City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the state and city council meeting to order. Will you please join me in the flag salute?

All right. Thank you. Um, for the record, all members of the city council are present. Um, are there any announcements to the agenda? Additions to the agenda? Sorry. No, mayor. Are there any declaration of exarty contact, conflict of interest, bias, etc.? I don't hear any. Is there any opportunity for public comment? We receive any public comment. No. Thanks. Consent agenda from January 5th, 2026, city council work session minutes. uh the January 5th, 2026 city council regular session minutes and resolution number 26-002 Buchanan contract amendment authorization council.

Mr. Mayor, this is councelor Patty. Councelor Patty, a motion that we accept the consent agenda as presented before us. Second it. Okay, there's a motion and a second to present the consent agenda as submitted. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Motion carries five to zero. That leads us to presentations. And Julia, you want to or looks like Chief's going to do this one.

I'm not sure who's presenting for Kindness 911. I will let whoever is presenting for Kindness 911 come up and introduce themselves. Good evening, mayor, council members, and community guests. My name is Jason Hatrick, and I'm the founder of Kindness 911, the guy that's presenting tonight. We are a nonprofit that currently supports and and connects our 18 law enforcement and fire agencies with the communities they serve. State and police being one of them. Um, our kindness cops and crew are always on the lookout for those that make our communities better. And when we find them, we have the privilege of issuing them a kindness citation, a token of our appreciation for their genuine positive impact on their community. Also, because of these individuals kindness, we have made donations in their honors to the state and food bank. WMA Valley first responder chaplain and the Sanium Integration Project over the past couple years. I am here tonight to honor one of those kindness cops. Each year, Kindness 911 has the opportunity to recognize the top 1%, the five out of 500 kindness cops and crew for the commitment to excellence, for their participation in the kindness citation program, for connecting with their communities, and for truly being a kindness ambassador to their agency community and the entire kindness 911 family. Chief Gwen John's exemplifies these characteristics. In 2025, Chief John's issued 44 kind of citations within beyond within and beyond the city of Stton. She has touched the hearts of dispatchers, the Rotary Club, cleanup team, safety town, kid counselors and volunteers, members of city leadership, chamber of commerce members, those that volunteered with National Night Out or hosted an event, the Sublimin Quilters, and other law

enforcement professionals, just to name a few. Plus, she herself was even issued a kindness citation from one of her colleagues from another agency. Truly a special moment. Most importantly is the words from those she issued kindness citations to and the connection she made with her community. Jennifer is a dispatcher at Metcom 911. After being cited, she shared with us, "When Chief John's came in last night and gave me a citation, I almost cried. I' It had been a rough start to the night in dispatch with hard calls on Christmas. It was nice to feel something positive. Thank you, Chief John's and Kindness 91, for helping to bring a little brightness to my night. One more example are the kids that she impacted with a kindness citation at your safety town camp. In their own words, Kaden shared, "It made me really happy to receive one of these citations. It made me feel like I made a positive impact in my community." Hannah shared, "It was very exciting and rewarding." And then Tiffany shared, "It was so thoughtful. I was simply helping out the out of the kindness of my heart and being recognized in any way truly feels wonderful. Statton is truly fortunate, a very fortunate community for this to have this person. So, it is my honor to present the kindest 911 2025 kindness cop of the year award to state and police chief Gwen Johns.

I know it's heavy. So, very nice. She is, she truly has done an incredible job and uh she's truly an ambassador for what we do and uh just honored to have the opportunity to work with you. I know. I'm like, where do I hand it again? All right. Anyone from photo app? Sorry. There's your box.

You want me in there, too? You guys got to pretend to like each other. Come on. different places now everybody here. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

Y very good. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. And um yes, very much an honor to be part of kindness 911 and see what happens with it across our region and those that are honored with the citations. So, thank you Jason. All right. Uh mayor, counselors, and staff, my privilege to introduce Sergeant Tilman tonight. He's going to come up and say a few words, but we are very excited to have him back. He actually began his career here in Stton many years ago. um worked for Salem for a long time. We're hoping that experience and knowledge that he has um working in a bigger area with higher call volume um translates to uh helping our staff learn and grow. But we've also seen having him on social media. There's a lot of people that commented about being very happy to have him back in our community, the impact he had when he worked here previously and the impact that he had in Salem. So, I think that we're very, very fortunate to have Tilman back here working for us in Stton. And I'll let him do his introduction. That's right. What pants am I wearing this week? Who knows? I'm even doing a chicken dance online, too. So, I look really good. Uh, well, appreciate you guys having me back. Um, I was in Stton from 94 to 2000 before I went to Salem. Spent almost 26 years there. Uh, never felt like a family there. It's too big of an agency. I always kept dreaming about coming back to Stton. Uh, the chief took me out to lunch, said, "Hey, we'd love to have you here." So, I put in and luckily I made it. And so,

I'm coming back. Um, a little bit about myself. Uh, I've been married for 28 years. Got married here in Sten at the, uh, Christian church. Uh, my best man was my FTO. He left to Salem and became my FTO there too. So, and now he's luckily retired in Texas and but unfortunately he took one of our his sons with him from here. Darren Mumi. Um I spent 12 years in the military, four years in the Marine Corps, eight years in the Army Reserve. Did mostly infantry security specialist and I was a drill sergeant. And I think I have a pretty good personality for a small town. I love to talk. as a good gift to gab that saved me many times in Salem since they don't know how to talk to people and they bring you know hey we have 15 people I'm like hey let's talk it out let's have a good time so hopefully you know like chief said I can get these young gentlemen with a lot of experience um they won't have the call load which thank goodness we don't have out here you know instead of 120,000 calls you know we'll keep around 8 to 10,000 that'll be good enough for me be nice not to have shootings every night um we're going to keep it that Okay, I got some good people here. Uh, administration I've been hang with Sergeant Butler and Lieutenant Meeks and those guys are pretty solid and so I think we're going to do very well here and hopefully I can live up to your guys' expectations and that's all because I don't like to talk.

Thank you, Sergeant. Welcome back again. Council, any questions for Sergeant? Thank you. Appreciate it. Welcome back. Great. It's interesting you say Darren Mumie. H Darren Mumie. Yes. I know him very well. I guess I'll have to ask him a lot about you. Oh, he can tell some stories about me. Yes. No, we're good friends online and I know he retired to Texas, so we talk a lot. So, it's kind of good you bring up that name, though. A lot of respect there. Great. Thank you again. Appreciate it.

Thank you, sir. and we will we will have another presentation of another officer um I assume at a at a later date. So that's we're excited about that too. Okay, sounds good. Um any public hearings? Doesn't look like there are. Okay, that moves us to general business. Resolution number 26-003, council authorization for one-year contract renewal the Senium Water Control District for water delivery. Julia,

thank you mayor and counselors. Um, this resolution 26-003 um is is a another extension one-year extension of the contract. Uh, it's the third. I believe it's essentially the same as the prior one-year contracts um that with a CPI increase. um with the exception and I think I've pointed that out to um counselors with the exception of a clause that um would I'm just going to read this um uh that clearly defines what constitutes an unfor sorry that um an additional clause addressing unforeseen costs. this clause um which has already been approved by the water control district board in the event that you also approve it um defines what constitutes an unforeseen cost and establishes that such costs would be shared equally between the city and the Sanm water control district. Uh so this provides them a little bit more um assurance that they're not going to be taking the burden on for major unforeseen um costs. So that is a that is a risk to the city that if we sign this and have a a major thing that we could be on the hook for a portion of it. Um I think we I I've mentioned that there is one currently um already um that we're working on or I think it's actually done being worked on which was a jam a dam of logs in the um Sanam or the San North Sanmam River um when the floods happened several weeks ago. uh that the Sanm Water Control District incurred some costs um associated with getting the excavators and permits to remove those logs. Um that was an unforeseen emergency and they will be looking to us to share the cost of that.

Uh that actually has been I believe the work has been completed. We're now taking water back from the river and no longer needing to take water from the city of Salem. So that would be covered under that. I I think that is a a rare and uncommon circumstance. um in general. So hopefully we would not have another issue, but this this covers that. Um and this is just for one year, so we're still working on a longer term contract. Uh and we'll have to negotiate what those ultimate terms are within that longer um contract. So we are recommending approval of this one-year contract, but happy to take any questions you might have.

Okay. Thank you. Before we do that, this is an opportunity for a public comment on resolution number 26-003. Doesn't appear to be any. So, council discussion council. Mr. Mayor, Julia, was there any discussion of uh on the contract about a max of limit on this emergency expense at all? No.

No. I mean, I think that's part of the problem. If there was I mean, their concern is that, you know, if there's massive change in regulations or there's a, you know, a natural disaster that they could be on the hook by themselves for an unspecified amount. And so, I don't think that they would agree to a maximum because that defeats the purpose of it. Um that said, if there was some one of those types of events, we would likely be seeking alternate um funding, you know, through disaster declarations or something like that and trying to get some um federal support for something like that. Thanks, Counc.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh Julia, I I would have liked to get this question to you ahead of time, but I just thought of it. Um, I if there is pre-existing issues with some of this infrastructure that predates this agreement, would we they then be on the hook to assist them in repairing that, you know, stuff that's been dysfunctional before this agreement?

Um, I I would argue no. Um there within the clause itself there's some dis there's there h they have to um they have to present it to us and it talks about it talks about what an emergency is. Um but we we would certainly have the opportunity to ask questions and agree to it. Um, so it doesn't I mean if if there if there's something that we don't agree is caused by an unforeseen circumstance, I think we would be able to argue that. I'm going to invite James and Barry to come up and help me out and you guys can sit in the alternate hot seat um because they would be the ones ultimately questioning um the water control district along with me. But um they you know we're a team. Um so they would certainly help you know look at whatever it is that is being requested or stated as an emergency and um and question or argue if we don't believe that it is in fact um an emergency. Do you guys have anything to add to that? I'm sorry.

Can I ask you question? Yeah. Can I ask a question before you do that since I just thought of it too? This is for a year and that would cover the time that potentially the draw down would occur at Detroit. So is there turbidity concerns for the for the district and if so how does that figure into this agreement?

Mr. Mayor Barry Buchanan interim public works director. Um I don't believe as it stands right now that the tubidity issue has been discussed or raised as far as this issue is concerned. Um I personally I don't think it should come in in account um as part of the an emergency agreement. Um Julia is correct. The way that the uh definition of emergency is written is that we have a good say in whether it's an emergency or not and we have ability to in actual fact say no we don't agree that's a that's an that's an emergency uh as it stands right now and I think the point is and the a point that Julia made to me is that this is just for this year it's not a sign and sell deal forever and ever So, you know, and I think we have probably passed our worst operating condition that we've had for several if not decades um with the storm a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm I'm not overly concerned about, you know, that we would incur another emergency in the next 12 months. Um I believe that we would argue that the dam is not part of that that criteria. Thanks Barry counselor any councelor anybody else is your answer sufficient okay thanks Julia uh continue for the council discussion okay council decision

Mr. Mayor, Councelor Sims, I I'll make a motion to approve resolution number 26 003 as presented. Seconded. Okay, there's a motion and a second to approve resolution number 26-003, council authorization for one-year contract renewal with Senium Water Control District for water delivery. Any further discussion? M council Hort. Um,

never mind. Good. Okay. Uh, Melanie, can you pull the council on this one, please? Councelor Hayes, I. Councelor Ort, yes. Councelor Patty, yes. Councelor Kerry, yes. Councelor Sims, yes. Motion carries 5 to zero.

Thank you. That moves us to the next one, which is ordinance number 26-001 amending state and municipal code chapter 8.04 04 to update vegetation and clearance, noise regulations, and repeat nuisance enforcement. Jennifer, oh, you're over there. Hello, this I'm Jennifer Sisiano. Um, for the record, I'm the community and economic development director. for tonight is the proposed ordinance amending um selected sections of a municipal code 8.04 related to nuisances. Uh you may recall that we talked about it um last fall and so now we're bringing them forward for your formal adoption. These amendments are targeted updates based on reoccurring enforcement challenges staff has experienced. The first amendment is section 8.0. 04.60 adjusting vegetation clearance standards to reflect the operational needs of the city. Um, a while back, uh, the city, uh, bought a new street sweeper and the height is taller than the previous one. So, our current code, it's just cleaning up our code. It used to say um it needed to be trim the trees needed to be trimmed 8 feet from the uh sidewalk and 10 ft from the street, but now it'll be 10 ft and 12 ft respectively. The second amendment clarifies regulations um related to excessive noise from generators uh that had been an issue this past few months um that operated outside of emergency

situations. So, I added some code that addressed uh particularly um generator noise uh but um excluded if there was an emergency and you needed to have a generator uh running. Um I didn't I I made the uh emergency open-ended. It probably would be a power outage uh a temporary situation. Uh the third amendment addresses repeat uh nuisance violations. In several cases, staff had encountered properties where the same new uh nuisance condition occurred repeatedly and it would require um multiple uh 10-day notices and then they were able to clean up whatever it was that they did and then we'd have to go back and do the clock again. So, I um took one of the reserved uh sections that was there for expansion and created a new code um that if the same person on the same property with the same nuisance did it within a 12-month period, it would just go um directly to a citation. So, overall, those are the changes. Um, so it's intended to improve clarity and support consistent enforcement and reduce repeat violators while maintaining fairness for property owners.

If you have any questions, let me know. Okay. Before we go to questions, there's another opportunity for public comment. Doesn't look like we have any. Council, any comments or Mr. Mayor? Go ahead. Councelor Sims. Uh Jennifer, the for the um the noise ordinance for the generators. Yeah. So that create loud and disturbing noise. What's the threshold for that? Is it somebody makes a complaint? Is it a decibel level or

I didn't include a decibel level. We I did talk to public works um and we we don't have a decibel level for any of the other noises and some communities don't, but we we could add a decibel level. um anywhere from 45 uh dbas to 65 I saw. Uh but then we talked about it and thought maybe we just have it without the decibel level, but we could we could include that. So I've seen 45 to 65 as being the range. And if I may, if we had a dBA um or decibel, then we'd need to have a piece of equipment that we could measure it. So that would be be more that that we'd have to do versus plainly audible. Um which is what the what's proposed. It's I mean I guess you could argue what's plainly audible depending on your hearing, but I think it gives them enough teeth to do something without necessarily having to have a calibrated piece of equipment that costs money. Mr. Mayor,

councelor Kerry, this kind of affects me as a food truck owner. So, where I park on first and water, is that considered a residence, a neighborhood on that lot? And you can use my generator to test the DBA, you need to.

So, I don't I don't think this matters depending it's it doesn't matter to the zone. And I think that's important based on the what you guys had been hearing previously because it was businesses that were being impacted by that. Um, and Jennifer, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that most generators with food trucks were a problem. I think that it was it was a specific one. And so I think that there is definitely the ability to have generators that are muffled in a way that it's not an issue. is would

I think there I think there were two cases. One um was in a certain location and they ended up being able to plug in, but then there was another um one that we're talking about. Um I was having a a conversation in in public works about the different generators and that maybe we would um maybe refine um the food truck ordinance to have it like generators that are muffled. But that is actually a different part of the ordinance than nuisances. So we're just working with nuisances right now. Um my opinion just I think the noise is going to be subjective to interpretation.

I don't know how you're going to without having a way to measure this. I don't know how you're going to do this. There there are another um there is a whole list of other noises. Um you know keeping of any animal causing frequent and continued noise disturbs the comfort and repose of any person the fac you know it we we already have open-ended noise ordinance. So yeah I and I think my reference to that was I asked about the roosters in the neighborhoods. Yes.

I mean, that's subjective to me. That would bother me if I lived in the vicinity of that person, but maybe people from the country enjoy it. I don't know. This is my two cents. Mr. Mayor, councelor, I also know that the uh the two food trucks we've addressed, one is hooked up power now and the other one is no longer operating right in our area. Anybody else? Councelor, Mr. Mayor, councelor Art. Um, Jennifer, this doesn't have a like other ones have a time on it. Is this is this which one?

Um M. Oh, location. Okay. So, it's any time of day. Okay. It looks like Yeah. And that was honestly that was one of the issues with the the the concerns that we had was that it was in the middle of the day and so our noise ordinance didn't apply because it was during okay the day. Um but it was very loud to the nearby businesses um to the point that we got a lot of complaints. Okay. As did some counselors.

I have a question about um like leaf blowers. This could potentially cause an issue with people calling in about excessive what what could be considered excessive use of a leaf blower possibly. Do we have concern about that?

It's just generators. So there there is another section that says um it says the discharge in open air of exhaust of steam engines, internal combustion engines, motorboats, motor vehicles except through a muffler or other device will effectively prevent loud and explosive noises. So I think that that is okay that's related council have any direction or any wishes Mr. Mayor. Oh, sorry.

A quick question for staff before.

Um, yeah, Jennifer, just kind of applying the examp hypothetical example of uh our food truck with the noisy generator. How would this uh what would this process look like for that person if if they were complained about? Well, uh, realistically, we'd probably tell them the the the ordinance that they were not falling. Hopefully, they comply. If they didn't, then they would it would have the t-day notice where they would have 10 days and then another 10 days. So, it would fall under the regular nuisances of this chapter that we talked about. And then um so hopefully we would just say this is not uh this is violating the code. But then it would it would it could be days, right? Because of the 10-day notice and the 10-day notice. But then now we have the repeat offender. So that if they were to get um a citation, then we they would get fines right away if they were to do it over again. But

thank you. I'm good to go. Councelor Sims,

I honestly I think if we're going to sight somebody for it, I think we need a measured volume, you know, off off site like a decibel level. But that that's just me. I think I think we should have a measured volume of 40, say 45 to 65 or something like that. But if you know otherwise there's going to be issues with sighting and I guess it's more subjective otherwise. So that's just my thought. All right. What would council like to do? So, so I can I can I did um get the decibb uh from public works helped me a little bit with with getting the numbers and I was going to think about changing the language to the use and operation of a portable standby or stationary generator that is over 55 dBA and just include that is a potential change.

So that would be labeled Jennifer on the actual equipment on the generator. What the decibb be labeled on the generator when you go out there? I believe they are. That's what I was told. So you're proposing public works that you're proposing to limit the generators from that standpoint.

If you were to propose a revision to this to actually gauge it. I think if you were to change the text, it would still be if it was a noisy generator and it was over 55 dBA, right? Um, so it would still you wouldn't be cited if you had one of those generators that was louder. It's just if you were a nuisance and you were noisy,

Mr. Mayor, councelor Hayes.

Uh, I've seen two videos and what probably brought this up to the biggest concern. And so what we saw and what we heard or for me, I don't think it's somebody who got something probably at a great cheap price. There was no sound dampening whatsoever. It was a huge generator and excessively loud. So yes, then you have others that come in and you hardly hear them at all. So that's what brought this whole thing up. But you still have to be able to measure it to say what is too much, you know, like what is the threshold? Um, being we have a counselor that should know a whole lot about this. I would think he was be saying a little bit more, but I can obviously say the the the one that was in the video that was brought up that brought this up. Uh, I mean, it was really loud. I mean, people were just like, "You got to be kidding me." So, uh, that's why this is up, but we still have to be able to measure it, guys. All right. So, I'll ask a different way. Does council want to take action on this tonight or do you want to move on to the next topic and set this aside for another day?

Mr. Mayor, council or

how did how did you come up with the number? Um, I asked someone in in public works um to um find out what the what the range would be and they said that 45 and then they actually had looked at Silverton and some other um municipalities in Silverton. They actually had no uh RA uh range, no D no is it DBA? DBA. Um but what he was able to find was it said around in uh residential neighborhoods it was more like 45 and then more industrials it was more 65. Um so because this ordinance covers the whole city I didn't think I thought 55 was a good middle ground. So that's how I got the number.

Okay. So can I clarify? So just because the generator is 55 doesn't mean that it's going to create a nuisance. But if someone calls in and their generator is higher than 55 and it's causing a nuisance, then that would that would trigger this. Yes. I think there is ways to muffle it too so that it wouldn't be so loud either. Councelor Patty.

Um, Mr. Mayor, just to kind of directly answer your question, I I am prepared to pass this personally, um, I think that if we put it in place and, you know, there was some kind of issue where we're seeing the need for a range to be written in here, I would I'd be in favor of that. But, at this point, I'm ready to pass this thing without, you know, knowing too much about a range. if staff came back and were like, "Hey, this is kind of what this could look like and this is why we need this." Like, I' I'd be in favor of that, too. But at least for now, just to directly answer your question, Mr. Mayor, I'm I'm prepared to move on this tonight. Okay. Well, I'll consider motions, Mr. Mayor. Um, I motion, see if I'm in the right spot here. Yeah, thanks. All right. Uh, I motion that we adopt ordinance number 26-001 as presented.

Second. Okay, there's a motion and a second to um adopt ordinance number 26-001 as uh submitted. Any further discussion? Okay, Melanie, can you call the council on this one, please? Councelor Hayes, yes. Councelor Ort, yes. Councelor Patty, yes. Councelor Kerry, yes. Councelor Sims, yes. Motion carries. 5. Thank you. That leads us to second quarter finance update with uh Mr. Brand.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. For the record, I'm James Bran, the city finance director. This is the second quarter financial report. So, this is the first six months of the two-year budget. So, we are one quarter of the way through the budget, but we're calling this the second quarter update. Sorry for that. Also, sorry for misspelling comments for the last two years under the revenue comments. Comments has two M's. No one caught that. Okay. All right. So, at this point, we've received 14% of our revenues. That would seem low. However, um if we take out the one-time large projects, including SDC's, grants, and transfers, um the revenue would be at 29%. So, operationally, um we're ahead of the schedule, and that can be attributed to the property taxes. We get most of that in November and December, um for the year. It'll continue to trickle in, but we're we're pretty much right on target for our revenues. Um about those one-time projects though, I did want to list them there for you. Most of them are grant um involved. The HUD project, Mil Creek Park, ASR roundabout, storm detention, wastewater collections, um projects at the pool, safe streets for all, and safe routes to school. All these projects are underway or um scheduled to start soon except for two of them, the shaft roundabout and the Jeder's way force main. um those we had hoped um to have grants for but um those grants did not come to fruition. So those projects are not scheduled to happen at this time. Moving to the expenditures, uh the report will show we're at 11% of our budgeted expenses. However, if we

again exclude those one-time projects um that are um scheduled differently than monthly throughout the two-year budget, we'd be at 16%. Which is still under budget. So, I'll go over some of the uh irregularities um in the expenditure side. The street lights is over budget, and that's because of that one-time LED conversion project that we've done. Preliminary results are good on that. We're saving about $2,000 a month, which is um that would put our return of investment on about three years when we were anticipating five years. Um but that these are still early returns. I wouldn't expect that to continue. Um the street lights are on a lot more in the winter time. So their savings would be higher in those months. Um but still that's good news and I'll look at that after a year and and give you better information. But that's good news. The street fund is just at 6% spent. Um, but we haven't started uh the large overlay projects. The one at Westtown will be underway as soon as the weather permits, I believe. Um, but again, we were unlikely to spend 5 million that was budgeted on the shaft roundabout. So, the street fund we would expect to be uh well under budget this year on the expenditure side. The facilities fund is at 67%. That's due to the completion of uh the fence behind city hall and the conference room remodel. Conference room is almost ready to open. We've just ordered the furniture recently. So, as soon as that comes, uh we'll be able to use it. And then, so the main reason that the other funds are underspent is those one-time projects uh that I mentioned before. So getting to the other section now um I wanted to bring up about the audit. The

2025 audit has finished was submitted on time this year. First time in three years. That's great. And we had an unmodified opinion which sounds very boring and that is good in terms of an audit. There were zero reported significant deficiencies and material weaknesses. Um just a little bit more about that. So an unmodified opinion is the most favorable outcome. Um, and 68% of Oregon cities do achieve an unmodified opinion. This this means that the financial statements um are reported as fair numbers. It's not saying there's zero mistakes, but that any mistakes would be minor, negligible, and that any person looking at the financial statements should get a true reading of the health of the city's finances. Um, another part of the audit is producing the ACFR, ACTUER. This is the annual comprehensive financial report that was shared with all of you. It's posted on our city website. Those are basically the financial reports for the city. Um along with this um you've heard us brag about our budget getting the GFOA award for uh you know done it well 10 years in a row now. Well they also have an award for the the ACT for itself and so this is something that I'd like to pursue. Um I've set a goal to um apply for this award and and hopefully achieve it in two years. So the fiscal year 2027 um I'm I would like to set that as as a goal that that ACER would be also recognized by the GFO as a distinguished award. That'll be part it's part of the RFP process. We are looking for uh auditors next year and so I've mentioned that in

the RFP that that's a goal for the city. We've also recently ordered a vaccon truck that cost a little over 500,000 for the wet utilities. So, we are spending some more money there. It's a much needed vehicle. They have about a 10-year useful life. Their old one is at that point. We continue to apply for grants um looking for funding for our large projects. It's been a a weekly exercise. And I do want to point out that we are very happy with our new employee, Kim Reyes. She had hoped to be here tonight, but she was sick today. Um, she is the utility billing person and she has comes from us u from the Marian County where she's worked for quite a while. She's also been a realtor in Bend in her past. Um, I was impressed that she quickly moved to Stton um before her first day. So, she got the job and you know within wrapping up her her prior job at the Marian County, she moved to Stton. So, she is excited to be here, a member of the community and getting involved in things. She's got an excellent attitude. She's fitting in nicely with our team. So, we're very happy to have her and she's very happy to serve the state and community. So, we're very pleased with her. Um, also just a note, Elizabeth will be retiring at the end of June, early July. So we are at uh currently recruiting for her position which is a halftime court clerk and halftime accounts receivable and other things in the accounting office. So we are already recruiting for that hoping to have some overlap with her and Elizabeth. So after public comment I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Is there any public comment? Doesn't appear to be. James I have a question. Speaking of the roundabout, can that $5 million be reappropriated for anywhere else or does it have to stay in the

street bond? Well, it was counting on $4 million in a grant. So, without that grant, I wouldn't recommend we reappropriate that 4 million. So, you're saying there's a match to it? Yeah, the other million was a match from the city. So, again, can that money be reappropriated? Yes, it could. And would it have to stay in the street fund? Yes, it would, Mr. Mayor. Council or But that's we have a million. Yes. And we were counting on um I would have to double check if we were counting on SDC's for that, but I don't think so. Were we? Yeah,

we Okay, that wouldn't make sense because the roundabout was rated as high SDC. So, we do have SDC's in our street fund. Um, I think there's about 800 to 900,000ish in that fund. So, we do have SDC's in the bank and and we might use that for a street if if that's that'll be coming to you soon is some streets that we would like to work on in the future. Um, there was one street Kindle Way, which we can fund with SDC's as well, but there are SDC's in the bank. Um, okay. Um, what's the total anticipated cost of a roundabout project?

I'm serious. You're kind of getting into to Barry's presentation. I think currently it's about 12 million, but it's I think Barry can give an update when he he's next, and maybe that would be more appropriate for him to give an update on where we're at or not at with that project. Okay. I'll defer to Bar Barry then when it comes up. Council, anything else? Mr. Mayor, council work. Uh, James, you mentioned another uh award that we could get. Um, the jeders.

No, no, no. I ap I apologize. Going back to our budget and you were saying there's another like award that you were had your eye on to get Oh, yes. Um but then you were talking about an AR like sending out an RFP for auditors. So is that going to be a separate is separate set of auditors? So we have one financial audit every year and we're looking for new auditors to do that audit.

So the audit includes looking at your finances to make sure that you're doing things right and then producing the financial statements. That's all within our what our auditors do. So those financial statements we would submit to get the GFOA award that it they're presented well well read for the community um that they are flow logically and are written written well. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't costing just the way that I caught it and what you said. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't costing us more money for us to do this award. And what what are the benefits of if that's the case, what are the benefits of that?

Yeah, that's a good question. I did ask that of our current auditors. Um because I've never done it before. I've just heard about this award. Um they say that it takes a little bit more work. Um it probably would cost a little bit more. I didn't get specifics about how much that would be. It's a good question. Um, I could ask in the RFP process um for the the auditors to clarify what if there are additional fees to achieve this award or not, but it's it's a good question. I don't have a direct answer. Okay, James, can you just briefly explain why we're going out for an RFP?

Yeah, it's simply it's not because we're unhappy with our current auditors. We have a great relationship with them. I think they do good work. Um, but we have been with them um, over six years. Six years with Singer, Leewack now, and they're the ones that bought out our previous auditors um, which were Bolt, Carlilele, and Smith.

And so, we were with them, I think, for at least four or five years. So, it's been a long period of time with one auditing firm, and it's good practice to change about every five years. And so, that's the single reason why we're changing. And we're we've asked Singer Leewack to send us their proposal as well. Um I would like to try some different auditors to get a different view and uh maybe you know offer a different set of eyes on on the way you do things is I think healthy for an organization.

Any last questions for James? Okay, I do have another question. Go ahead. So, in that process, are we just we have to if you send out a new RFP, we have to take the lowest. No. Um, it's one of the things we consider, but that's not a requirement. It's not a bid. That's that's the difference. I think what you're what you're used through the construction world, you have to take the lowest bid, but an RFP, you select the most qualified firm based on the factors that you choose.

Okay. Um, and then maybe you don't have to res like respond right now, but I would love to know what the purpose and if there's any benefit to this city for for the award that if it's going to cost us more money. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know that it's necessarily like I I would just be curious what the benefit is if it's costing us more money to go after that. Yeah. I'll definitely look into it and get back to you guys. Thank you. Anybody else? Julie got

No, I was just going to make sure that James stays there when Barry comes up in case there's any finance related questions. James, just stay where you are. All right. Thanks, James. With that, we will go to public works project update. Mr. Buchanan. again. Barry Buchanan, interim public works director. Did I do something wrong? No, I did turn it on this time, James. Excellent. Um, okay. Let's let's answer the may's question first about the roundabout. Uh the roundabout as it stands, we are still dealing with KDson. Um I have a conversation ongoing with Tony Ross, uh the project manager from KDson as far as how we move forward. Um as James pointed out, we applied for a $4 million grant for this project. We received 800,000 grant. Now that grant stands for the roundabout only. uh the additional money the additional million dollars or it's just under a million dollars actually was coming from SDC's which we do not have in our pot as it

stands right today either so therefore we only have 800,000 towards what is estimated as it stands right now to answer directly answer the mayor's question somewhere between 10.5 and 12.6 $6 million. Um the difference between those two numbers is the unknown as far as the storm water is concerned and some of the conditions assoc associated with whether how we in actual fact implement the uh roundabout as a uh standard roundabout or as a mini roundabout. Um we are asking uh KDSON to actually look at alternatives for us as it stands right now. They haven't started that because I haven't actually given them the instruction to do so. But they we are intending to ask them to look at what alternatives we could implement for that intersection or how we could in actual fact stage that implementation as it stands right now. So we just don't have the money to move forward with roundabout. Okay. Any qu further questions on the roundabout?

Cy. Yeah. I just want to make sure I'm hearing you right and kind of summarize that. So the 800,000 that's sitting there, we really can't reallocate that other places. It can't be reallocated, right? Okay. Just want to make sure the SDC money could be reallocated. Yes. Assuming that we get it into the fund, a qualified project that we could use it on basically. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Hold on a minute. I I got to clarify on that. So you're telling me the $800,000 is SDC funds? No. No, that was grant funds. Grant funds. Okay.

And and to be clear, we actually haven't gotten that yet either. That was that's an earmark. So, we had gotten an earmark for 4 million. The budget didn't pass and then the ear marks got pulled out. The 800,000 is the next earmark and I don't believe that. I think that's within the package that still hasn't been adopted yet. It Well, no, it has adopted. Yes, it has been adopted. All right. So, let me phrase it this way. What do we have in hand right now towards the roundabout financially? In in hand, I do I don't believe we actually have anything literally in hand, but we have a grant allocation of $800,000. Full stop.

Okay.

Okay. Because the SDC's are future SDCs. They're not allocated SDC's that. And if we go to this table, I am not going to go through this table on individual pieces and you need a magnifying glass to see it, but it does put the uh it does talk about the roundabout in here. And James is pointing his finger at it and showing me something. What were you going to say, James? You're good. Okay. So the roundabout under streets is in actual fact um tentatively funded at this stage at $800,000. The estimate for the work is somewhere between 10.5 and 12.6 million. I do not believe I can realistically tell you I'm moving forward with that project.

And that's what I'm getting at. So we did meet with our lobbyist about that and we've discussed a little bit about that. that we don't know which direction we're going and there's a chance that we could use the 800,000 to more to study it further. So, we wouldn't begin work on actually doing anything, but we might be able to study or I feel like he was I don't think we can use it to pay back what we've spent, but I think that we could use it to study it further for future future work. Yeah, that was going to be my question is are if we don't use it towards the roundabout, can we keep that 800,000? No,

it's it's a it it's going to be specific to like the that intersection the intersection of golf club golf club road shaft road Wilky road it has to be at that intersection. That's where the money is allocated for. Okay. So, we could pivot and use it. It just has to be for that intersection. And I haven't read Well, I haven't read in detail, but I believe it also states roundabout. Can you repeat that?

I believe the allocation states roundabout. It doesn't just state intersection improvements. Okay. So, is there an opportunity to to go out for any other earmarks for it? We Yes. Yeah. We can we're not restricted on how many times we can ask for the money or how many or how many earmarks we can actually ask for. But as it stands right now, talking to Michael, we got relatively heavily, what's the right word, Julia? We got bounced.

Well, um, from 400 4 million to 800,000. Um, I I didn't mean to have this sidetracked to the roundabout discussion. Sorry, but I got one last question. Does Marian County support this project? I can't answer that question directly. I don't know, Brian. So, I I think we need to come back and maybe have a specific discussion on the roundabout.

We we have 800,000 that we could spend towards something that we need to define further. Um, until we define what we're doing, like like Barry said, I don't know that we want to apply for any additional funding until we know specifically what we actually are. Are we doing a mini roundabout? Are we doing the big roundabout? Are we doing something different? And so, um, I I think we need to get back to to you guys more on that.

The information that I do have, I I will add one more thing there. The information I do have is that I heard I have heard that the county is not overly supportive of the roundabouts per se. Um, we have asked KDson to look at alternatives as as Julia just said, a mini roundabout which would cut the price again a little bit, not significantly, and a signalized intersection or a phased construction of the intersection are the things that we're looking at right now. there something has to be done with the intersection but right now I don't have any money to actually conf confirm to you that I can move forward with anything okay

I can't I apologize I can't hear what you're saying maybe it's a me issue I'm sorry I'm having a hard time I'm having a hard time hear like the microphones they're they're echoing It's a weird It's a weird thing. I'm having a hard time adjusting to this. It's all of them. Okay. Please continue, Barry. I I I understand what you're saying. I Yeah, maybe just pull it a little bit closer to you. I don't know. It is booming. And the closer I get, the more it booms.

Okay. This the first page of the handout basically gives you what I was going to talk about tonight. The public works capital works program, the proposed tree list, the pro uh prop the question to God, this is bad. I can't sit there and talk like that. It it is really booming. Really bad. Is it booming to you guys? No. Okay. I wonder if it'd be better if you sit over there. Maybe maybe I will try. Shall we try this one? That was perfect. Okay, that's much better from me.

Is that better view? Okay.

Yeah. Okay. So, we've got the public public works um project list with the cost associated with that. We've got a tree list that we're talking about uh proposed al alteration to the tree tree list of which we'll put in the streets. We've got a tree planter which is in the back of this diagram a diagram in the back of here that we're going to talk about. Uh the tree options were just said about what you guys are going to select a street over the next week over the next two weeks of which you would like the restoration. This was a resolution that was passed a year ago that you would make the decision on what street street is going to be improved. Um then we'll talk about the pothole uh register issue. Okay. So starting starting with this list right now as I said I'm not going to go through every item on this list. What I am going to highlight is um associated projects that we do have going on in some detail associate with those projects. I should not have eaten those chips in the other room. Okay. So um the biggest project that we have got ongoing at the moment is of course the shaft road water man and all cons all major construction as far as that project is concerned is complete. That does not mean the project is complete. We are in the process of doing uh lateral connections in other words swapping from the old main to the new main and that work will be ongoing over the next 2 or 3 weeks. Once that is completed, we will then be waiting on weather. And I mean literally, we'll be

waiting on the weather to warm up so that we can reconstruct the road. Under Marian County's uh requirement, we do have a temperature an ambient t temperature require sorry an ambient temperature requirement for the running surface particularly to be above 5560° on a constant basis for 3 days in a row. So once we get that sort of temperature then we could do the top running course. We can do other work before that. We have to do excavate the trench out. We have to put uh constructed fill back into the trench and then we'll put a te cut on the top of that which means we cut the trench in a little bit. Uh put more ashfelt in that fill and then we do the top two in at that the 60° requirement. This is probably going to run through we're thinking probably the end of March before we'll actually get that completed. Um but as far as the waterwork is waterworks is concerned that project has gone well uh and we're you know we are nearly complete well we are completed essentially the waterworks program as far as the street work the street work is concerned the west town street work uh the RFP is being drafted for that and it will go out uh within the next couple of weeks and we're expecting the construction for that will start um in the early summer and run through into the s summer period. It should be completed this round. The other streets program or the streets construction work, you will see that there was a loose sheet that I gave you that lists uh several streets on it. As council, I'm asking that you guys look at that list and next time come back to

council with a recommendation on which of those streets you would like us to work on. Now I've done something that a little bit different with the uh budget is concerned and I want to let you know that that there was $250,000 allocated to a reconstruction design and there was $1.1 million allocated to overlays. I have combined those two numbers together because what we're finding is that the design for overlays is in actual fact heavy on um ADA cornering and restor and associated work and I would like to be able to put that money into uh the design of the overlay work as well so that we don't split the project down if that's okay with you guys. It's a minor minor change. Um to be honest, you probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't pointed it out. Um but it is a change and I I do want you to understand that. So the blue the little blue square on the comments column is the street is the streets allocation that we're talking about. The streets reallocation is concern. Sorry, the streets identification is concerned. Uh and we'd like to move forward with that as soon as possible. as soon as you give it you guys give us the street that you'd like us to work on uh the references are here um then we can start that design and get that work underway. I'd like that James would like me to have spent that money by June next year. So I'm looking at getting the design and everything prepped and doing the construction of the overlays in early next year from May through June. uh water projects. We have got we've got a little bit of a snafu as far

as the water projects are concerned. Um the ASR is funded and we're moving forward with putting together an RFP for that. George has got the RFP almost drafted and finalized as it stands right now. And we hope within two or 3 weeks we will be out on the street advertising that RFP for the con design and construction of the ASR system. Our snafu is that we thought we had a million dollars directly available for construction um of water manes and restoration of water manes. In actual fact that number is in uh future SDC's. So the the million dollars that we thought was available to do water main work is in actual fact not in our coffers as it stands today. But we do have a an emergency construction piece of work being undertaken or to be undertaken at the water treatment plant coming out of the water treatment plant and crossing the hydro ditch and the diversion channel. Um, we believe that that piece of work is going to cost about half a million dollars and we are looking at with James on where we will actually get that money from to do that project. It is critical. The if you go and look at it yourself across the uh bridge from at the end of Water Street, the discharge main from the water treatment plant is precuriously sitting on a structure that is leaning over as we sit here tonight. Um and it's starting to leak and potential is bad. If we lose it, we lose water supply to the city. So I'm making that an urgent priority and I have started that that design is well underway and ready to

move forward. In addition to that, we had bought a I think we talked about this previously, but we had bought a 24 uh yes 24 30in valve, sorry, going into the water treatment plant for isolation and we're wanting that isolation valve in place for the dam draw down so that we can really close off the water treatment plant. As it stands right now, it works on an old slide gate with a diversion valve and drain down valve associated with it. which is really difficult to operate and not 100% secure. So, we want the valve in place. Now, we have had that valve in stock uh for several years. It was just not installed. Um we're under in the process of working with Canyon Construction to have that installed over the next two months. It's about a $200,000 project. We do have the money for that and we're moving forward in doing it. Uh the wastewater treatment plant I'm not going to talk about in great detail at all um because we're going to have a special work session on the wastewater treatment plant at our at our next work session item. The storm water work is ongoing with uh general maintenance work and the installation of uh monitoring manholes uh and one or two other minor minor activities. We're not spending a lot of time as it stands right now directly on storm water activities facilities. I think James has already highlighted tonight on the budget for that. Um my budget my numbers don't exactly tie up with James and I've got to correct those so that they do. Um I just didn't get those up to date as James has them at the moment. But you can see the work that's ongoing as far as that's concerned. Um we are working on the Moose Lodge alternative um on how

we move forward with Moose Lodge in the future but that hasn't been defi defined or decided completely either as it stands right now. So, um, that's a pretty rushed summary of what we're actually doing right now, but if you'd like to look through the list, and I'm more than happy to take any questions and email or discussion or come and sit in my office and talk talk to me about it. Um, I very much doubt if you have any questions specifically on the sheet, but you may have questions on the projects. Mr. Mayor, councelor Sims. Oh jeez. Barry, I I you you brief you talked about that outlet main replacement for water. Yes. The water plant.

Yes. And you were mentioned 500,000 for that repair. Yes. That was really concerning. I remember when we when you had the brief on that. That was kind of scary actually. Um you you mentioned a million dollars somewhere else you weren't going to use. What? No. I didn't understand that. In that line item we show for um uh system improvements.

Okay. There's a million dollars there and that line open is where I can get the money from to do that improvement to do that water main improvement coming out of the water water treatment plant. So half of that money I really need. The other half of that million dollars I don't have I don't have that million dollars at all but I need half a million dollars to in actual fact do the job that I talked about coming away from the water treatment plant. So you take it out of that that line that that line item is where I was improve money. Yes. Because I I mean that is a critical improvement I think we really really have to do just from your explanation before. Yeah. Okay.

So I just want to clarify because I I think that um so the system improvements is a million dollars but it looks like it's out of SDC's correct. So we have the budget authority for it but we don't actually have the money for it. We haven't received those SDC's yet. Yes. Oh, we don't have that those SDCs. We have the budget authority to spend it, but we don't actually have the money. It was an anticipated amount of money that was coming in the door, but as as everybody knows, we haven't had development to build that fund up. James, you explain it better. We anticipate that we will likely get it over the course of the bianial budget. We just don't have it right now.

Correct. You couldn't start the project yet until you had those SDC's. We can't use SDC's on this project anyway. But we what we're saying is we have the budget authority to do the project. We don't have cash identified. We don't have the funding source for it. Exactly. Other than contingency. So I think that's something that they they and we might need to talk about. Maybe there's other maybe we need to take out a a loan. I don't know. like, you know, James is like, "No, no loans." Um, but I mean, if we need to do something critical, we need to do something critical. So, we'll have to kind of figure out what the best way is.

Yeah. Perhaps perhaps I've confused the whole thing here by saying that was a system improvement. It's a system improvement that we're doing. as James is pointing out in our budget. We don't have any funds to an actual fact pay for that system thing because it's not an SDC in any case. It's actually a system. It's truly a system improvement. I know I'm confusing and winding this around the tree, but um you can only use system SDC's for ant uh growth work and this is not growth. This is essentially maintenance.

All right. I have a question, Barry. I think I heard you say that you don't have any the million dollars for the water man after the ASR gets put in, right? Sorry. Say again, Brian. Sorry. So, the am I I'm probably not understanding this. The ASR Yes. That's going to be constructed shortly. Yes. Do we have the money to put in the the water man to that? Oh, I thought you said something that we don't have radio. Yeah, there is a there is a question as it stands right now that we're you were talking about the presentation a few weeks ago. We talked about this. Sure. You just mentioned that. Hey. Yeah.

Regarding the ASR, we don't have the million dollars we thought we had. Yeah. No, the ASR is okay. Okay. The ASR has SDC allocation. Okay. And those money that money is in the bank. Okay. There is about $350,000 of ASR ASR money that is coming from future SDC's. Um so there is and then there is about 3 is it 3.8? I can't read my own numbers. I don't have my glasses on. Um it's about 3.8. Yes. Yeah. 3.8 8 million is coming from grant funds.

So there's about $350,000 that is coming from future SDC's that we don't have right now, but that's not going to stop me from moving this project forward. That's what I was asking. Thank you. Okay. Yep. So I I want to make sure that and maybe you did the I had to go to the restroom when you first started. So maybe you you walked through this, but this um this sheet is actually pretty brilliant and informative. I just want to make sure that you guys understand what you're looking at. Did you walk them through what this was? He assumed intelligence is high.

I think you guys are picking it up that the the green is stuff we have. The SDC, you know, the red is we don't have it yet. Grant is we have it and contingency is we sort of could have it. Yeah. Thanks, Julie. Yeah, I should have explained. I just jumped right into it. Any other questions there before we move on? I've just got one question. Not about that. I want to talk about the uh Fern Ridge and Third Avenue on your next steps. It says complete bid package for construction 6 to 12 months. When does that 6 to 12 months start? It's already started.

It has. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Councor Patty. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Real quick, I just want to clarify something on this sheet. Uh, Barry, and this is awesome. I actually really like this. I like the color coding. I was able to understand it's labeled. It's pretty straightforward. So, thank you. Um, so I was looking at the progression and I I see that you threw a T in there. Maybe that's I don't know. I don't know what's going on. No, that's just New Zealand spelling.

That's what I figured. I was going to ask you. Well, James gets mad when we miss misspellings in the report, so I just want to call it out for you. So, hey, I see that you do the red thing here. And then I was looking over at the the leaf vacuum under parks for that utility. I just curious, what's the progression red there? What's going on with that? Okay. The the the le the leaf Oh god, I can't even say it. The leaf suction vacuum unit that we were going to put on the front of the truck, we're not going to buy anymore. Okay. we're actually going to move forward and buy a dump trailer.

Um, but operations have decided that or suggested that um they would get more use out of having a dump trailer and it would be used for multiple uses as opposed to a leaf vacuum unit that would um only work or be used during leaf fall season. Uh, so we found a trailer for $10,810, yeah, $750 as opposed to the 13,000 that we've got in the budget for the um bleack truck. Yes, I remember the numbers. I can't read it cuz I don't have my glasses. All right, thank you. Wrong ones. They don't work.

And then just to kind of on on that vein, what's red on the TSP? Uh what have we got read on address? Oh, that's the roundabout. Okay, there's just more about that. Actually, it does look like it's the TSP, but is that just that we haven't started it yet? Uh if it's on the TSP, it was that coming from future SDC's as well. I think it shows SDC's in hand. SDC's in hand. Um we haven't started it, but that that is what that's showing. Yes, we have not started that project as it stands right now. Which is the same with the I think the there's another master plan that I saw on there that was red. So I Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Anything else there? No. James, did you have a question? No. Okay. So, let's go to uh the proposed trees list. This is this sheet of paper right here. I'm not asking for any I'm sorry. Can I just pause? I just want to make sure that they understand that they're looking at this and make sure they don't have any more questions on that before you move to the streets or to the trees. Okay. Unless you were going to go to this later. I was. Never mind. Continue.

Yeah, I'm jumping around. I apologize, Julia. Um, so let's look at the tree list. The tree list is a massive reduction over what we had originally. We had something like five pages of tree options. I think we're now down to 2/3 of a page. This is not the definitive list. I am putting this list out for you guys to look at. And if you have suggestions or would like alterations or additions or subtractions from this list, we're more than happy to entertain them. But we, Jennifer and myself would like to get this finalized over the over the this next coming month so that we can actually definitively tell people this is or whatever it is is our definitive definitive tree list. So if you guys have input, we'd love to hear hear from you. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I had a question on on the tree list. Go ahead. Um, are all these climate friendly for the Wamut Valley? Because I mean, crepe myrtles, I had one in my front yard in Virginia. It's a warm weather climate tree. I don't think it'd grow here, but I'm just curious about that. Okay. The list as it stands right now was given to us by we actually had two different arbitists um come and help us put that together. So quite honestly, I know nothing about trees and therefore I deferred to their expertise. If you think there's a tree on here that's not going to work, please let us know.

I'm no I'm no arborist either, but I just some of the I just wondered if we took climate into consideration for the list at all. Well, I'd hope the arborist did, but we will question it. Okay. Okay. So, that's the tree list we've done. And then let's go to Julia's thing. I did put them out of order specifically so that we'd come back to the street list. Um I think Julia is trying to tell me that she has a different idea on the tree. No. Okay. I I had a question on the tree list or the uh street list. Sorry. Street list. Sorry. Yeah.

Yeah. We're all over the place. So, I I saw the all the collectors here. Is there any way we could do do a grind downtown on second or third? I mean, those streets are just it's embarrassing to me to be honest. I would love to see us do something downtown, but that's just my my input on that. I believe that as it stands right now, the streets downtown are really bad. And I agree with you. It is my understanding that we have to do a full reconstruction as opposed to a grind and infill. And that's all a different and that's a very different set of costs.

I will say now I'm getting the the echo. Um we will be looking for a safe streets for all construction grant. I think I've mentioned that to you. Um we're thinking about $15 million. It's going to be based on what came out of the safe streets for all planning grant. So, we'll be looking I'm not saying necessarily the downtown streets, but we might be able to do streets that require more grind and o overlay that aren't on this list that if we can get some federal funding for those so that we're not doing we're not we're not proposing to do all the things, but we are looking for that additional funding that might help us do some roads that are in very poor condition. So, I just wanted to add that.

Yeah, if we can get money, we're going to do it. Don't don't panic about that. But at the moment, I don't have the money to do that particular reconstruction work. All right. Thanks, Barry. I just I just have some concerns about the downtown streets. And I mean, I know I know they're total reconstruction, but I mean, jeez, it's just I get tired of hearing the complaining about it and I'm not tired of it. I want to fix it as a thing.

Right. Well, as you'll remember from from our last work session, the whole that whole area essentially from Jefferson south um from 1st to fourth is a big red zone that we really need reconstruction work done within that area and it's a major issue as far as determining how to move forward with it. Okay. Okay. So the the next item on the list is the council requested projects of which there were four. Uh one was um the one out on tent Jefferson and come on help me out. Um Sadium Highway. Yeah. Uh they are predominantly inside the county. We are working with the county on how to move move forward with it. Uh yeah, I've got it written right here. Why can't you read Barry? Um so it's Marian. Um that they are in the county and the county I believe I've reported to you what the county have said before that they are looking at when they are going to do their own reconstruction sorry road remarking and we'll take that into consider consideration as they do so. the speed limit issue. They are changing that sign. I don't know if they I haven't checked. I don't know if they've done that yet or not, but they're meant to have changed the sign from 40 to 30 m 35 mph. Um the intersections where you've asked for four-way four-way stops. Um, we did uh a little bit of research and the stop sign itself is will cost somewhere between $3 and $6,000. The

cost of actually putting up a sign is not significant. What is significant is doing the investigation and justifying that street sign. um we need a traffic engineering study to in actual fact determine whether a stop sign is applicable or appropriate to put in place. And when we add those costs together, you're looking at a cost that is in excess of $15,000 for the stop sign to be constructed or not. And from the discussions that I've had with uh both police the uh traffic engineer and a general discussion with the traffic engineer they are saying that we should not be putting in the stop signs but I am going to be guided as far as that's concerned from your opinion of how you'd like to move forward with the stop signs in the requested locations.

You said $50,000 for this 15. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Is that per intersection? Per intersection. Yes. Yeah. But the re recommendation is that we don't change them from two-way stop signs to four-way stop signs. Mr. Mayor, that's good. Go ahead, Council.

I really think we do. I've sat there I don't know how many times at Marian and third and watched near misses cuz I happen to sit there a lot and have a cigar at the 505. But but uh I really do think we need to I don't know. I don't agree with that analysis of not putting a stop sign in there.

Okay. So, so I'll say the the analysis will study that and I think what he's saying is that it it is not likely from what he's hearing that it will be warranted and it will it will be something that is determined to be safe. So, it it very well could be different information, but you might we might spend $15,000 and still have the study say that it's not appropriate. So, just keep that in mind. Thank you, Julia. That's a You've captured exactly what I was trying to say. Okay. Thanks. I have a I have a question about that. Go ahead, counselor.

So, we can only put the stop sign if the study says that it's safe.

No, you can decide it and instruct us to put sign up if you want to, but I'd advise you against it. Well, and our insurance company would probably advise us against I mean, if we're if we're knowingly doing something that we're being advised against, that's not that's not wise. I mean, we can talk about it depending on what the the information shows, but if if we're being told something is going to be less safe and then there was something that happened because we did something anyways, that would be very problematic. So, does a developer have to do the same when they come to develop a property? Yes, they do a traffic study as well.

So, the neighborhood um so neighborhood just pops up after annexation that have to go in there and they have to do a study on each intersection in that neighborhood put signage up essentially. Yes. And is the PD involved in that? Yes. interesting.

What is the what's the population have to get to that would trigger um that would that would trig what am I trying to ask? At what point would it actually trigger a safety study? Like someone would have to get into an accident. we'd have to have we'd have to have somebody be injured in order to in order to actually like trigger a study cuz I think that the point that um councelor Sims and I are probably in agreeance on is that the traffic downtown has significantly increased over time. Um, and anecdotally there is more traffic happening in the chances of

they will probably argue against putting another stop sign in quite honestly. But who who would so we we could do a study any any you guys can trigger we could do a we could do a study whenever you want. I will say the last study that was done.

So, we just finished our traffic safety study that I didn't look at every intersection, but it sort of looked at the whole city, too. So, we we've just sort of done a safety study looking at intersections, traffics or traffic anecdotal information um and identify general safety improvements for cross, you know, crossing safety, things like that. Um, but there isn't like an automatic trigger. If council says spend the money on a study, we'll do a study. And that's what Barry's saying. We're just saying we don't know that it's going to be a good use of the money. But it might be I mean that it might say something completely unexpected.

I I'm looking for you to either tell me to do a study. I don't want you to do a study. I don't want to spend the money on a study. I want the stop sign put in. That's what I want. Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry. I understand. Counc. Thank you. Hey, uh I I appreciate you explaining this to us. I My question is more when you first explained it, it sort of seemed like you were saying that even if we did the study, more than likely a stop sign wouldn't be recommended. That's correct. That's what you said. Okay. Just making sure I captured that right because then it kind of sounded like maybe it was like, oh, maybe it'll happen 50/50. I don't know. And if it Yeah. Uh, and I was confused by that. So,

my understanding as it stands right now, study is probably going to tell you that traffic sign is not warranted. Yeah. I don't want to spend $15,000 either then. Sorry. I got it. All right. All right. I got it. Okay. Does Does council wish to discuss this any further or give direction to staff?

Doesn't sound like it. Go ahead, Barry. Okay. So I think the last item is on the next page over. Um I am suggesting and this is this is for discussion. I'm not saying this is a categoric answer, but I am suggesting for the street trees so that we overcome the sidewalk problem issue that when we put in a street tree, the sidewalk busts up the footpath or the um curbing or encroaches on the road or whatever it does after a prolonged period of being installed. What I'm suggesting is that we put in planter boxes on the um on the sidewalks. I keep calling them the footpaths, but that's if I say the wrong thing, please understand. Um, and I'm suggesting that the next page over, I've given an illustration of a diagram of a planter box that I'm suggesting may be appropriate. In doing this, I'm suggesting that we put in the trees, let them grow for five to six years, and then move them to a an orchard somewhere and put a new tree in the planter box so that the tree doesn't get enormous, doesn't get overbearing and doesn't outgrow the planter box and doesn't break the break up the concrete or footpath as it stands. Having it set in a planter box, we would be able to lift the tree out and move it to to an orchard approach. It's an idea. It's a suggestion. It hasn't been used or the idea hasn't been implemented anywhere else that I know of. It's just something that it's a brain fart that I had and suggest it's a suggestion to solve the cost of continuously reappearing our sidewalks and enabling us to put street trees in place. So, it's something I'd like you guys to think about. If you have an alternative idea or other ideas on how

we might be able to put um trees in our streets and not have this ongoing construction problem, um damage problem, uh renewal problem, then I'm always I want to hear about it. Okay. Um any questions? I know I've changed the subject several times here. I have a question, Mr. about and there's one more page. Council or go ahead. Are are we required to replace the speech that the way the way the way that our code is written right now? If we take a tree out, we had to put a tree back. Okay.

And I can put it back in exactly the same way as it's been always done, which is just basically pull the root ball out of the ground, reconstruct the foot sidewalk as we're doing right now, and put a tree in the ground. And then in 5 years time, I'll be doing exactly the same thing for you. Or we could put it in the planter box. I'm suggesting a planter box so that we contain the roots and we don't have gross out and under the concrete. Gotcha.

So I I would like to circle back now to the um to the street overlay just because I want to make sure that council just if we're going to do this within this bianial budget, they need to get a project selected in the near future so that they can then begin work on that. So, I just want to make sure that council doesn't have any questions on what the choice that you're being given between four collectors or two locals and that you're essentially selecting one of those to do. Um, so I just want to make sure that you have a chance to sort of understand and you're not gonna he's not asking you to tell him tonight, but I think at the next meeting he's asking for councel to to tell you which one of those you want public works to proceed on. And so I just want to make sure that you

or alternative or we are prepared to listen to offer suggestions or as long as it's agreed by the council we'll look at. Do you want to speak to why these is these were all very poor? These came these came off the PPI um PC. Thank you. PCI

pavement condition index uh evaluation that was done three four years ago, three years ago. um and it picks the worst off that list and takes into consideration what money we have available to naturally do the work. So it's it's governed a little bit by length um and breadth of the road and the condition that was on the PCI originally. Okay. I think what I'll do is I'll uh I will ask council by a week from Friday for their answers. Does that work? Two pretty much. Perfect.

Okay. So, Friday the whatever a week from this Friday is before that before the next council meeting. 13th. Got it. So, I'm going to 13th. Nothing scary about that. I will ask council for their um that's the deadline for submitting this. So before that'd be great, but I'm going to ask you all before the 13th if I don't see it. And and Barry, are we wanting them to make a decision as a council though? They have to the way it's written at the moment. There was That's fine. But yeah, but you'll you'll give us direction so then we'll have something to bring back. Okay. Gotcha. Correct.

Okay. P second last page. Page seven. Mr. Sims. Councelor Sims, this is all for you. And you can thank Melanie for helping us get this in place. And you're by the way stealing one of my items from count staff updates. So just Well, he's still I know.

Sorry. Um Okay, Julia wants to tell you about this. I'm not allowed to. Uh what we do have in place is a reporting system. This is not specific for potholes, but it is a place where the potholes can be registered with a commentary with a date and it comes straight to us. Um, the moment that it's picked Go on, Julia, jump in.

Oh, I was just going to because I even have a screenshot. Um, so this is on our website and there's a public works request form and it says if this is an immediate if there's an immediate need after hours, please call the non-emergency line. But then it's got a list of a drop-own list of common problems that public works might have including clogged street drain, debris, trash, graffiti issue, um, park maintenance, sanitary sewer issue, sidewalk issue, and then among those is a pothole issue. So it's a whole and then what happens when they do this

when okay when it it comes to us it goes directly usually I get either an email from from u Melanie or from Alyssa and we take that straight to to uh public works operations. they attend to the issue that day. And I mean literally that day.

And I'll say that's probably not always going to be the case because I do plan on making sure that we kind of push this out. So right now it's um it's there but not live. So in the event that uh No, it's there but and it's live but it we haven't publicized it yet. So in the event that they can't take care of everything that day, there's they'll be able to export that into a spreadsheet and prioritize. Correct. So because there are only so many people that Yeah. But as it but as it stands right now, they are acting on it the day that it comes in and so we actually have had people fill out the form. We've had different complaints, not this one. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, Counc, thank you Melanie for coming up with that. That's amazing. I appreciate it. And I think this is I think this is great. I mean, hopefully there's some some type of feedback to each person that puts in a complaint also so they know what that we're taking action. But I think that's important. Very important. But I'd really like this going on. I love spreadsheets. I'm a, you know, spreadsheet guy. So,

in each of the complaints that we've had so far, now quite honestly, none of them have been on potholes, but I do send out an email to the person that sends it in the day that I receive it and comment and tell them what I'm doing, what the public works is doing. Oh, that's great. I mean, that that feedback loop, I think, is really important to, you know, people that have an issue that needs addressed, right? this way.

Go ahead, council. Uh with the potholes specifically, are we going to once we capture that data, are we going to continue to keep a list of those like once we know because we know that the potholes don't stay full that we have to keep as part of our asset management program. We we now register everything that goes wrong and therefore we we're maintaining a maintenance log of what happens which gives us a criticality value to put into our scoring mechanism so that we can actually attack and do the most relevant or most problematic areas in the first place. It's a data collection exercise. Yes, we're doing it.

Okay. So those will those will be tagged and like continued to be monitored once they're brought to our attention. That's Yes. Yes. Okay. Am I missing the question? I'm talking about the pothole specifically. So once I say, "Hey, I have a pothole by my house." Are we going to tag that and say, "Okay, this is a known issue and public works is going to continue to keep an eye on it or do I have to keep telling you about the pothole?" If the pothole comes up again and we haven't fixed it, I expect to hear about it. But, uh, I'm not going to go out every day and monitor every pothole in town. We just can't do that.

I would say the road in particular has several potholes on it that has to continually be

I think yes. I mean, I think we're monitoring it and we we are aware of it and if we fix a pothole and it busts open again and it's a bad pothole, it would be wonderful if someone fills out the form and doesn't expect I mean there's a lot of potholes in the city. So, I think if there's something that's really problematic um that's come back. So, you know, if if it hasn't been fixed yet, give it a day or two. But if it has been fixed and then it comes back, I think it's fine for you to fill this out again and that will just be more information to them potentially on boy, this the same area keeps being a problem even though we fix it, you know. So, I think I wouldn't assume that you wouldn't fill out a form again just because you filled it out once

six months ago or whatever. No, that's I guess that's my question cuz we have I have potholes in front of a rental that I own that continually have to be filled. I've I've owned that property for 8 years and it street in general that street in general has potholes on it that continually need to be if we have poor if we have poor pave oh sorry if we have poor paving on the street itself um potholes are to be quite honest filling a pothole with cold mix is kind of a waste of time

because it just busts out as soon as you put it back as soon as you put in cars pound over top of it. The surrounding piece of Ashefeld is already alligated. It breaks away. But to my point that if we have those known areas, are we are we keeping an eye on them? Yes, please. No, I mean the city is the city keeping an eye on we monitor them.

Problem areas. I mean, I I I think again, we know there are problem areas and they they do the best they can based on what is right in front of them and what complaints they're getting and trying to focus, you know, on making the most out of their day. Um, there's a lot of poor streets in the in the city and if we spent all of our time fixing the potholes on those poor streets, there wouldn't be time to do any of the anything else. And so I think they're doing the best that they can with the time that they have, the cold mix that they have. Um, yes, it's I mean I guess I would say yes, it's on their radar, but that doesn't mean that every pothole is going to be fixed as soon as it is there. And so I think it would be helpful to still have people fill out a, you know, fill that out for information so that they know where the biggest issues are if they're if they're coming back. Or maybe one street has worn really really poorly and they're not aware necessarily that it's that as bad as it is because they're focused on another street that was a problem a year ago. I'm making stuff up now. Sorry. I think you and I are saying the same thing. I think

does that conclude it, sir? All right. We missed an opportunity for public comment, so I'd like to offer a public comment. If you want, come on up. Yes, sir.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Jim Wagner. Tonight's discussion was good. I live next door to the swimming pool. When the trees got taken out over here, this entire neighborhood was pissed off. I liked the idea of the planter boxes. I understand that those trees were taken out because of the sidewalks and the trip hazard and that kind of stuff. That ruined our neighborhood. It ruined that parking lot. It ruined the cover during the summer and the shade. Um, and so I wanted to comment on on the planter boxes specifically. And then Mr. Sims, I'll tell you, um, my fence line is shared with the city park and with the freeze, with fires, and everything else living right along the state and ditch, we've had a lot of tree issues. A lot of tree issues. And uh I often times will go into the park and clear that side of my fence line and take out overgrowing sticker bushes and that kind of stuff. And I have talked directly with public works. Uh I call operations, they send their truck right out, they pick up a load and they get rid of the crap. So uh to answer your question, I wanted to be able to say that as well.

Thanks, Mr. Wagner. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, council. Anything else for Barry or before we cut him loose? I have a question. Go ahead. Okay. For the streets that we have, um I feel like I want to go drive on them, but I feel like several of them have um like we're just talking about grind and inlay improvements, but several of them have like sidewalk

issues. Is that something that is going to be addressed when we I noticed that Pine Street only goes to Mount Jefferson or excuse me, yeah, Pine Street only goes to Mount Jefferson. And I know that if you just went a little bit farther that there are streets that have sidewalks that are not ADA. Yes. Um, so my question is, um, is any attention going to be made to any sidewalks that need attention? Okay. Is it working now? Yeah. Yes.

Uh, as it stands right now, no, we're not working on sidewalks associated with this work. Okay. Mr. Mayor, Cra Sims, Barry, you mentioned that, you know, if there's another street one we wanted done for for this overlay. Do you have a list of those streets that are that we could do an overlay on? I mean, not a total reconstruction, but that would be eligible for this this choice. Trying not to give it to you. Uh, yes, I can get you a list. Okay, that'd be helpful. I mean, I I'm just curious. I I just want to see what the options are.

And I guess are these the worst of the worst? These are the worst of the worst cuz we could go all day long with Well, the worst of the worst that don't require full reconstruction overlay. Yeah. Okay. I appreciate that, Council Sims. All right. Anything else, folks? Okay. Thanks, Barry. Appreciate it. Um, communication from city staff, Julia. Well, I was going to tell you about our new pothole reporting forum, but that's got discussed already. Um, I wanted to share and Jana is going to hand out um an invitation to the foundation fundraiser for the library foundation. Um, but she also wanted me to Are you going to speak? Okay, I'll turn it over to

J was going to do it because I was like, I could decide not to speak. That would be fine. But I hope you guys will stop and see the new paint at the library. Um, we're really blessed to have a foundation who's been really working on trying to get our interior painted and um, we look bright and shiny and new and um, the library looks amazing. So, we received a $4,000 grant from Pacific Power, $15,000 from the Oregon Community Foundation and a private donation of $5,000. And then the foundation was able to make up the difference because when the cost came back really in a great a winter work quote came which was really nice and wonderful and the um Fitzpatrick did a great job painting but we also had a lot of wear and a little bit more and so um the foundation is going to pick that up tomorrow. Tickets go on sale for their fundraiser. It's called inked. I have an invitation for you and like I happen to know that if you scan the QR code, the ticket thing is actually open tonight, but you guys get first because you're the only ones that have them. Um, but I hope you'll come see us. We're going to do um for ordurves and a and a program. We're going to write the library story um and watch it come to life on the catwalk with some airbrushed ink. And um it'll just be a fun night and a good way to celebrate the library and the foundation and the work that's that's been done. So, I'm going to give you your some invitations early and um I hope you guys will share it with your friends. So, it'll many of you came to our fundraiser a couple years ago and we had a great time. I am excited about this one, too. So, thank you.

Yeah, the library is pretty amazing. If you haven't seen it yet, it's it's amazing what a coat of paint can do for a space. And I thought I thought it was bright and cheery before, but it's even more bright and cheery. and they were able to like clean and reorganize and stuff. Um the other thing did you guys have any questions for Janna before I go on? Okay. Um I just wanted to let you know that we did submit the capital project initiation form for the intertie with sublimity to um Ed deal and he um submitted that. He um was only permitted two projects to forward for that and he chose um one of you know ours. So, that's wonderful. Um, so very hopeful that we get the money for that because that would be wonderful if we do. Um, and then I I mentioned earlier, but I'll mention again that we are back online um and getting water from the um North Sanm River. So, no more Salem water. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions, seeing if any of my staff were jumping up to say anything else. I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Does anybody have any questions for Julia? Staff in general? Not Barry. All right. This is an opportunity for communication from myself and council. And as always, I'll let council go first. So, what do you got, Mr. Mayor? Councelor Sims,

I'll just do a quick review of the planning committee meeting. I know I missed it. I I couldn't go to it, but uh there was an approval with conditions on a 2.24 acre lot on West Ida Street for a triplex. So that got approved and there was approval and conditions for a site plan review for two duplexes on 1100 East San. So kind of kind of near the family building block center. That's that old yellow house that they're going to tear down. And then the annexation of 59 acres on golf club road has been continued to February 23rd. Patty.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor. Uh I had the opportunity to present before school board last month uh and just kind of share an update on the waterline project and when that was anticipated for conclusion and then also encourage them to participate in the u levy discussions that we're having. Uh the only question I received was just in regards to the closure of the park and ride. It sounds like they they were kind of curious about that and obviously that's not our property so I didn't really have a lot of answers for them but yeah just thought I'd share that.

Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Um I wanted to offer my appreciation to the city and to Sanam integration team for the job of hosting and operating the warming shelter. Um I think it went for a week correct. Um I participated in that uh on a Saturday night into Sunday morning. There was I think at that time about nine or 10 people that showed up that night. Um I think changing the venue to this location was a wise decision. Uh some more space for folks, some more facilities, more amenities. So Julie, I appreciate that um offer and that cooperation going to do that. It did really I think at the end of the day it really helped some folks that needed some help. So, appreciate that there. Um, I want to acknowledge the work and the decision-m that the council has to do, uh, especially now in light of our infrastructure that's hasn't been touched for a long time, hasn't been properly funded, hasn't been considered for the future. you all are in a tough spot right now trying to make determinations on what the best approach is to fix this or remedy it even if it's just having a having a temporary bandage on it. It's it's it's a challenging thing and I think you'll hear in the future that um we have more problems that are even deeper that you aren't aware of yet. And so I guess part of my questioning today about the roundabout was to try to figure out how we can move some of these funds around if at all. And that's really why my line of questioning was there. I I I struggle with not being able to deliver on the reason why people live here and the facilities and not having that basic infrastructure need. So I I know it's a difficult lift for y'all. I appreciate you doing it. I appreciate staff's perspective and trying to offer us some kind of

determination as far as what we should do, giving us options really. And if there sometimes they don't seem like options at all, right? But I know they are and it's we're doing a lot more than previous um bodies did to anticipate what the future looks like. So, I appreciate you all for doing that and stepping up and I know it's not easy and um yeah, I just wanted to say that with that. Anything else?