Meeting colors

OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Edmonds City Council Parks and Public Works Committee Meeting – May 19, 2026

City Council & Boards — Tuesday, May 19, 2026

BodyEdmonds, Washington

SessionCity Council & Boards

DateTuesday, May 19, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:04:47

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:04

Good afternoon, everyone.

0:05

This is Debian Olsen, chair of the Edmund City Council Parks and Public Works Committee with us.

0:12

We have several council members in attendance.

0:17

First, we've got Councilmember Chris Eck as a member of the committee and council president Dodge as the ad officio member.

0:29

We have Director Fesser from Parks currently, and Joe Sullivan, also from the Parks Department.

0:38

Is that right?

0:39

He's a he's a contractor.

0:42

Okay.

0:44

Okay.

0:45

Well, with no further ado, we're calling the meeting to commence.

0:53

And the first item up is about the columbarium, the cemetery.

0:58

Yeah.

0:59

Good afternoon, everyone.

1:00

Uh, Angie Messer Parks Director.

1:02

I'm joining me this afternoon, Joe Sullivan.

1:05

He is representing the contract service to perform this work that I'm going to be describing.

1:11

So he's here for technical questions if need be.

1:15

First and foremost, this is primarily just a presentation and update to council about the situation.

1:22

I'm requesting work to be done or moving forward with work to be done in emergency repair for our columbarium at the cemetery.

1:31

The packet has a lot of information around that and what the situation is.

1:36

However, I uh have a quick slideshow because pictures are worth a thousand words, and I would like to kind of bring that up and walk you through what we're talking about.

1:49

So can everybody see that on their screen?

1:52

Okay.

1:53

Yes.

1:54

Yeah, hold on.

1:59

There we go.

2:00

That's probably even better.

2:01

So just a quick refresher.

2:04

The um cemetery has a column bearing feature, which is actually not visible from the road, but it is quite significant.

2:15

So this is an image of the columbarium when it was first built in 2006.

2:20

So it's about 20 years old.

2:22

It has about 650 niches.

2:24

So those are the compartments, if you will, that um urns are placed into.

2:30

And we um have sold about 50 to 60 percent of those already.

2:35

This is called phase one.

2:36

There's an additional phase also scheduled for the columbarium off to the right hand side of this image.

2:42

There's a blank wall where that next phase will be installed.

2:46

We um I want to give a little description of the columbarium and then just kind of describe the problem that we have.

2:53

So we're going to be talking about the retaining wall that is about 150, 160 feet long in length and varies in height from nine feet to 14 feet.

3:05

Kind of the deepest is back in this area here.

3:10

This is a better image.

3:11

If you can kind of start to see the niches are kind of the boxes, the holding areas made of granite here.

3:20

And then there's a retaining wall right below the um wrought iron fence.

3:27

You can see here, just to give you an idea and orientation.

3:30

So the retaining wall is just a big reinforced concrete wall, and then the niches are attached to the front of that, if you will, the back of that being the soil and the retaining area that it is holding.

3:44

So currently we have kind of three problem areas.

3:48

One is where the railing actually goes into the top of the retaining wall.

3:57

The it used to be sealed, but the seal is gone or was not installed properly in the first place.

4:02

So wherever the post is embedded or placed into the top of the concrete wall, water has been working in, and with the freeze thaw cycle starting to separate pieces of that.

4:15

So a couple of images to see that.

4:19

In addition, you can kind of see in this image the sealant that runs between the dark gray um concrete and then the columbarium granite is starting to fail split apart, and because it's 20 years old.

4:37

And so water is also entering between the retaining wall and the niches themselves.

4:43

Another example of the post and the concrete starting to chip away at those areas.

4:49

This is another good example of the corner post here.

4:53

This is a repair job on this joint here.

5:00

But this is an example where you can see that chunk of concrete is actually breaking away from the water coming down the post into that area.

5:09

Another one here, kind of showing the sealant, the cracking of the top of that.

5:15

The third area we have an issue with is spalling on the concrete wall here.

5:22

This vertical wall is where phase two will be installed.

5:26

So it's just the concrete wall itself.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Engineering And Infrastructure███████████████████████████████████████████43%

Transportation Safety██████████████████████████████████34%

Public Safety████████████12%

Public Engagement██████6%

Budget Equity Analysis███3%

Procedural██2%

Summary of Proceedings

Edmonds City Council Parks and Public Works Committee Meeting – May 19, 2026

The Edmonds City Council Parks and Public Works Committee met on May 19, 2026, at 3:00 PM to discuss five agenda items: emergency repairs to the cemetery columbarium, award of bids for the 2026 Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) rehab project, award of bids for the Olympic View Drive (OVD) overlay project, presentation of the 2027–2032 6-Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and an interlocal agreement with the City of Mukilteo for paint striping services. The committee forwarded multiple items to the consent agenda and received informational briefings. The meeting adjourned at 4:04 PM.

Consent Calendar

Cemetery Columbarium Repair Project – Informational only; no action taken. The project will return as a formal budget amendment after emergency repairs proceed.
2026 Combined Cured-in-Place Pipe (CIPP) Rehab Project – Forwarded to the May 26 consent agenda. The low bid from SCI ($421,273.17) was non-responsive; the next low bid from Iron Horse ($437,000) was deemed responsive and is recommended for award. Funding comes from annual project funds (accounts 422 and 423).
Report on Bids and Award for OVD Overlay Construction Contract – Forwarded to the May 26 consent agenda. The low bid from JB Asphalt ($1,091,293.85) was non-responsive; the next low bid from Northwest Asphalt ($1,139,767) was responsive and is recommended. The project includes an $1.384 million grant (86.5% grant, 13.5% city match) and addresses asphalt speed cushions on Olympic View Drive.
Interlocal Agreement with City of Mukilteo Public Works – Forwarded to the May 26 consent agenda. The agreement allows Edmonds to perform paint striping for Mukilteo using overtime staff, with Mukilteo reimbursing all costs, making the arrangement budget neutral.

Discussion Items

Cemetery Columbarium Repair Project: Parks Director Angie Messer and contractor Joe Sullivan presented an emergency repair for the columbarium built in 2006 (approximately 20 years old). The retaining wall (150–160 feet long, 9–14 feet high) has three problem areas: water infiltration at railing posts, failed sealant between concrete and granite niches, and spalling on the concrete wall. The repair scope includes waterproofing the backside (hand digging 2–4 feet deep), patching spalling, and resealing all openings. The low responsive bid is ~$107,000 plus sales tax ($118,000 subtotal), with a $9,000 management reserve and $9,000 project management, totaling under $140,000. Funding is available from the cemetery capital fund (137), which currently has ~$1.1 million; after the project the balance will be ~$990,000, returning to the $1 million target by end of 2027. The cemetery board (April 17 meeting) supported the work and funding. Councilmember Chris Eck questioned original construction quality (specs called for waterproofing but it was not installed). Director Messer confirmed legal counsel may be consulted. Joe Sullivan stated the silicone sealant has a 10-year lifespan (UV degradation), the waterproofing a 5-year warranty (due to partial installation), and ongoing maintenance will be added. The committee accepted the presentation as informational; emergency repairs will proceed, with a budget amendment to follow.
2027–2032 6-Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP): Transportation Engineer Bertrand House presented the required annual TIP. The first three years are constrained (secured funding); the last three are unconstrained. Key 2026 projects include the OVD overlay (summer 2026), 7th Avenue North curb ramp upgrades (TIB grant $580,000, 30% local match), pedestrian safety improvements at Highway 99/238th (active warning signs) and SR104/100th (push-button relocation), and traffic signal upgrades at SR104/236th (flashing left-turn arrow for Madrona Elementary School). 2027–2028 projects include a citywide lighting improvement (HSIP grant $700,000, no local match), citywide pedestrian improvements (TIB grant $684,000 for 23 ADA curb ramps), and the 76th Avenue West overlay (grant secured 2024, construction 2028). Over the last four years about $31 million in grants were secured. Councilmember Michelle (last name not provided) raised concerns about: prioritizing bike lanes in survey results; the cost-benefit of sidewalk bulb-outs; the multi-use path along Sunset (questioning elevation need); missing a crosswalk at Firdale Village; and the loss of parking/bistro dining for bike lanes on Main Street. She also asked about pedestrian counts and feasibility studies for multi-use paths. Bertrand responded that feasibility studies would precede large projects, and that bulb-outs are evaluated case-by-case for safety benefits vs. negative impacts. Councilmember Eck commended the grant-writing efforts. The TIP will have a public hearing at the May 26 council meeting and action on June 2. The agenda memo will be updated to reflect the public hearing date.

Key Outcomes

Cemetery Columbarium: The committee approved proceeding with emergency repairs using cemetery capital funds, with a formal budget amendment to be brought to council later.
CIPP and OVD Projects: Both awarded to the responsive low bidders (Iron Horse for CIPP, Northwest Asphalt for OVD) and forwarded to the May 26 consent agenda for final approval.
Interlocal Agreement: Forwarded to the May 26 consent agenda; minor document corrections will be made before that meeting.
Transportation Improvement Program: Scheduled for public hearing on May 26 and council vote on June 2. The committee took no formal action but provided feedback for consideration.
Meeting Extended: Motion passed to extend the meeting to 4:15 PM to accommodate discussion.

Meeting Transcript

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Debian Olsen, chair of the Edmund City Council Parks and Public Works Committee with us. We have several council members in attendance. First, we've got Councilmember Chris Eck as a member of the committee and council president Dodge as the ad officio member. We have Director Fesser from Parks currently, and Joe Sullivan, also from the Parks Department. Is that right? He's a he's a contractor. Okay. Okay. Well, with no further ado, we're calling the meeting to commence. And the first item up is about the columbarium, the cemetery. Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, Angie Messer Parks Director. I'm joining me this afternoon, Joe Sullivan. He is representing the contract service to perform this work that I'm going to be describing. So he's here for technical questions if need be. First and foremost, this is primarily just a presentation and update to council about the situation. I'm requesting work to be done or moving forward with work to be done in emergency repair for our columbarium at the cemetery. The packet has a lot of information around that and what the situation is. However, I uh have a quick slideshow because pictures are worth a thousand words, and I would like to kind of bring that up and walk you through what we're talking about. So can everybody see that on their screen? Okay. Yes. Yeah, hold on. There we go. That's probably even better. So just a quick refresher. The um cemetery has a column bearing feature, which is actually not visible from the road, but it is quite significant. So this is an image of the columbarium when it was first built in 2006. So it's about 20 years old. It has about 650 niches. So those are the compartments, if you will, that um urns are placed into. And we um have sold about 50 to 60 percent of those already. This is called phase one. There's an additional phase also scheduled for the columbarium off to the right hand side of this image. There's a blank wall where that next phase will be installed. We um I want to give a little description of the columbarium and then just kind of describe the problem that we have. So we're going to be talking about the retaining wall that is about 150, 160 feet long in length and varies in height from nine feet to 14 feet. Kind of the deepest is back in this area here. This is a better image. If you can kind of start to see the niches are kind of the boxes, the holding areas made of granite here. And then there's a retaining wall right below the um wrought iron fence. You can see here, just to give you an idea and orientation. So the retaining wall is just a big reinforced concrete wall, and then the niches are attached to the front of that, if you will, the back of that being the soil and the retaining area that it is holding. So currently we have kind of three problem areas. One is where the railing actually goes into the top of the retaining wall. The it used to be sealed, but the seal is gone or was not installed properly in the first place. So wherever the post is embedded or placed into the top of the concrete wall, water has been working in, and with the freeze thaw cycle starting to separate pieces of that. So a couple of images to see that.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI

TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com