Mosier City Council Regular Meeting

In attendance at the table in front of the room are left to right; Ron Wright, Lydia Koerner, Brenna Campbell, Noah Estes and Gary Lindemyer. Charlie Cannon appeared via zoom. Also in attendance were Andrea Rogers, Mosier city manager.

The meeting followed a town hall with the Wasco County Commissioners. Folks from that meeting remained for the start and public comment portion of the council meeting.

The meeting was called to order by City Council President Brenna Campbell. Campbell opened the meeting to audience input and explained that each person would be limited to 2 minutes for comment. Discussion was had between Campbell and Rogers over the printed agenda which had agenda correction and acceptance from the previous meeting slotted before the public comment. Campbell remarked that Nick Kramer was present at the meeting to speak on behalf of friends of the Gorge.

The meeting was opened to public/audience comment.

Virginia Cryder a 90 year old resident of Mosier expressed a concern with a dead pine tree endangering her property. She was unclear whose property it was on but sought the councils help. Campbell and Rogers agreed they would follow up and perhaps city employee Rusty would drive out and see if he could determine if the tree was on city property.

Connie a resident of Mosier had several questions first, expressing concern about needing a fire chief in the eventuality of a fire Rogers concurred and offered that the city too was concerned about and committed to fire safety Wright clarified that the Fire District is a separate entity from the city and was in charge of fire concerns, He encouraged attendance at their meetings for further. second, skatepark plan, she was concerned about the possibility of drug activity having heard from an elected official in Hood River that drug dealing was a large problem with the skate park there leading to its current closure. Campbell offered information about the May 7th hearing regarding the skate park as a place to present those concerns. finally, the post office box that was to be placed at the senior center complex for residents. the box has been purchased and it appears it is waiting for the postmaster to confirm its exact location. This led to a second resident Diana sharing her deep frustration with this process and the concerns that members of this community were elderly and disabled and had difficulty getting to the post office to pick up mail as well as afford the mail box rental fees that were necessary. Campbell acknowledged and mirrored Diana’s frustration stated she understood the fees were being waived. Diana insisted this was incorrect and that Victoria at the post office was unaware of any fee waiver.

Commissioner Brady indicated that Wasco County had issued a dark sky proclamation. He further explained the upcoming planetary alignment happening and possibly visible this evening. He offered that he would have his telescope stationed outside if anyone was interested at the appointed time.

Resident Jane Elkin made a statement in support of police presence

Resident Hubbard had a question about the danger of losing water Rogers alluded to the wastewater report which was upcoming and indicated that in other information that was gathered the conclusion was that the wells were sufficient.

prior meeting minutes were approved after some discussion and adjustments regarding dates and a guest appearance council member Estes recalled.

Chris McCalib, Treatment Equipment Co. (TEC) presented the wastewater treatment plan report. He did not have a copy of the report citing low toner on his copier. Another member offered him a copy. McCalib indicated there were updates to the printed report and asked for questions. Estes inquired about section 2.3 regarding the increased waste product McCalib explained the measurements taken showed an unexpected/unusual single night increase which he attributed to some sort of illicit dumping. He indicated this was a felony and a problem seen elsewhere in other places his company serviced. He indicated that also on monday the influent to the plant was pink, also something he had seen before and thought was a pigment from paint dumping. He indicated that a septic company may be dumping into a manhole. These additions to the system affect the disinfection and could be tied to plant violations. He offered that there was tests that could be run. an initially dismissive and finally clarifying back and forth with resident Hubbard it was explained that these tests were $50-$200 and would require more leg work to determine what to have the different companies who conducted testing, test the samples for.

More discussion around the wastewater report and a question from council member Wright regarding the biosolids. McCalib offered that the previous company had a different philosophy about running a wastewater facility. He felt that now was the time to optimize and alluded to a meeting that involved new player introductions that went well. He felt there would likely still be a list of to do’s

Council member Lindemyer asked about the alarm alert phone tree system. Discussion and back and forth made known that an elected official cannot be the one responding to a call. This statement led to some confusion both from council members and resident Hubbard who reacted strongly. Ater some continued discussion it was apparent that the explanation offered by McCalib that the elected officials could not respond had been received by Hubbard as some sort of deception. McCalib quickly clarified that anyone interested was able to ask questions and be present to alarm calls if there were no safety issues. He restated that the concern was that the primary responder had to be someone who was certified to respond. This was done because if the call were received by someone who was not certified to respond they might just silence the alarm and not actually address the cause of the alarm. He insisted that his goal was transparency.

The mood shifted from tense to congratulatory when council member Lindemyer stated he wanted it on record that he was acknowledging the efforts of council member Wright in keeping the wastewater treatment plant functioning after the other company left and prior to this company coming on.

McCalib presented further updates and a question for council members. One of these involved a name and affiliation of grant monies earmarked for small utilities. Of these 380 million dollars in funds McCalib thought that this might be a good resource for the Mosier.

4/24 is when bidding is open for the wastewater treatment plan and he has personally called on 7 contractors to ensure it is a competitive bid.

almost all of the facilities have been rekeyed.

council member Estes asked questions about budget McCalib clarified funding and that they were on budged at indicated care would be taken that the next budget information presented would be accurate. At this point the facility was rekeyed and a motor had been replaced.

Council member Campbell indicated the full water report would be put on on the city’s website.

Nick Kramer from Friends of the Gorge was recognized. He spoke about wanting to make a larger presentation to the group but was happy to be sharing information with the council. He explained who the friends of the gorge are and their oversight of the mosier plateau trail. He indicated there was a small section of the trail (80 feet) that was privately owned and not in easement. The landowners (the Probies) offered that land in donation to the FOG. FOG wants to hand it over to the city. There is some urgency to complete this quickly as the landowners are moving to sell the property and the easement needs to be in place so that it transfers with the deed and does not present a problem later when the land is sold.

Kramer explained the location of the property and how it was on the border of the city and because of this his group was involved but not recipients of the easement. They work outside of city boundaries.

Council member Lindemyer inquired if there was a timeline to achieve this.

Kramer indicated that survey was completed, the easement would be drafted and then transferred. The language had been forwarded to Laura - it was not clarified who lara is but she appears to work in some legal capacity with the city (The city webpage shows a Laura Westmyer is the city attorney) council member Campbell indicated this was in process and they were awaiting Lauras input.

Kramer introduced that FOG had a concept plan to connect Mosier to The Dalles but the plan requires collaboration/cooperation with forest service which is recently in question. 90% of the route is on public land. This is a long range project.

Next is the City Managers report.

Andrea Rogers the city manager spoke briefly about or mentioned the following projects:

they were still trying to close out the EV station. Conner Energy has the contract to maintain the station.

wastewater treatment plant will be undergoing an upgrade

Washington Street project was experiencing complications attributed to the number of partners. time was extended

storm water project

systems troubleshooting in the city offices. phone lines had been installed but they cannot call out. Have been receiving calls in and messages.

Parking study looking at activity and actions.

The spring cleanup had been a learning experience and was extended. Bins should be picked up by monday.

Council member Estes updated the council about a transit summit he attended. The three points he took away were that ridership was up and funding was down and the community values the transit system.

He also mentioned his concern with food insecurity numbers for members of the wasco county and mosier. He cited that 1 in 10 persons struggles with food insecurity in the county up from 1 in 6 in the last year. Hubbard asked for clarification on how that number was achieved and Estes indicated that it was based on who accessed foodbank services.

He spoke of how this would be served by the joint use facility project. It was unclear and no one asked who the parties were that were involved and the other particulars of this project.

Rogers offered further indication that there was support from the joint ways and means committee and capital improvements She cited this as a positive response from the legislature. Council president Campbell called the meeting adjourned at 7:12 pm.

after this council member Charlie who appeared via zoom had his comments read. he suggested that the manholes be spraypainted so it would be more obvious to see which ones had been removed.