[0:01] good afternoon and welcome to this emergency meeting of the CEST city

[0:05] council January 18th 20124 would you please stand and join me

[0:11] in

[0:15] theedge to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands

[0:23] Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for

[0:28] all thank

[0:32] you well I want to say thank you for all of you for coming

[0:36] today and uh there's a long list of people I can say thank you to

[0:42] including 76 and Arco for keeping open and providing really life-saving fuel

[0:49] for not only Crest bans with people all around Bart has been working hard to

[0:53] keep open on uh generator power farmlands is open today and I'm sure

[0:58] there's others other businesses who are doing their best plus just a big thank

[1:03] you to Neighbors in this time period I've seen

[1:07] so many people like going door to door and and helping neighbors and uh that's

[1:12] what it means to be a community isn't it so uh better and more sufficient list of

[1:17] thanks you will follow at a later time but that we'll have to do for now I want

[1:22] to introduce um if you're not aware our city manager Michelle Amber Michelle is

[1:27] going to give us a status report from the City Michelle will then also um

[1:33] introduce um our local New Hope Baptist pastor that providing Services working

[1:38] with the city and also our Red Cross Representatives who's here and we'll get

[1:42] some information about their services as well so manager Amber thank you mayor um

[1:48] well my report is that there's no power anywhere in C there is no internet and

[1:54] Verizon is spotty we're having a lot of difficulties with uh the internet uh and

[2:00] and foam coverage but I mean a bright spot in all of this has been the

[2:05] Partnerships that we've developed with the county with red cross and you know

[2:10] New Hope is stepping up in a really big way um so uh yeah if you need to use the

[2:18] I'll let them talk about what they're doing um but like the state has sent us

[2:22] everything for a warming Center um they uh and for electricity heat um we're

[2:29] working hookup for a satellite trailer which will provide internet access and

[2:35] um they have a charging Center there uh we are putting together a debris deposit

[2:41] site at 395 Meadow Lane there are signs so you can follow the signs in it's

[2:47] where our sear treatment plan is um just prior to the server treatment plant you

[2:52] can there's a a grassy area where you can put your degree um the 76 gas

[2:58] station is open B is open F LS is open Roundup is open open and the schools

[3:03] will be closed tomorrow and that's what I have as of

[3:07] now so I'd like to introduce to you Casey from um New Hope can I ask a quick

[3:13] question um just I been really disconnected until yesterday I I don't

[3:18] have news or anything what is you're talking a lot about what we have

[3:22] available but how long is this supposed to last do we have any information yeah

[3:26] the latest information I have is Monday thank you sorry I didn't intend to run

[3:32] no that's fine so yeah and that's for the city um for the surrounding areas it

[3:38] could be as long as January 26th and that's the rumor that I heard

[3:44] yeah with that I'll introduce Casey and he can tell you more about what's going

[3:48] on at new hi so I'm Casey uh we are just setting up down the road we've got a

[3:53] warming Center we're serving meals uh tonight starting at 3:00 we'll have from

[3:58] 3 to 6 we'll have hot meal served out of there feel free to take it to go and we

[4:03] also can sit inside where it's warm uh we have just arrived as a shower unit

[4:08] from the the state is it should be operational here shortly uh internet

[4:13] trailer was getting up and running as well they were trying to relocate it and

[4:16] make sure it got a good connection to the satellite so that should be

[4:19] available by this evening um and Red Cross has been awesome and yeah so any

[4:25] specifics anything any questions bless you

[4:30] so the meal is from 3 to 6 are you hoping to continue that each night for

[4:35] as long as we need it yes okay and what about folks who need a place to stay

[4:39] overnight yes so we've got that open as of last night the Red Cross was

[4:44] instrumental in getting that operational we had one person stay last night we're

[4:47] available for for more so we have we have room and uh a warm place it stays

[4:53] nice and more there question you any ask you know um at this point we

[5:00] we're have Red Cross May I don't know you may be able to speak better to to

[5:05] that as far as cooking and stuff we are good uh the one concern we're having is

[5:10] fuel getting fuel for all the generators is it's going to be it's a little

[5:14] difficult so we're we're trying to figure that out still but it's a

[5:17] constant feed of fuel so yes can I just add that the Presa food pantry actually

[5:22] uh lost their Refrigeration so they took all of their things they needed

[5:27] Refrigeration to new bapti and they will use it in feeding yes so think about

[5:33] them when the power comes back on CU they'll need to replenish all that but

[5:37] also their generosity to the community yes the satellite tower how

[5:43] how will that work and how will people be able to connect to it or so from my

[5:47] understanding they they're still setting it up but they'll check in with the Red

[5:50] Cross inside at the warming Center and they'll have a password that you can get

[5:54] in order to connect and I know it's right now Verizon it's having a really

[5:58] difficult time so be really key as far as making contact outside

[6:05] yeah and I'd like to also introduce Carissa HED H from Southern Oregon Red

[6:13] Cross yeah so good afternoon um my name is you knowa hetic and so yeah last

[6:20] night we were working with the the county um and you know the city the

[6:26] efforts um to be able to you know locate there with with new hope so one of the

[6:32] roles of the Red Cross is to provide you know Sheltering and feeding you know

[6:37] during events like this so one we needed to have a a place that was heated for a

[6:42] shelter so thank you for being able to provide that and getting the generator

[6:45] there so you know at this point you know we're we're really we've got um it's a

[6:50] 24-hour shelter so we have a daytime shift to volunteers and then an

[6:54] overnight shift so if you just want to come and have a warmer place to stay

[7:00] you know you're welcome to to spend the night there everything is free of charge

[7:04] meals are free snacks are free you know we we have comfort kits so you know

[7:09] toothbrushes washcloths that type of D um we we have that to provide blankets

[7:14] there as well um it's I mean I I I would probably bring maybe warmer you know we

[7:20] have Red Cross blankets but if you want to have more you know you're welcome to

[7:24] do that um but yeah we're just going to be playing it by ear until

[7:30] you know until the need is is served um and then yeah just kind of providing

[7:35] that communal place where people get that um that access to information so if

[7:41] you've got your friends Network your neighbors just let them know I know

[7:44] internet can be down so talking to your neighbors knowing that the Red Cross has

[7:48] that you know shelter open is what we're working with and again we we can't do it

[7:53] ourselves so the church the city the state everyone has their part in this

[8:00] So yeah thank

[8:05] you um I can talk a little bit about what's going on with the electrical if

[8:09] people want to hear that oh yes um Lane electric is in the worst shape they

[8:17] completely lost a substation so that's why it's going to

[8:20] take till uh January 26 to bring everybody back on who's a lane Customer

[8:26] because they actually have to rebuild the substation it had three different

[8:30] lines coming into it from three different directions all three are

[8:35] demolished um epud is working very hard to get everybody up and running they

[8:41] have added extra Crews um and yeah they're just they're just plugging away

[8:47] um with uh Pacific Power they had actually reestablished electricity in

[8:53] presswell and um then it was broken again and they worked on it and it got

[8:58] broken again um so they have been just re repairing things everyone is

[9:04] concentrating on lwh hanging fruit right now and um trying to get the system uh

[9:12] get the debris off the system um devices froze and I don't know what that means

[9:17] but they were very sad about the fact that these devices that are part of the

[9:22] electrical system froze and so they were going to have to wait until they thought

[9:26] to assess them and see if they needed replacement so not only are they you

[9:30] know redoing the polls they had trem all of them had a tremendous number of poles

[9:34] come down um not only are they replacing the poles and the wires they're actually

[9:39] having to you know do some additional more technical stuff to the system so um

[9:45] I don't know if that's useful information or not but they are working

[9:49] they're working late into the night um and they're they I think they've

[9:54] reestablished the hospital in Cottage Grove now is on electrical power they

[9:59] were running on generator um so that was one of their primary concerns was to get

[10:03] the hospital up and running and and it

[10:08] is okay so I want to open up to members of the public that might have questions

[10:13] that hopefully we can

[10:17] answer any questions I just have another thing um

[10:22] the hospitals are uh having a hard time as well uh they have a lot of people who

[10:28] fell and broke things that required surgery and they were turning them away

[10:33] because they could not do surgeries I don't know if they're doing surgeries

[10:36] yet um one of the problems in is that the Springfield Water got contaminated

[10:42] and so it has a boil notice boil water notice on them and I know that um

[10:47] McKenzie canceled all of its um surgeries and uh River Bend is trying to

[10:54] find places for people who have had surgery to go so they could take you

[10:58] know more people through the doors because they just have their emergency

[11:02] room received twice its normal capacity on the first day so they're working

[11:07] through that city council members and Nicholas

[11:13] you have a question for amandre Amberg or for Casey or for

[11:18] Kista I than

[11:23] you spre word thank youbody all they've done so

[11:31] okay thank you Nicholas yes uh just thinking ahead for

[11:36] the future I know it's tremendously expensive to put power lines underground

[11:40] but I was wondering I was wondering if it might be

[11:43] time to look at that again I think they're wondering that as well I think

[11:47] there's some that do Merit Going Underground The main transmission line I

[11:51] think that went across I five uh was a eye opener for them um so maybe maybe

[11:57] we'll see some of that actually working with UD at the airport uh and with dou

[12:03] fastet to underground some lines under the freeway uh so that may help as

[12:09] well if they're going to keep pushing us away from gas I think they better really

[12:14] take that serious that's actually my comment but we are blessed to have a

[12:20] professional gas range and it has been a lifesaver at our house because we have

[12:25] not had a generator we have not had my8 mother I finally they got power in

[12:31] screen field and I took her up to my sister's house yesterday but our gas

[12:37] range has been our only Lifesaver because everything else is efficient and

[12:41] we have one of those tankless water heaters so we've had nothing but gas and

[12:47] you'll never convince me not to advocate for

[12:51] gas after this yeah oh yeah they've created some

[12:57] Warriors I don't if we're there yet but since we've declared a state of

[13:01] emergency are there going to be federal or state funds coming to help families

[13:06] who have you know or low income have lost their food or have lost their

[13:09] shelter during this time or need help with rent because they've lost work

[13:12] hours do we know that yet the county declare in order to get

[13:19] those kind of fundings there's several steps you have to go through we can't

[13:23] declare an emergency and receive them that doesn't mean anything to Fe um the

[13:27] county can declare emergency and then they'll be eligible for some assistance

[13:32] but it's the state that has to declare the emergency and the the governor did

[13:37] so we will be working within that framework to get as much assistance as

[13:42] we can get um it will FEMA is notoriously difficult and takes a long

[13:49] time and I really do feel for all of the businesses in town who have had to be

[13:55] down now for you know a week um I I wish there was some way I could help them all

[14:01] um have generators but um yeah we just it won't be fast okay um but we'll do

[14:08] our

[14:12] best so a couple questions oh Norma well my my question and it may be answered

[14:18] later is we're we're doing this to get funds

[14:22] release so that we can do that what what will those funds that are releasing from

[14:28] the budget to be doing use for to help the city of Creswell oh we don't we

[14:35] haven't um yeah uh part of the Declaration is to create a a fund of

[14:41] money um the way crestwell right now is expending money is we have overtime we

[14:47] have a tremendous fuel bill um we're operating both plants manually that

[14:53] means every two hours someone has to go out there and run it all run through the

[14:58] whole plant um Cliff is climbing on top of the reservoirs nightly to make sure

[15:06] because our Telemetry is down to make sure that we have enough water for the

[15:10] night for the community um yeah so there's um we're going to have to take

[15:15] down trees there'll be debris cleanup there'll be the costs of some of this uh

[15:20] things that the state has sent down I think the um showers are going to be

[15:25] something that's on a contract so we might have to pay for that

[15:29] um yeah so those are the kinds of things we'll be paying for um but fuel right

[15:34] now is the big deal because um we are looking for fuel to keep our generators

[15:40] going at the sewer plant and the waste and the water plant because those are

[15:45] are two big objectives right now is to keep those going those those are top

[15:49] level um that and trying to make sure that there's no um blockages in the

[15:54] street those were our priorities so that's what we'll at and then any other

[16:00] uh things we can do uh to assist our community uh we'll ask for funding for

[16:08] that so A couple of things manager Amber um do we have any concerns at this point

[16:13] about water and sewer in Crest oil no only only fuel to keep them running and

[16:20] um yeah okay what about law enforcement concerns um if people have concerns do

[16:28] they just go through the process of calling 911 is that the best rout yeah

[16:32] 911 is still working okay um and you can call them or you can call the

[16:37] non-emergency number if it's not an emergency unfortunately we have had some

[16:42] crime because without electricity um alarm systems don't work

[16:49] so we have had a couple burglaries

[16:54] okay so with that I would like to move forward to oh

[16:59] I'm I'm sorry just one other thing as a kind of security guy I just like

[17:03] everybody to think about posting on like Facebook or various things that you're

[17:08] not going to be home that you're staying with your relatives because uh for

[17:11] somebody with a bad mindset they can say this house is right

[17:17] now that's all okay good I would like to move forward then

[17:22] to item number one which is the resolution and I will read the

[17:25] resolution there just a few words changes if you want to note those and

[17:31] I'll mention that when I get there resolution number

[17:35] 20241 in the matter of declaring a local emergency for the city of crestwell

[17:40] Oregon as a result of the ice storm of January 12 through 17

[17:46] 2024 whereas crestwell has experienced a severe ice storm that has caused outage

[17:50] in the entire city and whereas there is a health and safety risk to our

[17:56] residents who have been without electric for several days and whereas the

[18:01] Citywide outages have required staff to operate basic services such as water and

[18:06] sewer facilities manually and whereas local utility and city services have

[18:11] been fully deployed to provide essential services to our residents the mayor

[18:16] concludes that the resulting hazardous conditions are of sufficient severity

[18:20] and magnitude to Warrant a local emergency

[18:23] declaration Contracting Services for haard tree removal debris processing

[18:29] basic services such as showers and laundry for residents and cleanup and

[18:33] here is inserted the words will be required when the initial emergency work

[18:39] is completed and whereas as a result of the storm damage the city manager is

[18:45] authorized for emergency procurement spending to provide critical services to

[18:50] crestw Residents and to spit and to suspend ORS

[18:55] 279b period 060 and whereas the Lane County Board of Commissioners has

[19:01] declared a local emergency throughout Lane

[19:04] County and whereas Creswell Municipal Code chapter

[19:10] 2380 gives the mayor the power to declare a local

[19:14] emergency now therefore as mayor of the city of Creswell I do hereby declare

[19:20] that number one a local emergency exists in the city of

[19:25] crestwell number two the emergency is result of a severe ice storm beginning

[19:30] January change 13 to 12

[19:34] 2024 which had left the city and its residents without electricity or

[19:38] Internet services and with widespread damage due to down trees number three

[19:45] this declaration of local emergency shall remain in effect for 21 days

[19:50] number four the city manager is hereby granted authority to take such actions

[19:55] as are necessary for the prompt and efficient expenditure

[19:58] of up to $150,000 for purposes related to this

[20:03] emergency in compliance with the Oregon public Contracting code suspending

[20:08] Contracting regulations or procedures that may limit execution of such

[20:13] contracts or spending adopted this 18th day of

[20:17] January 2024 so Council I want to open the floor for um question thanks for

[20:24] coming gu um for question and then we will move forward forward with the vote

[20:29] we need to vote to adopt the city council so the FL is open for

[20:35] questions councelor CA just as manag am already stated the these will be for for

[20:43] expenses that have already incurred some may and some may still be to come okay

[20:48] yes yeah we have not expended $150,000 yet but when we start um you

[20:53] know taking out trees and rebuilding senses and doing rep work we did have a

[20:58] treat them down on the water tank um we may run up to 150,000 any idea where

[21:06] we're already at any any clue is this is this going to be enough well if it's not

[21:12] enough we'll come back okay all right answer my

[21:18] question councelor Clark um just to make sure that that we have Clarity with

[21:22] everyone so in the fifth Warehouse statement um it talks about suspending

[21:30] 279060 and so I'm wondering what is or 279060 make sure that we're we know what

[21:36] we're suspended those are the procurement laws they require us to get

[21:40] three bids they require us to use certain things and certain parameters

[21:44] there's a lot of Hoops you have to jump through when you're doing a a public

[21:47] purchase and it says for this purpose we're not going to do that we're going

[21:51] to go straight to a contra contractor and get the work done thank

[21:57] you my

[22:00] question so just clarification if I mean such as paying all the

[22:06] overtime that's not going to happen tomorrow there's going to come a time

[22:09] when all these bills are going to come due if at that time we're short of the

[22:14] 150,000 we then can come back with a a new resolution or would it be better

[22:18] just to up the number at this point what would you recommend I think let's hold

[22:22] it at 150 I think that's a reasonable amount okay I I would

[22:28] I'm skeptical that we would go over that okay any other questions counselors

[22:36] councelor

[22:38] Smith actually coun question

[22:48] concern

[22:51] am all right if there's no further questions then I am entertaining a

[22:57] motion to adopt resol resolution number 2024 d01 as

[23:05] read we have a motion on the cour from councelor Clark I move to adopt

[23:10] resolution number 20 20241 asre we have second on the floor

[23:16] second from councelor hold any further discussion Council will proceed to vote

[23:22] we'll do a Voice vote counselor Smith I

[23:28] the resolution councelor Clark yes councelor

[23:34] Kent yes councelor H yes councelor Castilla yes councelor Osborne yes mayor

[23:40] stram yes motion passes unanimously do we have any further

[23:45] business for today if not then the meeting is

[23:50] adjourned

Creswell City Council Emergency Meeting, January 18th, 2024

Transcript