They keep going, but you do. Yeah.

I have a few brief comments, I promise. Thank you so much. Yes, I'm Helene Wenting. I'm the executive director for Empower Youth Network. For myself, Empower Youth Network's team, and our entire community, thank you for your support of Suicide Prevention Month. This work truly does make a difference. National data shows a continued decline in the number of teens aged 12 to 17 that are reporting serious thoughts of suicide. Locally in the Snoqualmie Valley, 10th grade students reported a 7.6% decrease. that they have seriously considered attempting suicide. These encouraging trends highlight the importance of continuing prevention and early intervention efforts to support the well-being of Snoqualmie Valley youth. With the combined efforts of Empower Youth Network and our other Snoqualmie Valley human services providers, and we really do, we work as a team in those protective factors, we're making a positive impact. And the proclamation talked a bit about our peer-to-peer suicide prevention programming. This last school year, we trained 2,700 middle school students between the Riverview and the Snoqualmie Valley School District with high school trainers both from the Cedar Crest and Mount Sai High School. So it's a really nice cross-collaboration across the valley. And that's what's great, too, is that that training spans the valley. from Duval to Snoqualmie Pass. And so we also know that our youth connect in different ways through youth clubs, even if they might be separated by a district, they're all speaking the same language to support each other. On October 10th, we're gonna be offering youth mental health first aid training in Fall City. It is an amazing training. It's a day long opportunity. So it is a commitment, but it's free and it can ensure that we can all provide youth with positive mental health supports. And I actually do have some flyers. I think I have enough for the team up here with the with the council and the mayor, but I can send it digitally, too. So I'll go ahead and get that going for you. And just thank you for the support of the work that we do. Without you, we would not be able to impact the lives of so many youth and families across the Valley. And we're just grateful for your continued partnership with our work. So thank you. Thank you, Helene.

Thank you. Council, I'll give you an opportunity when Helene has completed her mission of giving us information that's very important.

I actually do need to get recertified. It's actually a certification program. And so it's good for, I believe, three years. So you can join me in that class. I'm hoping to make the October 10th as well.

Sounds great. Council, do you have any questions or comments for Helene tonight?

Okay, beautiful. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you soon to talk about our funding. We are grateful for all the support. So thank you.

Thank you. Have a great evening. Thanks for being here. We have one more proclamation. We're a bit heavy on proclamations tonight, but both of them are very exceptionally important. So I'll carry on. Whereas every person deserves reliable access to nutritious food in order to live a healthy, productive, and thriving life. And whereas food security... is essential to the health, resilience, and economic vitality of our community, helping children succeed in school, supporting seniors, strengthening families, and creating opportunities for all neighbors to thrive. And whereas despite the strength and generosity of our community, many individuals and families throughout Snoqualmie Valley experience food insecurity due to rising housing costs, inflation, unexpected financial hardship, natural disasters, and other life circumstances. And whereas the Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank serves as a community's leading organization dedicated to advancing food security across the Snoqualmie Valley, working in partnership with local governments, schools, healthcare providers, farmers, businesses, faith communities, volunteers, donors, and nonprofit organizations to ensure neighbors have access to nutritious food and essential resources. And whereas food security is a shared community responsibility. And lasting solutions are built through collaboration among residents, businesses, nonprofits, schools, healthcare providers, faith communities, and local governments. And whereas the City of North Bend is proud to partner with the Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank in strengthening local food security, building community resilience, and creating opportunities for every neighbor to thrive. And whereas Hunger Action Month is an opportunity to inspire our community, to take meaningful action by volunteering, donating, advocating, supporting local food initiatives, reducing food waste, and investing in solutions that expand access to nutritious food in a more connected Snoqualmie Valley. And whereas every act of generosity, whether by an individual, family, business, school, civic group, or community organization, helps build a stronger, healthier, and more resilient community. Now, therefore, I, Mary Miller, do hereby proclaim the month of September 2026 as Hunger Action Month in the City of North Bend and encourage all residents, businesses, schools, civic organizations, and community partners to do so. to take action throughout the month by supporting the Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank and participating in local efforts that strengthen food security, expand access to nutritious food, and help our community thrive. Thank you so much. At this time, we'll call up. We've got Caleb. And come on up.

We'll take another wonderful photo opportunity here.

Thank you for both being here tonight. Thank you. Certainly. Yeah. Thank you, Kayla.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Caleb Miller and I have the pleasure of serving as the executive director for Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank. I just want to say thank you to the mayor and the council for your steadfast support. As a recent transplant, I'm blown away by the support from our elected officials and working with some of the Dedicated government staff gives me a lot of hope for the future and I look forward to it. And I would like to echo some of my predecessors that were at the podium earlier about the unique collaborative environment with the human and social service agencies, NGOs and nonprofits. That is a special thing and it's not common. And I think all of us are aware that we are all in it together and ultimately it's about community. And I'm also really glad to join what is arguably the most beautiful part of the country. But despite all of this natural inheritance and abundance that surround us, a lot of people need help. We closed up the pantry today at 630, came over here. We signed up five new households just today. In August, we signed up 50 new households that need help. Over the last year, we've seen a 21% increase in people that are food insecure. And the most common theme is, I never saw myself needing this help. Now, we serve all kinds of people throughout King County, but many of it and our core clientele are multi-generational families that have been here. for you know decades so that it's uh a changing dynamic and there's lots of opportunities here but there's also struggle and we want to advocate for that and it's important to make awareness raise awareness in september we've got a lot of exciting ways that you can engage us so we encourage you to check out our website but uh one thing that everybody can do is leave here and raise awareness and let people know that there's not a stigma against needing help there's a lot of successful people in this room and none of us got here by ourselves So encourage folks that they need help. They can come to the food pantry. It's more than just a meal. It's about having a community of support and a continuum of care. And, you know, it's one meal, one interaction, one act of service, one person and one household at a time. So we thank you and we appreciate your continued support.

Any questions? Yeah. Any questions from council for Caleb?

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Appreciate all you do. Okay, we're going to move on to introductions. Item number 12, this is going to be our first item, AB 26-077, Motion Authorizing Contract Amendment with Peach Global Solutions. Mr. Henderson, would you like to inform us tonight about this? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council Members. Good to see you all. The item before you tonight is a contract amendment for the Adventure North Bend website. Adventure North Bend serves as the economic development website for the City of North Bend. The goal of the website is to promote and market North Bend as a destination for businesses that are a good match for North Bend's culture and identity. The website provides data and information about North Bend that helps businesses decide if the city is a good location for their business. For example, the website provides data for retailers about North Bend's population, such as income, spending habits and demographics. The website also includes data about regional workforce, city taxes, permitting requirements, and existing and future building and development sites. Economic development specific websites are a common tool to market a city in order to attract and support businesses. A goal of these websites is not to look like a traditional government website, but to look more business sector focused and provide businesses with the data and information they need to decide whether to locate to a community. While I was at the City of Bellevue, I worked with the cities of Redmond and Kirkland to establish the Innovation Triangle as a shared brand and website for the three cities to support common economic development goals and attract information technology companies. The proposed 12-month contract amendment with Peach Global Solutions is for $18,000, or $1,500 a month, to provide digital maintenance and content retainer to keep the Adventure North website current, functional, and aligned with the city's economic development goals. The proposed contract amendment includes adding new pages for Project Belay, Cascade Gateway, or Project 34, and information about available light industrial property. The contract also includes developing website tracking metrics to determine marketing and brand effectiveness for future marketing campaigns. At the August 25th work study, staff briefed Council about the proposed role of an economic development manager to promote and market North Bend. That position would be responsible for using the brand and the website To market North Bend as a premier destination for outdoor recreation, the arts, and business. Once the amended contract expires, the manager would also update the Adventure North Bend website. The contract amendment was briefed to the Community Economic Development Committee at their August 18, 2026 meeting. The committee recommended placement on the September 1 agenda for council consideration. And happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. We already have some questions. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem.

So just, I think you explained this well, but just to be clear, the intent of the amendment would be to continue to build this out and get it kind of tracking the KPIs and metrics we want. And then either you, your department, or if we add an FTE, that department would manage this kind of process. assuming there's no speed bumps, but the plan would be to hand this off to our internal team.

Yeah, that's the plan. Yeah, like you said, it's basically to make some kind of needed updates to the site. I mean, we kind of got it ready for World Cup and got the basic data up there. This is kind of to add and enhance, especially those two projects I mentioned, both Blay and Cascade Gateway. And then add additional information about the light industrial sites around North Bend, such as Panettone, Alpenthal Logistics, the Genie location. They'll be exiting that facility by the end of October. So that's quite a bit of square footage that's going to be available. And then 90 North, which is a proposed light industrial building that will probably start in about 2028. Okay, thanks.

Anybody else have any clarifying questions, Mr. Rustick? Yeah, thank you. I had sent some questions to James the other day, and I appreciate you giving the answer. And one of those questions was similar to Council Member Chimalana's, but you talked about that our staff could, going forward, potentially be doing the updates. Do you know, is the website set up in a way that you think that is going to be something that somebody that's not a web expert is going to be able to do?

Yeah, when we signed the original contract back in January, one of the criteria was basically to set up a website that would be easy to update and manage. And so, yeah, they did a fine job with that. So I think it should be fairly straightforward to keep the website current.

Thank you. Any other clarifying questions, Ms. Colon?

I think I have two questions. The first one is, can this website wait until we have a hotel, the project belay is up, the middle fork is in process? Can it wait until we potentially get this new employee? And the second question is, can our IT department or the intern that we have in the summer run this until that time?

Great. Thank you for the questions. Really kind of the idea is to make these updates to the website and really get them launched. One of the things I've been doing recently is working with our lead generation consultant, Melinda Goforth, and we're planning to do a LinkedIn campaign. for the remainder of the year. Basically, the LinkedIn campaign will target basically companies and site selectors in the types of businesses we want to bring to North Bend. So those are outdoor recreation-oriented manufacturers, aerospace, and biotechnology. And so we kind of want to basically get the website updated and launch that LinkedIn campaign and then use the metrics to determine effectiveness. So that's kind of why we want to keep the momentum going on this and not necessarily wait till next year. In terms of having local IT folks do this, actually, Phil's intern has left to go back to college, go back to Central Washington, so he did a wonderful job while here. But really, the type of expertise Phil brings to the equation here in the city of North Med is more on the IT devices and software and maintenance, just keeping the facility running. With website design, you really need someone who knows both coding, but also how to design websites for ease of use and functionality. So it's kind of two different skill sets in many ways.

So who is currently running our North Bend City website? And to add to that, could we not work together with the Downtown Foundation has a website, the Chamber of Commerce has a website, the City of North Bend has a website. Now we have Adventure North Bend website. There's a lot of competing websites that I'm wondering if they could be together.

Yeah, great question. So I'll answer the last part first, and I'll turn over to Lisa for the second part. So both the Downtown Foundation and the Chamber, like you said, have websites to promote their respective organizations. The Chamber is a membership-based organization and really promotes its businesses globally. Business members from Fall City just don't call me past, so it's a much broader area where they use their promotion. And while the Downtown Foundation is not a membership organization, they mainly promote the downtown businesses. So this is in many ways a very different type of website. It complements those activities, but this is really meant to support what we call an economic development, which is basically lead generation. In other words, targeting businesses that could be a good fit to North Bend, let them know about the sites we have available here, let them know about our processes, our demographics, our data, basically, so they can make what's called a site selection decision. In other words, make a decision to potentially locate their business here. So it's a very different website than what the Chamber and the Downtown Foundation have, but they in some ways complement each other as well.

Can I make an interjection at this moment? My belief is that this would expand us globally, potentially. So far reaching, just to be clear, council is aware.

So we have just formed a website committee with representatives from each department because what we found is that a lot of the information is outdated and not applicable anymore. So we want to make sure that all the links work, that all the information is current. In the past, and Susie, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it mainly has fallen on Susie and Bri to update when they have time or for Susie is for the calendar to keep that current and Bri it's, can you please update? But no one is designing anything. They're actually just adding content to it. So it's a little different. Web design is very different.

Okay.

Can I add something to that? The coding is already built into our website, so we'll update the boxes, the links that we have. We can go in and update those, but the structure in the box is built. So that's what that Inventor North Bend website will do is to flush out the rest of the links that we need to build onto for the different projects, and then we can keep it updated after, much like our website, after it's built and the structure is built inside.

Thank you. Any other clarifying questions this time? Mr. Farland.

Thank you. James, is there a link from the North Bend main site or purposely choosing to keep those separate?

No, we'll add a link from the main city website, probably on the economic development portion of the website. They'll link it directly to Adventure North Bend and then vice versa. So those are some cleanup activities we need to do as well.

One more look around if there's anyone I've missed who wishes to make a comment.

Clarifying, when you just said that, what you're saying is the contractors that we would be paying are going to make that link from Adventure North Bend to our sitting website? Is that part of the contract?

Yeah, I mean, that's just part of the general website maintenance is just to kind of, you know, keep some of those links fresh and to, you know, cross promote each of the different websites as well.

We all good? All right. Community and Economic Development Chair, Ms. Torgerson, I believe you can make the motion at this time. Sure. Yeah, great. Thank you.

Motion to approve AB 26-077, authorizing the mayor to execute and administer a contract amendment with Peach Global Solutions in the amount not to exceed $18,000 in a form and content approved by the city attorney. Can I get a second?

Thank you, Mr. Elwood. Ms. Torgerson, would you like to speak to your motion? Sure.

We have a revenue problem. And doing something like this, which is actually not that expensive, $1,500 a month, to get a website up and running to potentially reach out to businesses to fulfill buildings we have that are empty, is going to help the entire city. And I think this is a good investment into hopefully getting more businesses here. You know, the more businesses we have here that are helping with our revenue situation, you know, the better everyone in our town is. So I think it's definitely worthwhile. Thank you very much.

Mr. Elwood, any comments to make?

Nothing to add. My colleague said it all.

Excellent. Any other council member wish to make a comment at this time?

miss colin i am really wondering if we should wait a little bit longer i'm not saying no at all to this project but i'm not quite sure we're ready to go live thank you any other council members oh mark thank you um

Yeah, it's a work in progress. I agree with Council Member Torgerson that we're hoping for a return on investment from these monies spent. I think to pause at this time, you then need to recover and put pieces back in place. The hope is to continue to move this forward and build a solid foundation such that it can be passed off, maintained, and become a new landing page that pays benefits to the city going forward. So I will be voting in support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jocelyn. Anybody else I might have missed? Okay, motion to approve AB 26-077, authorizing the mayor to execute and administer a contract amendment with Peach Global Solutions in an amount not to exceed $18,000 in a forming content approved by the city attorney. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you again. Moving on to number 13, our last item on our introductions, AB 26-078, Motion Authorizing Contract with Creative Financial Staffing. Ms. Morse, take it away, please.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. And for the record, Elaine Morris, Deputy Finance Director. Council, before you use Agenda Bill 26078, a motion authorizing the contract with Creative Financial Staffing for not more than $47,424. Our staff accountant responsible for producing payroll and accounts payable will be leaving on FMLA for a period of between 12 and 16 weeks, or three to four months. While our staff accountant is away, while she's gone, staff request a contract staff to backfill the position for between those three to four months, including one month of cross-training for the purpose of carrying out payroll and accounts, excuse me, not receivable accounts, payroll functions for the city. While we do have cross-trained staff to periodically support and assist in the role to maintain appropriate segregation of duties and accounting controls for the city, temporary staff is necessary to fulfill the duties. So during staff account and absence, Washington FMLA pays the employee wages, taxes and benefits, thus the net effective cost between the contract costs and the compensation the city does not pay is between $19,059 to $21,460. So if staff recommend, the action would be to approve the motion authorizing the mayor to execute this professional services agreement.

Questions? Thank you. Any clarifying questions for Ms. Morse from council?

Ms. Colan? Is this a union requirement or is this a union position? It is a union position. It is not a requirement by the union. So it's not in their union contract?

No.

Okay. Any other clarifying questions? One more? Okay. Got it. Sorry. If

this person were to quit, what would you do then? You'd be without them for a time and you would have to rehire. So I see this situation as sort of, I mean, I don't want this person to quit and I want them to have their time off. I'm just wondering other alternatives to hiring temporary staff.

When a person is on FMLA, their role is protected. So there is not an option to hire another person for that position. So instead, we hire a contracted employee for the duration of their absence.

I guess I meant, is there a way to not have someone contracted? not to get rid of the employee or any of that.

I see what you're asking. We need a full-time person to fulfill the payroll and accounts payable roles. There are two payrolls issued per month and two accounts payable cycles per month. And it is a full-on 40-day Excuse me, full on 40 hour a week, let's say. So we do have people who can support the role, but they're all engaged in full time positions. So we don't have an extra person, so to speak.

Anybody else from council have any clarifying?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thank you, everybody. This came through F&A, Finance and Administration. Chair Rustick, would you like to read the motion when you're ready? Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Motion to approve AB 26-078, authorizing the mayor to execute a professional services agreement with Creative Financial Staffing, LLC, in an amount not to exceed $47,424 in a form and content acceptable to the city attorney. May I get a second?

Second.

Okay, we're in a toss for that one. Ms. Torkeson, I'll just turn my head to you. All right. Sorry, Rob. Next time. Okay, would you like to speak to your motion? Sure.

I just wanted to add that this came through F&A earlier today. And so we did ask pretty extensive questions about options available here. And at the end of the conversation, I felt that this was justified and that I will be supporting it. So thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Torgerson, do you have any comments you'd like to make?

This is kind of standard. I mean, if you're running a business and you had a similar situation, this is exactly what you do is you go out and contract for help in the meantime. So this is kind of basic. And so, yeah, I'll be supporting it.

Thank you very much. Any other council members wish to speak at this time? No. Okay. Motion to approve AB 26-078, authorizing the mayor to execute a professional services agreement with Creative Financial Staffing LLC in an amount not to exceed $47,424 in a form and content acceptable to the city attorney. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. One and all. for that fantastic end of the introductions we had. So we're going to move on to Mayor, Council, and Administrator Concerns and Initiatives. Mr. Elwood, would you like to lead us off tonight? Or not?

I'll follow Nella's lead here and keep it short and simple. I have nothing to add tonight. I hope everybody's well.

Thank you. Ms. Torgeson?

Ditto.

This colon. I would just like to say I'm grateful for all our nonprofits that are doing wonderful things for our community members and our citizens. It's really important and I'm appreciative and we are so lucky to have what we have in the valley. So thank you. Miss rustic.

Yes, I just wanted to add, in kind of keeping with how wonderful things are in the Valley, this past weekend for the fifth year in a row, I had an opportunity to head to Preston, which isn't that far. I don't know if everybody's aware. Jordan Morris is a a soccer player for the Seattle Sounders. And he runs a foundation, the Jordan Morris Foundation, for children with type 1 diabetes. I happen to have two grandkids with type 1 diabetes that were diagnosed at about the age of 7. So once a year, usually in August, September, he runs a camp that is at no charge to families. And usually hundreds of kids come out, whether they... know soccer, play soccer, or they just, you know, or some do, but some don't. But the important thing is, this is an amazing opportunity for kids to feel like they fit in with other kids that are faced with some of the same as them dealing with type 1 diabetes at such a young age. So anyway, kudos to Jordan Morris and his foundation. And if you have any children that have been diagnosed with this, check out the Jordan Morris Foundation. It's a great resource for you. That's all.

Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Jocelyn.

Low-hanging fruit. School started this past week. as we know. And so there's school buses and kids. There's fewer kids during the day, but traffic patterns are impacted. The days are getting shorter in terms of sunlight. So just be aware and be mindful. I also want to echo Council Member Cohen's comments and all of us. There's a lot of unity here on Council in terms of support for uh, social service agencies, human service agencies, and, uh, public arts institutions were engaging that conversation as we head into the budget conversation this fall. And I am endlessly thankful for all of you who, uh, create that fabric and that the interweave that happens between you all. Uh, I am certainly not unaware and I just want to express my appreciation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rick Farland.

Thank you. Um, first I'm very disappointed that, uh, Council Member Elwood did not lead with a song, but in deference, I'm not going to share one tonight either. A couple of things on my mind, a little bit to repeat. Yes, I'll lead off with thank you to the agencies that came. What they danced delicately around was the massive defunding from the federal government that we're experiencing today. for human services, whether it's food bank, whether it's the critical services for our children, mental health, you name it, being wiped out across the board. So that I'm willing to say from the dais to reemphasize it. And thank you to all of the agencies that are trying to hang on and still make things happen. Secondly, Yeah, we're at stage two water. It means nothing to most of the folks in the valley because they're not maybe paying attention, but you do know how dry it is out there. Folks, we do have an ordinance that does have penalties. We don't like to go there at all. We like it to be the sugar. But please, wherever you can, cut back. Be careful with your use of water. Third thing, tacking on to the notion that, hey, it's getting darker. We're heading into the dark season. Hey, school has started. Leaving a committee meeting just earlier today, I was nearly in the middle of a major T-bone accident at Cedar Falls Way and Maloney Grove just yesterday. here next to City Hall. Having been nearly hit twice in that intersection in the past year, I can appreciate that that intersection in particular is a little bit dangerous, despite that we have strobes and such. The point is really not even about that intersection. Thank goodness it was a bad one. A mother, two children in the car, very shaken up, best that I could tell when I walked away that the children were fine, other than visibly, you know, traumatized by what they'd experienced. The airbag went off. The rear tire in that vehicle was essentially sitting sideways. This was not a small crash. But it reminded me again. And then on the way back to City Hall, I watched a car in the intersection in front of me sort of glance to their left as they were about to execute a right turn and then immediately drop their eyes to their phone and execute the turn. watch out. All I can say to all of those out there walking, riding all of those scooters, which we are worried about. And there was a nice young man who did stop during that accident and say, can I help? So we're not saying these kids are bad, but boy, I'm worried about them getting nailed in one of these. Drivers are not nearly as conscious of what's going on around them as we need to be. So That's my share of the evening. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Emery. Would you like to say anything tonight? Oh, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, my apologies. Right next to me. How could I ever miss you?

Well, I speak on mental health every meeting here, and I think... There's not much to say because we had two great proclamations that I think touch on some of the hardest issues hitting home, both suicide prevention and food insecurity. So I'll just reiterate what I've said weekly, which is check on your friends, send the text, make the call, go grab a cup of coffee. And if you're struggling, don't let the hard days win.

Thank you, Errol. Appreciate that. No updates from me tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that catch, by the way. All right. Stage two of the city water conservation ordinance went into effect on August 31st. Thank you, Mr. McFarland, for letting the community know about that. To find out more about when you can water your lawn and garden during stage two and other water conservation tips, please visit the news section of the city website. blood works northwest is hosting a blood drive at city hall tuesday september 8th from 9 a.m to 3 p.m yes there is a uh very big need for blood across the uh across this nation actually you can sign up for an appointment on the blood works northwest website uh join me for my meetup with the mayor series which where residents are invited to stop chat and ask city related questions or any other questions you might have that are important to you um And connect, of course. So I'll be at Huckstotter Coffee on Tuesday, September 8th from 10 to 11. The yard waste recycling program will be held Saturday, September 12th from 8 a.m. to noon at Public Works. Those attending are asked to come through the Public Works entrance off of North Bend Way. Like many of our council members said tonight, thank you to our nonprofits, the abundant nonprofits we have throughout the Valley. You do such exceptional work. Times are tough, as Mr. Councilmember McFarland said earlier. Yes, I said that out loud.

And I didn't even catch it.

Well, you know, we're all human. But speaking of humanity, we really care about what you do and the federal government, all the churning up in the world right now. It affects each and every one of your great operations. We do care. I know this council and myself do. So, again, thank you for all that you do. And thank you for your presentations tonight. keep doing the good, hard at times work. It's appreciated. School is here, as we all know, and please be careful out there. We had an awful accident. I don't believe anyone was seriously hurt. I don't know that for sure, but it's very scary when you see anything like that happen. So please, please, distraction is always a problem, but please take care of each other. And with that, I'm going to ask for an adjournment. And thank you, Mr. Elwood. And second. Oh, thank you very much. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Thank you very much, one and all. Please take care of yourselves and each other. Have a great night.