[0:00] What we're going to do is each of us
commissioners are going to give a uh
[0:03] quick rundown of what's going on in our
districts because the way we treat the
[0:07] districts is each commissioner is
responsible for their district and I'll
[0:10] put up a map here in a moment showing
what those districts look like, but each
[0:14] of us have the boundaries for our
districts and those are our folks that
[0:17] we represent. So, uh Kevin represents
those out there in district 1 and I
[0:22] represent district two, which is the top
of Wanche and up to Stevens Pass. And
[0:26] then Commissioner Hawkins does the north
end of Wanche all the way to Steaken. So
[0:30] each of those areas are broken up in
areas of population. So each of us
[0:35] represent the same number of people in
the county, but the square miles. Kevin
[0:40] is small but mighty out there in Malaga.
And then Commissioner Hawkins and I both
[0:44] have pretty big districts up there that
don't have a lot of road systems in them
[0:47] sometimes. So it's focused on the
population base. Okay. With that, uh, if
[0:52] you would hold your questions, write
them down and let us go through our
[0:56] presentations, and then if you have
questions, we're going to open this up
[0:59] for a very long question and answer
period so that you can share with the
[1:03] commissioners what's going on or if you
have questions about the government, uh,
[1:06] the local government here. So with that
uh we will go first to a slideshow
[1:14] that will give a couple talking points
here to go over talking about of course
[1:19] that's our beautiful courthouse
Jill. We just had our 100redy year
[1:24] anniversaryund
[1:27] » 102. Yeah.
[1:37] Oh, there we go. Okay, so this is back
to the districts and you can see right
[1:40] there, uh, they're broken out in colors.
So, Commissioner Hawkins is up there in
[1:44] the third and then I'm there in the
second and, uh, Commissioner Overbeay is
[1:48] down there in the bottom first. And if
you're not quite sure what district
[1:53] you're in, the very easy way to do that
is to look at your ballot and see what
[1:56] commissioner is on the line for a
primary, and that will tell you who your
[2:01] commissioner is. or you can go to our
GIS mapping system we have here at the
[2:05] county. Type in your address and it'll
pop right up which one of the three of
[2:08] us you're going to call when you have a
question or a comment or whatnot. I kind
[2:13] of uh share that we feel like air
traffic controllers oftent times because
[2:17] the they go straight to the top, get
their commissioner on the line and then
[2:21] we're able to direct it out to a
department that can answer a question
[2:24] little more better than we can
sometimes. So we always uh fall back on
[2:28] that. Um let's see. Number two.
So, one of the things that uh we have to
[2:35] remind people is we have a lot of
elected officials here in the county
[2:40] that are all equals to us commissioners.
And oftentimes they'll call and say, "I
[2:44] have a problem with this person or that
person." We say, "Well, they're their
[2:46] own elected official." So, we have the
auditor, Skip Moore. We have the
[2:49] assessor, Wes Cornelius. We have the
treasurer, Dave Griffiths. We have, of
[2:53] course, the sheriff Mike Morrison back
there and the coroner Earl Crowe. Then
[2:57] over in the clerk's office, we have
Marty Young. In the prosecutor's office,
[3:00] we have Robert Sealby. And then district
court judges, we have two of them, Alan
[3:05] Blackman and John Bolan. And the
superior court judges is uh Robert
[3:09] Jordan, Travis Brent, and Kristen
Ferrer. So when we're talking about what
[3:14] it is that the county commissioners
actually have access to, those elected
[3:19] officials are responsible for their own
jobs that they're elected to do. And
[3:22] they say, "Well, why can't you call the
assessor and get my taxes down? Why
[3:25] can't you call the auditor and check on
my my election stuff? Well, those those
[3:31] elected officials have their own
departments. The one thing that we do
[3:34] have influence on is the budgets because
the budgets for the Schlan County, each
[3:39] of those departments have their own
budget, but us commissioners are the
[3:43] ones that are responsible for tightening
the budget up or getting it closer to a
[3:47] balance or making it so that it works
effectively so that we spend your
[3:51] taxpayer dollars the most intelligent
way that we possibly can. And that's
[3:54] what us three commissioners take very
very seriously. Once a year we go
[3:59] through the budget. We start picking it
apart in about October, get it finalized
[4:03] the end of December so that we know
where we're going for in this case 2027.
[4:08] So as we go down through there, we look
at some of the things that the county
[4:11] administrator or the county
commissioners are directly responsible
[4:14] for. And we have the county
administrator, of course, and we have
[4:17] economic services, community
development, natural resources, regional
[4:21] justice center, and public works. And
then from there, you go all the way down
[4:25] to the bottom and the commissioners have
a whole bunch of boards that we sit on
[4:29] that is part of our job duties that we
do on a monthly basis, weekly basis, or
[4:34] a quarterly basis depending on what
those are. And we divide those boards up
[4:37] between the three commissioners.
Sometimes it's district specific as to
[4:41] where a majority of that action goes in
those boards. And some of them are just
[4:45] where our interest points are, uh,
things that we're interested in in the
[4:48] county and the boards that we sit on.
So, we split those up between us
[4:52] commissioners.
One of the things that I also like to uh
[4:56] remind people when we're talking about
county government, our jurisdiction
[5:00] stops at city limits. So, if you have a
mayor, you live inside of an
[5:06] incorporated uh area like Wanche,
Cashmere, Levvenworth, Annatalam.
[5:12] Did I miss any?
>> Yeah, I think I got them all. outside of
[5:18] those areas that are incorporated that
have a mayor and a city council. That's
[5:21] where our jurisdiction starts. So the
unincorporated areas of like uh we're
[5:26] going to go Chalan Falls, Manson,
Staken, Pashastan, Dryen, Lake Wanche,
[5:31] Plane, and I can't forget Malaga, Vicki.
I never can.
[5:36] That that is our jurisdiction and that's
where we end up doing our work. We don't
[5:40] stay out of the cities. Sometimes we
work with the cities as we're touching
[5:43] borders or issues that are going to
affect the county and the city. So we do
[5:47] have work that we do inside of Chalan
and Levworth and Cashmere and Wanche.
[5:52] But that you have to remind yourself
that bump in your sidewalk is a city
[5:56] issue. It's not a county issue.
Sometimes the calls come in, our road
[5:59] didn't get plowed. We look it up and we
find out where it's at. We're actually
[6:02] in the city limits. My garbage didn't
get picked up. Well, it's waste
[6:05] management. We have no control over
that. The dogs barking out loud all
[6:09] night long. Well, we do have a little
bit influence at animal control. So,
[6:13] that's some of the some of the
differences between city government and
[6:15] county government. We have a much
broader um uh coverage area.
[6:22] One of the things that I also learned
coming into this early as a new
[6:25] commissioner is the fact that way back
in the old days, county commissioners
[6:29] were actually road commissioners and
that was the that was the main uh
[6:32] authority and obligation of a county
commissioner was roads and bridges. As
[6:36] you can see, as you go down through our
org chart here, it has grown into so
[6:40] many other things that the county does
now that we as commissioners are not
[6:45] only responsible for, but we have
guidance in and we have discretion in uh
[6:49] when you're looking at the different
departments of the county.
[6:53] So, with that, I'm going to hand off to
district one commissioner Kevin
[6:58] Overbade. He has a few slides he'd like
to show and share some things going on
[7:02] out there in District One. Take
>> Thank you, Sean. Appreciate it. So, uh,
[7:06] welcome everybody and those folks that
are online. Uh, Kevin Overbay. I am
[7:10] actually starting the second year of my
third term and so I've been been doing
[7:14] this job for a little while. Uh, as Sean
said, I am the commissioner representing
[7:19] District 1. We are small, but we are
mighty. And you can actually see that I
[7:23] actually have that on my door there, uh,
you know, from my office. But, uh, a lot
[7:27] of things going on in the Malaga area.
And I do see some familiar faces here
[7:30] from my district. Uh, so we'll just kind
of jump right into it. But I've got
[7:35] really four areas that I'm going to
cover. Uh they're giving us about 10
[7:38] minutes or so just to kind of share out.
The first one that I wanted to talk
[7:41] about was actually the tiff and and
that's tax increment financing area. A
[7:44] lot of folks have heard a lot of
information over the last year or so
[7:48] with regards to the regional port in the
tax increment area in the Malaga uh
[7:52] area. So basically
this really kind of shows the 3,300 plus
[7:58] acres that the uh is the boundary of the
tax increment area that the port has uh
[8:03] has decided that they were going to take
action on and move forward with. Uh just
[8:07] to give you a little bit of background,
we uh received information from the port
[8:10] around April of last year that they were
thinking about doing this and uh we had
[8:15] a meeting with them in June and then
worked throughout the course of the
[8:18] summer to try to reach a resolution of a
partnership or something where you know
[8:22] we're in the middle of our comprehensive
planning update right now. Uh I'll talk
[8:26] a little bit more about UG urban growth
area a little bit later in my
[8:30] presentation but basically it asked uh
for a little bit of a pause for them to
[8:34] kind of come to the table with us kind
of work some things out and uh see what
[8:39] would be in the best interest of folks
not only today but well into tomorrow
[8:43] considering that tax increment area is
good for 25 years that's the longevity
[8:47] of a tax increment area and uh so as we
move through that process uh we uh we
[8:53] found that we weren't really kind of
agreeing on the direction and so forth.
[8:57] The statute allowed for the port as well
as a PUD or even a county or even a city
[9:02] to implement a a tax increment area. And
so as we went through that, we decided
[9:07] that we would go ahead and impose a
moratorum on tax increment areas in
[9:11] unincorporated Chalan County. That was
challenged by the port. Uh they did get
[9:15] a judgment in their favor. Uh but we I
will tell you that we are in the process
[9:20] of the appeal of that uh of that
superior court of the trial court. uh
[9:25] judgment on that particular case. So
that is still pending.
[9:29] So that will f I'll fast forward to uh
basically December 23rd. We had
[9:34] requested that they wait until January
27th to impose the uh tax increment
[9:39] area. Um because we wanted to really get
we we're talking about an interlocal
[9:43] agreement. There was a couple of offers
made back and forth and we thought that
[9:47] we'd basically kind of landed on one
that would work for everybody. And it's
[9:50] not and the reason why we want to do
that is this. Tax income in areas take
[9:55] two forms of funding. They take the
differential of property value as it
[9:59] improves and improvements are made. It
takes that differential and it also what
[10:03] it does is it takes new construction and
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail
[10:07] with regards to that. If you want to
know more, please catch me after the
[10:10] meeting or send me an email. But
basically what it does is when we look
[10:14] at property taxes, the county for the
services that we provide in any other J
[10:19] taxing district or junior taxing
district like a fire department
[10:22] basically can increase that by 1% on the
aggregate. So if we were to take in $16
[10:27] million in property tax, we can increase
that by $160,000.
[10:31] Doesn't even keep up with inflation. The
other thing that we get with the
[10:34] property taxes though is we get uh new
construction. And that new construction
[10:37] sometimes is two to $500,000. uh that
basically is additive to create that new
[10:42] lawful legal limit or basically highest
leg legal limit. And with regards to tax
[10:49] increment areas, what the county will
lose is not only the differential and
[10:53] the tax elements, but we will also lose
the new construction. And so basically,
[10:58] when we talk to communities and say we'd
like to bring an industry in to your
[11:02] community, it will create jobs. It will
create sales tax revenue that helps keep
[11:06] taxes low. But what it also does is
offset the property tax. And when the
[11:11] with the offset of the property tax,
what that means is your per thousand
[11:14] rate goes down. Reason being is let's
say we have an overall value in the
[11:18] county of $20 billion. And you have an
entity that comes in and they basically
[11:22] are now worth $5 billion of that. So
basically the increase is a 25. They now
[11:27] take on one of the tax burden. So if
you're paying a dollar a thousand, they
[11:32] would take on one fifth of that. your
tax rate would then go down to 80 cents
[11:36] a thousand because they're picking up
the other 20. It doesn't add. A lot of
[11:40] folks think that new construction and
new businesses add to the value of what
[11:45] the county has. It is the value, but
it's not to the tax base because we're
[11:48] capped at that 1%. So with a tax
increment area, what happens is we lose
[11:53] that differential. So you, the taxpayer,
actually still continue to pay the same
[11:57] amount that's locked in. you don't get
the tax break and that funding funding
[12:02] is then siphoned off to then use for
infrastructure improvements
[12:06] and there's no offset. So if there's new
roadways that are built there's no
[12:10] offset to maintain those there's no
offset to plow those that becomes an
[12:14] additional burden to the county you the
taxpayer and then we if we don't have
[12:18] the funding either have to raise taxes
to get the funding just to meet minimum
[12:22] services or we don't meet those minimum
services. Thus you can see the position
[12:26] of the county. So basically in uh we had
asked they had made their decision
[12:32] December 23rd went ahead and imposed a
tiff by resolution. We did have a joint
[12:36] meeting with them on the 13th of January
went through an interlocal agreement
[12:40] with them that we had been talking about
for a couple of weeks and basically came
[12:45] to what we felt was an agreement. Now,
the downside to the law is the law
[12:50] required us basically 90 days or excuse
me, 30 days after they imposed the tax
[12:55] increment area that if we wish to
challenge it, we had to file a lawsuit
[13:00] within that 30-day period. That 30-day
period was January 22nd.
[13:04] So, we had asked to wait. They did not
wait. We did not come to a resolution as
[13:10] far as a signed document on the 13th of
January. So the 22nd of January, we had
[13:16] no choice but to at least protect and
hold our position in the courts by
[13:21] filing a lawsuit. We did it jointly with
uh the Wache Fire Department as well as
[13:26] Douglas County because they also are
impacted by a tax increment area.
[13:31] On the 27th or excuse me, on the 26th,
we requested a copy of the interlocal
[13:35] agreement that we had all agreed to.
They sent us their copy. It was all the
[13:39] language is done. We signed it the next
day and Commissioner Smith delivered it
[13:43] and delivered six wet copies to the port
and the response was they had not
[13:47] reviewed it. And so we basically gave
the last 60 days that went up until last
[13:52] Tuesday for the port to respond to the
signed interlocal agreement. Built into
[13:58] that interlocal agreement was section 7.
And basically I will go ahead and
[14:02] forward the slide. There's three QR
codes here. One of them is the
[14:06] interlocal agreement. One of them is our
court complaint to the port. And then
[14:09] the other one's a video of Commissioner
Smith last week
[14:13] basically um presenting to the port
during the public comment period asking
[14:18] the port what their position was with
regards to signing the interlocal
[14:21] agreement only to be told that the
interlocal agreement was not going to be
[14:25] signed by the port that they were at an
impass because we had filed a lawsuit
[14:29] against them. Throughout the course of
from January to this point, there was a
[14:33] couple of conversations that they
basically wanted us to talk Douglas
[14:36] County out of a lawsuit, get the fire
district to drop their lawsuit. The
[14:40] downside to that is if we drop the
lawsuit without a signed under local
[14:43] agreement, we lose our ability to then
challenge the the uh tax increment area.
[14:48] So, where we're at right now is
basically we uh there was a provision in
[14:54] the interlocal agreement in section 7
and if you do get the QR code and read
[14:58] that in that section 7 we basically had
agreed that if we filed a lawsuit they
[15:02] knew we were going to that we would
dismiss the lawsuit with a signature of
[15:06] the interlocal agreement and basically
they now want us to now dismiss the
[15:10] lawsuit before they'll sign it and
that's something that we can't do. We
[15:13] will not give up our standing in the
courts and we will not do that to the
[15:16] citizens of Schlank County. So
unfortunately we're right now according
[15:20] to a quote from one of the commissioners
in the video apparently we're at an
[15:24] impass and so we have no op, you know,
basically uh option but to go ahead and
[15:29] move forward with litigation. That's was
the last thing that my seatmates and I
[15:33] wanted to do. So we tried every effort
we could to get to a resolution because
[15:37] I do know that me as a citizen I don't
want my governments arguing and fighting
[15:42] with my taxpayer dollars and it's not
the best use. But unfortunately, we do
[15:46] have to basically take our stand on this
to protect the taxpayer in in Schlank
[15:52] County. So that's kind of where we
currently stand with regards to the
[15:55] tiff.
The next item that uh I'll talk about is
[15:59] regional pathways master plan. About two
years ago, there was funding that we uh
[16:04] had provided uh out of a federal grant
that was extra dollars that we were able
[16:08] to secure into the area as well as some
uh private funding. And we actually uh
[16:13] the Schlan Douglas Transportation
Council hired Alta as the uh consultant
[16:18] and basically looked at five different
pathways to connect communities. So
[16:22] basically the hub being the city of Wan
that a connected pathway all the way
[16:26] from Wanachi to Levvenworth, one from
basically Rock Island to East Wanache,
[16:31] one from Malaga to Wan that one from uh
Chalan to Manson. All that work has been
[16:37] done and completed. the on I will say
that on March 12th the transportation
[16:41] council adopted the pathways plan. And
what does that mean? The adoption of the
[16:45] pathways plan does not mean that it's
going to automatically be built. What it
[16:48] means is now the communities that want
to build those pathways, want to do the
[16:53] work to do that can now identify their
pathways, move along. What came out of
[16:57] that work was uh the most reasonable
alignments with regards to cost as well
[17:01] as the ability to basically get the
pathway built without incurring a lot of
[17:06] encroachment on private properties
mostly on rideways. It may not be the
[17:10] most scenic route but what it does is
does provide that access and that
[17:13] connectivity at a lot lower cost but
also something that we have not had in
[17:18] the past. So the QR code here basically
will lead you to the uh pathways master
[17:22] plan. You can take a look at that. What
I will tell you is the Malaga uh
[17:26] pathway. We are moving forward with
that. Um uh as far as the funding
[17:31] element, um our natural resources
department has applied about 3 weeks ago
[17:35] for a build grant. They had applied last
year. We were I think in the top 10, but
[17:38] didn't didn't make the money. This year
hopefully we've uh were able to to get
[17:42] into the money to maybe actually do a
multimotal pathway for pedestrians and
[17:47] bicyclists to safely get off the Malaga
Alcoa Highway to traverse from Malaga to
[17:51] Wanachi. So,
and happy to answer questions uh when it
[17:55] comes to the Q&A time on this. The next
item I wanted to discuss that's going on
[17:59] in Malaga is the Malaga Waterfront Park.
Uh this has been about four years in the
[18:03] in the process. We've worked with the
Malag clock community council. Um when
[18:06] we did our shoreline master program,
Malaga was identified as the only
[18:09] community in Schlan County that don't
have public access to water. And so over
[18:13] the course of the last four years, we've
looked at different park concepts. The
[18:17] county uh with uh uh assistance from the
recreational conservation office, state
[18:22] of Washington has received grant funding
as well as used other county funds and
[18:26] in partnership with the PUD under their
early investment program for the
[18:29] relicensing of Rock Island Dam has been
able to acquire currently 48 acres and
[18:34] we have an additional 4 acres we're
looking to acquire. So it' be a total of
[18:37] 52 acres that will have been acquired by
Schlang County equaling almost a mile
[18:42] and a half of waterfront along the
Malaga waterfront there for a riverfront
[18:45] park for the community of Malaga. So
we're right now in the process of of
[18:51] looking at the uh park planning as far
as the design as well as uh identifying
[18:57] some additional funding to build out the
park. Uh one of the things that I will
[19:01] say that we were able to achieve and
again hats off to Mike and his uh his
[19:05] department. they're really good at grant
writing and bringing dollars into the
[19:08] community was the ability for us to get
a federal rail grant uh to the tune of $
[19:14] 1.5 million. And so, uh we'll receive
that funding within the next three
[19:18] months. And we're actually going to
start to do some work on uh uh the
[19:22] intersection at West Maliga Road,
Malagalcoa Highway, and Goose Rock Lane,
[19:26] which would be the entrance into the
park area. And what that will be is that
[19:30] will be some intersection improvement
there, decelerate or excuse me, a turn
[19:34] pocket and acceleration lane as well as
a um updated grade crossing with
[19:40] crossarss and so forth. And so that way
uh we're going to be putting that safety
[19:43] mechanism in place. So uh a lot of great
things happening with regards to that.
[19:48] And then the last do uh item I wanted to
touch on was a Malaga urban growth area.
[19:51] In 2006, the Malaga community went
through a planning uh visioning
[19:56] statement which was now 20 years ago. Um
it it seems like it was just yesterday.
[20:01] I was actually part of that group that
did that when I was on the Malaga
[20:05] council and you know basically created
Lambert designations within the
[20:09] community with all the growth that is
going on and everything that is
[20:12] occurring in Malaga. We've now had
conversations with the Malaga Council as
[20:17] well as community members about an urban
growth area. Currently, right now,
[20:20] Chalan County has three unincorporated
urban growth areas. Um, excuse me, two
[20:26] two unincorporated
urban growth areas. Uh, community of
[20:30] Manson and the community of Bashton are
the uh other unincorporated growth
[20:34] management areas. So, basically what
this does is this allows for uh greater
[20:38] opportunity in the Malaga area uh
greater density with regards to if
[20:42] wastewater is then brought in with
regards to sewer system. It also uh
[20:46] allows for better opportunity for
commercial space. Currently, right now,
[20:50] we're limited because uh we are within
10 miles of the Wachi UG to 5,000 square
[20:54] feet of retail space. That's all we can
have in uh in our area under commercial
[21:00] um um zoning. So, basically, this will
open up a greater opportunity not only
[21:05] for additional housing opportunities,
but also business opportunities in the
[21:08] Malaga area as well as services and
amenities. So the Malaga Clock Community
[21:12] Council has actually formed a
subcommittee made up of council members
[21:15] as well as members of the community. Uh
they we actually asked them to take a
[21:20] look at the Manson as well as the
Pashastan codes as far as the zoning
[21:24] codes and they kind of have I think uh
moved more towards the Pastan to kind of
[21:28] adopt similar codes to what they have as
far as their zoning uh opportunities.
[21:33] They are actually holding uh council
meetings are going to be held April 14th
[21:38] as well as May 7th and those will be at
4 402 Dixie Lane which is actually the
[21:43] intersection of Dixie Lane and Sard
Avenue the crossroads mission that
[21:46] church that is located there and then
the county will actually uh have our
[21:50] meeting on the 18th and that location
and time is yet to be determined. So
[21:54] basically uh there's doing a lot of work
uh with regards to that but I'm just
[21:58] going to take just another couple of
minutes. I want to ask Mike if he has
[22:01] anything he wants to provide either on
the pathways or the Malaga Park a little
[22:05] information and then I'll go to Dena
just to maybe give any additional UG
[22:08] updates. So Mike
>> and I want to say I will stay around
[22:12] after the commission presentation
covered every single point that we
[22:17] talked about this morning presentation.
So I don't have anything else to add.
[22:21] » Okay. Would you put a picture back up of
the parking? My camera wouldn't work.
[22:26] » Of the
>> park.
[22:28] » Would you warn us so we can smile? Say
one, two, three.
[22:33] » What if I want to be in it?
>> And understand this is a conceptual
[22:37] drawing. It's not the actual planning
that's happening there. So Dina,
[22:41] anything you want to talk about UG?
>> No. Again, yeah, you pretty much covered
[22:46] everything. The only thing that's a
little bit outstanding is the
[22:50] justification for growth area um is the
need for additional commercial space.
[22:56] There's some inherent issues with septic
systems in the uh well protection radius
[23:02] for the Malaga water district. So we're
starting the process to look at a sewer
[23:08] system planning
project. It probably won't be
[23:13] implemented even if approved for
numerous years. But this is the first
[23:17] step to being able to grow community.
So, and I'll stay around for any
[23:23] questions afterwards also.
>> Yeah. And the one thing that I did not
[23:27] mention is the reason why we're looking
at this, the county and as well as with
[23:32] our moratorum, the county is actually in
the middle of its comprehensive planning
[23:35] update that is due by the end of this
year. The UG will probably not be
[23:38] completed by this year, but probably
we're shooting for the end of the first
[23:41] quarter of next year. So, but uh there
will be a lot of opportunities for folks
[23:46] in the Malaga area to weigh in on this
process, take a look at what the
[23:49] boundary is of the UG, and then take a
look at the zoning elements within the
[23:54] uh confines of the boundary. So, and
that's all I have for you all tonight.
[23:58] I'll turn it over to my uh seatmate,
Commissioner Smith from uh District 2.
[24:02] » Great. And like I said, we're just
>> Sorry.
[24:06] » Oh, no. You can hit the QR code for the
movie. I thought about putting the movie
[24:09] in and I will let you go ahead and do
that at your pleasure. I didn't want you
[24:13] all out there on your phones watching
the movie while we were trying to talk.
[24:15] So,
>> all right. Well, thank you everyone.
[24:19] Appreciate that. Uh, Commissioner
Overbay, District Two, moving on to my
[24:23] district. Um, have three topics I want
to bring up tonight. Uh, the first one
[24:27] is something very exciting for the
community of Plane. Plane, of course, is
[24:31] the small town just outside of
Levvenworth up over Beaver Hill. And
[24:34] they're kind of isolated and they're
kind of have their own identity up
[24:37] there. and they're feeling some of the
same pressures that we're feeling in
[24:40] other parts of the county when it comes
to tourism.
[24:44] As I know, you know, those that are
watching the news and even watching the
[24:48] Seattle news, there are areas of our
county that are just being loved to
[24:51] death by the tourists and the residents
as well, but the tourists because of the
[24:55] impact and the massive numbers that come
to just certain areas, whether it be up
[25:00] in the enchantments, whether it be uh
Lake Chalan, whether it be Alala Canyon
[25:05] for the balsam uh uh flowering that's
about to happen. So what we're doing uh
[25:11] part of our impact study that we had for
our tourism impact study was to find
[25:15] areas where we could point overcrowding
to and spread out through the county and
[25:20] share not only where the load goes but
also where that revenue dollar goes and
[25:24] help out the other communities in Chelan
County that don't necessarily get that
[25:28] tourism impact dollar. So we have uh
pretty exciting news to share. Um, we
[25:34] are currently working on a purchase sale
agreement for a piece of property up in
[25:38] Plane that is going to end up being the
Plain Community Park. They have nowhere
[25:43] up in Plane to gather together for their
winter sports, for their summer sports,
[25:48] for their spring and and fall sports.
The tourists that come through there,
[25:52] they're like, "Well, what else do we do
here?" So plane is really wanting to
[25:56] capitalize on that traffic coming
through and saying hang out here for a
[25:59] little bit, stay, and of course spend a
little money in our community. So we
[26:04] don't quite have the announcement ready
to let you know where that is going to
[26:07] be, but Schlank County plans on owning
about 18 acres of uh Plane central area
[26:13] that we can actually build a park up
there for the residents of Plane. It'll
[26:18] uh take in part of their uh
cross-country skiing, which has become
[26:22] very popular up there with their ski
teams that they have for the kids, and
[26:25] the trails that are connected not only
to private land, but also public lands
[26:29] uh through cooperation and easements to
get to the public lands to go up and
[26:34] explore in that upper upper valley up
there. So, uh, that outcome of that
[26:39] study was the need for more trail heads
and be able to spread out that
[26:42] recreation so that we don't get crushed
in certain small pockets of the
[26:46] community because the tourists are going
to come. This is a unbelievably
[26:50] beautiful place to come and visit and
recreate and some end up staying here
[26:55] because they fall in love with it just
like some of you probably have as well.
[26:58] So, um, stay tuned and we'll be ready to
share more of that as we get the
[27:03] purchase and sale agreement, uh,
finalized and we're currently doing the
[27:07] homework on the property to make sure
that we're, you know, environmentally
[27:10] and culturally sensitive to what is in
that area so that we're able to build
[27:14] upon that and make it a place that
everyone up in plane can be proud of.
[27:18] So, stay tuned for that one. Um the
second uh topic I want to share with you
[27:23] is something that we have coming up.
It's actually in the corner of district
[27:27] three,
[27:31] our new old station campus. This has
been how many years?
[27:35] » Four.
>> Four years of Kevin's uh time here at
[27:38] the county. And uh Ron came in at just
exactly the right time. We found a piece
[27:43] of land out there um that was not for
sale at the time. It had a different use
[27:48] intended for it. and then the owners of
the property offered it up and said, "We
[27:52] hear you guys want to build a campus
where you can take and consolidate some
[27:56] of the things that you have going on
here at the county." So, the coroner and
[27:59] emergency management services are going
to be moving out there. Actually, those
[28:03] two are actually moving in right now.
And I know the sheriff is helping out
[28:06] with that with his emergency management
services, which is currently tenants out
[28:11] at the uh old station uh fire hall fire
station on the north end of town. So
[28:16] it's just down the road from that. On
this side of the picture over there is
[28:20] where Weinstein Beverages and
Countryside Vets and then on the other
[28:24] side is the Mini Storage and then goes
out towards the roundabout there at
[28:28] Still. It's uh the address is 425 Omi
Garden Road. And uh like I say, it's
[28:33] going to be the new home for the
motorpool operations and the offices
[28:37] emergency management and the county
coroner. Um just some stats on that. The
[28:42] buildings are 18,000 square foot a
piece. And there's three of the
[28:46] buildings out there. ABC. Yeah. Just
ABC. And then on this side over here is
[28:51] the covered um uh
>> bullpen.
[28:55] » Bullpin for uh vehicles that are
impounded. That was one of the things
[28:59] that we really needed here in the county
was the fact to be able to lock up a
[29:03] vehicle. They needed to get a search
warrant on it where they were currently
[29:07] stored. It's easy to hop the fence in
the middle of the night, get out of
[29:10] whatever that car you don't want to be
caught with when the inspection starts.
[29:14] And so we have a place to lock up
vehicles now and protect them because we
[29:18] are responsible for those vehicles until
the owner is able to either get the car
[29:21] out of impound or if they're
incarcerated, we're responsible for that
[29:25] vehicle. So if it gets trashed in an
unprotected area, the county is now
[29:30] responsible for that. So we have a nice
bullpen out there that's protected with
[29:33] fencing, lots of lights, lots of
cameras. Um the construction cost was
[29:39] about 7.8 million and it took about a
year to go from dirt to uh uh roofing
[29:46] and uh the move in is already started.
The ground was an additional $1.8
[29:51] million and so we were budgeting at
about $8.6 million for the construction
[29:56] on this and we came in at 7.8 because
Ron is a miser over there and he did a
[30:01] really good job keeping track of the
expenses on this building and kept it
[30:04] going. So, we're very proud of that. Um,
it was paid for by county funds so that,
[30:10] uh, we were able to build this entire
complex here, uh, with the community in
[30:14] mind. Um, the groundbreaking event for
this is Thursday, April 16th at 10 a.m.
[30:21] if anybody, not groundbreaking, ribbon
cutting, the ribbon cutting,
[30:26] » so that you can come out and see all of
these areas that uh are going to be uh
[30:30] utilized at a much greater use than
being spread out all around the county.
[30:35] This is kind of a central hub out there
at the north end where the sheriff's
[30:38] department and EM can dispatch from and
uh get to all corners of the county much
[30:43] quicker than being spread out three or
four different locations. Equipment
[30:46] stored in city garages and uh other
places where they have to do a lot of
[30:52] gathering before they can get out. So,
we're very proud of that. Um the uh
[30:57] motorpool is getting ready to move out
there and they are currently across the
[31:01] street over here. That old building over
there is going to actually be demolished
[31:07] once the move is totally done. And we
currently have uh the lift equipment for
[31:12] the vehicles and all the maintenance
equipment that's necessary for the motor
[31:16] pool to be uh installed and then they
can make the final move out there. And a
[31:21] lot of the cars that are parked down
here in between us and the central uh
[31:26] library will be moved out to that area
as well. So, we're going to increase
[31:31] some additional parking out here. But
part of that 20-year capital plan calls
[31:35] for that building once it's vacated to
be actually demolished. And hopefully in
[31:40] the future, maybe one of the three of us
will still be around when a new building
[31:44] is constructed and additional uh space
is created here at the county to uh
[31:49] serve the other departments, including
the prosecuting office and the uh county
[31:53] jail as well. So, um, with that, I'm
going to jump next to
[32:00] something that has been very, very,
uh, a very big desire for more fire
[32:06] protection up in district 2. I know
there's other areas in districts one and
[32:11] three that also have concerns, but
district two is the ranked the highest
[32:17] fire risk in the Pacific Northwest. And
if any of you are familiar with that
[32:22] chumstick all the way to Lake Wanche and
Stevens Pass, it is a tinder box up
[32:27] there. It's not a matter of if, it's a
matter of when. So, two fire marshals
[32:32] ago or one two one one ago started this
uh investigation as to how could we get
[32:38] some water in those uh far outreaching
areas where it takes 20 30 minutes to
[32:45] get back to town to fill up a a tender
truck in order to be able to go back out
[32:49] and start working on a fire again. So
this uh this idea was uh hatched
[32:58] five years ago, maybe six years, Mike,
at least to where if we were to get some
[33:03] portable water out there that could be
backfilled by city trucks or contract
[33:09] trucks and let the firefighters continue
to go out and work on the fire, but have
[33:14] a place to go back and refill their
truck that is not a 40minut run back to
[33:18] town.
So, this idea of placing at least 10 of
[33:24] them up in the upper valley uh locations
around Nason Ridge and Koh's Corner and
[33:30] the Chumstick area would make it so that
that turnaround trip to get back to the
[33:33] fire and keep working on it is much
faster. So, we're very grateful for uh
[33:38] congressional uh investment and uh
Representative Kim Shrier was
[33:43] instrumental in this, but uh she came up
with about $860
[33:48] $893,000
to start this project out for Chalan
[33:52] County.
>> We don't have a desire to own these
[33:55] tanks. we are the intermediary in
between the funding and the placement
[34:00] and then on to an owner that would then
take over the maintenance of that uh for
[34:04] its life cycle. So we have uh several
locations that are already picked out
[34:09] and we're working on agreements with
that and we're hoping to get them
[34:12] installed spring and summer of this
year. So if we can if we can beat the
[34:15] fire season that we all think is
probably coming with the pretty light
[34:18] winter that we had, that'll be a huge
bonus. And for those that are in that
[34:23] upper valley, um we have all experienced
outrageous homeowners insurance on our
[34:29] homes. And many of us have gotten
cancelled and have to go out and shop
[34:33] new insurance. One of the main reasons
behind that is the fire rating up in
[34:37] those areas is so high that if there's
not a fire station close by, they say
[34:42] that you're too high of a risk. So,
we're really hoping that as we place
[34:46] these around the community, the
insurance companies will then realize
[34:48] and go, "Wait a minute, these
communities are firewise. They're
[34:51] actually getting ahead of this and
they're making it so that we don't have
[34:54] such catastrophic losses if a fire does
break out." So, this is a great uh
[34:59] investment for the community and those
upper valley folks, including myself,
[35:03] are going to be very appreciative of
having copious amounts of water, 20,000
[35:07] gallons at a time per tank. And these
tanks are mobile. They have a set of
[35:10] wheels on the back, so they can be
moved. They can be relocated. They can
[35:14] be permanently affixed, but everything
will be set up and hooked up so the fire
[35:18] trucks have the exact attachments to go
in, refill their trucks, liquidity
[35:22] split, back out on the fire. So, and
there's also additional tanks planned
[35:26] for other locations. I know that
Commissioner Hawkins has a couple
[35:29] locations up there that he needs to
focus on as well where water is just too
[35:33] tough to get back to town to get.
Commissioner Overbeay has a couple areas
[35:37] out there that he would like to have
some tanks as well. So, as this program
[35:41] launches, moves forward, and we see the
success rate on it, it'll be much easier
[35:45] to go out there and try and find more
grant money for this so that we can keep
[35:48] the project going.
And with that,
[35:54] I will turn it over to Commissioner
Hawkins for his District 3 update. And
[35:58] then, like I say, we will be coming back
around and allowing plenty of time for
[36:03] questions to be asked of all the
department heads and electives that we
[36:06] have here tonight. So, take it away,
Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner
[36:09] Smith, and thanks everybody for coming
and for participating via Zoom. I'm Brad
[36:14] Hawkins, Commissioner for District 3.
I'm our newest commissioner, so I've
[36:19] only been doing this for just over a
year now, so uh so bear with me, but I
[36:25] have three things to discuss uh tonight.
one is a future Rivercom 911 center uh
[36:33] that is in the works and I'll also be
discussing the Chalane County Regional
[36:38] Justice Center which is also known as
the jail and a flood protection project
[36:44] in Staken. Uh this is um a picture of
the future facility. Um, so as
[36:53] Commissioner Smith mentioned, we all
serve on different boards in addition to
[36:57] our role as county commissioners. So,
Commissioner Overbeay serves on the uh
[37:02] transportation council and link transit
with Commissioner Smith and Commissioner
[37:07] Smith and I both serve on the health
board. Uh but I serve uh on Rivercom and
[37:14] uh if you might not be aware, Rivercom
is um an operation where local
[37:19] jurisdictions have sort of partnered
together, but it is the 911
[37:24] um operation for both Chalan and Douglas
counties. Um, and currently and for many
[37:31] years it's been operating out of the
city of Wanchi's, you know, t top floor
[37:36] there and it's really sort of overgrown
and we need to expand because our
[37:41] twocounty area is growing and the city
of Wanchi police department needs its
[37:46] space back and so uh went ahead and
purchased this facility which I'm not
[37:53] sure if you recognize I think is
formerly CMI
[37:57] uh for apples but it's located on Uklid
Avenue close to the Confluence State
[38:04] Park and the facility I'll actually it's
it's two buildings but they're
[38:08] connected. One will be for the Rivercom
administration and sort of office
[38:13] functions and the other will be for the
operational center. Uh the total cost is
[38:18] about $12.5 million.
Um, a good portion of that is the
[38:24] purchase price of the facility itself.
And so about $4 million has been spent
[38:29] so far to acquire the facility um
throughout. And you probably think,
[38:35] well, what more do you have to do? But
there are a lot of specific standards
[38:39] and earthquake readiness and all these
different things associated with having
[38:44] a 911 control center. So throughout the
the end of this year and next year is
[38:52] when the construction will actually take
place. So we're going through the design
[38:55] and permitting now and hopefully if all
goes well uh we're scheduled to be
[39:00] completed uh by the end of 2027. And I
also serve on the Rivercom board with
[39:06] Sheriff Morrison. He's chaired the board
recently and done a great job. So it's
[39:11] fun to serve on that board with so many
different people in the 2count area.
[39:16] Um each of those we have two different
buildings but they also have two
[39:20] different floors and we'll also have
room to actually have our board meetings
[39:23] there and in and public space. And
recently voters approved overwhelmingly
[39:29] in both counties um a small sales tax
adjustment for Rivercom which will help
[39:35] fund continued and growing operational
support as well as uh some capital
[39:40] needs. We do currently have a a funding
gap in this facility and we're just
[39:45] trying to figure out
what's the best way to close that gap.
[39:48] We did get the approval from the voters.
We might be able to utilize some of that
[39:53] revenue and we're also seeking some uh
federal uh congressional support. And uh
[39:59] this is just kind of another look at
some of the features which will include
[40:04] parking and visitor parking and secured
access. We have a lot of facilities,
[40:09] radio towers, and things that go along
with RiverCom as well. Um, and the next
[40:14] item is our Schlank County Regional
Justice Center. Uh, a lot of people
[40:20] refer to it sometimes as the regional
jail, but that's not actually
[40:24] technically precisely accurate. Uh, and
I'll tell you a little bit more about
[40:28] why, but it is a 267
bed facility. It's located just across
[40:34] the street. And actually, I can see it
through Commissioner Smith's window
[40:39] right now. So,
>> that's both of our views out of our
[40:41] » Yeah, our view is the jail.
>> They're beautiful views of the jail.
[40:45] » Yeah. So, it's it's right there.
>> Our thing, Chris. No offense.
[40:50] Um, but the jail building, you know, is
owned and and the jail is operated by
[40:56] Chalan County and it is a costly
operation and those costs have increased
[41:00] recently due to the growing fentanyl
epidemic and some of the other
[41:05] challenges that we have with, you know,
the inmates that we're now hosting
[41:08] there. But one thing that's important to
point out about the regional justice
[41:13] center is that it functions separately
from our general fund budget and
[41:18] functions as a standalone budget. Um,
and we do have Chris Sharp here who's
[41:23] our jail director. And uh, thanks to
Chris and the hardworking men and women
[41:29] of our regional justice center. They've
won national awards and the
[41:33] commissioners over recent years uh well
before me have invested significantly in
[41:40] our regional jail. Uh cameras, sensors,
K9 units, nursing staff, body scanners,
[41:48] a lot of different things to to keep
that population safe. Uh we have
[41:53] different user groups. Uh that's kind of
how we refer to it at the jail. So
[41:59] Chellane County, we're one because we
host our inmates there. Douglas County,
[42:04] Wanchi, East Wanche. Uh those are the
major user groups that represent the
[42:09] vast majority of the population of the
jail inmates. But we also have Cashmere,
[42:15] Chalan, Levvenworth, INEAT, and uh some
inmates from the Department of
[42:20] Corrections. And and basically the way
this works is that each jurisdiction uh
[42:25] that participates
does so under their own contract that
[42:30] their jurisdiction uh approves. And you
may hear a little bit about this. This
[42:35] is why I wanted to make sure to get this
slide in the presentation is because the
[42:40] contracts are sometimes like three years
or whatever and they're scheduled to
[42:43] expire this year. So December 31st of
this year. Uh so we're we're already in
[42:49] the process of reaching out to the
participants to to to talk about that.
[42:54] Um but it is important that the revenues
from the participating jurisdictions
[43:00] offset the cost um of the jail
operations. So we need to make sure that
[43:06] those revenues equal the expenditures or
else basically the Chalan County
[43:11] taxpayers are in a sense subsidizing the
other jurisdictions. So, um, we look
[43:18] forward to kind of working with those
jurisdictions as we look forward to
[43:23] potential contracts in in future years.
And the last thing for me is a flood
[43:29] protection project that we are sort of
helping to facilitate in a sense uh, up
[43:35] in Sthein. and uh you know the I think
it was the early December flood events
[43:43] that came through um fortunately did not
have widespread impacts in Chalan
[43:49] County. We we definitely had some a lot
of impacts in western Washington and
[43:54] other areas, but uh up lake in Lake
Chalan, we did have some impacts. uh one
[44:00] to the road up to Holden Village uh
which is a US Forest Service owned and
[44:06] operated road and then also we had a lot
of impacts to National Park Service
[44:12] facilities in and around Steaken
including like a wastewater facility
[44:17] that the National Park Service owns and
some of their housing but in particular
[44:22] the Steaken River sort of adjusted
itself during this process and uh this
[44:28] is an image that our natural resources
director Mike Caputo put together with
[44:34] his team and Mike has been doing
exceptional work
[44:38] helping communicate with the folks in in
Stan and with the National Park Service
[44:44] but um basically at the top I don't know
that I can point with this but you'll
[44:49] see that white line across the river it
says Company Creek Road and that was
[44:55] sort of where the road once was before
the flooding event and now the river has
[45:01] adjusted itself completely over the top
of that in one area and actually this
[45:07] image was taken like a couple months ago
I believe and so the the
[45:13] river has adjusted even further so um
but basically the National Park Service
[45:19] this is their property and their project
um the flooding compromised a levey uh a
[45:27] dyke that was constructed there some
years ago. So, we're looking to
[45:32] encourage the National Park Service to
uh rebuild that. And that's what that
[45:37] green bright green line is is what uh
where the National Park Service on their
[45:43] property proposes to build essentially
an elevated road that'll also hopefully
[45:48] serve to protect some of the water
during spring runoff um and other events
[45:55] throughout the year. and it's already
sort of starting to happen now. So,
[45:59] Chalang County sort of in our role, not
just with Mike, but we helped kind of
[46:04] facilitate some rocks to get barged up
to Steakin and uh just this week, the
[46:11] National Park Service and the US Army
Corps of Engineers and others are
[46:16] working to try to complete that project.
probably take a couple weeks and um and
[46:23] hopefully, you know, it will serve to
protect some of the homes on private
[46:28] property below that green line. And so,
um, hopefully I covered everything,
[46:34] Mike, and, uh, we'll be around if
there's other questions about this. But
[46:38] you may have not have heard too much
about this, but believe me, the
[46:42] community of Steaken, which has about
almost 100 yearround residents, are
[46:47] really invested and really concerned
with uh the potential flooding uh that
[46:52] could be that's kind of starting to
happen due to the runoff. But uh, with
[46:57] that, I guess, Commissioner Smith, I'll
pass this over to you. Great report.
[47:01] Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
>> Okay, Annabelle, you're going to take
[47:05] over now, right?
>> Okay. So, with our three presentations
[47:11] from each of the districts here gave us
an opportunity to start the conversation
[47:15] and then hopefully it will inspire you
to ask us some questions. And if we
[47:18] didn't touch on a topic that maybe is of
interest to you right now tonight, this
[47:23] is a great opportunity to talk to all
three of your commissioners at one time.
[47:27] We kind of have a a a well it's not kind
of a rule it is a rule. When we meet
[47:33] together we need to be on the microphone
so that the public is very aware of the
[47:37] business that we are doing for the
residents of the county. We take that
[47:41] very uh um very soberly so that we're
able to ensure everyone that we are not
[47:49] working behind the scenes. We want to be
very transparent. That's what our role
[47:54] in government is to be transparent to
the taxpayers and the people that put us
[47:57] here. Every Monday morning uh when we
start our session, we have a public
[48:01] comment period and we always invite the
public to come and speak to us on a
[48:06] weekly basis with all three
commissioners in the room. So, this is
[48:09] this is very unusual for us to be doing
that outside of the Monday morning
[48:13] public comment period to where you can
ask all three of us plus all of our
[48:17] department heads that came with us
tonight as opposed to being oneon-one.
[48:22] you know, I'm pulling us aside or
catching us in our district or at a
[48:25] different meeting in the community. This
is an opportunity for the all of you and
[48:29] those that are online tonight to speak
with all three commissioners at one
[48:33] time. So, this is this is kind of cool.
This is a neat model to do. We'll take a
[48:37] survey after the fact and see if this is
something we want to continue at least
[48:40] once a year, twice a year, or how we do
our district meetings from here on out.
[48:45] So, with that, we will open it up to
public comment. We got plenty of time
[48:48] here. We have the room reserved till
about 7:30. Then the lights are going to
[48:52] get turned off. The heat's going to get
turned off and it'll get uncomfortable
[48:55] till tomorrow morning. So, we'll see if
we can blow through here and give
[48:58] everybody plenty of time to talk. So,
what we're going to do though is we're
[49:01] going to set about 3 minutes for you to
speak and ask your question and tell us
[49:05] what's uh what what you're working on.
And uh when you do, if you would just
[49:09] introduce yourself to us. Those that are
online have a name showing. We don't
[49:13] know if that's their name, but we would
like to be able to call you something as
[49:16] we're communicating with you and
answering. So, if you would just uh give
[49:20] us your name and we'll start a timer for
about 3 minutes and hopefully you'll be
[49:24] able to watch that and those online can
watch it as well. Oh, look, Kathy Mohal
[49:27] tuned in. Thank you, Kathy, for uh for
tuning in tonight. We appreciate seeing
[49:32] you there. Um, and from there, um, if
you are in the back half of the room
[49:37] back there around the sheriff area, you
can just step up to that microphone that
[49:40] we have on the, uh, tower back there. If
you're in the front half of the room, we
[49:44] don't expect you to go out and come back
around. Just come up here to one of
[49:46] these chairs up here and, uh, you'll be
able to get on the microphone so those
[49:51] people that are online will be able to
hear your questions as well. And then
[49:54] we'll have our directors and our
department heads come over to this other
[49:57] microphone and be able to give an answer
and have the dialogue and answer your
[50:01] questions hopefully. So, with that, um,
you can just start forming a line at the
[50:07] microphone if you want. We're not going
to call on people. You can just head to
[50:10] the microphone in the back or up here in
front and I'll do a little bit of What's
[50:13] that, Jill?
>> We have Yeah, we have two online already
[50:17] as well. So, we'll kind of alternate
between in the room and online just see
[50:21] if we can have a good dialogue tonight
and get your questions answered so that
[50:24] you have uh have that uh answer in your
back pocket. We have a a question in the
[50:30] chat also.
>> In the chat also. Okay, great. All
[50:34] right, so we're going to jump first to
Pat uh Thurby is online. She had her
[50:39] hand up first. So Pat, if you'd unmute
your mic and and introduce yourself and
[50:43] we'll get you started.
>> Hi. Uh I'm Pat Thurlby from District 2.
[50:50] And I really appreciate um this meeting
because I uh like to know all of the
[50:56] news in Chalan County, but I'm
particularly interested in a district to
[51:03] uh set of information about recreation
property in Plane. And Sean, uh if you
[51:10] can connect with me, I I am active in a
group of people that are looking at
[51:16] Osborne Elementary. I know that's
Levvenworth issue, but if people in
[51:23] plain could please consider the fastest
growing sport in the world is pickle
[51:31] ball.
>> Pickle ball. I knew you were going to
[51:33] say that, Pat.
>> Yeah. And and just so you know, there's
[51:37] a large population of people in
Levvenworth that drive 45 minutes to Wan
[51:43] that we'd be delighted to drive 25
minutes to plane and have real outdoor
[51:51] courts available and it's not unlike not
having good snow here and people driving
[51:58] to plane for cross-country skiing. So,
if you could connect me with the plain
[52:03] folks that are um working on this, I'd
be very happy to represent um
[52:11] Levvenworth people in in that. I realize
there's way more serious things than
[52:16] pickle ball, but it's awesome and it's a
real draw.
[52:20] » Well, that's great, Pat. Thank you for
>> You bet. It's funny because Mike just
[52:25] raised his hand and volunteered for
that, so he's going to reach out to you.
[52:28] Okay.
>> Oh, super. Awesome. Thanks so much you
[52:32] guys. You're doing great.
>> Thanks for joining us tonight. We sure
[52:35] appreciate it.
>> All right. We're gonna take one in
[52:39] Chambers here. And it looks like Vicky
Malloy jumped up quickly. So you're on.
[52:43] » Yes. And as my name is Vicky Malloy. I'm
from the Malaga area. And really all I'm
[52:49] doing is you guys have done a marvelous
job of explaining everything that's
[52:54] going on. Very interesting. I like this
format a lot better than when you have
[53:00] everybody talk and you know it just much
better in my mind this way. Plus I get
[53:06] to be here want to approve. Okay.
>> Okay. So yeah
[53:09] » and we didn't explain everything that
was going on. We we have to cut it down
[53:13] for this.
>> With regard to the Chalan County
[53:15] Regional Justice Center, um you had
talked about all the contracts coming up
[53:19] at the end of the year. I would really
suggest if you can to stagger the
[53:25] contract so that all at once you're not
having um these guys say, "Well, I want
[53:31] this or blah blah blah blah blah." And
the other, "Oh, then I'm not going to
[53:34] renew either." So that you're not put on
the spot of not having money at in hand.
[53:39] And um like every one Yeah. three years
apart. So that's all I have to say. Wow.
[53:46] You guys did such a great job. And Mike,
I'll talk to you later. Good. Thanks.
[53:53] » Um,
[53:56] » you're gonna be busy tomorrow, buddy.
Um, Chris, could you could you come up
[54:00] really quick and explain why we go on a
three-year contract or a two-year
[54:04] contract rather than staggering, and I'm
sure you're probably going to touch on
[54:07] union contracts and known numbers that
we have. So, turn it over to Chris.
[54:12] » So, I appreciate that. And one of the
reasons why we try to keep all of our
[54:15] user agencies on a three-year cycle is
for everybody's time, obviously.
[54:20] um three years. Sometimes we've been
running these three years. We've had a
[54:23] four-year contract with unuser and it
kind of gets out of spec for cost uh
[54:27] recuperation for uh today's inmate
because as the commissioner highlighted
[54:31] the last five years have really changed
incarcerated individual with the
[54:35] sickness of fentanyl and the detox uh
taking 3 to 10 days to get them healthy
[54:39] um before we can even move them to a
regular cell. So, it's that's one of the
[54:42] reasons why we put the sensors in and
all the cost measures that the
[54:45] commissioners have approved over the
last five to six years has really
[54:47] enhanced that um decreases our risk and
liability, enhancing our safety and
[54:52] security. So, when we get those
three-year contracts, we want to be
[54:55] really conscientious of what the second
and third year look like because, you
[54:59] know, we have salaries with CBAs that
come into play with different types of
[55:03] raises for the nurses, for the support
staff, as well as the correction
[55:06] officers and being competitive in the
field of public safety. So, we will be
[55:12] up against uh the six of our users this
year uh come up and we are already
[55:17] reached out. We have meetings already
scheduled for May to meet with them. We
[55:20] have a new contract we're going to try
to propose u for cost recovery and
[55:24] looking at today's inmate and what and
how we're moving forward. One of the
[55:28] things if you're in those communities is
understand the costs do go up and um if
[55:32] we want to incarcerate people, we need
to take care of them and we need to make
[55:36] sure that we are providing the safest
and secure environment that we have uh
[55:40] for those individuals to stay in our
facility. Our population is staying
[55:43] around 150 to 170. It has gone up over
the last few months. So, we're looking
[55:47] at, you know, we have to feed all those
people. We have to take care of them
[55:51] medically and all the things that go
along with that. And each agency that we
[55:54] have a contract is responsible for
portions of those medicals and sometimes
[55:58] those can get expensive for an Anniaat
or Levvenworth or Kashmir or Schlan and
[56:02] we understand that but at the same time
we don't want to get ourselves into a
[56:06] place where the Schlan County taxpayers
have to subsidize the user contracts to
[56:11] uh keep us afloat and keep us where we
need to be. So
[56:15] » excellent. Thank you.
>> Great. Thank you Chris. Appreciate that.
[56:17] We're going to go in room. We have one
back here at the microphones. Go ahead.
[56:21] You're up.
>> Hi. Uh, hi. Thank you. U, my name is
[56:24] Becca Freemouth. Um, I am here tonight
on behalf of the Chalan Douglas CASA
[56:30] program. Uh, first off, thank you
commissioners for providing this
[56:33] opportunity tonight. Um, I know public
service can be a really thankless job.
[56:38] So, thanks for providing this
opportunity and these updates. Um,
[56:41] something you didn't touch on tonight
was the CASA program. Um, for those in
[56:45] the room who aren't familiar with the
CASA program, it is a courtappointed
[56:48] special advocate for children and foster
youth. So we are volunteers who um are
[56:53] assigned to foster children and we are
their voice in the court system um when
[56:58] they are in dependency cases. Um the
CASA program is a nonprofit organization
[57:04] that is partially funded through both of
the counties locally. Um this last year
[57:09] the Chalan County decided to um reduce
some of the funding to that program. Um
[57:14] and I just wanted to highlight some of
the positive benefits to um our
[57:18] community through that program. Um so as
a volunteer I've personally served for
[57:23] two and a half years. I've sub um
supported uh three children through that
[57:28] work. Um one child um one baby. I I
received her as um my CASA case when she
[57:34] was a newborn and then she just returned
home with her mom and the case was
[57:37] dismissed and she's two years old.
Another case I support is uh two
[57:42] 15year-old twins. Um they all both of
these uh sets of youth are here locally
[57:48] in Chalan County in the Wanache area.
We have about 65 volunteers through the
[57:54] Chalan Douglas Kasa program. Um as a
collective group we are providing
[57:59] thousands of volunteer hours to support
these youth throughout the year. Um
[58:03] there is a staff of about five at the
CASA office and I just um the number one
[58:10] thing I tell people when I talk about my
CASA work is that I would not be doing
[58:13] this if it wasn't for that CAS the CASA
team. Um the support that they provide
[58:17] us as volunteers is um it's it's
it just wouldn't be possible without
[58:23] them. They provide a safe space to do
this really hard work. Um and their
[58:28] budget primarily goes to support those
staff employees. So, um, I wanted to
[58:33] share some of that today and then also
ask, uh, the commissioners if you could
[58:37] provide some insight into, um, that
budgeting process and where and why you
[58:41] decided to reduce some of the funds
going directly to that program. Thank
[58:44] you.
>> Great, Becca. Thank you. We appreciate
[58:47] that. And thanks for the introduction
and the explanation for everyone in the
[58:50] room and online. And I'll turn that one
over to Commissioner Overbeay. He has
[58:53] some news for you tonight.
>> Yeah. So, we did reduce the funding, I
[58:57] believe it's $19,000 to CASA. And
basically what we were facing when we
[59:00] went into this budget season was a $7
million gap between what our projected
[59:04] revenues and our projected expenditures
were going to be. And that was basically
[59:09] not only just the expenditures, but what
the asks were from each one of the uh
[59:12] elected officials and our appointed
officials to continue to serve the
[59:16] citizens of Chalan County. And so there
were some hard decisions we had to make.
[59:20] I will say that we did get the uh that
$7 million deficit down to about 2 point
[59:25] I believe it's 2.3
>> roughly 2.1 2.3
[59:28] » I think two
>> 2.2 million. So we were able to shave
[59:32] about $4.8 million off of that. Uh, and
while the decisions were not easy, they
[59:37] were decisions we had to make. What I
will tell you is this, and what some of
[59:41] the research I've done, because I know
you all came and visited us at the
[59:43] beginning of the year, right after the
budget was finalized, and had some
[59:47] concerns about the cuts, is um, we are
receiving opioid abatement dollars. And
[59:52] I do know that some of the cost of work
has to do with kids that are impacted by
[59:55] opioids. And so, uh, there is a
provision in the one Washington. And so
[1:00:00] what I would do is encourage CASA um
Carolon is actually our managing agency
[1:00:04] for the funds and they are going out for
an RFP process and I would encourage
[1:00:09] CASA to actually apply under that RFP
process for some of that opioid
[1:00:12] abatement funding to be able to offset
that budget gap. So there is some
[1:00:16] additional funding that's not general
fund dollars that we might be able to
[1:00:19] shift over to be able to fill that gap.
So I would encourage you to do so. You
[1:00:23] betcha.
>> Okay, great. We're going to go next to
[1:00:27] Elaine. I'm just trying to keep track of
everyone so I don't get out of order
[1:00:31] here. So, Elaine, go ahead.
>> Uh, thank you. Uh, Elaine Civy from
[1:00:36] Plane. Um, and this has been really a
very interesting meeting and uh, there
[1:00:42] was a number of times I wanted to clap
my hands uh, particularly on the
[1:00:46] portable water tanks. Great. Thanks.
>> And the park out in plane. I have a
[1:00:54] couple of questions. One was that on uh
the portable water tanks. Uh you
[1:01:01] mentioned that Chalan County was not
going to be the owner of those and I'm
[1:01:05] wondering are you renting them or who's
going to be the owner?
[1:01:10] » I'm going to hand this off to Mike or
Ron. Which one do you want to feel that
[1:01:13] or Chris? We got we got three good
options here tonight. Elaine.
[1:01:17] » Okay, great. We we are actually working
with the fire districts up there and
[1:01:22] they they will take ownership and
maintenance of those
[1:01:25] » things once they set.
>> Um so uh the next item that I had a
[1:01:31] comment on is that I would encourage you
uh to look at a bike path between
[1:01:38] Levvenworth and Chumstick. There is a
lot of bike traffic that goes up the
[1:01:43] Chumstick. And I realize there's not a
good answer for it, but uh you know, a
[1:01:49] lot of those, you know, are actually
even sanctioned bike races and and
[1:01:54] events and it's a there's very little
shoulder on that road. I don't
[1:02:00] necessarily need a feedback on it, but
um you know, kind of keep that in your
[1:02:05] long range plans if you can.
Um, and so then my primary question is
[1:02:12] if you could please uh describe the
process that you anticipate taking uh
[1:02:19] and the timing associated with uh your
appointment for an interim auditor and
[1:02:27] any opportunities you anticipate for
public input in that process.
[1:02:31] » Yeah, I appreciate that, Elaine. I'll
answer that one for you. Um, thank you
[1:02:35] for your email on that. I appreciate
that and your job description and
[1:02:39] qualifications were spoton. I couldn't
have added one more thing to the desires
[1:02:44] for that position. When we're looking at
elected officials in Washington state,
[1:02:50] we refer back to the state constitution.
And in the constitution for elected
[1:02:56] offices, um, sheriff, you can probably
correct me on this as well, but the
[1:03:02] standards for someone to run for office
are very low. It's 18 years old plus,
[1:03:10] and then you get one more vote than
anyone that is you're competing against.
[1:03:15] Um, I think the sheriff has certain
qualifications and superior court judges
[1:03:19] have certain qualifications
>> and prosecutor
[1:03:22] » and prosecutor.
Those are the ones that actually fall
[1:03:25] into uh a certain job description and a
resume that would back that up in
[1:03:31] reference to your email that you sent
down. Um, that is uh that is one of the
[1:03:38] things that we would like to consider.
But the way the process goes when an uh
[1:03:42] an elected official vacates before their
expiration of their term,
[1:03:49] the the party that that person
represented when they ran for office
[1:03:53] originally, so in this case, we have a
Republican auditor that is leaving
[1:03:59] office early. that goes to the central
committee, the central Republican
[1:04:03] committee of Chalan County to advertise,
get a list of names of anyone interested
[1:04:10] in taking that interim position before
the next election cycle comes around to
[1:04:16] fill that spot in the interim. And that
question when we were notified that the
[1:04:21] auditor was leaving office early, I sent
an email to the central committee of the
[1:04:27] Republican party and asked them to start
the process. And we've done this before.
[1:04:32] We just did it with the coroner and just
before I got here, we did it with
[1:04:35] district judges as well because we had
one leave uh the bench before his term
[1:04:39] was up. So they bring forward a list of
three potential up to three potential uh
[1:04:47] persons that show interest in filling
that interim position. Those three
[1:04:51] individuals then come to the county
commissioners and the county
[1:04:54] commissioners then do an evaluation
interview process, go through their
[1:04:59] resume and we find the best person for
that uh position. That process of
[1:05:04] advertising is done publicly. uh these
days a lot of it's on social media but
[1:05:08] we also know that they advertised it in
the public notice section of the Wanche
[1:05:12] world. So they fulfilled their part of
that process of finding uh a fillin for
[1:05:18] the interim period. They returned back
to us only one applicant. Only one
[1:05:24] person showed interest in filling that
position until the next election cycle
[1:05:29] comes around. So, we will not be
appointing anyone until um April 30th
[1:05:36] when uh Skip Moore actually uh retires
and then the one interview that we have
[1:05:43] to do uh will be brought to us. If we
don't choose as commissioners from our
[1:05:49] local community who that interim person
is going to be, the governor then
[1:05:55] chooses who that interim person is going
to be. So, we want to make sure that we
[1:05:59] keep as much local control on our
elected officials and the interims for
[1:06:03] our elected officials as we possibly
can. So, uh when that information is
[1:06:08] brought up, uh we'll be able to uh be
working with the one candidate that uh
[1:06:13] said that he would fill in the interim
period. And I believe that person is our
[1:06:18] uh chief deputy of the auditor's office
that's currently in that position is the
[1:06:25] one name that was brought forward. So,
we'll be doing that interview process
[1:06:29] later next month. Next, next month
starts tomorrow.
[1:06:33] » And Elaine, uh, one thing I can share,
too, is I believe since that appointment
[1:06:37] will likely be made prior to the filing
period, and maybe this is a question for
[1:06:41] the auditor's office, the appointee
would uh need to file to to run to fill
[1:06:47] the unexpired term of the auditor. Um,
and I'm glad you have a lot of interest
[1:06:53] in this position because it is a real
complicated elected position and uh, a
[1:07:00] lot of people tend to think of the
auditor through the election process,
[1:07:03] but it's really the auditor does the
financial statements, you know, kind of
[1:07:08] like need to get audited financial
statements eventually from the state
[1:07:12] auditor, but the the financial
documentation is a very important
[1:07:17] component of the role of auditor. and
then also the licensing and elections.
[1:07:22] So, it's kind of that
>> three-legged stooling.
[1:07:25] » Recording. Yeah. Excuse me. Recording.
Yeah. So, there's there's a lot that
[1:07:28] goes into that.
>> Yeah. So, uh just for purposes of the
[1:07:33] the audience, uh I had sent an email.
I'm a retired CPA and since this
[1:07:39] position is responsible for dispersing,
you know,
[1:07:44] 60 million worth of funds per year on
behalf of the county. It it is a very
[1:07:52] significant position and ideally in my
mind somebody you'd want to have quite a
[1:07:58] bit of experience. Um, so, uh, when
you're interviewing the candidate, I
[1:08:05] mean, because it sounds like you were
going to interview the candidate.
[1:08:09] Um,
will you have an opportunity for public
[1:08:16] uh, engagement in that process?
>> Um, probably not. That will be a
[1:08:20] decision made by the three commissioners
uh, coming up with a consensus uh, and
[1:08:26] uh, voting that person in. And I guess
it's it's kind of a why bother since
[1:08:31] there's only one candidate that's being
submitted to you.
[1:08:34] » Yeah. I don't want to say why bother,
Elaine. That's that's we we take it very
[1:08:39] serious. And so I would say your
opportunity to give us input is by
[1:08:42] emailing the commissioners and sharing
thoughts just like you've already done.
[1:08:46] I appreciate you doing that.
>> Okay. Thank you.
[1:08:49] » Thank you, Elaine. Good to hear from you
again. Haven't seen you since Upper
[1:08:52] Columbia Salmon Recovery Board. Hope
you're enjoying your time. I've been to
[1:08:56] your restaurants a couple of times, but
>> Well, thank you. I I haven't been, as
[1:09:01] you noticed, Elaine, I'm kind of busy
with my side hustle.
[1:09:04] » Kind of busy.
>> Yeah. Well, thank you, Elaine.
[1:09:07] Appreciate you participating tonight.
>> Well, and Elaine, I want to say I think
[1:09:10] it's really cool that your first name
rhymes with your community.
[1:09:14] » Elaine from Plane.
>> Yes, Ela from easy to remember.
[1:09:19] » All right. Thanks, Elaine. We're going
to go to uh one in the room and then
[1:09:23] there's a couple chats that I want to
address here as well. So, we'll go to
[1:09:26] the back of the room. Go ahead.
>> Thank you and thanks again for the
[1:09:30] information y'all presented to begin
with. It was nice to see what you all
[1:09:35] are doing and it's a lot of work. My
name is Ashley Kaiser. I am another CASA
[1:09:39] and it's the same issue. If the budget
is not a done deal, I would love for the
[1:09:45] cuts proposed to the CASA program to be
reconsidered. Uh that $19,000 is a ton
[1:09:51] of money and it sets us back, I believe,
to the 20134
[1:09:55] funding level. That's a big cut. Um
again, I've been a CASA for about 10
[1:10:00] years and it's my experience that the
CASA is often the only consistent adult
[1:10:07] present in our kiddos lives as they're
going through the foster care system. I
[1:10:11] work primarily with teens and when they
are going through a crisis, it is
[1:10:16] usually me that they call out to.
They've had changes in their placement,
[1:10:19] in their social worker, their mental
health counselor has moved on. Even the
[1:10:24] parents aren't consistent necessarily in
showing up for their visits. I could not
[1:10:29] be there for them in their moments of
crisis if I didn't have the support of
[1:10:32] our staff. They are the ones with the
expertise, you know, keeping up on
[1:10:36] what's current in the law, what our
various um resources are. What's been
[1:10:41] the experience of other causes who might
have experienced something similar that
[1:10:45] can guide me as I help guide the kiddos?
And it's great that there's an, you
[1:10:51] know, a small option for some of the
opioid recovery money. That's going to
[1:10:56] be additional task they have to do
chasing that down as opposed to just
[1:11:00] helping me and my fellow CASAs.
So, I hope the budget is not completely
[1:11:04] solved. I hope you'll reconsider that.
Um,
[1:11:09] if we have to take a cut, maybe
more comparable to what some of the
[1:11:13] other agencies have had to take and keep
us in mind for future years for
[1:11:18] something approaching a cost of building
increase to help us do the work we do.
[1:11:23] Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Ashley. Appreciate that. Very
[1:11:27] thoughtful. Um, let's pull up the chat
box if we could a moment, please.
[1:11:32] Annabelle saw a couple comments in
there.
[1:11:36] Um, let's see. Go to the top.
[1:11:42] Um, okay. Uh, Commissioner Hawkins, do
you want to field that top question
[1:11:46] there?
>> Sure. I think I can see that from here,
[1:11:49] but the question is, can you explain how
positions are decided as essential? And
[1:11:55] today you denied a request to for a
deputy position because uh Commissioner
[1:12:01] Hawkins said he wanted to balance the
budget. So I think I can clarify. We as
[1:12:06] a commission did not deny that request.
It was approved but it was supported by
[1:12:13] my two colleague commissioners. I voted
against it and hopefully um you know you
[1:12:20] were able to hear the reasons why. You
know, these are these are tough
[1:12:24] decisions like when we're talking about
budget reductions um even to the tune of
[1:12:29] $19,000 in a $61 million budget. But um
we are faced with a lot of growing costs
[1:12:38] and challenges in Schlank County. And um
as Commissioner Overbeay mentioned
[1:12:45] recently, the projected deficit in the
budget for 2026
[1:12:51] was as we started the process for budget
development, which was my first year
[1:12:55] doing it. But we were looking at over
10% of our budget in a deficit. But we
[1:13:01] worked extremely hard. The staff worked
really hard. I think almost every
[1:13:05] department and division made a lot of
sacrifices and we got that down to just
[1:13:09] around $2 million of a deficit. But we
also implemented a hiring freeze and uh
[1:13:15] I my feeling is the two coupled together
might give us some opportunities to
[1:13:20] realize some savings and eat into that
um budgeted deficit. Now, just because
[1:13:26] there is a a modest budgeted deficit at
the beginning of the year doesn't mean
[1:13:32] that that's where the actuals end up at
year end. You know, there's budgeted
[1:13:36] figures and then there's actuals. And so
for last year, for example, for 2025, we
[1:13:43] had a budgeted deficit of uh $4.1
million, but we only ended up with about
[1:13:49] $850 or $900,000
um uh diminished reserves. So my thought
[1:13:57] is with this particular position
um if we are absorbing cost increases,
[1:14:05] collective bargaining increases and
other things, one of the ways we can
[1:14:09] realize some savings is not to fill
positions due to attrition when there
[1:14:14] are natural retirements or resignations.
And so we've mostly approved all of
[1:14:19] those rehires, but um I think we should
look at ways that we can um realize some
[1:14:28] savings potentially without filling some
of those positions. And that's tough.
[1:14:32] That's tough, especially when it
involves potentially public safety
[1:14:35] impacts or other things. But the way the
budget is structured now for 2026,
[1:14:41] our revenues are estimated at 59 million
and our expenditures at 61. So that's
[1:14:47] the approximate two $2 million uh
deficit. And you know, we might need to
[1:14:53] overperform on our revenues and um
significantly under spend to make it
[1:14:59] work at year end. And you know, that's
where I hope we end up. So hopefully
[1:15:03] that explains it. And uh maybe for some
other positions too due to the hiring
[1:15:08] freeze, I'll I'll also support not
filling those positions. And I feel like
[1:15:12] that's much better than some layoff at
some point in the future. Um hopefully
[1:15:17] we'll never get to that point. But
>> and just to expand on that a little bit,
[1:15:22] we did have an unusual year last year.
We would have come in right at budget,
[1:15:26] but we had a couple things pop up that
we can't control. I'll remind everyone
[1:15:30] of the Travis Decker case and the Iron
Mountain fire. remind everyone of the
[1:15:34] floods that we had in December. There
was a lot of a lot of additional money
[1:15:37] that was spent. So, as commissioners, we
do the best we can to try and get the
[1:15:41] expenses, the revenues to line up. We're
conservative on the revenues and we're
[1:15:46] excessive on the expenses. So, hopefully
by the end of the year with everyone
[1:15:50] keeping their belt tight, we can get to
the end of the year and have a better uh
[1:15:53] number than what we forecast before we
even start the year out. Um, would you
[1:15:58] like to add anything to that,
Commissioner Overbe? No, I I guess you
[1:16:02] know I don't I
you know when when when a sheriff comes
[1:16:06] to you and asks for a position to be
filled a couple of months before
[1:16:08] retirement when you have about a 3-month
FTO opportunity and 20% of his staffing
[1:16:13] is currently out on leave. Um you know
you basically have to take a look at
[1:16:18] what's the safety of the community and
is this something that's going to take
[1:16:21] another three additional months past
that retirement piece. We know the
[1:16:24] individual is leaving and so the one
question to the sheriff was in your
[1:16:28] authorized budget do you have the
funding available to to offset this or
[1:16:32] are you asking for additional funds to
bring this individual in and because of
[1:16:36] uh some vacancies the sheriff had uh
basically he had the additional funding
[1:16:39] in the existing budget that was
authorized expenditures for him. That's
[1:16:42] why I'll just say that's why I made the
decision to go ahead and move forward to
[1:16:46] back fill that spot a couple of months
early so that person could actually hit
[1:16:50] the ground running and actually be out
there patrolling when that person leaves
[1:16:53] and it basically does not create a void
uh within a dorm that's already
[1:16:58] diminished a little bit by some uh some
personal leave elements and some other
[1:17:02] leave things. So I want to make sure
that we support the sheriff's office as
[1:17:05] we could. I don't disagree with the
philosophy that um that Commissioner
[1:17:08] Hawkins has. We know we're trying really
hard to balance a budget, but you know,
[1:17:12] you have to make those tough decisions
sometimes and it is a balancing act. So,
[1:17:16] » and uh I guess one thing I can add is
kudos to our sheriff, Sheriff Morrison.
[1:17:20] I mean, he he uh you know, he always
says, "I'm going to do the best I can to
[1:17:25] serve the people of Chellan County
within the resources provided." And uh
[1:17:29] it's been a really difficult year for
him and and and his team, but uh I
[1:17:35] appreciate you, Sheriff. And I I do
point out that you know within the
[1:17:39] county's budget, the sheriff's division
is 30% of of our spending or about 29%.
[1:17:45] And so it's um you know any savings we
can realize through the sheriff's
[1:17:50] department does does help us overall.
But you know there's always an
[1:17:53] offsetting impact to that too. So I try
to be a tenant of that.
[1:17:58] » Okay, we'll go back online here a
second. Uh, Mary Gallagher, I like when
[1:18:02] the commissioners come up here, the
districts have public meetings in
[1:18:04] addition to general meeting like this
with all three of you together. Thank
[1:18:08] you. We'll put down a second approve.
Thank you, Mary.
[1:18:11] » Um, let's see. Zoom meetings, but I do
like extended Q&A time. Yep. We save
[1:18:15] plenty of time tonight for that. Uh,
>> oh, she want she wants us to come to the
[1:18:20] districts, too, which we do do.
>> Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. This is just a I
[1:18:24] think a one-off, but maybe we'll
>> Yep. Twice a year. We try and come in
[1:18:26] the spring and try and come in the fall
so everyone get together. Uh, thank you
[1:18:30] for everything you do for the county,
Ian Vasquez. Thank you, Ian. Appreciate
[1:18:33] that. Is that it for the chat box? Thank
you, Annabelle. All right, we'll go back
[1:18:37] in chambers.
[1:18:41] » I'm Danielle Wlette. I'm I live out in
Malaga. I actually live in Three Lakes
[1:18:45] Estates. And don't forget, I am the
president of Three Lakes Homeowners
[1:18:50] Association. You may refer to me as
Madame President.
[1:18:55] » The floor is yours, Madam President. So
Danielle, before you start, I do want to
[1:18:58] tell you that I'm a Malaga kid and I did
marry a three-leggeds girl, so I did
[1:19:01] marry up. So
>> Oh, you did, didn't you?
[1:19:05] » Uh I I hate to start with things that
make me unhappy, but I'm going to uh I
[1:19:10] felt very disrespected as a citizen of
Malaga by the TIFF board. They listened
[1:19:15] to all these people and they still had
already made up their minds. And I saw a
[1:19:17] couple of the board members doodling and
it irritated me that they were in a
[1:19:22] position to respect us and they didn't.
And they'd already made up their mind.
[1:19:25] And I don't like it then. and I don't
like it now. I may run for office. Who
[1:19:29] knows? Uh I don't quite understand
personally how we can win if our taxes
[1:19:34] go down because the other things that
will go up. The traffic already if y'all
[1:19:39] live out there and try and come into
town at any given time during the day.
[1:19:43] There's huge traffic. If we get more
people, we're going to have more trash.
[1:19:48] We're going to have more trouble. We're
going to need bigger roads. And where
[1:19:51] y'all going to put them roads? You got
the railroad and you got the orchards.
[1:19:54] Uh, I don't understand how that's a
win-win. I mean, what are tourists going
[1:19:59] to do in Malaga? Go to Clockom. I mean,
truly, you know, it's a it's a dead end
[1:20:04] road, which I like. I like living out
there. Uh, I don't know understand why
[1:20:09] we think we need a pathway. Again, why
do we want people to run into Balaga? I
[1:20:14] It's just an opinion, and I like having
one. I am an American. I have opinions.
[1:20:19] Uh, in terms of the lawsuit, we waste a
lot of tax dollars all the time. Let's
[1:20:23] waste tax dollars on a lawsuit. I like
it. I completely support it. I'm in
[1:20:27] favor of the lawsuit. Uh
and interestingly, we we get uh all of
[1:20:34] these buildings, which is great. The new
facility is great. So, what are we going
[1:20:38] to do with our current buildings that
are there? Are we going to be able to
[1:20:41] repurpose them in a way? Are we be to
make our community healthy all around? I
[1:20:45] think it's great that we have a central
point now. So, everybody's together. So,
[1:20:49] what are we going to do with what's left
over? I thought about CASA. Uh, as some
[1:20:54] of us know, I I was a school teacher for
years and now I substitute, which is so
[1:20:57] much more fun. And, uh, I'm still a
sports official, so I'm around a lot of
[1:21:01] young people. If we don't support our
CASA, you're going to be needing bigger
[1:21:05] jails because those kids aren't going to
have support and there's no place for
[1:21:09] them to go except out. And it's not
going to be a good thing. I'm just
[1:21:12] saying. I get it was only $19,000, but
Lord have mercy. Y'all got two million
[1:21:16] here and two million there. I think
$20,000 to support our community in the
[1:21:21] future is a really good idea. I'm really
grateful we're getting a new jail. I'm
[1:21:26] really sorry to say I've been in that
jail a time or two to visit students and
[1:21:29] whoever. Uh that jail is nasty. I don't
know if y'all have ever been inside that
[1:21:34] jail as a as a person visiting. Please
go in. It's nasty. You can't touch that
[1:21:38] seat. You don't want to touch them
walls. Pick up that phone. Excuse me. So
[1:21:42] that's not a bad idea if we take a
couple of grand and clean off the inside
[1:21:45] of the jail that's still there. so that
when we go there, we don't feel nasty
[1:21:49] about the whole thing because it's
gross. Uh, I don't want more tourists in
[1:21:53] Malaga. I like Malaga just like it is.
Okay, so I'm close-minded, but that's my
[1:21:57] feeling. I just don't think it's going
to help us. I'd rather pay higher taxes
[1:22:01] and keep Mala
small. I don't know that we need urban
[1:22:06] growth. Why do we want to be like
everybody else? Why don't y'all grow up
[1:22:10] toward Levvenworth or or, you know, on
the other side of the river in the
[1:22:13] Douglas County? once I'll grow up, you
know, toward Waterville. It's just a
[1:22:17] thought. It's just an opinion. Thank
you.
[1:22:21] » Thank you, Madam President. We sure
appreciate
[1:22:24] » appreciate your thoughtful input there.
>> All right, we have a gentleman in the
[1:22:30] room. We'll go ahead and go to the room
next. Go right ahead.
[1:22:33] » Hi. Um, my name is John Grin and I live
in the Chalan Ridge community in Chalan
[1:22:39] and this is my first uh county
commissioner meeting and I want to say h
[1:22:43] how well I think it's it's so well done
and not at all boring and uh so sorry
[1:22:50] for expecting boring. Um
we're very glad that we could exceed
[1:22:57] your expectations.
>> Thanks John.
[1:22:59] » I did. It was wonderful.
>> Good. Um, so I first want to just tee up
[1:23:03] the topic that I'd like to talk and ask
a few questions about. It's about the
[1:23:08] possible relocation of the Mountain
Barge Service um from its current
[1:23:12] location to a possible location on on
South uh Lakeshore Road,
[1:23:18] » Moonlight Bay.
>> Uh I believe our HOA president, Julia
[1:23:21] Nelson, has u lodged a formal complaint
or protest against that move. And I and
[1:23:28] I just, you know, Julia told me about
the meeting and and I just wanted to,
[1:23:33] you know, as a person in the community
and I know that there's many other
[1:23:36] people that feel the same way I do, not
just in Chalan Ridge, but also in Sunny
[1:23:41] Bank. I've talked to a number of
residents there and other residents on
[1:23:44] Southshore Road. So, um, maybe just a
few things to consider. And first, I
[1:23:50] want to say I love Steaken. I have been
to Steaken five or six times over the
[1:23:53] years. I love it. So, I want to support
Steheken however we can. But I also want
[1:23:58] that to not destroy a a beautiful
residential neighborhood that we have
[1:24:04] along Southshore Road. So, um we do
understand that another temporary permit
[1:24:10] has been granted to the Mountain Barge
Service in support of Steaken's
[1:24:15] emergency needs. We get that. But I can
tell you during the last um temporary
[1:24:20] permit, I personally witnessed a fuel
spill on Lake Chalan that came down to
[1:24:26] our marina and coated the whole area
from where their barge dock is to the
[1:24:32] state park with a coating of diesel
fuel. And that wasn't the first spill
[1:24:36] they've had. So I think that is a that
is a major concern uh for us the
[1:24:42] environmental impacts. But some
questions maybe. First, Mountain Barge
[1:24:47] Service has operated from next door to
the Lady of the Lake Dock for many years
[1:24:51] as I understand it. I got to ask why
can't that continue? It seems like
[1:24:56] there's a lot of synergies. I hate that
word to those being colllocated. I mean,
[1:25:02] the same people own both businesses.
There's a lot of, you know, they're
[1:25:06] marine services, right? Um,
and then some questions to ask about why
[1:25:14] not Southshore Road. You know, first,
it's his own residential. It is a
[1:25:19] residential neighborhood in the truest
sense.
[1:25:22] Think about the impact on a very popular
state park just up lake.
[1:25:29] Look at if you've driven Southshore Road
and witnessed some of the slides, we
[1:25:34] were closed for six weeks last last
year. you know, that's a very fragile
[1:25:38] slope right there. And I think that, you
know, um, building something that has,
[1:25:43] you know, capital is is a problem there.
I'll be very quick. Also, building a
[1:25:48] dock over a very steep underwater slope
is problematic. And I think that if
[1:25:55] there has to be a move out of its
current location, I really think having
[1:25:59] been there and looked at the facility
that exists at Fields Point Landing,
[1:26:03] that is an alternative that should be
considered. Thanks for your time.
[1:26:07] » Thank you, John. We'll turn that over to
Commissioner Three.
[1:26:10] » Yes. So, John, thank you so much for
your feedback. I really appreciate it.
[1:26:14] That's definitely an issue that we've
heard a lot about kind of on all sides.
[1:26:19] Um, and I can give you some some
updates. Um, I guess to answer one of
[1:26:25] your questions, you know, why not the
traditional location they've always
[1:26:30] used? Well, um
due to sort of a city of Schlan
[1:26:36] pedestrian pathway that was recently
constructed, the barge operation had
[1:26:43] difficulty actually getting their trucks
down and then there's also some traffic
[1:26:48] concerns kind of at that location. So,
it has created a bit of urgency for for
[1:26:54] that um particular barging business. Um
but that notwithstanding they had a
[1:27:01] separate application for Moonlight Bay
which I believe is still uh under
[1:27:06] consideration. The current operations
there do pertain to the emergency
[1:27:11] response and kind of the flood
protection efforts that are ongoing in
[1:27:15] Steaken and there could be some more for
um the US Forest Service road near
[1:27:21] Holden. Um, but in terms of kind of a
longterm solution, uh, I actually was on
[1:27:28] the phone this afternoon with uh,
regional port commissioner Richard D.
[1:27:31] Rock and, uh, you know, um, Mike Capuda
had a meeting up there that Dena and I
[1:27:38] attended and others including the DOT
and and a lot of City of Chalan
[1:27:43] participants. And we one of the
potential ideas we had was well what if
[1:27:48] the regional port sort of thought of
developing a port of Lake Chalan um in
[1:27:56] kind of in maybe that area and not a
port of Lake Chalan in the sense of an
[1:28:00] entity but as an actual physical port
that's publicly owned that could support
[1:28:06] multiple operations and they are working
with property owners right now. uh
[1:28:13] they've requested funding from um our US
representatives and US senators. So, uh
[1:28:20] I think that I'm hoping that that might
be a long-term
[1:28:25] solution. I I asked about Fields Point
and some other things, too, but it's um
[1:28:30] when it comes to that particular
location near Moonlight Bay, that
[1:28:34] happens to be the property that that
particular barging company also owns.
[1:28:39] And so I think that led to them seeking
a permit. But you mentioned the the rock
[1:28:44] slides as well. And I can tell you
because um the DOT participated on our
[1:28:50] meeting up uh in Chalan that the DOT
also has concerns about an access point
[1:28:56] um for any long-term operations there.
So there's definitely a lot to unpack,
[1:29:01] but hopefully that answers some of your
questions.
[1:29:04] » Follow the portal that you discussed. Is
there any discussion where that would
[1:29:09] be?
>> Yeah, I think they're looking at
[1:29:11] locations kind of uh maybe Mike can help
out, but kind of in that general area
[1:29:16] that you were talking about with Lady of
the Lake and and others.
[1:29:20] » So, but but a bigger property and Yeah.
[1:29:26] » pardon me.
>> It seems unfortunate.
[1:29:32] » Yeah. But if there's a way to sort of
overcome that and then ultimately end up
[1:29:36] with something bigger and better that's
publicly accessible that doesn't support
[1:29:41] just one entity but uh multiples and and
protects the upland you know services to
[1:29:46] the upland up lake uh communities as
well as on lake residents and other
[1:29:52] things that would be a great thing. It
seems like it's something that the
[1:29:56] portal county 40 years ago should have
done. Um, and maybe this is the impetus
[1:30:01] to to get it done. So, I'm keeping my
fingers crossed.
[1:30:05] » Yeah. Thanks, John.
>> Dina or Mike, would you like to add
[1:30:07] anything to that?
>> Um,
[1:30:12] » yeah, that was a fantastic answer.
>> I just wanted to clarify one thing. So,
[1:30:17] uh, they the barge company has
submitted, uh, an application for an
[1:30:22] emergency use of the site.
Unfortunately,
[1:30:27] once they started dredging and doing
work below the ordinary high water mark,
[1:30:31] it no longer qualified for the emergency
exemption and it requires a conditional
[1:30:35] use permit. Um, so they're aware of
that. Uh, we did receive the complaints
[1:30:41] of early morning and uh late very very
late evening almost early morning work
[1:30:49] that was being conducted. And about was
it about a month ago, a month and a half
[1:30:54] ago, there was a stop work order placed
out there. Um, and then once the stop
[1:31:00] work order is placed, it then it becomes
a a code enforcement
[1:31:06] issue.
That's a a delicate balance given that
[1:31:11] there are no options to get resources to
either Holden Village or Steaken right
[1:31:18] now. So, we're trying to balance that
knowing that um the ideal answer here is
[1:31:26] to federalize the property, but that's
not going to happen. Um and Mike's been
[1:31:31] working with the feds and the state
agencies also through that process. So,
[1:31:37] we don't know what the answer is.
Um, that would be ideal if the port
[1:31:43] could step in and help look for a
location that that benefits all, but
[1:31:49] right now we're kind of at a stalemate
with the whole thing.
[1:31:53] » Mike,
>> yeah, I'll stick around. I'd love to
[1:31:55] talk to about that.
>> Great. Yeah, John, you can ask more
[1:31:59] questions. You can ask more questions on
the other end.
[1:32:03] » Yeah. So, thank you for clarifying on
the
[1:32:07] dredging
It was active in early March
[1:32:13] » and they did not do that.
They were docking the barge right there
[1:32:22] and so I think that's very concerning to
the residents. It seemed like it's a
[1:32:26] done deal that was going
>> Yeah.
[1:32:32] » Yeah. the the work below the ordinary
high water mark was also not included in
[1:32:36] their original this second round of
emergency use permit. So yeah,
[1:32:43] » thank you John. Appreciate that. We're
going to go in room here for the next
[1:32:46] one. I do want to thank Dom for his
comment. You like the individual visits,
[1:32:51] but the common district meetings are
good, too. Thank you, Dom. Appreciate
[1:32:55] that. Okay, we'll go to the back of the
room.
[1:32:58] » Sure. Can you hear me? Okay.
>> Or you can pull it out. Either one. It's
[1:33:02] up to you. Yeah,
>> I'll just
[1:33:04] » Okay.
>> Um, my name is Britney. I'm a homeowner
[1:33:06] in district one. Um, I'm also a CA
volunteer. It's not why I'm here
[1:33:11] tonight, but I do just want to point out
that um, you have a lot of engaged
[1:33:16] volunteers who are civically engaged and
those dollars um are compounded when you
[1:33:23] are paying something to train volunteers
who, you know, were not paid, were not
[1:33:28] getting any travel.
Um, It's a really valuable program for
[1:33:33] some of our most vulnerable children in
our community. Not why I'm here. Um I'm
[1:33:39] actually here, we're hearing a lot about
the tip tonight, but I haven't heard
[1:33:42] anything about the data centers
themselves.
[1:33:46] Um I'm really concerned about
what is happening with not the Microsoft
[1:33:54] data center, but we actually have
another data center that's being built
[1:33:57] right now on the protected zone.
This is the same
[1:34:03] protected system that
um you actually stopped construction of
[1:34:08] an affordable housing development which
would have provided 45 homes for the Mal
[1:34:14] community. Um meanwhile across the
street and that was 22 acres of land
[1:34:20] across the street there are 80 acres of
land that have been purchased by Sy
[1:34:24] Industries who are planning to build a
data center in Malaga that I don't local
[1:34:30] residents have heard much about and we
had the Malibu water district hold a
[1:34:35] meeting to tell people how um
residential septic tanks are going to
[1:34:42] pollute their water where we have a data
center which is being built across the
[1:34:47] street on a area that's four times the
size of the projected housing
[1:34:52] development and I'm interested to know
what chemicals are they using to cool
[1:34:58] the water Um this is also going to go
into the ground in the same wellhead
[1:35:03] protected zone. Both of these are in the
wellhead protected zone. Um so I do have
[1:35:08] a lot of concerns about that one you
know what is going into the water. Two
[1:35:16] how much water are they going to use and
how is that going to affect the already
[1:35:20] low water supply that we have in Malaga?
Also I want to know the impact on the
[1:35:26] quality of life. This is a residential
area. What is the sound that's coming
[1:35:30] from the data center? What is the other
pollution the other sources of pollution
[1:35:35] that are coming from these data centers?
What's it going to do with property
[1:35:40] values?
There's a lot of questions here and I'm
[1:35:43] also concerned about the cumulative
impact of several data centers in Malaga
[1:35:49] and what is that going to do especially
an area that was
[1:35:53] located or Malagan has been identified
as a great affordable housing and
[1:35:58] instead of doing that, we're now
building data centers instead of
[1:36:02] housing. And it's just ironic to me that
we have to drive past a homeless
[1:36:06] encampment where we see people who have
nowhere to live and you know these homes
[1:36:12] would have been for first home buyers
and I think you should really pay
[1:36:16] attention to what are the benefits that
are coming from this and what is the
[1:36:19] cost.
>> So I want to address a couple of the
[1:36:22] things that you said here and then I'm
going to kick it over to Dena and let
[1:36:24] her address the rest. So to my knowledge
and Dina can correct me if I'm wrong,
[1:36:27] we've had basically I believe two
permits maybe a third for Microsoft for
[1:36:32] the data center. So three permits for
data center. SBI has not submitted any
[1:36:36] permitting for data center.
>> So they
[1:36:39] yeah I I'm I'm aware of the uh the
location. It actually is the former pit
[1:36:44] there because I actually grew up right
across the road there on Dixie Lane from
[1:36:47] it. So when they uh put the trees in and
uh basically took out a big field to
[1:36:52] mine it out, you know, that's what the
residents had to put up with for several
[1:36:56] years. There was a mineral extraction
operation for gravel and then they
[1:37:00] reclaimed it with an orchard. And I know
that the new owners, they purchased it
[1:37:03] last March, basically just pulled out
all of the orchard uh from that
[1:37:07] particular facility. And so the
orchard's been pulled out, but um right
[1:37:11] now we've not received anything at the
county with regards to any permitting
[1:37:15] for a data center in that location.
Um to kind of go back to a couple of the
[1:37:19] other things that you mentioned, the um
the county is not responsible for
[1:37:24] shutting down the um housing that's
being built. Uh actually, I think you're
[1:37:29] probably referring to to Mr. Port and
Real Homes. Uh we're not responsible for
[1:37:33] that, shutting that down. Uh he
basically has to put his permitting
[1:37:38] through us. And there's uh certain
elements that we have to make sure in
[1:37:41] place, whether it's, you know, what is
the wastewater? And that's basically
[1:37:44] comes from the the health department. do
they have potable water that comes from
[1:37:48] the water purveyor and it's actually the
Malaga water district that is the one
[1:37:51] that has uh kind of put a little stop on
that and they are looking at 2.5 acres
[1:37:58] for a septic system within their
wellhead protection area which extends
[1:38:02] about 3,000 ft and so there is some
disagreement over the wellhead
[1:38:06] protection zone with uh some of the
developers as well as some of the local
[1:38:10] land owners out there that we're trying
to work through. I know that we have a
[1:38:14] meeting coming up at the end of next
month or right around third week of uh
[1:38:17] well tomorrow will be this April so
it'll be the third week of April. Uh
[1:38:21] Ron, myself, Dena or her staff and some
others are meeting with the water
[1:38:25] district. We've already met with the
water district to see if we can
[1:38:27] basically find a short-term solution.
And I mean short-term in the matter of
[1:38:32] 10 to 15 year solution while we're
waiting for the tiff dollars to
[1:38:35] basically create the wastewater facility
to continue to get that housing built
[1:38:40] that is affordable housing in those
locations that have already been
[1:38:43] identified. And so, um, we're working
trying to work through that, whether
[1:38:47] it's maybe a large off-site system that
we could actually go ahead and put in
[1:38:51] some trunk lines already in the
community to be able to connect to the
[1:38:55] full-time or basically a sewer treatment
facility down the road. But these are
[1:38:59] all things that we're still trying to
work through the nuances of it. I do
[1:39:02] know that the developer, Mr. Port, does
have a a hearing, I think, before the
[1:39:07] hearing examiner on the 15th of of
April, uh, over this particular issue
[1:39:11] itself and that and the wellhead
protection. So currently right now and I
[1:39:15] like I said I'll let Dina chime in. Uh
we have not received anything with
[1:39:19] regards to the building of a data
center. Now that property is currently
[1:39:24] zoned rural industrial. So a data center
is a permitted use on that property but
[1:39:30] as we look through this process the UG
process it's possible that that zoning
[1:39:34] potentially could change. That's going
to be up to the the uh property owner as
[1:39:38] well as some other factors. So Dina,
I'll let you go ahead and take it from
[1:39:41] there. commen
[1:39:46] » it's currently
>> so
[1:39:50] » um so it must have been reszone to
industrial during the lanyard
[1:39:55] designation
>> it was well that uh mine went in they
[1:40:00] started in the 80s
>> okay
[1:40:02] » so it was it was pre um GMA
>> yeah so it so it's been industrial for
[1:40:08] quite a while um and in the industrial
zoning designations. Residential is not
[1:40:13] allowed.
>> That's incorrect. That when that
[1:40:17] property was purchased in
[1:40:22] » there has been no
>> comprehensive.
[1:40:32] » Oh yes, that's John Port's property.
[1:40:39] » Right. You are correct there. Yes.
>> Yes, it is.
[1:40:45] » Yes.
>> And the the data center property or the
[1:40:49] SE property um they've applied for
nothing there and actually haven't even
[1:40:54] approached us to ask any questions about
it. um that is zoned industrial, but the
[1:41:00] port property for Malaga Ridge and
Malaga Meadows, I believe, are the two
[1:41:06] um are going to public hearing in front
of the hearing examiner on April 15th at
[1:41:12] 1 p.m. And that's you can actually log
on via Zoom link for that. Um but those
[1:41:20] those talks between the developer and
the water district have been occurring
[1:41:25] for a year. Yeah,
>> it's been about a year. Um, and so the
[1:41:29] the county as the permitting agency, we
don't have any say in it at all. It's
[1:41:35] between the water district, the health
district, and the developer. And so all
[1:41:40] we do is
shuttle it through the process.
[1:41:44] Um, and then both have appeal rights at
the end.
[1:41:52] » The Okay. So the residential
>> right
[1:41:57] » the data center could not go because
that's an industrial use on the property
[1:42:01] that port
>> no I'm talking about the data center
[1:42:07] already
>> right
[1:42:09] yes
>> and the determining factor on that would
[1:42:14] be if they came in for a building permit
they would need to provide a water
[1:42:17] availability certificate provided by the
Malaga water district and they would
[1:42:23] have the final say. If they don't have
water availability, we can't issue the
[1:42:27] building permit for it.
I'm just wondering
[1:42:36] what
do
[1:42:46] » I I don't know that their study for the
well protection area considered that uh
[1:42:53] but the well protection area for the
water district also we estimated at
[1:42:58] about 3,000 ft, but it's actually based
on time. It's a 10 year, 5 year,
[1:43:03] threeyear, I think, or one year. Um, so
we don't actually know what that
[1:43:09] distance is.
>> I guess the same company
[1:43:15] is also being paid by Microsoft
[1:43:22] Microsoft.
They're also the
[1:43:30] Well,
>> and and that is an area that the county
[1:43:35] is not involved in at all. We're just
the permitting conduit. Um and so if the
[1:43:41] water district through whatever evidence
they have say yes, they're going to sign
[1:43:47] the water availability, we will issue
the building permits for it. If they say
[1:43:52] no, there's no water available, I can't
issue the permits.
[1:44:00] We do have public meetings coming up to
show up to those meetings. One was
[1:44:04] advertised earlier and then the county
is having their meeting. We're all very
[1:44:09] concerned with what's going on now that
we're looking at the land use
[1:44:15] classifications in each area.
Personally, I would really like to see
[1:44:20] not only the water be considered, but
all the studies that have been done
[1:44:26] about data centers in close location
with residential areas. There's all
[1:44:31] kinds of research that says it's bad
news and we have to consider the
[1:44:37] » All right, we'll move on to the next
guest that we have. Go ahead and
[1:44:40] introduce yourself. I'm Sharon Seal from
Malaga, formerly from South Lakeshore
[1:44:45] Road, but Commissioner Hawkins. Why
>> did you leave me, Sharon?
[1:44:51] » She She came to God's country.
>> Small small and mighty. I know where
[1:44:55] you're
>> keeping it in the county. We appreciate
[1:44:59] it.
So, uh, my first question is was
[1:45:04] regarding the sewer system planning,
which I believe Kevin covered quite a
[1:45:09] bit, but there was quite a mental
discrepancy in my mind between
[1:45:16] Miss Commissioner Overbe's
more optimistic
[1:45:20] talks at some of the meetings and Miss
Walters's numerous years uh, projection
[1:45:28] of time from when
sewer system might
[1:45:32] uh manifest itself. So, I wondered if
either one of you could uh quantify what
[1:45:38] you mean uh when we might have a
temporary sewer system versus a more
[1:45:43] comprehensive one.
>> I was speaking strictly on the
[1:45:46] comprehensive a full-blown sewer system
whether there is treatment on our side
[1:45:51] of the river or another option
available. So, I don't think we were
[1:45:55] wrong. We were just talking at two
>> two different things.
[1:45:58] » Yeah. an interim solution versus the
full-blown solution.
[1:46:02] » Yeah. Because realistically, I mean, we
are in a housing crisis. I mean, let's
[1:46:05] just, you know, everybody knows that.
And so, the ability for developers to
[1:46:08] build housing in areas that basically
were designed for that when we go back
[1:46:12] and look, and I mentioned earlier, the
2006 Mala visioning statement basically
[1:46:17] looked at everything inside the West
Malica loop as potential housing. And
[1:46:21] you have also have housing that
basically goes right along Dixie Lane.
[1:46:24] And so you see that development there
and then when that development is
[1:46:27] stopped because there's a concern of a
water source then how do we basically we
[1:46:32] can't continue to add to it by saying
we'll put better septic systems in. How
[1:46:37] can we basically look at this and say
how can we do a large off-site system
[1:46:40] that would be able to handle that load
for the interimm time frame? Because
[1:46:45] realistically, if we go with what the
the full purpose behind the TIA and the
[1:46:50] primary objective of that according to
the port was a wastewater treatment
[1:46:54] facility for the Malaga area. And so
that could be 10 years out, 15 years
[1:46:59] out, 20 years out. But what can we put
in place to make sure that those houses
[1:47:02] continue to get built? We still have
housing for the people that need to have
[1:47:05] the housing, but we have that off-site
system that's away from the wellhead
[1:47:09] protection area that we're able to go
ahead and pipe that wastewater to that
[1:47:13] won't have the necessarily have the
impact to the wellheads because it's
[1:47:16] outside the area. And that's really what
we're researching.
[1:47:18] » Yeah.
My second uh question was uh regarding
[1:47:24] the UG
uh
[1:47:28] you mentioned the first quarter of next
year as being posted. This is the first
[1:47:33] I've heard of that because last time we
talked to to you uh it was we were
[1:47:39] shooting for the December 31st deadline.
>> Yes. So by law we have to have the
[1:47:44] periodic update for the comprehensive
plan which would be it would include the
[1:47:48] establishment of the Malaga UG by
December 31st. But the implementation
[1:47:53] tools, so the changes in the zoning code
and any subdivision regulations, any
[1:47:59] environmental regulations, anything else
that uh would be considered an
[1:48:03] implementation to all the current codes
we have um we have
[1:48:08] uh we typically we like to have a year,
but we have about six months to put
[1:48:13] those in place. So, it's really
important upfront as part of the
[1:48:17] comprehensive plan um update to identify
the boundaries and identify the zoning.
[1:48:25] And then we're going to move into phase
two and say, okay, with these zoning
[1:48:31] designations, what does our district use
chart look like? It doesn't have to look
[1:48:36] like the template in Pashaston. Um that
it it looks like the community is is
[1:48:42] gonna side with that option. Um but but
the community may go through the
[1:48:48] district use chart and say, "Okay, these
are uses identified
[1:48:52] um in the template, but we have
additional uses we want added in or
[1:48:57] these uses are existing, but we would
not like them to be allowed in these
[1:49:02] zones." So, that's part of the planning
process that we're going to be working
[1:49:06] with the community with. Um, and you
have two meetings coming up, I believe,
[1:49:11] April 7th,
>> or sorry, April
[1:49:14] » 14th.
>> 14th.
[1:49:16] » 14th and May 7th is the second one. Um,
and those are the issues that you're
[1:49:20] going to be working on, right? And then
once it's adopted at the end of the
[1:49:24] year,
>> then we'll start looking at the um
[1:49:28] amendments to the zoning code to
implement those.
[1:49:31] » Right. So that's that's what that first
quarter of next year is for those
[1:49:35] implementation tools.
>> Okay, that that was my Yeah, it does
[1:49:40] make sense and uh I just was a
discrepancy in my mind with the two
[1:49:44] dates, but yeah. Okay, very good. Thank
you.
[1:49:46] » You're welcome.
>> Great. Thank you, Sharon. Appreciate
[1:49:49] that. We've gone over time here quite a
bit, but I'll give it another five or
[1:49:52] six minutes here so we can close out at
8 o'clock and be respectful of
[1:49:56] everyone's schedule and those that have
to work tomorrow. So, is there anyone
[1:50:00] else online that would like to uh share
anything with us tonight? Be more than
[1:50:04] happy to take another question or two.
Anyone else in the room?
[1:50:15] Third and final call. Online or in the
room? Oh, Tammy's coming up. Okay, we'll
[1:50:20] take you Tammy. You just made it under
the wire, so take it away. I just want
[1:50:25] to ask um you Jame had a meeting for the
county you said was going to be the
[1:50:30] 18th. That's a conflict with the Malaga
Water District meeting.
[1:50:34] » Yes.
>> It's it's we're planning it the week of
[1:50:39] » May 18th. Okay.
>> Um but we haven't decided on exactly
[1:50:42] which day yet because we don't want any
conflicts with any end of the year
[1:50:47] school activities. Yeah.
>> Any banquetss, anything else that's
[1:50:50] going on. The Malaga water district
meeting. had that before where like
[1:50:55] Sharon had to be at the Malaga Water
meeting and she couldn't come to the
[1:51:00] » Yes. We're trying to plan around
everyone else's meeting and I've been
[1:51:03] working with well she was just here Jill
Jill our PIO and so we're looking for uh
[1:51:10] an adequate location that will house a
lot of people and the date that will
[1:51:15] work that doesn't have any other
conflicts.
[1:51:18] » Yes.
>> Great. Thank you Tammy. Appreciate that.
[1:51:21] I do want to point out that Marty Young,
our county clerk, snuck in the back. You
[1:51:25] can wave at the camera, Marty. There you
go. Welcome aboard. Thank you, Marty.
[1:51:30] Okay, a couple more minutes here. Do we
have any other questions? Any other
[1:51:33] conversations we'd like to have before
we close this out?
[1:51:40] » Well, I want to thank everybody very
much for taking the uh effort and the
[1:51:44] time to come down and meet with meet
with us in the chambers. That wall right
[1:51:48] there, right behind the second row of
chairs, collapses. And we're usually in
[1:51:52] here all by ourselves. So, we love
having guests in here and having
[1:51:56] visitors coming and meeting and watching
the government work for you.
[1:52:01] » So, with Oh, Vicki, please,
you know, we work for you. So with that,
[1:52:08] I will go ahead and uh close the first
meeting that we have had in this format
[1:52:16] of all three commissioners being
together at once for a community
[1:52:21] meeting. And we will be doing both uh uh
in our own districts individually and we
[1:52:27] have two votes so far. I might have some
more come in that this was a good idea.
[1:52:31] But I thank you very much.
Want to thank everyone for participating
[1:52:36] and all those online taking the time to
tune in as well. You got to be in your
[1:52:40] sweats at home obviously while we were
all here.
[1:52:44] » So, thank you everyone. Have a great
evening and really appreciate your input
[1:52:49] again. Thank you. Or I see the