[10:43] Okay, it is it is 6:30
[10:49] everyone
and welcome and welcome tonight.
[10:56] We heal.
>> We heal. I have a
[11:00] warm water
>> and I'll let I'll let [clears throat]
[11:03] you do your
>> Yeah.
[11:10] [clears throat]
>> Can you hear us? Okay.
[11:14] » I'm going to assume that you can hear
us.
[11:18] » Wait a minute. Maybe we've had these
problems before.
[11:22] » It's the owl.
I think I think it looks like
[11:27] we are
>> select speaker
[11:31] » microphone is
this.
[11:37] » Okay.
[11:45] Well, um I didn't mean to zoom in like
that. Here we go.
[11:53] Good evening everyone. Um, thank you for
being here. My name is Chhating Chen.
[11:59] Uh, you can also call me Ting. I am
visiting from HDR, which is a civil
[12:05] engineering consulting firm, and I'm
based in the Seattle area.
[12:10] Um, and I'm here to present you the work
that we've done on the stormwater
[12:15] comprehensive plan, which is the first
one that's done for city of Cosmopolis.
[12:20] And this effort was um supported by the
grants funding from office of Shahala
[12:27] Basin.
Um and oh and my role is a storm water
[12:32] engineer. So I'm a civil engineer by
training
[12:36] and many of you probably are sitting in
the for the first time listening in on
[12:41] stormwater planning. So I want to first
give you some background on what that
[12:46] actually means. So storm water planning,
we think about it as a guide to manage
[12:52] your rainwater and runoff. So when
rainwater hits hard surfaces, it's going
[12:58] to go somewhere. And what do you do
about that?
[13:01] And the goal for storm water planning
overall is to minimize the negative
[13:07] impacts on the environment, on your
infrastructure, and on your communities.
[13:13] And here in uh lower Shahes Basin and
also in Cosmopoulos, flood reduction is
[13:19] our number one goal. And that's kind of
what we're going to go into focusing on
[13:24] flood reduction as a part of the storm
water planning.
[13:29] So to be able to do that, we first try
to figure out what are the biggest
[13:34] flooding issues that we're seeing.
And once we identify those issues, we go
[13:40] on and do the engineering analysis to
figure out what are the potential
[13:45] solutions and which ones to go first.
And lastly, the the million-doll
[13:51] question literally is how do we actually
fund these solutions?
[13:56] And uh this is kind of the steps that
I'll go through when we're talking about
[14:01] the storm water comprehensive plan is
also the step that uh we've done these
[14:05] plan. So we go from talking about
existing flooding issues and then we go
[14:10] to proposed solutions and lastly we'll
go into the financial analysis that we
[14:15] performed as a part of this
comprehensive plan
[14:19] and that's also the agenda for today.
So first going over to the bigger
[14:26] picture of storm water planning. Um in
United States clean water act tells us
[14:32] how we should regulate and protect our
water resources.
[14:36] And in state of Washington state uh
department of ecology usually regulates
[14:41] that. But for uh municipalities that's
small like cosmopoulos the municipal
[14:48] storm water permit which is a part of
the clean water act actually does not
[14:52] apply. What we have here is local
ordinances that help us uh regulate
[14:59] storm water and tell us what to do. So
there's one ordinance uh for developers
[15:05] focusing on storm drainage. Uh and then
there's another ordinance that is uh
[15:10] applied for storm water and surface
water management and that has to do with
[15:15] collecting storm water utility fees for
greater surface water protection.
[15:22] And it's important to talk about
cosmopoulos in connection with Shahal's
[15:26] basin because the river connects all of
us together.
[15:31] So for the for this area Washington
department of ecology has set up the
[15:36] office of Shahala's basin and there are
three major goals. The first one is to
[15:42] protect communities from flood damage.
Second one is to restore habitats for
[15:48] salmon and other aquatic life. And third
one is to prepare the communities for
[15:52] more major and potentially more frequent
flooding.
[15:59] Uh what's really great is that the
office of Shahala's basin the OCB
[16:04] administers state funding to these
different communities
[16:08] and the as I mentioned before the
efforts to produce this plan were
[16:12] completely funded by that state funding
and we received it in 2025.
[16:18] So with that background I'll go into the
analysis that we perform in our
[16:23] engineering firm and um and then the
solutions that we come up with. So first
[16:28] I want to start by talking about
existing infrastructure.
[16:33] So we review some old drawings of the
city system and identified about 220
[16:39] patch basin and manholes. You drive by
them every day. There are about four
[16:43] miles of pipes. For this specific um uh
study, we focus on two outfalls. Uh
[16:50] there's a Shahalis River at East Street,
so that's the one over here. And then
[16:56] Mil Creek at Second Street, so that's
the one closer to the Mil Creek at over
[17:01] here near the Thai gates.
We did not consider the J Street alpha
[17:07] and this and this other alpha near the
Mil Creek Dam.
[17:12] » [clears throat]
>> So what are the known flooding problems?
[17:16] And I think you know this better than I
do. Um being in cosmopoulos there's
[17:21] lowlying topography especially where we
are right now. There's just not enough
[17:25] of a slope to send water to river when
it's flooding. And of course the
[17:30] proximity to Shahala's river also leads
us to a lot of known flooding problem
[17:34] during especially during high rainfall
event during king tide where you have
[17:39] both flooding locally and also the water
cannot get sent out to river because the
[17:45] water level is so high at the river.
And lastly this is the problem that
[17:50] every single utility faces is that we
have aging infrastructure that's
[17:55] underground. We don't see them. we don't
know how what their conditions are. We
[17:59] only know them when they collapse and
that's that's a little bit too late and
[18:03] that's usually really expensive to
replace. So [clears throat] that's the
[18:07] problems that we have in this area
and from the interviews that we've done
[18:13] we identify that Mil Creek is the
highest priority area for flood
[18:18] reduction in Cosmopolis. So, yes,
>> but this is not a big deal, but if we
[18:25] minimize the zoom box one more, then we
can get the full picture up there.
[18:30] » Let's
>> click over to the one farthest to the
[18:32] left. There we go.
>> Great. Thank you.
[18:35] » See, I thought I was a zoom expert, but
you're the zoom expert.
[18:39] » No, no, no. [laughter]
>> Let me move it to this over here.
[18:42] » There. Yeah, perfect.
>> Okay. And hide this maybe.
[18:47] Hide fold and med. Okay, great. That's
much cleaner.
[18:53] So, yeah, the picture here I'm just
showing from a 2022 report that was per
[18:58] uh that was done and that's showing
covert uh flooding along Mil Creek.
[19:06] Okay. So, I want to first situate us um
in Mil Creek along Mil Creek and
[19:12] focusing on the main in uh biggest
infrastructure here. So starting most
[19:17] upstream we have the Mil Creek Dam. Uh
it was breached in 2008 and it was
[19:23] replaced by 2019 and my firm HDR
actually also applied for state funding
[19:28] at that point and designed and
constructed the the dam.
[19:33] And then going from Mil Creek further
downstream we have all the covert
[19:37] crossing I was just talking about. I'll
come back later and we'll go to the
[19:41] confluence point with Shahalis River and
that's the Mil Creek tide gates. Uh
[19:46] right now the tie gates are controlled
but we don't really know how it's
[19:50] operating. They're boxes with locks on
them and there's no way to really go
[19:54] back uh go and and uh adjust any of the
setting. But we think that if we were
[20:00] able to actively lower the water level
before storm roll in that may help us
[20:06] reduce flooding in Long Mo Creek because
that's creating additional source for
[20:10] water to go to. Uh here on the right I'm
showing some of the photos um that's uh
[20:16] of of the Tigate structure um that's
along the uh Shahalis River
[20:24] and in this like downtown low-line area
we have six culverts crossing
[20:30] [clears throat] Mo Creek and photo
showing here again these six often get
[20:35] flooded during high uh rainfall events.
[20:40] So those are the three main area along
Mo Creek. And now I want to talk about
[20:46] some inland flooding that we also
investigated. So first this is flooding
[20:50] the spot near the gas station near F
Street and First Street in the parking
[20:55] lot. There's flooding and we've
identified from camera inspection that
[21:00] it just collapsed pipe. So pipes need to
be replaced and catch basins need to be
[21:04] replaced.
And we've also investigated a flooding
[21:09] at J Street and Fourth Street um right
outside of the county roads maintenance
[21:15] yard. Uh there's a sag in the road that
also sometimes see flooding.
[21:20] So to summarize the major issues that we
investigated, we are looking at Mil
[21:27] Creek Highgates. We're looking at the
six covert crossing along Mo Creek and
[21:32] then two inland flooding issues kind of
in the lowlying area downtown.
[21:39] And now that we've identified the
flooding issues, I want to go in and
[21:43] talk a little bit about the solutions
that we've come up with at the very high
[21:48] planning level.
And addressing those four separate
[21:53] issues, we come up with six different
projects because sometimes you need two
[21:57] projects to target one issue. So at the
tight gate we have in mind that we'll
[22:04] start with a study of how the tig is
actually operating and what are some of
[22:08] the options that we can actually that
does for improving [clears throat] the
[22:12] and then once we use that study to
identify the best cost-saving option we
[22:18] will go in and do the construction and
improvement. So that will be the second
[22:22] project.
And you notice that I started kind of
[22:26] talking about Mil Creek from the
downstream near the river before moving
[22:30] back up because if we have the
downstream bottleneck having that issues
[22:35] addressed, hopefully that opened up more
space that the upstream issues are not
[22:39] as severe as they have been before. So
for the covert replacement, we focus on
[22:45] replacing the downstream coververts
first, the first three and then we move
[22:49] up and to kind of look at it at the as a
series and then for the two inland
[22:56] flooding project we also looked at some
of the alternatives there and I'll go to
[23:02] project one by one and going back to the
map.
[23:06] So for the Mil Creek study and design uh
we have applied uh Mayor Mayor Smeir and
[23:14] I have worked together and we applied
for grant funding for uh at office of
[23:18] Shahill's basin again to study the
actual operation and what are the
[23:23] options to improve our tie gates and if
this uh the decision will come out
[23:29] actually any point now in August they're
just in the final stages of picking the
[23:33] projects um and if we were to receive
the fund funding, the design will begin
[23:39] or the study will begin in um 2027 and
that will go for probably a year or two.
[23:46] And what's really great about this OCB
opportunity is that they are readily
[23:52] available to support your shovel ready
design to go into construction. So if we
[23:57] present them a plan and say hey we got
money from you to do the design, they
[24:01] would say basically you can go ahead and
do the con construction. So, it's a
[24:06] really good pipeline for our community
to do projects with OCD funding. And
[24:12] that will be looking at 2029 to 2031.
And moving upstream, as I said, um like
[24:20] the salmon, we are going to talk about
the cover replacement. So, there's 20 uh
[24:25] the downstream portion is going to be
looking at 2030. the further upstream
[24:31] portion closer to the dam is going to be
looking at 2035
[24:36] and then the inland and flooding are
lower on a priority because we want to
[24:40] go to Mil Creek first. So we identified
that the parking lot uh drainage problem
[24:46] is going to be the the fifth project
that we can address. So that included
[24:52] some catch basins replacement, upsizing
broken pipes, that type of work.
[24:58] Similarly, um the last project that we
looked at is upsizing pipe along J
[25:05] Street going into that outfall.
And part of the hope is that with all of
[25:11] the um Mil Creek flooding problem
solved, you can see that that that
[25:16] triangle, the outfall is going straight
to Mil Creek. So, if we actually can
[25:21] solve some of the flooding issue here,
maybe the water level at that triangle
[25:26] will be lower. So we don't see a lot of
flow backing in. So that in itself will
[25:31] release some of the flooding and we
don't actually need to go back and do
[25:34] this project. So everything is tied with
Mil Creek. If we address the issue in
[25:38] Mil Creek, there are a lot of
opportunities to do something else.
[25:44] Um and this is the ranking and the
planning level project cost. And I know
[25:50] these are big price tags. So I want to
go into it one by one. Um I kind of
[25:56] talked already talked about how we are
ranking these projects in terms of
[26:00] priority and came up with a planned
construction year. So the project costs
[26:05] I want to I want to really emphasize
with a giant asterisk around it is that
[26:12] these costs when we're looking at 2038
that's escalated to 20 $38. That's not
[26:18] looking at 2026. We're assuming 3% of
inflation every year to get to that
[26:23] cost.
And when we're presenting this analysis,
[26:27] because it's at the planning level, we
assume the most conservative cost. So
[26:32] this is going to be probably the upper
limit of what we will see on these. But
[26:38] even with that being said, this totaling
is looking at $27 million, right? We're
[26:45] all wondering how are we going to do
project like that? Um and grant funding
[26:51] is really the best best place to go. And
this is looking at 10 years. And I just
[26:56] also want to emphasize again that we are
actively pursuing grant funding to do
[27:01] some of these studies. And we just do
them one at a time, one step at a time.
[27:07] [clears throat] And this is um yeah and
then the TAGE study and design is the
[27:11] first one on the list.
So this last part of the presentation I
[27:18] want to go into a little bit of detail
of the financial analysis that we
[27:22] performed as a part of this project.
We started by looking at the existing
[27:28] revenue uh for coy storm water utility
here is exclusively funded through rate
[27:35] revenue. So that's the stormwater fee
that you're paying right now. is a flat
[27:40] fee of about $7 per account per month.
So that's per per parcel per month. And
[27:49] what I didn't include here is comparing
it with what other utilities are
[27:53] charging in the area. We're at about $7
flat fee per month. And [clears throat]
[27:59] the second cheapest one above us is at
$14
[28:04] per month, doubling what we're charging
right now. So, I think it's fair to say
[28:08] that Col has a smaller revenue simply
because we're not charging as much as
[28:14] some of our neighbors are.
And even with that, uh, we are right now
[28:19] budgeting at approximately $70,000
annually for stormwater utility fees.
[28:26] And when we did this analysis, we assume
there to be no customer growth over
[28:32] 10ear horizon. So the future revenue
projection assume there's no customer
[28:36] growth distributed just at staying at
the same population same amount
[28:42] and I will go into the weed a little bit
here because I want to kind of step by
[28:46] step go through how we came up with
these numbers.
[28:51] Um the first thing that we go in is to
try to figure out how much money do you
[28:57] actually need to run your program to run
your storm utility. So the number one
[29:03] thing that everyone spends money on is
operation and maintenance just doing the
[29:07] bare minimum. And in this case in CI the
2026 O&M budget is about $44,000
[29:16] and when we are looking at future cost
analysis we're escalating that at an
[29:21] average inflation rate of 4.2%.
[29:26] And [clears throat] to simplify the
analysis you can see me crossing it off
[29:29] there. we assume that there are no
additional revenue coming from taxes or
[29:36] from inter fund transfer. So we just
we're just focusing on storm water
[29:41] utility on its own. And we also assume
we also know for a fact that storm water
[29:47] utility itself does not have any debts.
So that's also cross off of the revenue
[29:52] requirement. We don't have to pay any
debts from stormwater utility.
[29:58] And the last piece of this puzzle is to
figure out what we call rate funded
[30:02] capital. That is if we had savings, if
we had a reserve
[30:08] um and if we had needs to go fix this
project, how much would that cost just
[30:12] to do the basic repairs in addition your
to your operations and maintenance? Just
[30:18] basic capital cost. So I will show you
now the capital plan that we use to um
[30:24] to kind of look at the rate funded
capital.
[30:29] So from the capital funding plan we
started at a capital cost
[30:33] and that's what the system needs and
based on the six projects that are at
[30:37] endify this is the astronomical number
of $27 million over next 10 years. Um
[30:45] and uh that's that's the capital cost.
But then when we're looking at how much
[30:51] money that we can actually pay for that,
as I said, we're actively pursuing
[30:56] grants to actually pay for some of the
capital costs. And to further simplify
[31:01] the analysis, again, we're assuming that
we're not spending money on net reserve
[31:05] to fund any capital projects and there's
no debt to pay. And the difference
[31:10] between what it costs to do all the
capital projects and what we can get
[31:14] from grants ideally will be the rate
funded capital. And even that is a big
[31:20] gap. So I I do want to
give you the time to kind of think about
[31:25] that for a little bit.
But coming from the race study, a number
[31:31] one recommendation is to continue
pursuing grants and loan opportunities.
[31:38] Here in the purple highlight, I uh
basically highlighted opportunities that
[31:43] have loans. And it's really great that
in the state of Washington, hardship
[31:48] communities like Cosmopolis are often
prioritized for loan forgiveness and
[31:53] also for grant funding. So this is
really an advantage for us in that way
[31:57] to get that grant funding to do
something with storm water management
[32:01] and with flood management. What's in
blue are the um the grants that's
[32:09] available for storm water management and
also with like office of sha basin for
[32:13] flood reduction. These are competitive
grants that um every everyone in
[32:19] Washington will go for. Um as a
consultant I I help other cities apply
[32:25] for these things. even if it's
Belleview, even if it's um effort that
[32:28] have bigger bigger pot money. Um but but
again, hardship communities are often
[32:34] prioritized when it comes to receiving
these fundings.
[32:38] So that's the number one recommendation.
And number two, and this is what I want
[32:45] to present as uh something for all of us
to consider. This is not a thing that I
[32:50] want us to go in with the resolution
today but is thinking about what to do
[32:56] to increase capital reserve. So I'm
presenting two options here in the part
[33:01] of this analysis.
The first option is to uh increase rates
[33:08] by face. Um, and as an example,
uh, we're thinking about increasing the,
[33:16] um, rate by 5% annually for the first 5
years. So, we build up some of that
[33:21] reverse and reduce that increase to 2%
annually, just as an exercise.
[33:27] At this rate, we're going to see a uh
total reserve of about $20,000 by 2031,
[33:34] which is still a small amount for the
kind of work that we need to do, but
[33:38] that is a 28% increase from what we have
right now. That's pretty huge. And what
[33:44] that looks like to your monthly fee
could look like is just putting a
[33:49] quarter and a dime in the piggy bank
every single month. And that if everyone
[33:55] were to do that, that's $19,000.
But this is this is just one option that
[34:00] we considered.
The second option which is very common
[34:06] among stormwater utilities is to support
uh to use a equitable rate structure.
[34:12] Meaning if you have a bigger parcel, if
I own a bigger piece of land, I'm
[34:16] expected to pay more for storm water
management just because there's more
[34:20] rain that land on my property than on
single family home. So in this case, uh
[34:26] a lot of time the industrial parcels and
commercial parcels could be charged more
[34:31] to offset that difference and the rate
for the single family home and
[34:35] residential could remain the same.
So, these are just two options that
[34:40] we've looked at for our uh for the
comprehensive plan and something for us
[34:45] to kind of consider uh as we move
forward.
[34:50] But I'm going to close it out by just
talk about some of the recommended next
[34:56] steps. So, the first two I've already
talked about when it comes to financial
[35:00] health. One is to continue pursue
external grant funding. Two is to
[35:07] consider adjusting storm water rates to
fund capital. Perhaps adopting a more
[35:12] equitable rate structure.
And three, um I'm using some big words
[35:18] here, asset management plan for city
storm water infrastructure. What it
[35:23] means is that I think it's important for
the city to know what facilities we
[35:28] actually own and what's in our
responsibility to maintain. That's what
[35:33] I uh mean by asset inventory to know
what's in the system. And the second is
[35:38] because they're all underground most of
the time, doing a condition assessment
[35:42] of these assets will give us an idea of
if they need to be replaced in 5 years
[35:47] or 10 years to 50 years. So we have a
way to plan for these upgrades.
[35:53] And the last thing coming up from that
is to figure out how much do those
[35:58] replacement and renewal will cost. So
that will help us get a sense of at
[36:03] least what is coming up next because
like any of your home repair when it's
[36:09] broken it's going to be more expensive
than replacing something proactively.
[36:15] And the last piece is to continue
implementing engagement activities for
[36:19] overburden communities so that they know
that there are different flood reduction
[36:24] initi initiatives going on in the
region. Um, this is my last slide and I
[36:29] left my email uh my my work email on the
on the slide for you if you have any
[36:34] other questions about the comprehensive
plan. It's now on the city's website for
[36:39] you to also uh look at if you're
interested, but I'll open the floor up
[36:44] for any questions.
[36:49] » In your um presentation, you you talked
about low slope and not a big retention
[36:55] area. for water. One of the things
historically is is the area by
[37:03] the the north end of town by the flood
gates that property back in there. There
[37:09] there was we used to clean it out. We
used to go in there and actually dredge
[37:13] that that creek uh take care of beaver
dams, things like that. that gave us the
[37:20] capacity a lot of times in the winter
>> to be able to store more water.
[37:25] » Yes.
>> During that time, is that factored in
[37:27] here at all as far as that maintenance?
>> That's definitely something that we are
[37:32] considering for the TAG study in the way
that
[37:36] creating storage is the only thing that
will make the tigate work. And one way
[37:41] to do that is to dredge it. And what we
did not look into is um environmental
[37:48] permits that's required to do that. It
can be it can be expensive and also the
[37:53] maintenance that's related to that. But
another option coming out from that is
[37:58] to uh potentially looking at pump
stations.
[38:01] » So instead of instead of judging it
creating that storage year after year,
[38:07] putting in pump station and then pumping
that water directly out to Shahalis
[38:11] could be another option. And that's uh
that's pretty common in this area as
[38:16] well. So for the the funding that we
applied, those are the things that we'll
[38:22] look into.
>> And that's part of what's happened in
[38:24] South A. And they redirected a bunch of
water to this system.
[38:29] » Okay.
>> And so they put in pump stations
[38:32] upstream, but this they also
[clears throat] redirected they ditched
[38:36] it. They put a lot of extra water into
our particular area. And so,
[38:44] um, I was curious about that. The other
thing I had a question about is at the
[38:46] headwaters of the Mill Creek, um, there
are large parcels of property that do,
[38:51] you know, that's where that's where the
water starts and comes in. Is there any
[38:54] kind of opportunity to collect from
those land owners?
[39:00] It's in the county versus the city.
>> Yeah. I think that's the tricky part of
[39:07] storm water management is water goes
where it wants to go. Water doesn't care
[39:12] if it's in [laughter]
right if it's in the town next door or
[39:17] and and
the [clears throat] city only has
[39:21] agreement with its own residents and I
think that's a really tricky part and
[39:27] that's where some of the kind of region
level regional level efforts come in. I
[39:33] think when we talk about flooding, we
really need to see each other as
[39:37] partners and talk about opportunities to
work together.
[39:40] And I don't know the I I don't know the
issues well enough to really answer your
[39:44] question, but that's where
[clears throat] my mind goes first.
[39:48] » Um, Councilman Davis's deal Aberdine is
building another a new pump station here
[39:56] in South Everdine off of Farragut
Street. It's one of their proposed
[40:00] projects that will
>> help reduce the amount of water that
[40:06] comes from that south not south what is
it this well southeast side or south
[40:12] yeah southeast side of Aberdine south
Aberdine [clears throat] they call it in
[40:16] the swamp area between the two cities
here and um I'm part of the flood
[40:21] authority I'm one of the members of the
flood authority and and I brought up the
[40:26] idea that eventually that we might look
at a pump as well as what Aberdine and
[40:33] Hokquim have now put in and we're
finding to be more and more because in
[40:38] my time here
the creek floods and if it can't get out
[40:44] because the river level is as high as it
is. That's why you got to have the pumps
[40:48] instead of a gate. A gate's just going
to keep the water from the river coming
[40:52] in, but it isn't letting our water out.
and and so I know that's one of the
[40:58] ideas that we've been passing around. Uh
we have turned in um the paperwork for
[41:04] the project for the study and stuff. It
has made and went through the first set
[41:10] of evaluations. It came back.
>> You guys went through it a second time
[41:14] and sent it back in. And so it's been
evaluated and now we're just waiting for
[41:19] it. It it didn't make shovel ready. So
yes, it didn't end up hitting right now
[41:25] to be funded, but that next bianium is
where we look like we'll end up with it
[41:31] in getting into the next bianium with
that funding.
[41:34] » Okay. Yeah. And and exactly what you're
saying, pump is a pump is an option.
[41:41] What Councilman was saying too, like
dredging and creating additional storage
[41:45] is another option. And definitely we're
looking at both short-term construction
[41:50] costs and also long-term maintenance,
what that will look like.
[41:53] » And T, I hate to stop you here, but we
do need to start our um council meeting.
[42:00] Yeah,
>> you have the her email address. You can
[42:02] reach out and contact her. I've had the
pleasure of working with her for several
[42:06] months and I see us continuing to work
together. So, um, if you do have
[42:12] questions, please reach out. Okay.
>> Yeah.
[42:15] » Thank you. Thank you J very much.
>> Are you going to stay for the meeting?
[42:20] » Yeah, I'll stay for it. But
>> you don't have to.
[42:22] » I don't know how to
exit it. So
[42:29] » So do you have any other presentation
which is
[42:33] » No, that that's the only presentation.
>> I think then we leave it on and ask have
[42:38] people just start admitting that.
Leave it this big screen on
[42:46] in case people want to ask questions.
>> Okay. Uh what we want to do is have it
[42:51] as speaker.
>> We'll have Chris and Casey on tonight.
[42:58] » Okay. I think it's still all working.
>> Okay. Should we proceed then?
[43:02] » Y.
>> Okay. Um
[43:07] Councilman Skinno, could you lead us,
please? I pledge allegiance to the flag
[43:12] of the United States of America and to
the republic for which it stands, one
[43:18] nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.
[43:23] » Thank you. And Councilman Skinn, will
you do roll call, please? Oh, this is
[43:29] Mayor Springo. It's Wednesday, August
19th, and I call the council meeting to
[43:33] order.
Mayor Springer
[43:38] » here.
>> Councilman Skinner here. Councilman W
[43:41] present.
>> Councilman Spargo
[43:43] » present.
>> Councilman Davis
[43:44] » here.
>> Councilman Darcy
[43:46] » here.
>> All accounted for.
[43:50] Um, before we vote, I'd like to add an
addition to tonight's agenda, the
[43:55] boundary line adjustment ratification
for partial A and B, block 24, which I
[44:02] would like to add as an item four under
new business discussion and item two
[44:08] under new business council action. Is
there a motion to approve the agenda for
[44:13] tonight's meeting as amended?
>> So move. You need to have someone to
[44:18] make a motion that we add.
>> You got to have
[44:21] » Okay. So,
>> I make a motion that we a um
[44:28] a
[44:31] adjust the agenda to reflect the um
new part. [laughter] Here we go again.
[44:43] amend
>> to add
[44:48] the ratification of for parcel A and
parcel B block 24
[44:54] to uh the new business and item number
two
[44:58] take council action.
[45:02] » Is there a motion?
>> That was the motion. Now you need a
[45:05] second.
>> Thank you.
[45:07] » Seconded.
>> All is in.
[45:10] » Any questions? Any questions?
Where is that? Where are the uh what
[45:17] area are we talking about?
>> Isn't this this piece of property?
[45:20] » This is part of the Oh, this part. Oh,
okay. Okay.
[45:25] Any other discussion?
>> All in favor?
[45:30] » I
>> I
[45:33] Okay, moving on to the consent agenda.
Is there a motion to approve the consent
[45:39] agenda? I make a motion to approve the
consent agenda.
[45:44] » Is there a second?
>> Council me second that.
[45:47] » Is there any discussion?
[45:52] » All those in favor?
>> I.
[45:55] » All those opposed.
Okay. There'll be none. Council comments
[46:01] at this time.
[46:06] Hearing none. [clears throat] We'll move
on to committee reports, auditing and
[46:11] finance.
Uh we I didn't go over the um vouchers
[46:19] and also um Councilman Skinner and I
the vouchers ourselves as well.
[46:28] [clears throat]
Park
[46:39] uh our public safety meeting last night.
Uh I will refer the reports from the
[46:45] Aberdine Police Department and the um
Cosmopolis Fire Department to those
[46:51] committees when they move that
direction. Uh we did have a little more
[46:55] discussion last night on what's going on
across the street and the updates that
[47:00] have been uh uh shared with the
community whether through the newsletter
[47:05] or the newspaper. Uh there's plenty of
social media people out there reporting
[47:11] on what's going on across the street as
well. Uh
[47:16] all different kinds of information. I
think our best bet is to get our
[47:20] information from the EPA. um and go with
what they're
[47:26] letting us know and how they're dealing
with the issues over there. We can all
[47:29] see as we drive by that it seems to me
that somehow even if it is August,
[47:35] there's less water right now sitting
over there on the ground than there had
[47:38] been for the last few months. So either
they um broke a a beaver dam or
[47:44] something happened over there to reduce
some of it. they have taken chemicals
[47:48] away and they will proceed to or
continue to do that for the upcoming
[47:53] months. So, uh that uh we discussed a
little bit more about the traffic
[47:58] calming uh issues that we've uh
identified and um uh we've tried I would
[48:06] say we're working towards getting them
on the agenda. The agenda has been full
[48:10] of priority items and so that hasn't hit
the agenda yet, but we hope to here real
[48:17] soon get that on the agenda. Um, other
than that, uh, Councilman Davis, you
[48:22] took some notes. You got some more to
add to it. I think you pretty much cover
[48:26] everything.
>> Okay.
[48:27] » Okay. Public works. We did not have a
meeting this month, so
[48:33] » Okay.
>> Official reports. Um
[48:38] » if you could do that
>> city administrator
[48:41] » uh council, first of all, this is my
first council meeting uh that I've been.
[48:46] So it's been um I tell people I've been
drinking drinking from fire hose uh to
[48:52] get that. But I really want to do
appreciate you as council uh helping
[48:57] helping me understand
kind of how that we're where we are with
[49:02] it. U because anytime you walk in
something new, it's new. you just don't
[49:07] know. You assume stuff and you don't
know. And and um but it's been a great
[49:13] it's been great being here and I've just
been amazed with the citizens that are
[49:19] in Cosmopololis. I mean, they're just
great people and the parks and and just
[49:25] just the whole town is just a is a great
town. Um now, with that being said,
[49:30] obviously there's some big challenges
that we have. Um, and you guys have been
[49:33] doing actually a pretty good job of of
of managing it. I mean, with with
[49:38] limited resources, um, definitely a lot
of stuff going on. Um, but I'm I'm
[49:44] excited to be here and um, and my door
is always open, you know. So, um, if you
[49:50] need to track me down on something and
if I don't know, I'm going to tell you I
[49:54] don't know. If I do know, then I'll
probably, hey, this is what we can do.
[49:57] and and I and I'm I'm gaining some
thoughts but of of the town. Um but
[50:03] understand that there's just a lot of
things that my goal is to work within
[50:07] versus coming in and saying, "Hey, I've
got the answers for everything." Because
[50:11] I don't. But, uh here at the
[clears throat] table, I think that we
[50:14] can work together. Um so, with that
being said, uh want to give some updates
[50:19] and one of the big things that obviously
that we've been working on is Cosmo
[50:23] Specialty Fiber and the site cleanup. um
that we had uh uh last week on Thursday
[50:31] uh we had held here at the city hall um
uh meeting with the EPA or EPA basically
[50:38] it's a drop in you know um so people
could ask questions there were 12 people
[50:43] that were there and they included
representative from uh uh Congresswoman
[50:48] uh Randall's office um I was there we
had a daily um world reporter um and a
[50:55] representative from the Kronalt Indian
Nation. And then of course the three EPA
[51:00] employees that were there, one public
affairs specialist and the two on on uh
[51:06] seeing um coordinators
um and the EPA's goal um is to remove
[51:12] large quantity of chemicals stored at
the site um over the next 3 to 5 months.
[51:17] Um, and they're going to be working
Monday through Saturday, 7:00 a.m. to
[51:21] 5:00 p.m. Um, the funding, that was a
big question that came up was where it's
[51:27] coming from. It's coming through the
super fund authority. Uh, but the
[51:31] officials stressed that this is not a
super fund site, you know, so it just
[51:34] that's the that's where the pot of the
money comes from. Um, and the reason why
[51:41] the EPA is here is they have the ability
to work on acute problems that are time
[51:48] critical, you know, so that's removing
the chemicals. So that's there. What
[51:53] they don't do is they're not they're not
going to do soil. They're not going to
[51:57] do, you know, whatever the structure is
over there. They're they're just
[52:00] basically there for the chemicals. That
is where ecology comes in, you know. And
[52:05] so that's going to be a bigger
discussion of what happens next after
[52:09] the EPA is done. Uh they think there's
between 700,000 and 750,000 gallons that
[52:16] have been confirmed. Um primarily uh the
the red liquor um which contains
[52:22] magnesium bulfite. I don't know if I got
that spelled right or said that right.
[52:28] Um but there's there's additional tanks
that they haven't gotten to yet, you
[52:32] know, that they're going to work on
getting there. So there could be there
[52:35] could be a lot more. Um the red liquor
is going to be pumped uh using new
[52:40] equipment. So they're going to instead
of using their existing equipment
[52:44] because there's no power over there.
They're going to open up the top and
[52:47] basically suck the stuff out. Um and
then they've got stuff that's going to
[52:52] neutralize it on site. So neutral pH. Um
and then they're going to truck it uh to
[52:57] the licensed disposal uh facilities. Um
they said that they're probably going to
[53:02] take it through the Blue Slooh area
instead of going through town, but
[53:07] they'll do that. Um the Washington
Department of Ecology, uh which was not
[53:12] there, but they're going to they are the
ones responsible for the separate
[53:16] address oils and the smaller containers.
And so you you're probably going to see,
[53:20] uh spill uh vehicles in there. It's not
that there's a spill, they're there to
[53:25] clean it up. Um, so far the EPA has
documented 8 to nine leaks mostly in the
[53:31] piping. Uh, and some of them are small
leaks. Um, uh, but they said that the,
[53:36] uh, inactivity of the facility makes it
less hazard than an operating mill, you
[53:42] know, cuz I know we've all been talking
about what happened down south. Um, but
[53:46] it's no longer heated, no longer
pressurized. Um but they've got concerns
[53:51] with aging tanks and they have no
maintenance history of what what's going
[53:56] on. Um so it remains concern. They're
going to be uh air monitoring. We'll
[54:00] watch for sulfur sulfur uh dioxide
particulates vapors. Um and they're
[54:06] going to be publishing monitoring data
uh weekly on treatment and shipping
[54:12] totals. Um right now they're using open
uh treatment tanks. Um, and the reason
[54:19] why they do that because they can
analyze whether or not it's happening.
[54:23] Um, now if they're going to monitor it,
but if something was to happen where
[54:28] there's more um fumes that are being
released, I mean, and they're they've
[54:33] got sensors all over the place, then
they can do um closed tanks instead, but
[54:37] it's hard it's harder to monitor it. Um
EPA they over and over again said
[54:45] they're limited to removing the bulk
chemicals and ecology is the one
[54:49] responsible for long-term investigation
soil, groundwater, sediments, wetlands,
[54:54] overall site cleanup and and we've had
conversations but we don't really know
[54:59] what the plan is. Um so that's that's
going to be something that that we just
[55:04] got to keep pushing. unresolved issues
which they don't know is the residue
[55:09] sludge because as the tanks as the tanks
empty out there might be stuff that's on
[55:14] the bottom and then it might not be
practical to remove it other than I mean
[55:20] if if you want to get someone in there
to suck it out. So that's where they
[55:24] just have to figure out as they go
whether that makes sense. And then
[55:28] there's
uh a lot of pipes through the entire
[55:32] thing. And so some of the some of the
pipes are like inch thick. Um and so to
[55:38] clean all the stuff out of there is
probably going to be impossibility uh
[55:41] with it. Um but they're going to do once
they get in there, they're going to have
[55:45] a better idea.
Um, again, like I said before, it's
[55:49] taxpayer funded, but the EPA expects to
pursue costs to recover from current and
[55:56] former owners, and they made that clear,
but they they gave the current owner
[56:01] plenty of time to try to get the thing
cleaned up, but there's been no
[56:05] response. Um, so they're they're
pursuing um the legal legal aspect. Um,
[56:12] uh, EPA is coordinating with county
emergency management, fire, law
[56:16] enforcement. We had a big meeting with
everybody in there to understand what's
[56:20] going on. Uh, but there is no dedicated
public siren. So, if something happens,
[56:25] you're not going to do that. But there
is because there's no power in the side,
[56:29] but if something was to occur, energy
management would handle the
[56:32] notification. So, it' be typically that
we would do if a tornado came through or
[56:36] whatever, you'd be um, alerted. Um
[clears throat]
[56:42] the I think the one feedback that I got
was uh there was not enough notice for
[56:48] people to know and why it was so quick
and the reason why it was so quick is
[56:53] the direct conversation we met with them
is they were in town. We felt that it
[56:58] was important to get a meeting right as
soon as possible, you know, so the word
[57:03] is out. They're talking about whatever
it whatever it's going to be and we
[57:07] still had um good good representation in
there, but the plan plan is to do um
[57:14] many more. I mean, so um it all depends
what but there'll be greater more
[57:19] advanced notice. Um and uh you know
if there's things that we can put the
[57:27] word out better um to get that you know
we certainly would do that cuz really
[57:31] there they were um if you were there
they were they were great people to talk
[57:36] to. I mean they just gave you gave you
the facts. Um I said that you know what
[57:41] they could work on what they wouldn't u
but they haven't actually done done all
[57:44] that stuff. So so the plan is to have
more dropins. Um and then uh our plan
[57:51] from the city is also to create a web
page with with all the information on
[57:56] there to keep people up there. But uh
their their page that they actually have
[58:02] uh which is the um response.gov/cosmotc
[58:09] is pretty good. I mean it has has all
the stuff and you can go to see some of
[58:13] the documents with it. So So our plan is
to put that together. Anyone have any
[58:17] questions before I go on my next thing?
>> And they have put security back.
[58:22] » Yes. Yes. I I mentioned they they as
long as they're there, they are going to
[58:26] have security. Now, what happens when
they go
[58:30] » Mhm.
>> is is there because it's it's obviously
[58:33] it's a it's a great nuisance
>> [clears throat]
[58:35] » um out there. But yes, yeah, they have
that.
[58:38] » The time frame is 7 8 months. Is that
what they said? uh they said about 5
[58:42] months, but they won't know until they
start actually, you know, getting in
[58:46] there. But they're they're here and
they're they're on site. Um and they've
[58:50] really been great to work with so far.
>> Very approachable.
[58:53] » Yeah. With it. And and they have no
problem if you've got if you got
[58:57] questions, you know, and they'll they'll
tell you what's going on and uh some
[59:02] things they can't say, but um you know,
but um they're they're a great a great
[59:07] team.
And anything else?
[59:11] um just give you an update. I I don't
know if you if the council knows or not,
[59:16] but you know, uh I'm still working on
the fire museum water damage. Um and so
[59:22] uh we have the insurance company has
not reopened the claim, but they've
[59:29] approved us to uh to go and do further
investigation on the wall and have it
[59:34] open it up and see if there's any um
water damage or whatever is in there.
[59:40] And then once we get that, then we'll
see what our next steps are. So, no no
[59:44] promises, but at least we're um we're
having the conversation. They're going
[59:48] to come back and take a look at that. Um
tomorrow, we're going to be interviewing
[59:52] for deputy clerk position. Um they're
scheduled for tomorrow. We've got four
[59:56] people that we're interviewing. Um and
the administrative office is we're are
[1:00:01] going to be closed as there's three of
us that are going to be interviewing.
[1:00:05] Um, so I'll update the the council as
soon as we decide whatever whatever
[1:00:09] we're going to do. And then the building
department coverage, I know that some
[1:00:13] people have have,
I guess, talked about it, but um, but
[1:00:18] the building inspector, Bill Cider, is
has been out. He's got he's got some
[1:00:22] issues that he has to uh take care of.
Um, we expect him to come back. Uh, but
[1:00:27] in the meantime, Josh Padet from
Aberdine is covering his position. Um,
[1:00:32] and he he's getting all of Bill's
emails, uh, um, returning phone calls.
[1:00:38] He's been out doing inspections. Um,
and, uh, so we're we're on track and
[1:00:43] we're not we're not dropping anything
there. And, um, we talked to Bill
[1:00:47] [gasps]
probably at least every other day about
[1:00:50] what whatever is going on. So, uh, uh,
we hope to have him back and and get
[1:00:55] back up to speed. But, uh, we do
appreciate, uh, the help that we've been
[1:00:58] getting from Aberdine, um, on on that,
you know, and again, I I really do
[1:01:04] appreciate all you guys do as council
members. I mean, that, uh, being a
[1:01:08] council person, it it's hard. I mean,
you just from time to get the stuff done
[1:01:13] and um, and right now as a is a tough
time in Cosmopolis and and to be on the
[1:01:18] council, you know, there's some
decisions you have to make that are
[1:01:21] tough. Um, and it's hard, you know, but
I really I really been impressed with
[1:01:25] the work that you guys do and especially
for some challenges you're in there. I
[1:01:30] mean, I think that um uh you are guys
are doing a lot with not a lot with it.
[1:01:38] So, so I appreciate it and I'm glad glad
to be here and again my my door is
[1:01:43] always open. Um, so whatever I can do to
help you guys or or just or you guys
[1:01:49] help me on figuring out how do we get
get places, that's all I got.
[1:01:53] » Okay. Thank you.
>> Police Chief Chief Green.
[1:01:57] » Thank you, Mayor. Uh, just to go out
with the city manager said make sure you
[1:02:01] sign up for your [laughter]
alerts to Gar County Emergency
[1:02:04] Management. There's a link on there to
put your uh name and phone number to
[1:02:09] that they have your correct information.
So if you have an alert, they can do
[1:02:12] that. They're able to do it um
geographically based. We can do the same
[1:02:15] thing for our dispatch center. So that's
very important stuff that has to make
[1:02:19] sure you guys keep keep updated on that.
The city of Abin also has a notify me um
[1:02:24] app and a website too. Uh I would
certainly encourage you to sign up for
[1:02:28] them too. Uh they're just you so it's
important you get any emergencies might
[1:02:32] be going on with your neighbors. Uh last
month in July we saw 54 calls. So it was
[1:02:36] down from June. uh the most of the
calls, the highest call we had with was
[1:02:41] parking enforcement. I think that's a
good thing that uh if people are calling
[1:02:44] our parking enforcement officer for some
of the nuisance uh vehicles um you know
[1:02:48] when we started this I kind of talked
about our goal with the parking is to
[1:02:51] just get people to comply and take care
of their business and so George has only
[1:02:55] written two tickets out of 20 calls. So
that's a good thing. I think most people
[1:02:58] are complying. That's about about the
rate that we see in the city of 2. One
[1:03:02] out of every 10 persons doesn't want to
comply. So, we think they get an
[1:03:04] interfaction later this year. Later this
year, you'll get an update on the
[1:03:08] parking codes. Uh, city causes are kind
of outdated, so we're just going to um
[1:03:13] make them current. Uh, you see the
traffic data on the report, too. So,
[1:03:17] you're getting us just under uh 6,000
cars a day driving by the speed signs in
[1:03:22] the both directions. They're still still
well below the speed limit. That's a
[1:03:26] very good thing. And uh the average
speed is is staying very consistent
[1:03:30] which uh we also think that's a great
thing too because sometimes people might
[1:03:34] get too used to it and start speeding up
a little bit but we haven't seen that
[1:03:36] yet. [sighs and gasps] We were able to
hire our 37th officer this last month.
[1:03:41] She starts police academy on September
15th and she'll be graduating uh next
[1:03:46] spring. Then we had Nash night out on
the 4th just a couple weeks ago. were
[1:03:50] able to stop them both the one I ever
site and then two both of the Kazy sites
[1:03:54] before we got stuck in our barricad call
just down the road um really appreciate
[1:03:59] all the community coming out and helping
us out and then we were on that call you
[1:04:02] know our priorities [clears throat] make
sure everybody in the neighborhood's
[1:04:04] safe so that's why those things take
time you know we're never in any kind of
[1:04:07] hurry to resolve the situations we want
to make sure that everybody in the
[1:04:10] neighborhood's safe and the victims are
taken care of and so those things just
[1:04:14] take time unfortunately and that's just
kind of how it goes
[1:04:18] » thank you And at this time, our fire
chief will be joining us by Zoom. Chief,
[1:04:27] » I uh good evening and uh my apologies
for not being present tonight. I had a
[1:04:32] had a family uh issue that occurred. So,
I normally would be there. Um, so it's
[1:04:38] been a fun start um for uh being your
fire chief and um met a great group of
[1:04:46] volunteers on the first drill night uh
of the month and kind of kind of got
[1:04:51] some understanding of people's needs and
uh where we can grow the department from
[1:04:55] here. Um so current
>> currently we are sitting at 216 calls
[1:05:00] for service. That's 34 calls since our
last since the last report that you
[1:05:04] received. Um we saw a significant uptick
in uh fire uh structure fires or FSRWs
[1:05:10] as they're listed. Um those were all
mutual aid um with other departments
[1:05:16] predominantly at the city of Aberdine.
Uh however uh still a significant uptick
[1:05:21] having 11 in a uh month's time. We did
have some uh medical responses and 13
[1:05:27] aid responses. Uh four lift assists and
two hazmats that were unrelated to the
[1:05:32] mill. Um just want to make sure that we
don't it wasn't Cosmo. Um all the
[1:05:38] majority were handled um well by our own
volunteers um with the assistance of
[1:05:44] Aberdine Fires paramedic unit and engine
coming from Southside and we really
[1:05:50] appreciate that cooperation that we do
have. Um with that we have two members
[1:05:55] that are in uh fire 2 academy. both are
being reported doing really well and are
[1:06:00] representing um Cosmopolis fire um very
well. Uh we have two um recent
[1:06:08] applications uh that one have gone out,
one's already returned to add additional
[1:06:14] volunteers. Both have an interest in
fire and EMS. Um so that is great. And
[1:06:19] we were able with the donation and
mayor, I need you to say the family last
[1:06:24] name so I don't destroy it. [laughter]
>> Okay. Hopefully I don't. Um Daryl Drewi,
[1:06:31] » thank you. Um with the charitable
donation from their family, we were able
[1:06:36] to uh repair our uh two of our bay doors
that needed had much needed repairs um
[1:06:43] with no cost to the city. So pretty
happy to be able to um get that
[1:06:49] [clears throat] fixed so we have a safe
uh environment that doesn't delay our
[1:06:53] response. Um, that's that's all I have
for this meeting. Uh, I'm sure I'll have
[1:06:58] more in future meetings.
>> Thank you, Chief Mac Binger.
[1:07:05] [clears throat]
Um, on to the mayor's report. I have a
[1:07:10] few updates to show this evening. So,
coming up this Sunday is Festival in the
[1:07:14] Park. Um, Festival in the Park is August
23rd from 11 to 4. I want to note a
[1:07:21] correction. Our newsletter had a
misprint listing Saturday at the correct
[1:07:26] the correct day is Sunday the 23rd. You
can look forward to a free kids corner
[1:07:32] music featuring from 12 to 2 call engage
who is a well-known musician in the
[1:07:39] community and very popular. We have five
food vendors with a nice variety of
[1:07:45] food. 25 vendors plus several agencies
that will be providing information that
[1:07:51] support our citizens. There'll be a
cruise in car show. Prizes will be
[1:07:56] awarded. Citizens will be voting on the
different categories. Um it'll be best
[1:08:02] in show and different as I said
different categories. The midnight
[1:08:06] cruisers and push rods will be
participating. also participating
[1:08:12] in kind of the community event
[clears throat] will be the Dennis York
[1:08:17] Historical Museum will be open that day.
They plan to bring one of the historical
[1:08:23] fire trucks to the festival. Um our
chief will have also applications for
[1:08:30] that. Um volunteers can pick up there.
Um and so there'll be a lot happening on
[1:08:36] the 23rd. get out, visit businesses,
come to the festival, go up to the
[1:08:40] Dennis York Historical Museum. Um, we
normally, well, we had started the
[1:08:46] pancake volunteer pancake breakfast.
Unfortunately, we're not having it this
[1:08:50] year because our two volunteers that are
very actively involved in it. They are
[1:08:56] the individuals that training and then
our chief, um, Koko was also one of the
[1:09:02] volunteers last year. He is now working
um full-time as a fire chief at a
[1:09:09] different department. [clears throat]
So, also we have a blood drive that will
[1:09:13] be on August 24th. I think she still has
a couple spots. We have information that
[1:09:20] if you stop by city hall, we can connect
you. It's also on our city Facebook page
[1:09:25] and it's from 9 to 3. The blood mobile
will be located on D Street on the curb
[1:09:31] next to the fire hall. So, if you
haven't, you know, you have an
[1:09:34] opportunity to save a life and really
help out because blood at this time of
[1:09:39] year, um Jane came in and spoke at the
senior lunchon and gave a wonderful
[1:09:45] presentation about the need and there
was a very high need for it. Um we did
[1:09:51] not have a public works meeting
scheduling was interesting
[1:09:54] [clears throat] this but I will give you
an update. Um, one of the things that
[1:09:58] public work has been working on, they
did do all the alleys. Um, if they miss
[1:10:03] one, let us know. But all the gravel has
been put in the potholes in the alley.
[1:10:09] They're contining to work on cold
patching. Um, as you can see, if you
[1:10:15] take a look at First Street, it looks
pretty amazing. Um, again, our seasonal
[1:10:22] help was brought on as a full-time
employee. Um, and he's doing an
[1:10:26] excellent job keeping things trimmed and
looking nice here in the city. Um, let's
[1:10:32] see how we move on.
[1:10:38] Oh, the other thing coming up is um I
just the chief spoke about National
[1:10:44] Night Out. We had one [clears throat]
there at Highland Park and one at the
[1:10:47] Dennis York um historical museum. Nice
turnout for both of them. the police a
[1:10:54] police department, the cadets and the
VIPs who are in attendance and we want
[1:10:59] to thank you. You had a excellent
[clears throat] turnout and people
[1:11:02] enjoyed um seeing you and visiting. So
that's my report this evening. So we are
[1:11:08] going on to new business at this time.
Item number one, public hearing,
[1:11:16] closure vacation of Ali Row. And John,
will you speak to this? Uh you want to
[1:11:23] do that?
>> Oh. Oh. So at this time I will recess
[1:11:27] the regular council meeting and reopen
and reopen the continued public hearing
[1:11:34] on the petition to vacate the alley
right away adjacent to lots through 20
[1:11:42] block 49 rural NIMs addition as petition
by the Cosmopoulos school district.
[1:11:50] » Okay. Uh if you remember on July 15th,
the council um uh passed resolution 2601
[1:11:58] setting tonight uh setting tonight's
date for the public hearing that we had
[1:12:04] on that special meeting uh to vacate the
alley right away adjacent to lot 1
[1:12:09] through 20 block 49 rural news edition.
Um the petition was filed by the
[1:12:14] cosmopoulos school district. Um and
they're they're the property. It's like
[1:12:19] right in the middle of the school um
with it. Uh we have not received any
[1:12:25] written comments and we only received
two so far we've only received two um uh
[1:12:32] verbal comments and they were both in
favor of doing this. Uh so at this time
[1:12:37] we'll take any any comments that anyone
might have.
[1:12:44] » Okay. Then you can go ahead and close
the hearing.
[1:12:46] » Okay. Seeing no further comment, I will
close the public hearing. I will now re
[1:12:50] reconvene the regular council meeting.
Item two, lease of the police station
[1:12:57] space. Um I'm excited we've had the um
had alto be leased rented. Um we do at
[1:13:07] this time have an agency that is
interested. the staff has put together
[1:13:13] um a we have a proposed rent um we put
together for leasing the space at the
[1:13:21] police building. A summary is below and
I'm going to go through it with you.
[1:13:25] There's a proposed rent of 25 to 3,000 a
month with room for negotiation. The
[1:13:31] space is 2,444
square ft. That's the entire office
[1:13:36] space over there. Um the structured as
modified growth leaf base rent plus
[1:13:43] prorate utility, water, zero, garbage,
electricity. The term is a yearly
[1:13:48] contract agreement with no automatic
renewal. Grant is based and approved
[1:13:53] upon square footage with the andor CPI
adjustment. The city retains master
[1:14:00] access. Tenant is responsible for
telecommunication, internet, phone, and
[1:14:05] property liability insurance. the city
will pay for technology relocation.
[1:14:11] » Actually, they they agreed to change.
>> Oh, that's right. They did agree to do
[1:14:14] that, which was very nice. For office or
professional use. Um, so we really had
[1:14:20] to look at who this would be rented out
to. So, for the office, it's only for
[1:14:27] professional use. No retail, food
service, or hightraic public facing
[1:14:32] uses. Um, no use that conflicts with the
city hall operations. No use requiring
[1:14:38] evening weekend public access. Tenant
must pass background and security
[1:14:43] screening. Proposed ten tenant at this
time is the crisis network support which
[1:14:50] meets with this which met with the city
and we were very pleased with our
[1:14:55] discussion. See this as a very positive
step forward for that youth. Um so the
[1:15:03] only um clients that they see is uh
crisis support. They um it's very
[1:15:10] discreet, very confidential and um I
think they'll be an excellent tenant. So
[1:15:16] is there any discussion at this time?
>> Will they be using the same access as
[1:15:22] » No, they will they will use a police
side.
[1:15:25] » Okay.
>> Yeah, they will not be coming through
[1:15:28] the city side at all. Any other
comments, discussion?
[1:15:35] Okay.
Um,
[1:15:40] so
um, moving on to resolution 2026-02-
[1:15:47] [clears throat]
EMS fee. Tara, would you like to speak
[1:15:51] to this at this time, the EMS fee?
>> Sure. Um, thank you, Mayor. Tara
[1:15:57] Dunford, finance consultant. Um, I just
want to make sure that council
[1:16:00] understands how critical this is. Um,
when council did approve the contract
[1:16:05] with Aberdine, this really should have
happened at the same time. Um, the
[1:16:13] difference in the rate is $39.62
per month per customer. So, for your 751
[1:16:20] accounts, that equates to nearly $30,000
a month. If you don't adopt this rate
[1:16:25] increase tonight, the general fund has
to pay the difference. The general fund
[1:16:30] simply does not have that money. That's
as much as your entire police contract
[1:16:34] with Aberine is. We're already going to
have to eat the one month since it
[1:16:39] didn't pass last month um correctly and
and that already will hurt the budget.
[1:16:44] Uh the general fund had about $250,000
in it at the end of June. that money
[1:16:49] would be gone so quickly if you start
eating it down with this. Um, I know
[1:16:54] it's very expensive. I know it's a big
impact on customers. I absolutely agree.
[1:17:00] We should look at a rate study to see if
there is some sort of subsidy option or
[1:17:05] a way to lower that rate, but we don't
have the capacity in the budget to not
[1:17:11] adopt this rate at this point. Um,
there's just no money there. Um, I was
[1:17:16] involved with Aberdeen's budget
presentation and budget process when
[1:17:20] they went through this and and they had
a lot of heartache over doing it too. I
[1:17:24] mean, it went through many, many, many
council meetings. Um, it was a huge rate
[1:17:28] increase that they were subsidizing the
EMS by the city's general fund and in
[1:17:32] fact in essence subsidizing Cosmopolis's
EMS services through Aberine's general
[1:17:37] fund. Um, and their budget just simply
couldn't sustain it. That's the reality.
[1:17:41] So, um I I just want to make sure
council understands how critical this is
[1:17:46] and how important it is. And you're
contracted now to pay this rate to
[1:17:51] Aberdine. If you don't pass this and
collect it from customers, it has to
[1:17:54] come from the general fund and and cuts
are going to have to come from somewhere
[1:17:57] because there's simply not money there
to fund it.
[1:18:03] » Thank you, Terara. So this resolution
would increase the monthly EMS fee
[1:18:08] charged on the utility count to 6754
as we discussed in a workshop
[1:18:15] meetings
many times previously
[1:18:19] um amending resolution number 2023-04.
Is there any discussion before
[1:18:26] [clears throat] they'll vote this
evening?
[1:18:30] » I have a question for you Tara. You
might recall Chief Folly brought forward
[1:18:35] an EMS fund or some sort of em EMS
breakoff from the utility bill. That
[1:18:43] separate money was going towards the
Kazzy Fire Department.
[1:18:48] What happened to that fund? That money
or does this rate eliminate that fund
[1:18:54] now that the rate is in increased?
>> That's a great question. So, you still
[1:18:58] have the new fund 110. So that was
established last year for the EMS fund.
[1:19:03] Previously the EMS revenue was accounted
for in the general fund. It's still in
[1:19:08] essence the same thing. The money comes
in from customers and it goes out. We're
[1:19:12] just tracking it in a separate fund so
that you have really easy visibility.
[1:19:17] um what was established last year when
that fund went into play, there was a
[1:19:23] very small difference between the amount
charged to customers and what was
[1:19:28] remitted to aver bucks and it equated to
$7,500 in last year's budget. The goal
[1:19:35] of the chief at that time was to build
up some money and have a little bit of
[1:19:40] resources to start funding your own EMS
program. Being that now it's going to be
[1:19:45] a direct pass through, we won't have
that additional $7,500 a year.
[1:19:50] » Gotcha. It's a great question. I do
recall that we talked about being more
[1:19:54] of an accounting.
>> I mean, even if it lowered that fee to a
[1:19:59] $66 instead of 67 per month, it would
help the citizens. Um, you know, it's
[1:20:06] just a it's just a heavy rate on our
utility bill.
[1:20:09] » Uh, thank you, Tara. I was curious about
that.
[1:20:12] My questions are still the same that
I've had is the uh is
[1:20:19] in the contract it says utility hookup
um what utility we talked about it
[1:20:26] whether it's sewer whether it's water
>> it water utility so it's the 751 water
[1:20:32] connections there are roughly 630 I
can't remember if it's 631 or 633 sewer
[1:20:38] connections um so those that are on
wells obviously don't pay sewer. Um so
[1:20:43] it's a 751 water connections.
[1:20:49] » Um
so the other part of that question is
[1:20:54] there is exemptions available
and are we using or do we know what
[1:21:00] those exemptions would be? So my
question is my math says we're we're
[1:21:04] paying 759
connections based on the fee to be paid
[1:21:10] and uh I'm just curious about the the
city buildings. Are we including those?
[1:21:18] Because we didn't used to in the water
connection. It was exempt from the
[1:21:23] contract. So, we went from 730
a few years ago to 700 I have 759
[1:21:34] um
water meter connections.
[1:21:37] » I'm just looking at the July report
right from the financial system and 751
[1:21:42] connections were built were build
>> um in July. Uh whether those are where
[1:21:49] the city ones are, I'm going to see if I
can find that. I am not an expert in the
[1:21:53] utility billing system. So, let me see
if I can find that answer quickly. I may
[1:21:57] or may not be able to.
[1:22:01] But yes, the city in theory should pay
the
[1:22:06] flat monthly 6754 per water meter
connection.
[1:22:11] » So, the so the city so like the parks
each park each pump station each
[1:22:17] » each hug. Yes. And [clears throat] u you
asking how many meter connections the
[1:22:22] city has?
>> I'm trying to find out why our meter
[1:22:25] connections went up that much because we
didn't have 20 new connections in the
[1:22:30] last two years.
>> And so I would think that would be a
[1:22:34] spot where the city would be able to get
an exemption from the city of Aberdine.
[1:22:39] I agree that the fee does need to be
paid. We do need to get it and it does
[1:22:44] need to go out to the citizens
unfortunately. However, the city itself
[1:22:50] shouldn't because we're already funding,
you know, our fire department. We're
[1:22:54] already funding EMS fees. So, there
should be a blanket where all of the
[1:23:00] municipal buildings we shouldn't have to
pay that because I'm assuming I don't
[1:23:04] know 10 how many connections do we have?
But that's something we can do. We can
[1:23:10] ask for an exemption down the road after
that. after any of this other stuff
[1:23:16] happens after we have to get this
resolved now and then any other ideas
[1:23:20] that come up or ideas that you may have
need to be handled after and then start
[1:23:27] form a committee and make it happen
>> and I don't disagree with you at this
[1:23:30] point because of the time frame but all
that stuff should have been handled
[1:23:33] previously well
>> before we got into this whole thing so
[1:23:36] » well there's a lot of things that should
have happened I mean like I said all
[1:23:39] these ideas people could have showed up
at Aberdine commit, you know, council
[1:23:44] meetings and nobody did. So,
>> well, actually they did and they did
[1:23:47] email council members.
>> Yeah. And I watched them.
[1:23:51] » Yeah. But Aberdine is doing what they
need to do for Aberdine and
[1:23:54] » I understand do what they do for our cos
on
[1:24:00] » I I recall that we were using a
discounted rate where the city was
[1:24:04] essentially subsidizing these bills
>> correct
[1:24:07] » for a while. Is that now just being
passed on to Aberdeene? That so we've
[1:24:12] transferred the subsidy that was
provided from our general fund and now
[1:24:16] Aberdine's been doing it. Is that
>> we used to get a 20% discount from
[1:24:22] Aberdine and now we're being charged the
full rate of 100%.
[1:24:25] » So they were actually giving us a formal
discount
[1:24:29] » because we had our own fire department.
We're handling some of the EMS calls
[1:24:33] » and uh the problem is that we didn't
have enough volume. Our our staff didn't
[1:24:38] respond to enough volume of calls and so
they wanted to raise it to 100%.
[1:24:43] » Okay.
>> There is a there is a a hope that we can
[1:24:48] get more active and be able to respond
to the calls. And then at that point
[1:24:52] they they said they would consider
lowering it back down to an 80%.
[1:24:56] » Right. I recall that by a chief Goldberg
kind of good presentation on it.
[1:25:00] » I was under the impression though that
part of the you know the kind of
[1:25:05] discount to our citizens was being paid
um well basically just being covered by
[1:25:11] the city of Cosmopol.
>> It was but the last administration
[1:25:15] » I would have to
remember when
[1:25:18] » Yeah. the previous Yeah. They stopped
doing that cuz when I first moved here
[1:25:23] there was a sub this city was
subsidizing and there was a council
[1:25:27] meeting I came up I believe in like
[clears throat] 2022
[1:25:31] probably like around 23 end of 22 23.
>> Yeah. But that's a different thing.
[1:25:35] » They axed out the city subsidizing any
of that. Yeah.
[1:25:43] anything.
>> Only comment I'm going to make and and
[1:25:46] this probably not make some happy, but
we voted and passed this resolution
[1:25:54] over a month ago. And then we came back
and found out that we had to or passed
[1:25:59] this ordinance to raise the rate. And
then we came back because we found out
[1:26:04] that we had to pass a resolution to pass
the bill or to pay the bill.
[1:26:11] And the action of the meet of the
council that night cost the city $30,000
[1:26:19] of our reserves
even though it had already been voted on
[1:26:24] and passed to try to make some point
about not having process procedures or
[1:26:32] doing things in the past.
We just threw away $30,000
[1:26:38] that should have been passed on to the
residents. We're all residents.
[1:26:45] I'm not saying that I was exempt from
paying it. I had to pay it, too. And I
[1:26:50] understood that I had to pay it. But to
hold hostage the bill [clears throat] to
[1:26:56] try to prove a point was not good
policy.
[1:27:02] Well, I respect your opinion. However, I
I disagree. I think the good policy
[1:27:07] would have been to answer these things.
We brought it up in February, January,
[1:27:11] and February, and tried to get answers
to these questions, and they weren't
[1:27:15] answered, and they're still not answered
tonight. So, tonight we're going to call
[1:27:19] for a vote. There's still questions to
be answered, but I do agree again, we're
[1:27:24] put under the gun of the urgency of we
have to do this now. the policy should
[1:27:30] be done previous to the vote.
So you want to blame the cost of $30,000
[1:27:37] to the city, you know, look look around.
>> So I'm just I'm going to step out of
[1:27:46] mayo throw for a moment. Um which I can
do and I'm going to speak to this.
[1:27:52] Aberdine took this before those citizens
numerous workshop
[1:27:57] as to other people can and Sue who
attended those meetings council meetings
[1:28:04] they did not resolve it until March
this wasn't a rush through last minute
[1:28:11] we had workshops we had meetings we had
a town hall meeting had to go back and
[1:28:18] forth politics doesn't happen overnight
It would be nice if we could get things
[1:28:23] passed quickly. It didn't. And overall,
it has cost.
[1:28:29] And thank you for pointing that out.
We came, you should have been educated.
[1:28:35] You should have understand instead of
pointing fingers, you have a
[1:28:39] responsibility
to the citizens to make decisions that
[1:28:45] keep this city moving forward. The last
two and a half years have been hard
[1:28:49] work, sacrifices
that have moved this city forward to to
[1:28:59] make that kind of vote that set us back
30,000
[1:29:04] was very disappointing
because there's a lot there's council
[1:29:09] here that work that volunteer to make a
difference and then to see what happened
[1:29:17] last council meeting was very
disappointing and that's the last I'm
[1:29:21] going to say on it.
[1:29:25] [clears throat]
Any other comments at this time?
[1:29:29] Okay, with hearing no other comments,
John, where do we go from here?
[1:29:34] » Number four.
>> Okay, moving on to item number four,
[1:29:38] boundary line adjustment, ratification,
parcel A, parcel B, block 24, John
[1:29:45] Martin and Chris Koko.
Well,
[1:29:49] » so the reason why this is here uh that
is we have on further down um a proposal
[1:29:56] to sell a piece of property um and uh
went through uh digging to get some
[1:30:05] information on uh a boundary line
adjustment uh that was it was done. So
[1:30:12] it was surveyed, it was done, the
boundary line was submitted to the um uh
[1:30:20] the um
uh the board the assessor's office or
[1:30:27] what whatever the uh that makes it. So
it's been it's been filed. Now one of
[1:30:32] the things I went through and I could
not find any documentation that was
[1:30:35] brought before the council for approval.
Um, so,
[1:30:41] uh, what we need to do is obviously
before we sell the property and the the
[1:30:48] correct property
description, everything is in the sale
[1:30:54] package correctly. But one of the things
that if you're in a city and you make an
[1:31:00] adjustment to a property property line
adjustment, the council has to approve
[1:31:05] it. It has to become the and it didn't.
And I don't know why, but it just
[1:31:10] didn't. And so um in advice to our um
attorney that his suggestion is that to
[1:31:18] make it legal, what we need to do is
bring it before the council, make it um
[1:31:24] basically backdate that we approve it.
Um and because
[1:31:29] well, it it needs to be approved. I
mean, from from a council point of view.
[1:31:33] So that's the reason why it's here. ask
what is the reason for the property line
[1:31:38] adjustment?
>> You know, I was not here when you guys
[1:31:46] talked about it. So, I I don't know. I
can I I can make some assumptions with
[1:31:51] it. I mean, if you look at the what the
original property was and what the
[1:31:55] property is now of being buildable, but
I don't know. I mean, I I'm guessing.
[1:32:00] So, the reason it got brought up was uh
the new building was supposed to be over
[1:32:07] on that lot, right, and all that. So,
the idea was was to ensure that there
[1:32:12] was enough room for the rideway at the
end of this building to be able to get
[1:32:16] to the street so that the property line
was surveyed. So, we knew we had enough
[1:32:22] access in there. and it ended up moving
the property line on I believe like 18
[1:32:27] ft close
>> but there's still 30 ft in there
[1:32:31] » which should be plenty
>> the idea was to be able to get a fire
[1:32:34] truck through there you have the
sallyport
[1:32:37] » lid out there and stuff like that that's
why it got brought up
[1:32:40] » and so
>> okay essentially we we're selling the
[1:32:44] property we had some allotted on this
parcel that we're on right now that we
[1:32:49] no longer need
>> that is correct yeah
[1:32:52] » okay so that's the reason why it's here
Very nice.
[1:32:57] » So, moving on to item five, sale of city
property 1312 First Street, John.
[1:33:06] » Okay. And this is the property we just
talked about right next door. Um there's
[1:33:11] uh buyer uh David Mill. Um uh county
assessor appraised the value is 39781.
[1:33:19] uh listed price we put up at 79,500.
Buyers originally offer was 65,500
[1:33:27] and then we countered and this is where
it 76,000 with it. Um you know and so
[1:33:34] the the key the key is one if the
council accepts that when we go in there
[1:33:40] but uh we kind of need to do both of
them if we're going to uh proceed
[1:33:44] forward as far as the boundary line
adjustment and this. So,
[1:33:48] » we could probably do. Yeah. So, I just
have a question about the um agreement
[1:33:53] that's on here. Is it expired? Cuz it
says that this that his offer was made
[1:33:59] in July and that it's only
>> we there Well, no, it's not expired
[1:34:04] because we
>> did the counter.
[1:34:06] » We Well, we did the counter. It said
that. And then it also is on there that
[1:34:11] it's um for council approval.
>> So, and we had this is our first time
[1:34:15] that we've met.
>> Oh, right. Okay, sounds good. I just
[1:34:18] wanted to double check on that. Yeah,
>> other than that, it's just your basic
[1:34:23] land deal, you know.
>> Yeah.
[1:34:26] » So, only other question I have is where
does the $76,000 go? I would earmark
[1:34:32] that to go someplace specifically.
>> Sure.
[1:34:35] » That's going to go to the city's general
fund. You could earmark it specifically
[1:34:39] to go to some specific purpose if you
wanted to.
[1:34:45] That'll be good to help make up for the
EMS fees that we just lost.
[1:34:48] » Mhm. [laughter]
>> Yeah.
[1:34:51] » Be a good year to mark.
>> Yeah. The appropriate time to do that
[1:34:55] would be during the 2027 budget process.
>> Process.
[1:34:58] » Yeah.
[1:35:03] » Do we know if he what plans he has been
around?
[1:35:06] » Yes. So, I'll go ahead and speak to
that. Um,
[1:35:10] his plans are to build a twostory
building with a residence or apartment
[1:35:16] up above with some type of retail down
below, possibly a restaurant or offices
[1:35:23] down below.
>> Nice.
[1:35:25] » And he understands it cannot be storage
units or anything like that. That would
[1:35:29] make very clear.
>> Not another coffee shop.
[1:35:32] Well, [laughter] he actually said he
wanted a not and he was thinking about a
[1:35:37] coffee shop and offices and I said,
"Well, we have two coffee shops within
[1:35:41] two blocks." And he's like, "Oh." I
said, "But you know, it was interesting
[1:35:45] cuz there was information put out
because we have another piece of real
[1:35:49] estate and people have talked about a
restaurant, a number of things, and I
[1:35:52] shared that with him." So he seemed very
excited to move forward not with a
[1:35:57] coffee shop but maybe a restaurant
something sandwich shops and off other
[1:36:02] offices. [laughter]
[1:36:05] » So you said that that's been very clear
but is that in the contract at all?
[1:36:09] » Yes it will be under contract. It will
be
[1:36:14] » that it is. I talked to the realtor and
he said it would it is.
[1:36:24] » No.
>> Okay. Moving on to ordinance six number
[1:36:29] 1406
vac.
[1:36:34] » Yes. So [snorts] this is what we've been
talking about. It's the um school the
[1:36:41] school district that wants it vacated.
Uh
[1:36:44] we
uh no one has spoken against it. Uh the
[1:36:50] people that spoke for it, you know, the
comments were why haven't we done it
[1:36:54] before? Um [laughter]
>> 75
[1:36:57] » 75.
>> Yeah, cuz there's a um there's actually
[1:36:59] part of a building on on the rightway.
uh we are not giving up uh our easements
[1:37:05] when it comes for water, sewer, storm
water, etc. with it. So, we still have
[1:37:09] the rights uh there. Um it it really has
no impact to the city because it's
[1:37:15] really all school property that that
it's there. Um and uh um you know that
[1:37:24] the
>> I don't I really don't have much more to
[1:37:27] say. I mean, it's it's it's something,
you know, I I'm pretty sure the reason
[1:37:32] why that it was never brought up before
is back in the day, people didn't have
[1:37:37] computers. So, to look at
>> plots and things like that were very
[1:37:41] difficult. They probably didn't realize
it. And then when they started this
[1:37:44] construction project, their their team
goes, "Hey, you know, you know that you
[1:37:48] don't have, you know, uh, right access,
and this is the time that we should fix
[1:37:53] it."
So, I'm sure that that's why it came to
[1:37:55] us and and again, it's the right thing
to do.
[1:38:00] » Okay.
Um, so moving on to item 7, 2026, our
[1:38:07] budget amendment ordinance number 1405,
second reading, Tara Deford, our CPA.
[1:38:14] » Uh, thank you. So, no changes to this
document since council saw it last
[1:38:18] month. Um, just to go through the items
quickly. Uh in the general fund, there's
[1:38:22] $192,115
for museum capital improvements. This is
[1:38:27] 100% um funded by insurance money that
was received partially in 2025 and
[1:38:34] partially in 2026.
Um the reason we need a budget amendment
[1:38:38] is council still has to give expenditure
authority to the general fund in in
[1:38:44] whole and there's not enough cushion in
there to absorb $192,000.
[1:38:50] uh but it is truly a net zero in terms
of revenues and expenses. Uh the next
[1:38:55] two items go together. So the bond fund
is getting $242,91
[1:39:03] um coming from the real estate excise
tax fund. Um this is related to the
[1:39:09] shortfall on the city hall project. Um
the comprehensive plan was adopted back
[1:39:16] in April and um included the project in
the comp plan which allows the city to
[1:39:22] use real estate excise tax funds to pay
for debt service and project costs on
[1:39:28] this building. Um again that one is
really there are no other options. There
[1:39:34] are no other funding sources for this.
Um it it really is administrative
[1:39:38] cleanup and and the only only available
funds um that the city has at this time
[1:39:44] to solve this problem.
Um in the sewer fund, increasing
[1:39:48] intergovernmental services funds uh
273,000 to reflect partial payment to
[1:39:53] Aberdine uh for 2025 services. Um, back
when we did the
[1:40:01] original budget, we didn't include any
payments to Aberdine because we didn't
[1:40:04] know what the payments were going to be
and what the um agreement was going to
[1:40:09] be.
Uh, lastly,
[1:40:14] amending the FTE schedule, uh, removing
the position of police clerk, and then
[1:40:20] adding the part-time city administrator
position. Um, again, back when we did
[1:40:25] the 2026 budget, we kind of knew we
might be moving towards uh contracting
[1:40:29] over police services, but we did not
reflect that in the dollars budgeted.
[1:40:34] Um, [clears throat] net savings for 2026
are approximately $58,000 for the police
[1:40:40] department switch. Um, there were a
substantial amount, about $92,000 of
[1:40:47] leave buyouts, insurance, and other
expenses incurred in 2026, which will go
[1:40:51] away in 2027. So uh the total annualized
savings is about 150,000 from
[1:40:58] contracting the police department. Uh
part-time city administrator on an
[1:41:03] annualized basis will be approximately
75,000.
[1:41:07] Um that can be allocated across uh all
funds. So the utility funds can pick up
[1:41:12] a piece of that. Um [clears throat] cost
for the remainder of the year is
[1:41:17] $36,500.
[1:41:21] Those are all the items included in the
in the budget amendment.
[1:41:24] » Does that take care of the rest of the
building? Finally, that
[1:41:27] » Yes.
>> Okay.
[1:41:28] » It takes care of the rest of the
building [clears throat] except for the
[1:41:32] interesting fact that the mill
>> is behind on property taxes now. And to
[1:41:37] your point, Amy last time, it's other
others as well that are put on property
[1:41:41] taxes, but their property tax bill is so
substantial
[1:41:45] » um that it's it has caused that fund to
go in the negative because when the city
[1:41:50] levies for the debt service payment,
their piece of the pie is so
[1:41:53] substantial. So
>> that's going to hang out there as an
[1:41:57] issue until that's resolved,
>> right? What u what would we be able to
[1:42:00] do with the remaining funds in the real
estate excise? Um so anything that's in
[1:42:05] the comp plan and and also complies with
state law regarding spending a real
[1:42:09] estate excise tax um you can spend on
that. So think parks, capital
[1:42:13] improvement, street projects, um a new
city hall if you want to [laughter] go
[1:42:18] that route
and just general administrative um and
[1:42:22] general government capital improvements
typically.
[1:42:25] » Save it for a rainy day.
>> Yeah, it's interesting. You cannot use
[1:42:30] it for uh police services. You can't use
it for EMS. You can't use it for
[1:42:33] anything like that. It's it's strictly
capital improvements.
[1:42:38] » We need some of those, too.
[1:42:42] » Okay.
So, moving on. Item eight, policy and
[1:42:47] procedure committee. Councilman Davis,
did you want to speak to that?
[1:42:52] » Yeah. I'd asked to have the uh
policy and procedure committee brought
[1:42:58] up. I think it's necessary in talking
with u several other council members
[1:43:03] over the time. We've asked I've asked
for policies around things and we don't
[1:43:09] have written policies in a lot of cases
and even even the council meetings
[1:43:15] change from time to time as far as what
how we handle it, how how public comment
[1:43:22] periods are handled, who's addressed in
the uh [clears throat] how the how the
[1:43:27] public is recorded in the uh minutes uh
has gone from their name to a citizen.
[1:43:36] And it's really hard when you go back
and try to research something when it
[1:43:40] just says a citizen said or a group of
citizens said made a comment and and if
[1:43:48] somebody really has the courage or has
the stamina to get in front of a council
[1:43:52] and speak, I think respectfully their
name should be put in there. But those
[1:43:56] are some of the items. um hours of city
hall, the use for this building, uh lots
[1:44:02] of different things that we really don't
have any policy, any written policy on
[1:44:07] that we should have policies concerning.
I felt like it's a good there's probably
[1:44:11] 10 or 15 things off the top that we've
talked about at the council that we
[1:44:15] don't have policies on. That was the
goal was try to put together a committee
[1:44:19] that would actually address each of
those and bring those policy suggestions
[1:44:22] to the council to be fulfilled.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any comments?
[1:44:28] » Well, I think our ordinance specifically
says that the forming of account of a
[1:44:32] committee is at the discretion of the
mayor. So, it seems like it's a not a
[1:44:37] decision that we need to make. It seems
to be an administrative issue. So,
[1:44:42] that's what our ordinance states. So,
it's nothing that we really officially
[1:44:46] vote on to happen. You seems like
something you should be sitting down
[1:44:49] with the administrator and the mayor if
you want to create a committee because
[1:44:53] they're the ones who do that. which I
have. And so what I'm doing is I'm
[1:44:58] asking the council [clears throat]
to work together
[1:45:02] on creating helping the administration
understand the need for a policy
[1:45:09] committee.
[1:45:15] » Got it. All right. Moving on. Um,
council member Wyn, would you like to
[1:45:23] speak to your street tree planting?
>> Sure. I'll try to keep it very brief,
[1:45:29] which is edging out my forte. [laughter]
>> Okay.
[1:45:32] » You don't have to laugh that hard.
Um, you know, I I uh presented the
[1:45:38] ordinance a couple meetings ago and uh
invited any comments, concerns, and I
[1:45:46] really did not get any uh feedback. I
did have a chance to meet with Bill
[1:45:51] Cedor about it and we spoke about you
know any kind of lingering concerns that
[1:45:55] he had. He uh overwhelmingly the
concerns are we plant trees what about
[1:46:00] the maintenance issues. So that is all,
you know, stuff that I've been mindful
[1:46:04] of for 3 years in drafting this
ordinance. And I feel very confident
[1:46:10] that, you know, whatever guidelines we
develop, they will be incredibly
[1:46:14] sensitive to maintenance concerns and
actually will alleviate some of the um,
[1:46:20] you know, other issues that the city
has. Um as we talk about storm water and
[1:46:26] trees is um you know a strategy that
many cities are using to combat storm
[1:46:32] water runoff. Um but I'll just clarify
quickly that um you know this city
[1:46:39] street tree ordinance that we are um
going to be voting on I think at the the
[1:46:45] September meeting um is uh it's limited
to so first of all it only says that
[1:46:52] we're going to develop a plan. It
doesn't contain the plan itself.
[1:46:56] [clears throat] It simply uh establishes
that that's how we're going to uh
[1:47:01] approve or [clears throat] not approve
planting trees um in certain areas in
[1:47:06] the city moving forward. Um it doesn't
apply to citizen-owned property that is
[1:47:13] managed by citizens. It doesn't really
apply to city- owned property that's
[1:47:18] managed by the city. It is almost
exclusively addressing what are called
[1:47:23] the parking strips or planting strips or
they're called different things
[1:47:25] depending on where you [clears throat]
are. But it's that very narrow strip
[1:47:29] between the sidewalk and the street. So
you pull up your car, park on the side
[1:47:32] of the street [laughter] and you see a
bare strip of grass there between your
[1:47:36] car and the sidewalk. That is the area
that we're talking about. Many of those
[1:47:41] are actually owned by the city, but it's
the citizens respons responsibility to
[1:47:48] maintain it. if you have if you own the
adjacent property. [clears throat] So,
[1:47:51] that's mainly what we're uh talking
about. It it gives citizens some right
[1:47:55] to plant things on that city- owned
property um but with very, you know,
[1:48:03] kind of strict approvals to ensure that,
you know, it's it's handled um
[1:48:08] responsibly and sustainably doesn't
create a burden on our infrastructure,
[1:48:12] our maintenance workers, [clears throat]
and a lot of other things. Um, so I I'll
[1:48:18] just sum up to say that I I think that,
you know, in talking with uh various
[1:48:23] folks around the city over the past few
years, I I think everybody has been
[1:48:27] satisfied with the plans that we have
for ensuring that this is done
[1:48:32] responsibly and it doesn't become a
burden on the city. Um, the only thing
[1:48:37] that materialized in my conversations
with Bill Cedor was he had some
[1:48:42] enforcement concerns um, which I thought
were very um, very fair concerns about,
[1:48:49] you know, how would we if somebody
plants something inappropriate, how
[1:48:53] would we know, how would we address it?
Um, and so we have a a pretty good idea,
[1:48:58] I think, of how we'll address that as
well. But all the details will be coming
[1:49:01] in a later thing before the council.
This is just basically us agreeing we
[1:49:06] will develop a plan that will be brought
before the council.
[1:49:10] » Okay. Thank you, Councilman Wyn. Um at
this time, public comments limited to
[1:49:17] agenda items only. I will now open the
floor. Um you will have three minutes.
[1:49:23] Please state your first name.
And
[1:49:28] are there any public comments at this
point?
[1:49:32] I I'm Mary.
Um I just want to make a comment on the
[1:49:39] sale of the property next door and Steve
asked about for [snorts] what the money
[1:49:46] was earmarked for. Well, my lack of
recollection recogn
[1:49:52] um was at the meeting when it was
discussed that we needed to do that
[1:49:57] because of the budget overreach for the
building and that type of thing that um
[1:50:03] it was talked about of that it should be
earmarked for
[1:50:09] paying on the overage of the building
which if it's paid off and it's fine
[1:50:14] then that's one thing but that's what
was discussed. at the time that it would
[1:50:19] be used to pay towards the building
since it was part of the whole
[1:50:24] situation.
Okay.
[1:50:28] Any other comments at this time?
Okay. Hearing none, we are going to move
[1:50:36] on to council action items. So we will
move on to item one to vote to approve
[1:50:43] resolution 2026-02-
[1:50:48] EMS fee. Is there a motion to approve
resolution 2026-02
[1:50:56] increasing the monthly EMS fee to 6750
per per account.
[1:51:04] » So moved.
>> Is there a second?
[1:51:06] » Second. Is there any discussion?
All those in favor say I.
[1:51:12] » I.
>> I.
[1:51:14] » Any opposed?
The motion passes.
[1:51:21] Item two, motion for council
consideration, boundary line adjustment
[1:51:26] ratification.
Is there a motion to retroactively
[1:51:31] approve and ratify the boundary line
adjustment between parcel A and parcel B
[1:51:39] block 24?
>> I Councilman Skinner I move that the
[1:51:45] city council retroactively approve and
ratify the boundary line adjustment
[1:51:48] between parcel A and parcel B block 24.
>> Councilman Spargo seconds.
[1:51:56] » Okay. Is there any discussion?
Hearing none, all those in favor? I.
[1:52:03] » All those opposed.
>> The motion passes.
[1:52:07] Item three, vote to approve the sale of
city property 1312
[1:52:13] First Street. Is there a motion to
approve the sale of city property at
[1:52:17] 1312 First Street? Um, tax parcel 0310
024001
[1:52:26] 00 to David Malik for 76,000.
>> Councilman Spargo moves to go forward on
[1:52:32] topic.
>> Is there a second?
[1:52:34] » Councilman Skinner second.
>> Is there any discussion?
[1:52:39] Hearing none. All those in favor?
>> I
[1:52:42] » I [clears throat]
motion passes. Item four, vote to
[1:52:48] approve ordinate 1406 to vacate alley
row. A motion to approve ordinance
[1:52:55] number 1406
vacating the portion of the alley
[1:52:59] rightway adjacent to lots 1 through 20
block 49 rural ns addition of petition
[1:53:07] by the cosmopoulos school district.
>> So moved. Council Spargo seconds.
[1:53:12] » Is there any discussion?
All those in favor?
[1:53:17] » I.
[1:53:20] » Any opposed?
The motion passes. Item five, vote to
[1:53:26] approve the 2026 budget amendment
ordinance number 1405.
[1:53:31] Is there a motion to approve ordinance
number 1405 amending the 2026 budget
[1:53:38] adopted with ordinance number 1402?
Councilman Skinner makes a motion to
[1:53:44] approve the 2026 budget amendment.
>> Council Garcia will second that. All
[1:53:50] those in favor?
>> I I
[1:53:53] » I
>> I'm sorry. Is there any discussion?
[1:53:58] » Okay. All those in favor?
>> I.
[1:54:01] » Any opposed?
>> The motion passes. Item six, vote to
[1:54:06] approve final storm water comprehensive
plan with HDR.
[1:54:11] Um, is there a motion to approve the
final storm water comprehensive plan as
[1:54:16] presented by HDR incorporated?
>> Council Darcy will uh move that the
[1:54:23] final uh to approve the final storm
water comprehensive HDR.
[1:54:26] » Councilman Spargo seconds.
>> Any discussion?
[1:54:32] All those in favor say I. I.
>> Any opposed?
[1:54:36] Motion passes. At this time, public
comments for city business only. The
[1:54:43] floor is open to the general public for
comment. Please state your first name.
[1:54:48] We ask that you be respectful and keep
your comments to three minutes.
[1:54:56] Okay.
Hearing none. Moving on. Council
[1:55:01] comments.
the council member.
[1:55:06] » I guess I'll start us off. Um, first I
want to apologize for not making it to
[1:55:10] your presentation. Um, most of the
council knows and most of the the
[1:55:14] community knows. I'm a big part of uh
most of the community sports. If kids
[1:55:18] play this play the sport, I normally
coach it or I'm participating. This time
[1:55:22] of year is football season. It is
started. Bobcats are playing football
[1:55:26] over there at Steuart Field. I will be
[snorts] limited for the next two months
[1:55:30] as budget season is started. I will be
doing my best to arrive for meetings,
[1:55:34] but presentations may be difficult to
attend for the two meetings going
[1:55:39] forward. Um, my apologies. I will try to
make myself as available as possible.
[1:55:44] Second thing I do have to say, um, I'm
an open book. Um, the community members
[1:55:50] and of this town, they elected me to
stand up and raise my hand when there's
[1:55:55] questions or concerns. I've had citizens
stop me at the gas station. I've had
[1:55:59] citizens come talk to me at the Hong
Kong restaurant while I'm having dinner
[1:56:02] with my family. I've had people come to
my house. I live next door to the
[1:56:05] school. I'm easy to access. If anyone
ever has a problem or the concern of the
[1:56:11] things that I say or do as an elected
official of this community, please reach
[1:56:15] out. I am happy to discuss anything that
I am saying, doing, or voting on. Um,
[1:56:21] fellow individuals at this table, please
also feel free to communicate to me. Um,
[1:56:26] there was one individual that reached
out. They were concerned on what was
[1:56:30] done last meeting and we spoke on it and
I feel that we left it in good terms and
[1:56:34] she understood where I was coming from.
Um, so I am not out to make enemies. I'm
[1:56:39] out to try to stand up for the community
and the citizens of Cosmopoulos as they
[1:56:45] elected me to take this position. So
that is all I have to say. I appreciate
[1:56:49] everyone that's came out and I
appreciate everyone sitting at this
[1:56:52] table.
>> Thank you. Okay.
[1:56:54] » Any other comments from council?
>> In the spirit of uh apologizing, I don't
[1:57:00] I don't know that apology is is strictly
necessary. Um you know, it has been
[1:57:04] noted to me uh by folks that um you
know, they would like to see me more in
[1:57:10] person and less on Zoom and um and I've
missed a few more meetings than I would
[1:57:18] have liked to. Um, and I I just want to
acknowledge that and, you know, be very
[1:57:23] transparent in that I' I've always
struggled with having the capacity to
[1:57:26] serve on the council. I think in
general, all all of us who are stepping
[1:57:31] into these public service roles, we have
a finite amount of capacity for them. We
[1:57:35] can't all give as generously of our time
as the mayor does. Um, but, uh, you
[1:57:42] know, I I do want to assure everybody
that I I really am doing my best. you
[1:57:46] know, I often feel that I'm not um able
to fulfill the the duties of this role
[1:57:53] to the extent that I personally would
would like to see, but I I ran
[1:57:59] unopposed. Um so, [laughter]
I don't feel too bad about it either. Um
[1:58:06] so, you know, uh and we've had we've had
a difficult time filling committee seats
[1:58:11] and and even just standing up committees
at times. I I think that we all um owe
[1:58:17] each other grace when it comes to um you
know recognizing the the sacrifices that
[1:58:24] our public servants are making. So I I
want to say thank you to you all as
[1:58:27] well.
>> Thank you.
[1:58:31] » I'd like to make a comment with uh with
attorney Chris Coker and John Martin. I
[1:58:36] appreciate your endeavors and uh
for the for the information, the
[1:58:41] returned phone calls, the returned
emails uh for a long time. You know, I
[1:58:46] have I have questions and they go my
emails go unanswered at times, but you
[1:58:51] both have been very uh forthright with
information. I appreciate that. It helps
[1:58:56] a ton. Uh I appreciate each council
member and what they do. Some do more,
[1:59:01] they spend more time, they have more
opportunity. But there is five council
[1:59:05] members at this table and so that
information should flow freely amongst
[1:59:10] all five. And I appreciate John.
[clears throat] I appreciate you working
[1:59:13] towards that. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Any other comments this
[1:59:17] evening?
>> No, I'm quiet tonight.
[1:59:22] » Okay. So, is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilman [clears throat] Spargo moves
[1:59:28] to adjourn meeting
>> and council virtually second that.
[1:59:31] » With there being no other business for
the meeting, the meeting is adjourned at
[1:59:36] 8:20. Thank you everyone.
Sun is sinking