Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

can begin all right i'd like to call to order the august 26 2025 meeting of the pierce county planning commission uh start with a roll call today uh i've been chairman here commissioner lewis commissioner starr

I believe she indicated that she is studying away for a moment, so I'll back to her. Commissioner Sanzma?

Here.

Commissioner Burke? Here.

All right. Commissioner Burke, welcome to the Planning Commission. Thank you. My apologies for my tardiness, but I'm glad to get started. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

I certainly would. Good morning, fellow commissioners. My name is Jim Burke, and I live in Stilicum in District 6. I'm honored to be joining the Planning Commission. I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself. Having successfully reached the age of 77, I continue to be a lifelong learner and look for opportunities where I can be of service. With age comes a life of varied experience, which now I hope to contribute in a way that benefits both the residents of District 6 and all of Pierce County. I served 21 months in Vietnam as a Green Beret, and when I returned home, I built a varied career dedicated to service, health care, and public well-being. I earned a Bachelor of Science from the Evergreen State College, a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Iowa, and a Master's of Social Work with a specialty in administration and organization development from the University of Washington. Professionally, I'm a physician assistant, social worker specializing in psychiatry. My career included 25 years with the Veterans Administration at the American Lake facility, where for five of those years, I ran a residential rehabilitation program for homeless veterans. Along the way, I also worked as an EMT and firefighter, served as a seasonal park ranger at Mount Rainier Olympic, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake National Parks, and worked in the state prison system. In my volunteer life, I've been deeply involved with the Mountaineers serving on the board of directors and today on their advisory council and carbon footprint reduction committee. With the support from Tacoma Power and the Washington State Department of Commerce, I helped design and renovate the Mountaineers Program Center in Tacoma, which became the city's first net plus commercial building producing more than twice the electricity it consumes using solar power. I also served on the Consumer Advisory Committee for Kaiser Permanente Washington, working directly with leadership to represent patient perspectives and help guide health care policy and operations. I've also continued to stay active locally, serving on the Steilacoom Parks and Environment Advisory Committee. Most recently, I'm part of a team that secured $1.1 million state capital budget grant to create Steilacoom Pierce County Net Zero Resiliency Center, which will advance energy resilience and community preparedness. I also produce a podcast and YouTube channel called The Way Forward Regenerative Conversation, which explores how we can redefine the role of being an elder in the 21st century to help address the many crises we face. I see this role in the planning commission as a chance to listen, learn, and contribute, making sure our land use and infrastructure decisions support both today's residents and the long-term resiliency of Pierce County. I look forward to working with all of you.

Thank you, Commissioner. That's an amazing resume. I appreciate both your military and vocational background. That's quite impressive. Thank you. Thank you. If Chair Drukiewicz were here, she would remind me to make sure we read our disclaimer for the day. So I want to make a note that the Planning Commission is principally an advisory board to the Pierce County Council. Actions taken by the Planning Commission on almost all agenda items will be forwarded to the County Council as a recommendation for its consideration and final action. With that, I will entertain a motion to approve our minutes. I'll move. I second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Motion carries. At this point, we have our 2026-2031 Transportation Improvement Program, the TIP, and 2026-2039 14-Year Ferry Program presentation.

Good morning. I'm Letitia Neal. I'm the County Engineer for Pierce County Planning and Public Works. I'd like to present to you this year's six-year program. For those commissioners who have been on the commission for more than just this year, a lot of the information can be very similar to this year. So we'd like to continue bringing forward similar data for easy recognition. Next slide. We'll start with the Transportation Improvement Program's background to give you some of the context of why we're here today and the information that you'll be seeing. So historically, this transportation program is to include the scope, timing, and funding for a lot of different projects. It could include anything that's listed here, bridge construction, road widening, major arterial improvements, new construction. And it is, at its core, a planning document. It includes our annual program, which is what we're intending to build next year. and then six years out. And so obviously as you go further and further out in time, more of the information is speculative and plans as opposed to actual ready to build and shovel ready. Do keep in mind that this program is required by RCW and the Planning Commission is to review our proposed plan each year and make recommendation to the County Council. Historically, these are some of the drivers that have been behind the projects that you'll find in our transportation improvement program. Many of the projects come from our maintenance operations crew. As they're out and about the county, they see items that need some repair or things that need to be reviewed and looked at. We also get information from the public through public comments and public hearings. We pull projects out of our Safe Routes to School Plan, our ADA, Equity and inclusion is always an element that we're looking at when we're reviewing different projects and how to put our annual program together. And of course, we receive a lot of direction and information from our county leadership. Moving forward, we'll also be including a review of some of the executive strategic priorities listed here. Reliable, safe, and accessible infrastructure, accountability and good governance, tribal partnerships, regional leadership, liveable communities, and clean, sustainable environment. These will be new elements that we're using to examine our projects that we tip every year. That's not to say that they were not considered previously, but they were not specifically executive strategic priorities. So just a quick review of how to read the document. If you happen to have an actual physical copy, it would look like this, but it's also available online in the link. And every project has a page very similar to what you see on the screen right now. This happens to be for the Lackey-Jackson and Highway project. The information at the top is generalized about the project. On the left-hand side, you'll identify which council districts and where the project begins, how long it is. In the middle top section, you'll see whether it's fully funded or not. A check with a yes is good. A no in red is not good. They also list what we think the estimated total cost of the project is. Now, in some projects, that information will say TBD. We're not far enough through to be able to really guess at a good total cost estimate. On the far right on the top side, you'll see an abbreviated scope for the project. In this case, constructing a single-lane roundabout with sidewalks and rectangular rapid-flashing beacons. We've also identified in the top grayed-out bar whether a project is identified as a Vision Zero safety project. You'll also see an indicator if it is in a Blue Zones area, and it's a Blue Zone project. The table on the bottom half is what you really need to look for to identify what money we're spending when and on what phase of the project. The phase is listed down on the left, preliminary engineering, final engineering, right-of-way or property acquisition, and then construction. The source of funding will range from local, state, federal, and other. We've identified the sources for you. We have a column for prior expenditures, and then six years, starting with the annual program, and then the following five years with totals listed. So you can see in this particular case, we have all four phases listed. This is a very active project. It is fully funded. As you can see in the top, we have a check and a yes in green. We have local, state, and federal money sources involved in this particular project. And you can see how much of each of those sources of money we're planning to spend each year on each of the phases. So for next year, our 2026 annual program, we will be spending approximately $156,000 in final engineering, $272,000 in material property acquisitions. And then in 2027, we'll be moving to construction. Construction will take two years, as you can see there, until 2027 through 2020. This is an overall idea of how you read the project information for every project listed in the TIP. So now we move into some updates, things that are new this year, things that are different from previously, and just some updated statistics. The ferry program is part of our transit program. The ferry service is considered part of our roadway network. And as a reminder, we do have three distinct locations that our ferry service operates. It is Anderson, Ketchum Island, Anston. Our ferry operates 20 hours a day, 365 days a year. It provides access to Anderson and Ketchum Island. It is the only form of access, so it is really critical that the service continues. It is partially funded by the County Road Fund, and we have nine projects identified between the three landing locations. Our ferry funding, as I said, is partially subsidized by the County Road Fund, but we also have a lot of additional funding that goes into it. The left-hand pie chart is the revenue from 2024 last year, and this is on the right from 2024, so you can see where the money is coming from and roughly how it is being extended. This does not include the $30.4 million in county road funds that will be invested in the ferry system over the next six years. So it's a very significant part of our budgeting process to make sure the ferry service is appropriately funded and accounted for. A question that we do get asked sometimes is how much property tax makes its way into the county road fund from the residents of Anderson and Ketra Island. not nearly enough to cover the cost of ferry service. We also have about a third of the revenue coming from fares and dock leases. And then in this particular scenario, we provided, the County Road Fund provided a smaller amount of funding than usual due to receiving some additional FTA funds from two years in the one year of 2024. So unfortunately this pie chart is not necessarily typical of what you will see in other years. For the roadway projects, you can see here they are scattered all across the county. We have projects in every single district, multiple projects. These are the more traditional roadway capital improvement projects and amounts to 112 projects listed in our TIP this year. Locations go from the east side of the county all the way over to the peninsula. Our roadway system has 781 lane miles of primary arterials. 733 lane miles of what are considered collectors and secondary arterials, and 1,890 lane miles of public access roads. You can see here some of the statistics of the different elements that we're constantly maintaining, tracking, improving, and installing. Currently, 377 miles of sidewalks, 155 traffic signals, for example. So there's a lot of different elements that go into our railway system, and all of which are being looked at, inventory, assessed continuously to make sure that we are maintaining a safe system for all of our county residents. Very briefly, since it is a significant element of our transportation program, I did want to touch on our foundation management system. A brand new roadway does deteriorate over time, so it's really important that we keep an eye on it and do ongoing maintenance at the appropriate time to keep our costs slow. So, for example, a brand new pavement would have a PCI score, a pavement score of 100, and then it will start to deteriorate over time. If we catch it before it drops too far into that fair block, that middle yellow block, we can do a chip seal or an overlay to keep that pavement in good condition. If it drops too far down in the fair block or even down into the poor area, the red block on the bottom, you're looking at a complete reconstruction of the roadway, which costs significantly more than either true sealing or overlay does. All of our roads currently are in approximately 97% fair condition, good or fair condition, either one. For arterials and collectors, we have 70% good, and local access is a little bit lower, close to 60% good. So this is one of the elements that contributes significantly to the amount of funding that we have for the overlays in our program is the condition of the roadway system. And you'll see in our plan that we are contributing anywhere from $5 million to $10 million each year on overlays and chip seals throughout the county. So it's quite an endeavor. Another element to think of when you're looking through our transportation program is our Blue Zones partnership. We have, as I said earlier, indicated on those projects that are in the Blue Zones, we've indicated those with the annotation at the top. And a lot of these Blue Zone projects would also include safety projects and active transportation projects. We've listed them here. Projects in the Blue Zone area will include the 112th Street Corridor, C Street South near the college, 138th and 159th. These are all active projects currently in the Blue Zone area. We also have a demonstration project indicated with a star on the map that we're doing with the Blue Zone group to install a semi-permanent rubber pedestrian refuge island to see how that's going to work, take a look at the efficiency of the installation and the cost, as well as longevity. and how the public reacts to something like that. So that should be installed before the end of this year. Very interesting to bring back data on that in future presentations. Earlier this year, the Council adopted a Vision Zero Safety Action Plan with the goal of eliminating fatality collisions in Pierce County. Shown here are the locations of all the different projects that are either specifically identified as a priority project in our Vision Zero plan or are located on the high risk, high injury networks indicated in the plan or projects that are simply identified with a safety nexus linking them to our Vision Zero plan. So a lot of projects are safety related. Safety is a huge driver in all that we do in planning public works. Our main goal is to make sure that our system is safe for all of our residents and constituents who drive through Pierce County every day. We have another program called our Safe Routes to School program. This is focused exclusively on improvements to the areas immediately surrounding the schools. We've partnered with Puyallup School District, Franklin Pierce School District, Bethel School District, and Peninsula School District to identify their priority projects that they need to make sure that their students have safe walking routes to school, safe areas to cross streets, and things like that. We've identified them in our Safe House to School plan, and we have a number of projects in our TIP that are funded and actively being designed and constructed. So the listing here are five of them, ranging from 168th Street down to 144th. These all have mixed-state funding. Some are locally funded. Some have Safe House to School funding, which is a grant program that we've been very successful in. This is a continuation with five more projects, or if you consider St. Justice School projects, please note that the bottom four on this particular slide is legislative appropriation funding. This is funding that we didn't actually even apply for, but due to the successful lobbying of the school districts, the legislature allocated significant amounts of funding for projects that will directly benefit Bethel School District and Derringer School District, actually. Here on the map are our Safe Routes to School projects that were listed on the previous two slides. You can see that they are scattered around. We do not currently have a Safe Routes to School project being actually worked on in this district area, which is why that part of the county is not shown. And then we also have an annual ADA project where we have identified number of projects in our ADA transition plan and we pull out priority projects every year to design and build. We have shown in 2025 ADA projects for different locations that made up that one project and for 2026 they will all all those improvements will be located in a single area unified with the 2026 icon. So at this point I'm Happy to answer any questions that you have. You should have received a lengthy staff report filled with additional information regarding our program, the legal basis behind it. We are looking for, hopefully, an adoption by the Planning Commission of the findings of fact identified in that staff report, and hopefully a submission to the County Council with a deep pass recommendation. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ms. Neal. Any questions or comments from commissioners?

Yes, I have a question. I know this is a concern to a lot of our communities. What's the role of Pierce County in dealing with the problem of the Fairfax Bridge?

The Fairfax Bridge is on a state highway. So our role is to be informed, of course, to be a partner with WSDOT. The detour route currently does utilize a bridge that is owned by Pierce County. So we're also engaged from the standpoint of what's going to happen with the detour route that's been identified and what kind of traffic will be used on that. It's also an access point up into more of the Mount Rainier area. There's several projects that have been identified up there. So we're actively engaged in it, but we're not specifically making decisions regarding the bridge itself on the state highway.

So we have an alternative. Are we going to open that to the public at some point?

It is not an open to the public route. We own the bridge, but we don't own all the road systems that go through there.

And commissioners online, if you have a question or comment, please raise your hand. Commissioner Sonsma.

Yeah. Going back to the TIP program, you said that there are some fully funded yes and no's. How do the no's get to become yeses?

We are continually applying for grants and other funding opportunities that are out there to try to, you know, Spread of resources as far as we possibly can. And as projects get further along in design and we've acquired the property rights necessary, it becomes a shovel-ready project. At that point, it's ready for construction. That often is the trigger that's necessary to make us very competitive in the grant programs. But in the end, if it is a high-priority project for the county, we will construct it utilizing county road funds, really status like excise tax or traffic impact fees.

Years ago, when I was involved with this program, just in an advisory capacity, we talked about consolidating some of these projects so that we had yeses on all of them rather than, and then so that we can shovel ready, build start to finish, that type of thing, and not have projects that are half done or waiting for additional funds or that type of thing. So how does that look today?

Today it's an incredibly competitive environment out there for funding. We quite often hear back from grantors that they have, I'm just using made up numbers, but they have $100 million to give in this particular time period and they receive applications for more than $400 million worth of projects. So it's an incredibly competitive environment to get outside funding. But we're also trying to make sure that we do, since it takes so long to get in several different phases moving through because a project may get stalled in environmental permitting for quite a long period of time outside of our control. So we don't want to have all of our eggs in that particular basket, so to speak. We want to be able to keep other projects moving forward that maybe do not have the type of environmental concerns that one project does. So there's a lot of different variables that go into it.

So that's why you do, you juggle so you don't have, you're not, what? Use your mic. I understand. I understand that. So instead of just putting all the eggs in that one basket, you have multiple projects going once. I was just curious about that. Thank you. Sure.

We've got Commissioner Lewis and we'll come back to Commissioner Murphy.

How were the, I believe it's the safe routes, the school safe routes, how were those prioritized?

Those are actually prioritized by the school districts themselves. We are a partner with the school districts, but we rely on the school districts who know their students, know their walking routes, know their bus routes to tell us what their priority projects are. So that's very much dictated by the school districts themselves.

And I guess a follow-up question to that would be, how are those relationships to those specific schools and those school districts prioritized?

I'm not sure I understand your question.

Yeah, I don't know that I'm specifically asking it well. So I guess, The answer that I heard, just to clarify, is that there is a relationship with those schools and those in that in those specific school districts with the county. Yes. OK. And so maybe I'm not maybe I'm not asking it clearly, but how did those relationships come to come to be?

Well, the County Council directed the Planning and Public Works Department to start the Safe Routes to School program. Oh, it was probably 2014, 2015 timeframe. And that's the point where we started to contact the school districts and establish the relationships with the superintendents, the staff that are in charge of the school's capital improvement projects and work with them to develop project lists and the data that we need to be able to support all of the grant applications that we do. So we've continued building those relationships over the years. Again, the school districts really set the priorities. We rely on them to tell us what projects they think are the most important. And then we work with the school district to submit grant applications. When we're successful, we will design and build those projects in partnership with the school districts. Many times the school districts themselves commit match money. a portion of the project costs so that they are funding partially the project as well that can often make an application more competitive. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but I'm trying to.

You are. Thank you. I appreciate that answer.

Thank you. Commissioner Burke.

Yes. One of our funding sources, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is one of our major funding sources. Have we seen or are we prepared if there's any changes coming to that or indications from federal government that there may change that at all or restrict some of those?

There's a lot of changes happening in the federal government right now. We're definitely tracking that. We have multiple organizations that are also tracking it with us. The Washington State Association of Counties, the National Association of County Engineers. We're linked into all of the information that is able to be pulled together about it. So we're keeping an eye on it closely. We're looking at different scenarios where federal funding is restricted in the future and how we might be able to backfill and keep different projects going. It will certainly have an impact on our prioritization of projects and what our program looks like in future years. But nothing definitive yet. We're still watching and planning and waiting for something to come through.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Neal. I have one question. In the city of Puyallup where I live, we've been very aggressive in implementing pervious concrete technologies, and it doesn't seem the technology is caught up with the standard of what you get with non-pervious asphalt or concrete. We've probably lost to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, either in roads that have failed before they were supposed to, or even in projects that were subject to lawsuit because of the failure of panels. Is the county currently implementing a plan for pervious concrete? And if so, how does that affect these projects?

Interesting you would ask that. We actually did our, Pierce County did our first pervious concrete project a number of years ago, maybe 2017, 2018. It was on 184th. Anybody who's driven through there probably visualize exactly the same thing that we've been talking about. It has not fared well. It is in pretty poor shape. It takes a lot of effort by the county to go out there and try and mandate it for another season. We actually have a project on the tip right now to tear all that out and put in a traditional asphalt road like it was just unsuccessful. However, impervious options have been found to be successful in some of the very low volume local access roads. I believe that is one of the options that developers have when they are putting plans in to Pierce County for developments to utilize that on private roads or very low volume roads. We've also utilized some pervious materials on sidewalks, which has been a little bit more successful. It doesn't have the impact of the heavy traffic and heavy weight of the trucks on it.

Great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from commissioners? If not, we will open public comment. So just a reminder that public comment is open first in the gallery and then online. This is limited solely to the tip or transportation and ferry programs improvements. If you have a public comment here now, we'd ask you to stand to the podium, state your name, your address, and you have three minutes to put your comments. It appears we do not have anybody in the gallery. And so we will look online to see if we have anybody who'd like to speak.

Okay, for those online who would like to provide public comment, please press the raise hand icon on the screen or star nine on your telephone keypad. Okay, it doesn't look like there are any attendees online who would like to provide public comments.

All right. And at that time, if there's any more deliberations, then commissioners, I'm happy to entertain any comments or conversation about this. And if not, we can entertain a motion.

I move for adoption of the findings of fact as identified in exhibit A, page six, and do pass recommendation to the council for the 2026 to 2039 four-year ferry program and also the transportation improvement program as presented in exhibit B. I second the motion.

We have a motion and a second. Any further conversation?

If not, I'll call for a roll call vote.

Chair Manley?

Aye.

Commissioner Lewis?

Yes.

Commissioner Starr? Aye. Commissioner Sonsma?

Aye.

Commissioner Burke?

Aye.

I have it. Motion passes.

All right, well done. Our next item on the agenda is the 2026-2031 Airports Capital Improvement Program. So your presentation this time.

background that this is a six-year capital improvement program for the county's two airports. It's intended to inform the county council, the public, and the FAA as their predominant major stakeholders.

Details of the project scope, costs, and funding sources for each project, ministers of the county's airports, are in accordance with the FAA design standards and regulations.

We'll also position the county well for future aviation and funding needs. and is strongly influenced by input from the FAA, DOT, county departments, and citizen groups, most specifically the airport advisory commissions at both airports. Next slide, please. The Duke County Airport provides general and corporate aviation access to both the western and central portions of the county, and it is open 24 hours a day through 65 for aircraft to land and depart from the airport. The maintenance and operations division is responsible for both day-to-day operations as well as administering the FAA and EOT contract assurances. What I said includes currently eight projects, four at each airport with a total six-year program grants, $1.6 million. Also from the state, approximately half a million via DOT grants, as well as CARB loans, which are community aviation revitalization board loans. And then $1.2 million from county local match monies, typically.

In some circumstances, the county funds the entirety of the project costs, but when we're

As you can see in the list, project costs range from $120,000 to up to $10.5 million, more predominantly in the $300,000 to $700,000 range, and specifically within District 1 and 7. Next slide. First on the project list for Tacoma Narrows Airport is the update to the master plan. The FAA recommends Master Plan be updated every 7 to 10 years, and the last update to the Tacoma Narrows Master Plan was in 2015, so it's due.

Conversely, at Dunfield Airport, it was recently updated in 2021. So Master Plan is essential for securing FAA funding, maintaining safe and efficient operations, and guiding sustainable airport development. with 90% FAA grants and 10% local match.

And it's worth noting that these estimates are a derivative of consultation with our aviation planning consultant at the FAA. Next slide, please.

Next project on the list is the obstruction level project at Comineros Airport intended for the design, construction, and construction administration of the rule of tree obstructions within the 34 to one and 41 part 77 surfaces. And the FAA design defines the part 77 surfaces as imaginary air space surface used to evaluate approach and departure interference, that being things like trees, buildings. And that ratio of 34 to one or 40 to one is intended to convey 34 feet horizontal for every one foot rise.

Those that follow projects at the airport may be aware that this last winter, an obstruction was also completed, and that was completed at a 20 to 1 ratio.

So the total project cost estimate is up to $4 million for this project, and it may include trigger removal. Commonly, they also refer, they also include

funded by FAA grants and 10% local match. Next slide, please. Next project is pavement maintenance at Tacoma Narrows Airport to include crack seal, seal coat, and install pavement markings on runway 1735 and crack seal on the taxiway.

This is intended to meet FAA standards, but is also a good business practice and long-term pavement preservation strategy with the airports. Total estimated cost, $667,000.

And again, a 90-10 breakdown for FAA grant funding. Next slide, please.

Last project at Comineros Airport is the quad hangar roofing. As you can see in the photo, the waterproof surface has come off in places, and some subsurface structure damage has resulted.

Currently, one of the hangars remains to make sure that their long-term viability for revenue generation and their quality products for attendance. Total project cost is $120,000 intended to come entirely from local funds if there is no FAA or state funding opportunities for this project. Next slide, please. Moving on to Thunfield, the first of four projects is a hanger door solution to install steel brackets to replace kernel wooden spacers and header beams on the hanger doors. different runs of hangers at Dunfield that the county owns and operates and this project would affect 90% of those doors. The total estimated cost is $450,000 and we intend to target a DOT carpool for that project. This project is a hanger electrical rehabilitation project.

We intend to rewire 50 hangers including row on its own electrical circuit. Currently, they're all on one circuit, which is proven to be problematic. It also includes installing LED lighting and a standardized electrical system. This project was actually originally funded in the 2024-25 biennium.

However, through coordination with the FAA, they wanted the county to leverage those funds on the field front of the grants a local match. Excellent. The third project in the field is the hangary roof at building five and this is another preservation project. I'm starting at the roof to make sure that these structures are well maintained and quality products for the tenants as well as long-term viability for revenue generation. This project is estimated at

to the last and most significant project in the age that is the runway reconstruction at Dunfield.

The existing runway is a non-standard shed section and will be transitioning to its standard crown section and as well adding 15 feet width to the runway. It includes new pavement, new drainage and an infiltration pond and this project is integral and necessary for the long-term viability and continued operation of this airport. Its total project cost is estimated 10.5 million. And in this particular circumstance, it's 95% FAA grant funded and 5% local match monies. Next slide. All right, as you can see, we're on our second step here. Earlier this month, we already presented to the airport advisory commissions and received their recommendations. So we're seeking your support question.

Thank you so much, Mr. Shoemaker. At this time, commissioners, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

You will be using forest pavement on that hangar for that runway.

All right. We will open up public comment at this time. If there's anybody in the gallery who'd like to speak, please step forward. And if we have anybody online, please let us know.

All right.

At this time, I'd like to entertain a recommendation for whether or not to move this forward to the County Council, unless there's any other comments or other questions from commissioners. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

I'm going to try to make a motion that we approve the Airport Capital Improvement Program 2026 to 2031, six-year capital approval.

Perfect. You're a pro, Commissioner Burke. Second. Second. Any further comments or questions? A roll call vote, please.

Chair Manley?

Aye.

Commissioner Lewis?

Yes.

Commissioner Starr?

Aye.

Commissioner Sussman? Aye. Commissioner Burke? Aye. The eyes have it and the motion passes.

Great. Thank you. And before we move to our next item, I have a question. Is it possible to turn the heat down or the cool up in this room? It seems it's a bit warm in here today. I may be the only one, but.

Actually, I don't think this room can offer any cooling, but we can certainly make a fan.

I would take a fan. That would be fantastic. All right, at this time, we're going to have a presentation from staff regarding the 2026-2031 Surface Water Improvement Program, the SWPPP.

We love acronyms, Ron.

Last week's been- Oh, you acclimated. All right.

Good morning, Chair Manley. I am Brandon Smith. I'm the Deputy Director for Pierce County Public Works and Utilities.

I'm going to present the Service Water Improvement Program.

Next slide.

So we're going to present

So this is the mission and vision of what we call SWIM, which is the Water Management Division of Chris County Planning and Public Works. And that's just, we are to protect and restore watersheds, practice environmental stewardship, and guide growth responsibility for the benefit of current and future generations.

And our vision is healthy watersheds and thriving communities. What does SWIM do? I didn't know it was going to be a fancy slide. These are the things that SWIM does.

We store watershed and habitat. We focus on flood projects that we do.

We have 72 miles approximately of levee system that we maintain along all of our four major rivers. And we do habitat restoration projects. We do a lot of fish barrier removal projects.

So this is the components of this clip.

So we have the flood risk projects, habitat projects, stormwater water quality projects. That's part of our APPS permit compliance through the Department of Ecology.

And then we also have infrastructure projects that

of the projects that we have in the upcoming biennium. And you can see that they're pretty spread out through all the different council business. Excellent. So these are the drivers.

So that's what we call it.

This is how we formulate what goes in our planning document. And this is pretty much, I heard from other folks, it's a planning document. We're really specific over the next two years, but over the six-year program, But some of the drivers are, have we been working on the project? Is there funding available? Is it part of the executive priorities such as fish barrier and habitat projects? So these are some of the drivers that went into developing the plan. Next slide, please. Funding sources through the next six years. You can see that. My eyes aren't that great, but you can see the different funding resources that we have. SWIM gets a lot of its funding. It's a utility, so it gets it through the unincorporated Trish County Citizens Pay utility fee as part of their tax statements every year. So on a semi-annual basis, we will receive funds from that. That's a large portion of our funding. We also receive funding historically from REIT, which is real estate tax one and two, and we receive funds from that that's allocated to capital projects. We also have a flood control zone district, that's a county-wide taxing district, so that includes the incorporated areas, and that funds a lot of our flood projects. And then we also leverage those global dollars to obtain state and federal grants. Next slide. Here's a highlight of some of our projects that we are focusing on as our team this year. Brighton Creek is especially a notable project there in District 3. It's a fish barrier project where we're replacing a culvert with a large arch pipe. That's a joint project with the Nispolee Tribe of Indians. We've been working in partnership with them to obtain the money that's funded federally on that project. So that's a... a very notable project. We also are dedicating resources to the Chambers Creek estuary restoration. A lot of people are familiar with that project that includes, we're in early stages on that project, but that includes ultimately the dam removal and the bridge replacement there at Chambers Bay. So that's a very high executive priority project. So we've dedicated resources to that. On the beginning project at 128th Street Corridor, that's a project that Ultimately, we'll get funding from the flood control zone district. That is a mitigation project for our proposed habitat conservation plan that we're in the middle of receiving final approval on. And then another project that's been a notable project is the clear restoration project. There's been over 60 properties there that we've been acquiring in the lower Puyallup area that helps to deal with

got more projects to talk about.

So other projects are, they're labeled as, so like Needham Road and Auroville Road are both flood mitigation projects.

The Jones setback

keep going. Spanaway Lake OST project is notable because that is the project to help deal with the algae blooms at Spanaway Lake, which has been very notable to that area.

That's something that we've been working with our lake management out there.

That's a proposed capital project to help reduce the algae blooms in Spanaway Lake. Swan Creek is currently under construction.

Next slide, please.

So that kind of wraps up my presentation with you. I'm here to answer any questions

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Any comments or questions from commissioners? Yes, Commissioner Sonsmo.

I just have one. On page 24 of the capital improvement program, you have a picture of a riverbed that's real wide. Is there anything that's been done to better channelize, keep the rivers from the anger? It looks took out almost another house down the Orting Valley. the rivers are out of control. They go where they want to go. Is there anything that SWIM can do to channelize those better?

Great question, Commissioner Sonsmo. So the science has kind of changed on how to manage river systems. Traditionally, we put levees in close in and try to channelize the rivers, but we found that that increased the speed of the water, so the velocity of the water, which was habitat. So, alternatively, now we're looking at doing what we call setback levees, where we buy property along the river, which provides habitat and water quality benefit to the river system and allows the water to meander and slow down, creating a more natural environment that was more prehistoric of European influence.

I was just curious. It's a wide swath of intakes

you hear about it read about it um just was curious if there's anything the counties do to try to prevent that other than buying up the house but but go through no thank you mission yes i had a recent opportunity to do a site visit to the chambers bay estuary restoration project and get a briefing on it and i was quite impressed quite impressed well thought and uh really talked about the difficulty of having to keep that bridge open and build around it while you do the same thing and do the dam removal. So I really liked how well thought the project was.

Appreciate that, Commissioner Burke. And welcome to the Commission.

Any other commissioner comments or questions? If not, we will open it up to public comment, either in person or online. If there's anybody who'd like to speak, please step to the podium or let us know online that you'd like to speak. We have three minutes on this subject.

For those online who would like to comment, please press the raise hand icon on Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. Okay, it doesn't look like there's anyone online that would like to provide comments.

Well, at this rate, we're not gonna make it to two o'clock. So that's not a bad thing. At this point, I'd like to entertain a recommendation to be able to adopt the 2026-2031 Surface Water Improvement Program. So moved. Looking for a second? Second. Any further comments from commissioners? Commissioner Lewis, I noticed you unmuted yourself. Did you have a comment?

No, no comment.

You're prepared to vote. All right, in that case, we will take a roll call vote.

Chair Manley.

Aye.

Commissioner Lewis. Yes. Commissioner Starr.

Aye.

Commissioner Sonswell. Aye. Commissioner Burke. Aye. The ayes have it, the motion passes.

All right, and thank you, Mr. Smith. Next up, we have our 2026-2031 Drinking Water Improvement Program, the DWP, which sounds like it is.

Good morning, Chair Manley and commissioners. Yes, I think you should say it three times, DWP. It kind of hits home there. So go ahead to the next slide. This is the preliminary capital plan for the water utility. It's the first one that we've actually done. First of all, it talks about since the expansion, the county technically had a water utility prior to last year, but all it addressed was attempting to wholesale water from Chambers Creek properties. And it was the countywide, it managed the countywide oversight of the coordinated water system plan, which is the plan that tries to bring together all of the different water purveyors within the county in some kind of coordinated fashion. So those are the only things that the previous water utility was on board for, Since that time last year in September, council approved the new fully expanded water utility, which is full service. We now operate the Tacoma Narrows water system currently on behalf of airports, but we're working on transitioning that. I'll show you and talk about how we're doing that. And then we also under receivership have the Kapowson water district system. That's another one where, We were working on some improvements in some ways to manage it better and then take it over for county ownership as part of the water utility. The third main component, again, is the continuation of trying to utilize the very good water that we have at Chambers Creek Properties. Trying to wholesale that or wheel it through adjacent purveyors to get to areas that need it. And with the... more discovery of PFAS in a lot of wells, that's becoming more and more important. So there are a number of purveyors interested in having discussions with the county about taking advantage of that very clean water that we have at Chambers Creek Properties.

And I'll show you in the projects that are planned out a little further how we're gonna have to put some pretty significant investment into a system to be able to get that water to the locations that are gonna need it the most. So this identifies the priorities, the scope, the cost, timing, and so on. It's funded through rate payers, so funds that we take in for service, but also connection charges in the future, as well as looking always for opportunities for grants.

And the backup to that is loans, so that we can get the infrastructure in place that's needed, stabilize these systems, and then collect through the rates.

So one of our biggest concerns for the two systems that we are managing is resilience and sustainability. Both systems have been around a very long time.

There hasn't been a lot of forward thinking and sustainable practice done with either one of them. So there are some things we're going to need to do fairly soon. As we'll see that in our biennial proposal of projects, it's mainly to get the resilience and sustainability reliability up to some extent and a little bit of security and safety because the systems are kind of

open and exposed.

Fortunately, I don't think most folks know what those buildings and things are, but they're not very secure at this point.

Water and sewer utilities are becoming more and more concerned with potential for disruption. And then we have the operations and maintenance needs, and I'll talk a little bit more about the strategies for Compouson and for Tacoma Narrows, and they're actually very different because they're different systems. putting together a strategy for each of those to try and make them more viable and sustainable. And then the last piece is the wholesale water development. We are going to have to build some infrastructure in order to get that there. We do have the well that already generates a pretty significant volume of water every year, but we need the piping and some pump systems to be able to get it into probably Silicon Lakewood water and Tacoma water. So those are the three that are adjacent to us. that we would most likely be able to send water to or through.

And so those are the folks that we're having some preliminary discussions with. The other piece that's not on here as far as what the water utility will be doing, and there will be some in the future, there may be some projects related to reclaimed water. But right now, all of the infrastructure that's needed for that happens to be needed within the sewer utility facility.

So at Chambers Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, we have about three quarters of the a reclaimed system built. There's some remaining projects that we need to do in order to make it available to water both the golf course and the regional park. And then at Cascadia, a lot of infrastructure is in, but the final infrastructure at Cascadia treatment plant is being done as part of the current expansion project that we're working on with Brookfield, the developer out there.

And so once that expansion is done and there's enough volume in the summertime to where we can use the reclaimed water for all of the landscape, that's what we'll be moving for.

Right now, those capital investments on the Chambers Creek side is within the CIV, Zoo Improvement Program.

And on Cascadia side right now, it's still a developer responsibility. So there is capital investment going into reclaimed, but it's kind of in a couple of different areas. And I can see that the little tiny four in a circle is Nero's water system. We are working very closely with Mr. Schumacher and the airport's folks to try and take that water system burden off of the airport funding. Because right now it is funded as part of the airport program.

I'll show you in just a minute here.

None of the projects for the wholesale water are in the biennial proposal. We just aren't ready yet to be investing that much into it.

We're trying to generate revenue through the sale of some of that water as far as to the park. And then the little eight down in the corner is the Kapowson water system. So we have some investment.

We also got about a $410,000 grant from the state in order to implement some improvements to Kapowson to try and cut down on the operating costs for that. The projects that we have that are putting some funding in for this biennium, for the 26-27 biennium, again, it narrows.

We're talking about putting in water meters.

Right now, every hangar building, which has eight to 10 individual hangars in it, each building is paying a very small flat fee, which doesn't really cover the operating cost of the water system. So what we need to do is implement meters for each of those so that we have an ability to track how much water is being used at the various locations. That system right now is listed as 19 connections, but each connection is one or two hangar buildings, which are 10 to 20 hangars. So there's a lot of individual users out there and we are not really capturing the usage and the cost in order to keep this system sustainable long term. So that's one of the goals of the meters is to be able to put together a more standardized water rate rather than a little tiny flat fee that is currently going into the funding for the water system.

And then that All of the infrastructure right now for that water system is more or less open.

It's within the fence perimeter of the airport, but that's open the majority of the day. And so everybody who can get into the airport, which is just about everybody, has access to the infrastructure for the water system facilities. And so we have a plan to put some security fencing in to kind of secure that a little bit better. And then we do have...

One well that serves the Narrows Airport system, what we're looking at doing is putting in a backup well.

So that's also in the program for the biennial budget, probably more in the 2027 timeframe to get that, to get the hydrogeology worked out, figure out where best to put that backup well. And so then Kapowson is, the challenge with Kapowson is it's got a surface water system, so it's subject to a lot more regulation. We actually have to have someone go out there every single day, 365 days a year, to take down five parameters and just make sure everything's still working. Right now we contract with Valley Water District to do that.

And it's very costly. It basically uses all of the revenue that we pull in from the Kapowsin water system.

And it's already a fairly high rate in order to operate it. So what we had just recently, I think I might've mentioned that when we did the overall review of the CIPs, we just got approval from the state on a new operating plan.

We have to install some equipment

that takes the measurements and gets the data for us. And we'll be whittling back slowly from seven days a week to five to three, and then hopefully down to two. So that would bring our operating costs way down so that there is some additional revenue that we can use towards some of these projects. So that you can see the things that we're putting money into first are getting that telemetry or that monitoring and tracking infrastructure put in. It's little sensors that check chlorine residual and other things.

We need to get that installed so that we can have the have automation take care of giving us this data as opposed to sending somebody out there every single day. The other thing that we have is backup generators.

Right now, we have to have somebody go out there and take a generator out and fire that system up with a generator that's not standby. So part of the grant included standby generators for both the pump house and the clear well area.

So we have that included in the system. We'll be putting this project out to give those

as probably very early in 2026.

And then there's the treatment right now for that system is what's called a filter bag system. So it's pretty rudimentary type of treatment.

And what we're looking at was included in the grant is a skid mounted sand filtration system, which is a lot better filter system.

And considering that it's a surface water spring, it's got a lot of stuff in it. So we're looking forward to being able to put that system in, again, as part of the grant funding.

So that will be a big help. And it was 100% grain, so we don't have to do any match.

The Kapowsin system doesn't have to match that in order to get these things installed. There are some other things that are going to be happening in the future. We've got some fire hydrants that need to be done. Again, the spring source is the current water source we're looking So all of these are actually outside of the two-year window, but within the six-year WIP. There's some additional Kapowsin work that we plan to do and treatment plant upgrades so that we can further enhance that system and make it more reliable.

There will also be at some point, I don't know if we had it just outside the six-year window, but we need some water storage for Kapowsin in order to make sure we meet fire flow. And once we achieve that, there's an ability for us to add more customers to the Kapowsin system, which will help with that economy of scale and bringing in revenue to be able to make it sustainable. That's part of our problem with Kapowsin. It's restricted to the 40 customers it has right now. The state won't let us go beyond that because the system isn't quite reliable and sustainable enough to manage. So we're, again, with that in mind, trying to make sure that this is... And then again, the bigger dollar investments are going to be at the Chambers Creek properties in order to develop pump station and some transmission piping to be able to connect the three entities that we touch from those properties. So there's some fairly large investments that we're looking at in the out years, probably closer to the five to six year timeframe.

And we'll be looking heavily for grants if possible.

And we think that there's a very good opportunity because there's a lot of focus on PFAN. drinking water so that there may be some opportunities to take advantage of some grants that will help us give water to others and be able to make that available because the cost of retrofitting each well is over 1.5 million and closer to 2 million these days. Lakewood Water spent about 1.65 million each for two different wells that they retrofitted treatment on for PFAS. So they're very interesting. than the two-year biennium.

And then we have a water billing system in order to take in these customers. We already have a robust sewer utility and sewer billing system. We're kind of adding water to it, but there's a few things we need to do to the software that we use in order to do that.

So that's one of the other components that we're going to be trying to do within the first few years. Next slide, please. So that's basically my presentation. What we're asking for is an adoption and recommendation of the DWP, and then that will be going on to the Economic and Infrastructure Development Committee and the council.

All right.

So happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Hartwig. Any commissioner questions for Mr. Hartwig?

No, I just have one. That housing system has been a real challenge, and it's a rural system, and the county's responsible as a default. Has the county, like Letitia has a chart of the road systems, the condition of road systems and that type of thing. Is there any kind of chart that the county has for water systems within Pierce County or outside the Irwin Grove boundary, that type of thing? Because I think that this is just the one of possibly many in the future that could be failing Sometimes some of them just due to economics, you know, with all the testing, you've mentioned the PFAS, that type of thing. Some of these smaller municipal water companies and private water companies can't keep up with that. They're, they're going to be faced with basically bankruptcy because they can't keep up the urban growth boundary outside the urban growth boundary. There's no growth or there's going to be very little growth anyway. And a lot of that's going to be on private wells. So what does that look like to the county moving forward?

Well, that's, Great question. One of the things or one of the reasons that we were looking at the water utility and worked on the business plan was the ability to add other systems to the county's water utility. So as they may decide that they can't continue independently, the ability to evaluate and then take to council a recommendation to add them to the county's system.

So it gets that economy of scale of pulling those together.

It's sort of a similar strategy that Thurston PUD has done. They've taken a bunch of littler systems, kind of brought them in and period of time, they're still operated a little bit separately and sometimes have a surcharge on those until they can get them all to the same rate structure. So that was a strategy that we've looked at as well when we set up the business plan. So the reason for having the utility is to be able to take those on if they become necessary. We'd rather bring them on board while they're still sustainable and viable as opposed to waiting until they've failed and the state takes them to the court to have it given to us under receivership because the county is receiver of last resort. And unless some other purveyor actually wants to take on that system, we're going to get them. And as you can imagine, most purveyors aren't going to want to take a system that's failing. So that's the strategy is to try and catch them before they get to that point, how other purveyors kind of look at their system and be realistic about whether they're going to be able to continue and keep up with all of the different challenges or if they want to consider consolidation of those systems. So that was one of the factors that we discussed with the council of the ability county's water utility to pull those other systems in. But there's a very detailed due diligence, three, four pages of things that we evaluate from financial to infrastructure condition, to management and policies in place and things like that, that we look at all of that before we consider moving those into the county system. So there's a lot of factors. As far as a overall report card of every water system, each system's kind of responsible for their own evaluation of their system. The state does track those that they have concerns about. And so there are some that are kind of on the, as you call it, the watch list that may be considered close to failure. And they're the ones that they're concerned about having to take through the court system to receivership. So they're keeping an eye on that. And it's probably more systems that are kind of tending that way just because of strategy of the utility was to be able to kind of bring those in as they may be feeling like they can't continue independently.

Yeah, I also want to thank you for your comprehensive approach to the water systems in the county with everything from reusable water, wastewater, that type of thing. There's going to be a big future in that, I think. It sounds like you're on the cutting edge of

for reclaimed water so that the drinking water, especially the clean drinking water is preserved for consumption.

Thank you.

Commissioner Burke.

Yes, who has the responsibility for testing for PFAS? Is that the state or is that you or the local?

Each purveyor is responsible for testing. The state has offered some free testing

free testing dollars. And so we took advantage of that and we've had Kapowson, Narrows, and Chambers Creek properties all tested just within the last year. And the Chambers Creek property is totally clean. Kapowson also is clean for PFAS.

I think one of the things you almost couldn't tell, it's almost unmeasurable. And Narrows is also a clean source. So we're in good shape from that regard. As you get, obviously, closer to JBLM and some other areas, then it tends to be a problem for a lot of those purveyors.

That's where, again, to the east of Chambers Creek is where Chambers Creek Properties is where we see the need for some cleaner water that may be wholesale and wheeled to their systems.

I also thank you for putting in a sort of an overall Pierce County.

Yeah, yeah. water utility there. I think that's, I think it's a good idea. And I think I, from Steilacoom, I'd be glad to add what you're doing.

We've had some discussion with Steilacoom too. Like I said, it's one of the three places we could connect. So we've been having some conversations with them.

All right. Seeing no other questions or comments from commissioners, we're going to open this for public comment. If there's anybody in person or online who would like to speak, please state your name and your address and you have three minutes.

Those online who would like to provide a public comment, please press the raise hand icon on Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. It doesn't look like we have anyone online that would like to provide comments.

All right, back to commissioners then. Any other comments or the chair will entertain a recommendation to move this forward?

I make a motion to approve the drinking water improvement plan for the 2026 to

Second. Any further discussion? Roll call vote.

Okay. Chair Manley?

Aye.

Commissioner Lewis? Yes. Commissioner Starr? Yes. Commissioner Sumner? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. The ayes have it. The motion passes. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Hartwig. Thank you. At this time, we'll have a staff report on the 2026-2044 Sewer Improvement Plan.

All right. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Steve Schanfrau. I'm the engineering manager for the Fish County Planning and Public Works Sewer Division to present to you the Sewer Improvement Program for your consideration.

Next slide, please. The Sewer Improvement Program does identify the scope and costs and the timing and funding of our collection system and our treatment plan for the next six years. It is informed and very closely based on a Pierce County Comprehensive Plan.

State Growth Management Act, and the Puget Sound Regional Council Vision 2050 Regional Strategies.

We are an enterprise fund, so we are funded by our monthly sewer rate collections, connection charges, and bond sales. have quite a few regulatory requirements that we need to abide by.

Our discharge permit, final silence permit, our peer-to-sound penal agency permit, additional use permit at the Chambers Pre-Properties, our NPDES permit, and the peer-to-sound permit, which is pending its implementation. We also have to comply with all the franchise agreements and interlocal agreements that we have, which

incorporated cities that we serve, Lakewood, DuPont, University Place, Milton, portions of Edgewood, Tacoma, Fife, Fircrest. Next slide, please.

At the sewer utility, we categorize and prioritize our

preservation that's preserving the infrastructure that we already have so that we can maintain our 24-7, 365 days a year service to our customers and the treatment of that sewage. The next is operation and maintenance projects. These are improvement projects that enhance our efficiencies and are intended for intensification in our collection system. And finally, extension projects which extends sewer service into the urban growth area within our sewer service area. Next slide, please. You can see the area here where our projects are is more condensed than most of the other improvement programs. And it's obviously because this area here is in our sewer service area. do not provide sewer service to all of Pierce County, only within our service area. We have about 64 projects here that we'll be doing either design, construction, or both work on within the next six years. I'm not going to go through each of the projects here, but I'll kind of give you an idea of how it is a little bit different than past sewer improvement programs and how we're looking forward into the future.

In the past, most of our improvement program was the extension and capacity increase type projects that I mentioned earlier.

Now because of the aging of our system, we've gotten to the point where we have to start of these 64 projects, about half of them are preservation projects, and that will actually probably increase. You can see on each one of these that ends in the words replacement, rehabilitation, those are preservation projects.

Luckily, with some of our projects, we can kill two birds with one stone, where we can increase the size of the infrastructure, whether it's a pump station or it is a sewer pipe

while at the same time replacing that system, which has deteriorated. So we get kind of a twofer there. Also, another way to break these up is between the collection system and the wastewater treatment plants. One up in Cascadia and one at Chambers Bay area right next to where you were discussing. About half of these projects now of the number of preservation projects we have to do, are working on the chambers pre-regional waste water treatment.

That is a pretty big shift from what our improvement programs have looked like in the past.

And about two-thirds of those projects are preservation projects. That will probably only increase again as the years go on. Another thing you may notice on here, there are some projects like at the very top of this, this concrete pipe rehab number four. It's not an identified project. It is just a placeholder.

There are several of them in here. There's quite a few millions of dollars in just sewer system rehab and rehabilitation projects.

They're not identified. Over the next two years, we're going to be focusing on doing condition assessment and planning and to be able to identify exactly which projects or which infrastructure, which assets had to be rehabilitated. Statistical analysis shows us that in the year 2035, we would have to repair or replace about $240 million worth of assets. We'll have to move someone forward because they're in worse condition than they expected them to be, and move someone later because they're in better condition than we expected them to be. So I'd say that when we come back here at the end of the decade, in two years, that the SIP may look Okay, so again, that's my presentation. Thank you for your recommendation here from the Planning Commission. And I'm looking to take any questions.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chambrough. Did I say that correctly? Yes, you did. All right. Yes, Commissioner Burke.

So you're talking about all these pipes you have to figure out. What's your inspection procedure? How do you go there and decide what criteria you decide whether it needs to be? We use closed survey TV inspections.

And we'll send a...

camera, a wheel, or a drill, which I don't tap into the pipe and inspect that way. Some of them are a lot more difficult to inspect than others because we're doing it in live flow.

So difficult to see some of them. But we have a pretty substantial program where we go through and inspect these pipes.

What's the criteria? What's the criteria to use them? What do we have to do to rehab them or not?

We have a criteria where we will do the inspection, and then we will look at the videotape of the inspection.

It's not videotape anymore. I'm showing my age. And then we will rate them from one to five as to where they are. What would mean a clean pipe by being a pipe that is severely deteriorating?

that, and then we categorize them as far as how critical they are, how much flow they have in them, what is the consequence, what is the risk of them failing. And then we categorize them that way and prioritize them. And last question, what is a rehab? What entails rehab? How do we have it?

We look at everything that's on the table, including just digging it up and replacing it. We always have that as a possible option.

For very shallow pipes that aren't very deep, that may be the best option. Otherwise, there's a number of ways to rehabilitate a pipe. There's a way to push in a plastic sock, for lack of a better term, of a plastic pipe.

And then it cures within the pipe. And it protects the pipe from any further erosion. There are other ones where you wind plastic liner into the pipe. There's others where you slip line and make a hole over the top of the pipe and you push into the pipe and then you fill in the annular space in between that smaller pipe and the old pipe. So there's a lot of different ways that we evaluate. We're not stuck on any one.

Other questions or comments from commissioners? Seeing none at this point, we will turn it over to public comment. Anyone in the gallery or online who wishes to speak, please let us know now.

For those online who would like to provide public comment, please press the raise hand icon or star nine on your telephone keypad. Okay, does it look like anyone online would like to provide public comment?

All right, at this point, any other comments or questions from commissioners or the chair will entertain a motion to recommend the sewer improvement plan for 2026, 2044.

Yeah, I just have one comment. We have a really, Pierce County has a great sewer system and just want to thank Mr. Hargrave, Shannon Frow, doing a great job, a lot of experience, expertise, and it's just, they're staying on the cutting edge with all these spiral liners that type of thing in the SOC that you talked about, ways to improve and make the system last. Those are great ideas. So I just want to thank you for that forward thinking. And with that, send a due pass recommendation to pursue an improvement program to the council.

There's a motion. Do I have a second? I second it. Any further discussion? Go for a roll call vote.

OK.

Chair Manley?

Aye.

Commissioner Lewis? Yes. Commissioner Starr? Yes.

Commissioner Saldana? Yes. Commissioner Burke? Aye.

The ayes have it and motion passes.

I'm not aware of any other business. And so before we adjourn, I just want to make a final comment. I think the reason that we were able to expire at this meeting so well was because of the preparation of the staff. So my hat's off to you. Really good job on all the information provided. I was very impressed. Having served now for almost five years, this is the best I've seen information presented. So well done, staff. Thank you. Meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.