Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right.

Good morning, everybody. I'm going to open up this formal session on May 28th at 10.01 a.m. And I'll ask Commissioner King to lead us in the flag salute.

Thank you for that.

Up next is our calendar session. Is there any changes?

No.

D is public comment. If anybody's in the audience and would like to give a public comment, please raise your hand. If you're online, raise your virtual hand. Seeing none. Moving on to E is department updates. There is none. F is work session. There is none. G is consent agenda. Looks like a couple weeks worth of minutes and some public work surplus. I would move approval. Is there any further discussion?

No.

All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. H is old business. There is none. I is other business. I1 is consideration of approval of the agreement between Yamhill County Health and Human Services and Lines for Life. This replaces Board Order 16-518 and is effective upon full execution through June 30, 2027.

I'll move approval.

Motion's been made. Any further discussion?

Just want to point out that this is separate from 988, that the county has a separate contract for Lines for Life. At some point, we could ultimately not have to do this and just use the states, but they're not up to speed pretty much on the referrals. This is just 24-7 referrals. And the youth calls go right into our office, and there's 24-7 coverage for everybody. So it's well used and much needed.

Commissioner Starr, can you, I was hoping that maybe Lindsay would be here, but the handoff and the seven days to respond seems like a long time for somebody in crisis. Reading through, does that, what is the handoff like for Lions Life to HHS?

So our contract with them allows them basically to, they know all of the referral pathways. So we have 24 seven with our community outreach specialists and the crisis response is immediate.

So they're not- There is no follow-up with HHS?

No, what I'm saying is that they have the immediate response from us in the form of community outreach specialists. The follow-up will be for, let's say there's additional services that are going to be needed, but there's no lag time.

So there is immediate response. Okay, thank you.

There's an immediate response 24-7.

Okay, thank you.

Motion. Any further discussion? None. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Item I3 is consideration of approval to authorize Lindsay Manfred or designee on behalf of Yamhill County Health and Human Services to submit an application for funding from the Yamhill County Community Care Organization in the amount of $35,000 for suicide prevention coalition efforts.

Oh. Oh.

Did I miss one? No.

Huh.

I circled an excellent wrong one. Sorry about that. I choose consideration of approval of amendment number one to agreement number 44300-00054306 between Yamhill County and the Oregon Health Authority Board Order 26-019 for the financing of community mental health addiction treatment, recovery and prevention, and problem gambling services in the amount of $177,284.87. This is retroactive to January 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.

I move approval.

Motion's been made. Any further discussion?

None.

None. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Now we're on to I-3, consideration of approval to authorize Lindsay Manfred or designee on behalf of Yamhill County Health and Human Services to submit an application for funding from the Yamhill County Community Care Organization in the amount of $35,000 for Suicide Prevention Coalition efforts.

I'll move approval.

Motion's been made. Any further discussion?

Just real quickly, it's important to know that what we're focusing on right now in our group is youth outreach and something called, which hopefully the grant will help fund something called the Green Bandana Project. That's somebody at the school who's wearing a green bandana who's been trained in uh in in some of the specifics like qpr some of those mental health responses they know they can go to them that they're safe and the other thing is uh putting together some films and also looking at a continuation of something called man therapy basically just to make it more approachable for men who might be reluctant to seek mental health so um so

Do you know if this, the video campaign is that, will we contract that out or is that through our HHS prevention team?

Well, no, it's actually basically, this is our suicide prevention coalition and it's made up of a number of, you've got the schools, you've got our... chaplain, you've got a number of different people in the community focusing on this. What we come up with, and Kelsey is leading this, what we come up with is what do we want to focus on now? So if, for instance, we're looking at the Green Bandana Project or doing films, we would have the grant money to do that. Now, obviously, we're not filmmakers, but in terms of us getting the grant money for this, This is what we'd like to do, and it doesn't mean that we're going to do that in-house, but it is basically through this coalition.

Okay, so we may or may not be doing filming in-house then. That's what I'm trying to get at.

I don't see that as part of what we would be doing.

$35,000 isn't a ton of money.

So if we get it, yeah, if you get it and it's got to cover a bunch of different things, these are just some ideas that the group has come up with. It's not like we have, you know, okay, we're going to go film this and do that. These are just a number of, of concepts.

Okay. Thank you. All right. If there's no further discussion, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. I-4 is consideration of approval of a proposed customer price index CPI rate increase of 3% as recommended by the Yamhill County Solid Waste Department and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, SWAC. for Recology Western Oregon Effective July 1st. We have some of their representatives in the audience. If you guys have any questions. I do. You guys want to come on up for some questions? Good morning, Ashley.

Morning.

I saw that you guys... part of your request for an increase was the Coffin Butte did not get their conditional use permit. Can you speak to what the rate will be when they have to, when they're at capacity and you go to Arlington? Can you speak to what that will look like?

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. The The projected impacts for the current rate adjustment at the landfill is included in what we provided. Right. It's a little hard to say going forward. I do have both our general manager and assistant general manager in the back who can speak more operationally about the future if I could ask them to answer.

That's good. Yeah, just so we know. Yeah, come up to the microphone.

Okay.

Chris Carey, general manager for Recology for our Oregon sites. To Dan's point, we don't know quite what the impact will be. And we don't know if it'll be Arlington either. It is a super regional landfill. There's two others in the gorge that have similar capacity that would all be buying for those tons. We're already getting calls, if you can imagine. So it's something that we'll be discussing in the next year or two. to talk about should we make a deal now with those folks because the price is opportune time versus later when everybody else needs to go there. There's also a whole coalition happening in the Valley through the state level that's trying to do some work there. They're talking to a bunch of different counties. So there's a lot up in the air right now regarding that. The biggest issue is if we have to go somewhere else, it's transportation costs. that typically will impact that. So we can give you a pretty good idea of what that looks like today, but that's probably not the best with the fuel or the way that it is right now as well. It will definitely be more, but what we're gonna try to do is what's in the best interest of the rate payers and find the best disposal plus transportation costs.

What is that? You said you can give me a number-ish today, a ballpark. Do you have that increase for what you're projecting in a few years?

I mean, it's going to be, look, I think for us, we've gotten quotes for what we call gate rates in the $30 a ton range, which is pretty close to what Coffin Butte. Coffin Butte's now in the 40s, actually, and escalating pretty quickly up there. But then the transportation layer on top of that is probably another, I don't know, $15 to $20 a ton to get it out there. So we'd be looking at close to $50 to $60 all in. That may be $70 by the time we actually do that.

Okay.

Those are ballpark guesses. Don't pull me back here a year from now. Ask me to say that.

That's what we're looking at.

And it's the same thing in a lot of the communities that go to Coffman Butte right now.

And with this switch up, I've had other electeds in the city councils and stuff ask me the best way to get a hold of you guys for maybe wanting to switch over as well. Who's the best contact for that? And I can get your contact from Ashley? And it's in the deck. Oh, perfect.

yeah and i we're actively working with a couple landfills now in the gorge uh and so it's it's happening in terms of pricing but before we do that we would come to all of you because uh right now our transfer station we collect for eight other cities as well and so we'd make sure we have those similar conversations because it's going to have that impact across all of what we call our collection uh franchise agreements yeah all right yeah thank you that's all i have

Chair Johnson, I have a short slide deck, but I can forego it if you want to just have a quick conversation about why we're here today.

No, go ahead. You're there.

I mean, Dan's got this little presentation here, just kind of give you guys some updates as far as what they're doing and as well why the CPI was chosen versus that actual rate increase itself.

Okay, thank you. Next slide, please. So, yeah, we're going to jump right into the rate section this time rather than doing the other stuff first. And then I'll provide some operational updates, a little bit about RMA and customer service and answer any questions that you have. So next slide, please. So we are here asking for a 3% CPI-based rate adjustment this year. As everybody can kind of feel in the economy right now, primary drivers are fuel, We also have renegotiated a labor contract. And then, of course, Coffin Butte, which we were just talking about. Those are the primary drivers for why we're asking for that. What that would look like for the most common customer would be $1.48 a month. That's the 90-gallon customer that includes recycling services. And then for rural customers, that would be $1.56 a month and also includes recycling services. So each year, we submit to Ashley our annual rate report, our proposed rate sheets, third-party financial review, and a cover letter that kind of explains the situation that we're in. You should all have that in your packet. That includes actual expenses from last year, projected changes, fuel, disposal, labor, et cetera. When we take a look at what our earnings are, it's basically a cost plus franchise agreement. It allows us to achieve an 88% operating ratio within a range of 85 to 91. With this 3% CPI based adjustment, we'd come in right at 88.72. So almost on target for that mid range. Next slide, please. And then this just shows you our, you know, it's an excerpt from our rate sheet for suburban customers. You can see the ones I circled are what I already said to you. Next slide. This is the rural customer rate sheet. Again, you have this in your packet. So that's it for the rate side of things. I'll switch gears. Most of you already know this. We're 100% employee-owned company. We have, next slide, please. We have a collection company here. in Yanhill County serving 11 cities as well as two counties and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. We also have a compost facility here in McMinnville which you're familiar with and a transfer station. Next slide, please. As you're also aware, we provide Waste Zero services here within the Valley and really excited. We just selected our second batch of artists in residence and we started that program last year. Really excited to have a couple of great artists this year. I'm not going to disclose the names because I forgot them, but they basically take materials out of the transfer station and make art out of it and we give them a stipend. And then we partner with AYA, Associate Artists of Yamhill County, AAYC. And then in the fall, we do an art exhibit downtown. And that's really exciting. This year, we've also done a Earth Day poster contest where we had over 90 posters submitted by kids in schools throughout the county. And we judged them. and the winner got their poster printed onto t-shirts, which we gave away at Earth Day at the transfer station. So it's a good way to introduce recycling education to students and tie it to Earth Day, very exciting. We also participate in a lot of events, as you know, Yamhill County Fair, parades like UFO parade, et cetera. And so we really value our relationship with the county. And it's just important for us to have that beyond just providing good services at the group. Next slide, please. This is just an example of some of the thousands of pieces of artwork made from garbage that Recology has helped artists create over the years. Next slide. Switching to Recycling Modernization Act updates. So the RMA, as we call it, took effect July 1 of 2025. Not a ton of changes for Yamhill County, except that there are some different materials allowed in your curbside carts, nursery pots, gable top cartons, aseptic containers, which are like a shelf-stable almond milk or bone broth, that type of square container. now can go in there. The state did pull one material that we were collecting before, which is aluminum foil and foil trays, essentially because they burn up at the smelter and they don't provide any value to recycling. So those are no longer at the curb. The big change is that that list that you all have availability to now is consistent statewide. So everywhere in the state, the same list of materials can be recycled. There are some benefits to the RMA that we're starting to see. A little bit of our costs have been reduced on the recycling processing costs at the MRFs. So that's only a partial year. Next year, we should see that fully implemented in our next year's rate review process. So you should see that change. Also, there are some funds starting to come in to haulers like us across the state for glass collection. So that will be a benefit to us as well. And then next slide. Coming to our transfer station soon will be what's called the Recycle On Center. These are called pro depots. These are special recycling centers provided under the Recycling Modernization Act for hard to recycle materials. So think plastic film. Eventually, maybe sooner than later, styrofoam will be back into the facility. The six-pack rigid plastic, you know, six packs of beer, those holders, those can be recycled here. and some other materials that we don't collect curbside. So we're planning to put one in at the transfer station or at least have the same containers inside of our building. This is a picture of the first one to be deployed in the state at our Ashland Recycling Center. So that's exciting. They are planning to put a second one somewhere in McMinnville. So I'll be connecting the folks with the city of McMinnville to help identify a spot in the city for a second one of these depots. And then last, just next slide, please. I want to focus a little bit on customer service. When I started a few years ago, I'll admit the amount of time we spent on the phone waiting to get a hold of someone was pretty awful. I'm not going to say a number because it's a little bit embarrassing, but under Chris and Nick's leadership over the last 18 months, we have really drilled down. to we are picking up the phone in under a minute consistently. And folks are waiting, if I'm getting this right, Chris and Nick, on average 30 seconds before they get help with the problem. So that's a radical change from three years ago. And I want to commend all of our customer service team folks for that. And especially these folks for driving that down. It makes my job much easier. I don't hear questions anymore about that. old times. The last thing I'll say, we are updating to a modern customer account system midsummer. So we're going to go from a 40 year old black screen with green letters, customer account software to something that's actually in the modern age. It will provide benefits to customers. and that better access for information when they do get a hold of a customer service team member, but also improve billing process, much simpler, much more, and just understandable. So those changes are coming. There'll probably be some hiccups as we transition from the old one to the new one, but we'll work through those quickly and as transparently as possible and keep Ashley informed of all of those steps. So I think that concludes my short presentation. We are happy to answer any questions that you have. a question uh just anecdotally i'm not looking for actual figures but how the closing of uh river bend has impacted your um operation yeah uh that's a great question commissioner i know it was a pretty short notice it was just a few days turnaround i wasn't here for that i would love if the operations folks would respond to that how closing river

So we'll probably answer that.

Come on up. And could you tell us who you are so we've got that in the news?

Chris Carey, the general manager for our Oregon facilities for Recology. Thank you. When I started as well, it was around the same time, I believe we were taking in 25,000 tons annually just from the McMinnville site. And then when the landfill closed, it's been as high as 60,000. So substantial increase. We had to add headcount, some equipment, some trucking, obviously, to handle those tons. We've done some work with some C&D construction debris because we weren't seeing a lot of that that was going to the landfill. So we've started to do some separating. That's been tough to do now because the wood market isn't really available and consistent. So we stopped taking lumber in terms of dimensional lumber because right now the mills were so inconsistent that we had... We had almost 20,000 yards of wood just sitting there, which is scary because that's hard to manage, especially a fire concern. So that's had an impact on the biggest impact in terms of our diversion that otherwise after the landfill hit, we saw those types of impacts. Is that helpful?

Yes, I know we saw an impact here. We had a million dollars in tipping fees that would go into our coffers for services. And when you take a hit like that at the county level. So I appreciate that. Thank you.

Yep. I would only add that space constraint and the transfer station, it wasn't designed to do the level that it's doing. So Chris talked about ability to sort out. It's just, it's very tight with public and trucks, our trucks coming and going. Very little space for us to manage the materials.

Yeah, and we're doing some work in the next, I would say, 24 months to move some things around in the transfer station to see if we can't better and more efficiently process those tons. And then in addition, we're going to be adding in some scales because one of our biggest feedback opportunities we receive is that we charge by the yard and people feel that's inconsistent. So when we go to buy the ton, that'll be... alleviate some of those concerns.

Thank you. And the closing of the landfill in terms of consumer impact, it didn't just impact you, but downstream, you know, it impacted the consumer in terms of costs.

Are you asking, like, did the percentage of costs go up?

Well, yeah. What was the impact to the consumer?

Oh, that's a tough one. Can I get back to you on that one?

Yeah, I was just thinking if you just could say, hey, yeah, it was.

Yeah, if you're talking about the impact of the person that either went to the landfill and would dump or at their curb, what that impact was. I think as of today, it's probably a 30% increase since then. And I'll go back and do the math, but that's what it feels like in terms of the work that

That's fine. That's good enough. Thank you.

Yeah, it's impactful.

Yeah, it is.

Thank you. Your recycling depot. be working with McMinnville to place? I think you guys do several other of the smaller cities. Are you working with any of the cities to do something not in McMinnville specifically?

When I present on the Recycling Center, yeah, we are helping coordinate. There's a third party called Circular Action Alliance that's charged by the state to take all the money from the packaging manufacturers and redeploy it statewide. So we are connecting them with our partner cities. I know Sheridan Recycling Depot is a great spot to add those additional services Lafayette is interested in one. I think those are the two in the county that probably would see those additional recycling services.

Yeah, that'd be great.

And it's based on population. Yeah, they have a model that spits out how many each jurisdiction is supposed to have. And then I'm helping where we can directly support it, like at our transfer station, that's easy. But I'm also trying to connect the cities with those folks to help make it work for them.

Yeah, CAA, they do give a bit of support in terms of headcount. Is it 0.25? 0.25, so a quarter of a headcount. And they're assuming that somebody that goes there opens the facility and at the end of the day closes it so that it doesn't get contaminated or people go in and... dump illegally, that kind of thing. That quarter headcount is still tough. But they understand that it takes resources to make these things successful. So we're happy to see that, but it sounds like it might be that we would still have to coordinate some of our labor to really make those things effective, but more to come.

That's all I have. Any more questions? Thank you.

I just want to say that I appreciate your guys' community outreach that you guys do. Most of the events that I go to, I see you there, or I see some form of Recology product there, so I appreciate that.

Yeah, thanks a lot.

Thanks, Dan. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Nick. Any further discussion? I would move approval. Is there any further discussion? No. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much for that. Item I-5 is consideration of approval of a Library Services and Technology Act grant agreement between Yamil County and the State Library of Oregon in the amount of $5,000 effective upon approval through September 30, 2026. I would move approval. Is there any further discussion?

None.

All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Item I-6 is consideration of approval in the matter of a resolution in support of Men's Health Week, June 15th through the 21st, 2026, brought to us by Commissioner King.

Yeah, as you guys have heard, just even today, and with the level of mental health, and I think that this is important to me. Since I was a kid, I've always struggled to ask for help, and I think that that's very common with men, and it ends up being, and I don't want to sing, I hate singling out any one group of people, but, um, it's, I think it's important, especially being in a little bit of a rural area and have we seen with, um, farmers and their suicide rate is much higher than the, than, than other, um, trades or professions. Um, and so when I became a commissioner, it's just something that I wanted to take very seriously and, and ask for help. Um, And so the part of this letter that stuck out to me, I'll read it really quick. The widening gap is driven by death of despair, including suicide, substance abuse, alcohol-related diseases, and homelessness, which disproportionately affect men. These outcomes are compounded by stigma around help-seeking, limited access to mental health, and healthcare, gaps in insurance coverage for male-specific prevention, screening, and persistent barriers faced by underserved communities. So with that, I would love to move approval of this.

Motion's been made. Any further discussion?

None.

None. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. That brings us to J, which is public hearings. J1 is docket number FD-01-26, an appeal of the planning director's approval of a request for a principal dwelling provided in conjunction with farm use. This is continued from May 21st, 2026 at the point of staff recommendations.

Good morning. With this application, a lot of issues were brought up during the hearing. And so whenever that happens, I always like to circle back to the criteria. A dwelling, and it says in the law, customarily provided in conjunction with farm use is a permitted use in the farm zone. And the state made a test to determine what is a dwelling customarily provided in conjunction with farm use. They adopted those standards in 1994. And for a property that has non-high value soil, the applicant needs to satisfy just a few items. They have to demonstrate that the property is currently employed for farm use and produces $40,000 annual gross sales from farm products during the past two years or three out of the last five years. The dwelling approval can only be granted to the person or persons who produce the farm income and there can't be any other dwellings on the subject tract. The applicants have submitted a substantial amount of evidence to prove they satisfy those standards. And there have been, as I noted, a lot of other concerns submitted. And I'm not trying to dismiss those concerns, but they're really not part of the test. Therefore, our office is recommending approval of the dwelling. Thank you.

I'm just going to go back through our protocols here real quick. Was the hearing closed?

Yeah.

Yes, I don't need to. So I don't need to open the public hearing. Okay, just want to make sure But I will have to close the hearing or not.

Okay. All right.

All right, so I'm going to close the hearing out at 1031 And we're going to go into deliberation. It takes care of that.

One of the things that I had brought up was some of the documentation that came forward from the appellant regarding the documentation, the veracity of the documentation. And Mr. Friday and I had a conversation about that, and basically it's... when you look at the criteria that we are asked to go by it uh it it is seems the boxes are all checked so all that um supplemental information is really not germane to i think how we can use that for criteria or not so um i did go back and listen to the hearing it was a little bit tough when uh the applicant or the appellant would come up to the dais and they wouldn't be in front of the microphone

But I think I got the gist of it and it seemed like it came down to one of the concerns was the fire department's approval for the driveway. I went through all of that, but I don't see the original comment from the fire department in the packet. Do you know why?

It was processed at a type A, and so the applicant provided that within their application that they've already received approval from the fire department, so we didn't do a referral for comments from the agency. Okay.

And the only reason I bring that up is just informational, because it's not, for us, it's not, as long as the fire department's okay, that's not our wheelhouse, so if they tell us okay, that gives us the green light, so... Do you have anything else to add?

No, I think Commissioner Starrett put it just the way that I view this as well is that there's a lot of information, but most of it doesn't pertain to what decision we have today.

Okay.

With that, is there a motion? Motion to uphold the planning director's approval of a request for a principal dwelling provided in conjunction with farm use.

Is there any further discussion?

None for me.

None? All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

And we'll have findings coming back in three weeks. Three weeks for findings.

Thank you very much. Thank you guys and thank you for coming back.

Thank you. Thank you.

And with that, that brings us to K, which is announcements. Commissioner King.

um thank you for the signing onto that letter with me as well um just may is mental health month in june leading up to father's day as men's health week so thank you to that um i attended the aoc transient lodging tax webinar i know you guys don't support that but if you had the chance to listen to the recording it would it's just it's pretty informational um examples of rural counties and um tourist driven counties and coastal counties things like that and how they are leveraging those dollars um Memorial Day, I think Commissioner Starrett and I forgot to mention that last week. And so just a huge thank you to soldiers and fallen soldiers, remembering them. And I have a longstanding tradition with my kids to go camping Memorial Day weekend. So I was out doing that and having a great time with them. Monthly meeting with Jessica Beach in preparation for LIPSC. uh, again, I think I've mentioned this almost every time with department heads is just the budget constraints and, uh, talking about the long session this coming year and, and really advocating for, um, those dollars for both juvenile and, um, adults in custody as well. Um, speaking of lipstick, just want to welcome mayor Kim Morris to the committee. We had, um, We brought her in as one of the elected officials and to be part of that board. And then we heard a great presentation from Provoking Hope and how they're providing support to people who are released and in parole and probation. AOC membership committee and city of Newburgh had their off-year budget committee. They are on a biennium. So hats off to city manager Will Worthy for running that tight ship and having, Paying off some of that debt early as well. And then City of Dundee, discussion and public comment around the McDonald's. They're trying to get rid of the ordinance to allow drive-through. So no fast food. Commissioner Serrett.

I want to give a shout out to our public health department and HHS director, Lindsay Manfred, and all the folks who work in public health. Hopefully you've had a chance to read the Triennial Review Report. It's an overview of all of the programs in public health, and that's what Oregon Health Authority does. And having sat in on some of those, they come in with a fine-tooth comb, and they go through every department, records, you name it. So I just want to say that this review came out. It's a period between 22 and 25, and it's every three years. And they go through everything. And this is a review for the governing body. So I hope you get to look at it to see just how many programs we have and just how well they're doing. So thank you for that. Housing Authority Board meeting talked a little bit about some of the options with HHS. Director Lindsey Manfrin sharing some of the concepts that we use with the Housing Authority regarding the models for the master leases. So in other words, if you want more affordable housing, you might not have to pony up the money, but you can actually have a private developer build it and then we master lease back. So HHS Director Lindsey Manfrin and Vicki Wybargan at Housing Authority are going to be looking at that. The overview on the housing rehabilitation activities There are about under 300 families that are on the wait list. This is a rehabilitation loan. This is for weatherization, windows, variety of different things. So we took a look at some of the updates on those. And I do want to say a special thank you to not only our budget committee, and our budget officer, Ken Huffer, and everybody who worked on it, but also to our chair. The tabloid came out, which talks a little bit about the specifics. So thank you for writing it in such plain English. To anybody who has concerns about the state of Yamhill County's budget or some of the unfounded narrative out there that we're going bankrupt, it's very clear that we are not only not going bankrupt, but we are in a very healthy position. And thank you for writing this. So thank you.

All right, thanks. So Monday was Newberg Memorial Day annual remembrance ceremony. I've attended it multiple times as I did on Monday. And you know, I just appreciate what the men and women and this County appreciate what the men and women have done to sacrifice their lives for service in our nation. So I appreciate Newberg putting that on, uh, as a remembrance every single year on Memorial day at 11 AM. So, um, it would be nice to see it is a fairly healthy crowd that goes to that, but it is a very good ceremony. Um, if you ever get a chance, uh, make sure that you come to that next year. Um, We are getting close to moving. So I don't know if Ken, you wanna just, I'm not looking for a date. But I want to get just a heads up that we will be virtual for a few weeks coming up here in the near future as a BOC as we move room 32 over to OMI. So do you want to just kind of just touch a little bit on that?

Yeah, correct. We're still working on exact timeline for the implementation, but correct. The new hearing room is proceeding nicely. We anticipate that The construction portion of it should be finished up in the next couple weeks. Right now, it's the installing of equipment, and we may need to go virtual for a timeframe because we have equipment that we're moving from this room to the new hearing room. You know, we're working on, you know, that could be a two to three week window. We're trying to give the contractor as much flexibility as possible to not only move the equipment, but then so we can come in and do our testing and training because we are going to have some new elements that's being added to the hearing room, additional projectors and some other things that are coming into the space. So I hope to have a definitive timeline by next week. Because again, I'm working with our IT director and our project manager as well as the contractors. I'm trying to find that perfect window that we can do that. And then also I want to coordinate with Ken because of looking at land use hearings. you know trying to avoid doing those types of hearings in a virtual setting yes you know absolutely so trying to find that perfect window but we're close okay you know um and then i would just add that we're also targeting for when the new hearing room is set up is putting together uh basically a ribbon cutting event for that first formal session so seeing how um after you know 60 years in this space, in this room. We're moving to a new location. That'll be the new location for the Board of Commissioners to hold hearings for the next 60 years. So looking at putting together an event so then we can also unveil the new meeting space to the public as well. So hopefully I'll commit to next week is when we're, you know, I should have a better idea of what that timeline is going to look like. We've floated around several ideas. So I have like different scenarios in my head right now. So I don't really want to commit to one of those before Shane starts calling me. I'm like, no. Yeah.

Not looking for a commitment, just more for everybody listening so that they're aware of one day you might show up here and they're like, oh, we're not here. So we're going to try to at least give at least a week's heads up probably.

I've told them I want to give at least two weeks notice and that notice will not only include announcements at formal session, but we'll have postings on the website and... And even if we have to do a notice in the newspaper, we can do that as well. So we're going to try to communicate out so then folks aren't coming here to an empty room.

Or if Hillary does come here, it's her fault.

Mayor Malkinson will show up.

Where are you?

But we also anticipate, in addition to the hearing room, that Board of Commissioners and administration should be moving probably in July.

All right. um there is no planning commission next week there's nothing on the docket and there will be no chat with the chair next week i have a scholarship presentation at yam hill carlton high school for the ambassadors that are out there one ambassador that's out there and then mcminnville i think is next week but it doesn't coincide with another meeting so no chat with the chair next thursday um And with that, if there's nothing else really good at the order, I'm going to close this out at 1043. Thank you all for coming.