[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