To the April 13, 2026 Twalton City Council regular council meeting.

I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order.

First item our agenda is a Pledge of Allegiance tonight, led by Council Hillier.

I invite you all to stand, face the flag, place your hand over your heart, and join with us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which is nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

All right.

That brings us to our next item on the agenda, which is announcements.

And the first one, one that most of the people in the room are here for volunteer appreciation.

This evening we celebrate our outstanding city volunteers under the theme of Connected Through Kindness, honoring the incredible contributions all volunteers make to the City of Twalton.

In 2025, 1,500 volunteers generously donated over 14,000 500 hours of their time, filling more than 90 different positions that meaningfully augment the services that our city staff provide.

Our volunteers bring their time, energy, and talents to the community in countless ways.

In the library, they provide daily support alongside monthly programs like Tween Takeover and Spruce Up to Twalton Library, welcoming groups and families throughout the year through our wonderful library.

Through the Put Down Roots in Twalton program, individuals, school groups, and corporate partners alike have given back to our green spaces and community.

Volunteers have also channeled their dedication into completing Eagle Scout projects and ensuring beloved community events from the Blender Dash and the Pumpkin Regatta to Arbor Week celebrations are resounding successes.

Their reach extends across the Guanita Poll Center, where they support special events and our meal program partners, as well as the Heritage Center and the police department.

During the summer months, volunteers are at the heart of our team Tualton and Teen Towalton programs, and throughout the year they serve with distinction on boards and commissions.

In nearly every department of our city, volunteers contribute their unique skills and talents, stepping in alongside our staff to help deliver the important services that makes Tualton great and a wonderful place to live.

Next up, I'm going to have uh counselor Gonzalez read the proclamation.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Mayor.

Whereas the entire community can inspire, equipped, mobilized people to take action that changes the world, and whereas in 2025, over 1,500 volunteers contributed approximately 14,500 hours of their time and equivalent of about seven full-time employees.

To the betterment of our community, and whereas volunteers give freely of their time, talent, and energy, and ask only for a thank you for their countless hours of service and whereas it has been a long-standing tradition in our community for individuals, families, and local businesses to volunteer to make a difference in our communities, and whereas it is fitting to recognize our volunteers for their dedicated service.

Now, therefore, be proclaimed by the City of Council of the City of Tualton, Oregon, that Towalton recognizes the week of April 19th through April 25th, 2026 as volunteer appreciation week.

The City of Twalton takes great pleasure in honoring the volunteers of our community and conveying our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the committed, selfless and compassionate effort.

Our volunteers truly embody a community that is connected through kindness.

Introduced and adopted this 13th day of April 2026.

City of Twalton.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez.

So each year we present some awards to those uh groups and individuals of folks who've uh been nominated throughout the city for those efforts that uh Councilman Gonzalez mentioned.

Uh there's a nomination process, and this is how the nomination process works.

Uh first nominee uh must address a critical community need and or strengthen the city of Twalton over the past year.

The nominee service resulted in significant improvements with measurable outcomes for our community.

The nominee collaborated with others, leverage community resources, andor employed a unique approach to solving problems here in the community.

And finally, the nominee service reflects a dedicated and sustained commitment of time and effort to the city.

That's available to attendees tonight, and it's posted on the city's website of the contributions of each nominee in each category.

Each winner this evening is being presented a frame certificate that they're over here, a logo crossbody bag, coin purse, and grass tumbler.

On behalf of the city council, city staff, and the entire Twalton community, I thank each and every one of our volunteers in the community.

If we didn't have your efforts, this city wouldn't be as great as it is, and those you know, thousands of hours makes a difference everywhere from the library to the parks to the police department, and I very much appreciate all your help in making this a wonderful place to live and creating a better community that is connected through kindness.

So we'll start off with the uh outstanding group volunteers.

The winner of the outstanding group volunteers this year is the teen library committee.

Everyone here from the Teen Library Committee, please stand.

They're all over here.

The Teen Library Committee was created to meet a critical need in the city of Twalton, ensuring that teens have a meaningful voice in shaping the programs and activities designed for them at the library.

Under the leadership of Teen Services Librarian Amy Mutual, the committee brings together teens to collaborate, brainstorm, and problem solve in an environment where their ideas are valued and used.

In 2025, TLC members not only contributed their ideas but also developed important leadership skills through hands-on experience.

TLC members learned how to manage responsibilities and think critically about community needs.

TLC members collectively contributed over 200 hours of service to our library in 2025.

Congratulations, all of you on the TLC.

Lauren Earnhardt, Emma Goodell, Percy Horsford, Aspen Lorelide, Daphne Losley, Jay Norris, Olivia Pham, Felicia Ree, Emma Ree, Piper Robbins, Nissar Sanchez Kimona, Callie Savage, Olucia Wang, and Daruka Vadipu.

We'll let the photographer decide how to figure this one out.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Excuse me, we have two outstanding youth volunteers this year.

The first recipient recipient is Nestor Sanchares Kimona.

Nestor, please stand.

Nestor contributed a hundred and forty hours of volunteer time in 2025, but what's most impressive about Nestor is his genuine love of helping others.

NISER has helped with the decorations and publicity for Viva Twalton, folded t-shirts from Pumpkin Regatta volunteers, and supported many store times in Twalton Parks.

Nestor has also participated in the Twileton Library Advisory Committee and added positive perspectives to the committee.

He has consistent consistently helpful and brings humor to fellow teens and library staff regularly when he volunteers for the library.

Congratulations, Nestor.

Squish it.

So cozy's formal name is Cozy Miss Slider.

She is a hard worker and a team player.

Cozy contributed over 90 hours in 2025.

As an advisory committee member, Cozy is engaged, bringing informed perspectives and insightful questions.

As a city volunteer, Cosy brings enthusiasm, a lot of it, to every role she steps into.

Helping with library program or at the pumpkin regatta, speaking at City Council or pitching in with the teens library committee.

She's only in like ten different committees.

Rachel began her service by picking up litter in the Greenway Trail and then focused her talents and energy on the Twalton Public Library.

Rachel began volunteering with the Friends of Trees five years ago and has steadily increased her involvement not only with the Friends, but on the Twalton Advisory Committee as well.

This is reflected in her nearly a hundred and seventy-five hours she has volunteered, and the additional responsibility she has assumed.

Okay.

On the yours next.

I got the cover of my mouth.

Well, I didn't know they were filming out, so I want to know that I don't think the dog here's away from the popping.

Oh, you thought you were just gonna do a voice over?

I thought it was just a voiceover.

But you know, whatever.

And I think that's a good idea.

I love that.

All right.

All right.

That brings us to our second proclamation tonight is a proclamation declared in April 2026 as Older Americans Month in the City of Twelfth.

And I see several members of our aging task force in the room would uh any of you like to come up and just say a few words about the older Americans proclamation.

Bill's pointing his finger, that means that's you, Bill.

Bill, Dale, Ed, come on, you guys are never shy.

Yeah.

Definitely not Ed either.

Now hit the button with this.

There you go.

Oh.

So anyway, this the senior aging council was uh dedicated, actually initiated about twelve years ago.

And we've been working very hard to make life affordable and more comfortable for seniors in Twalton.

Yeah, as you know, the aging our members are aging.

You know, in a few more years we're gonna have more people over sixty-five than under eighteen.

So it's evolving.

We want to make this into a community that we can all everybody can enjoy.

And so we can do that by planning ahead.

That's a type of material.

And so we also want to make sure that everybody must be a lot of people are seniors in this particular room.

And so I I really should I'd like to give a clap to everybody that for everybody that is a senior, if we could do that.

And gracefully, griefly I'll be very short here.

So appreciate the opportunity to speak.

All right.

And with that, uh Counselor Brooks will read the older Americans proclamation.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right.

Proclamation.

Whereas the month of May is nationally recognized as Older Americans Month, a time to recognize the contribution of older Americans and to reaffirm our commitment to serving older residents in our community, and whereas the City of Twilaton values the wisdom, experience, and lifelong contributions of older adults who have strengthened our neighborhoods, enriched our civic life, and helped shape our community's character.

And whereas older Americans play what roles as older Americans play vital roles as mentors, volunteers, caregivers, community um leaders and active participants in the workforce sharing their knowledge and talents across generations.

And whereas Twalton is committed to fostering an age-friendly community that promotes health, independence, inclusion, and opportunities for meaningful and engagement for residents of all ages.

And whereas during older Americans month, we celebrate the resilience and diversity of older adults and recognize the importance of accessible services, social connection, and community support to ensure all residents can age with dignity and purpose.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of Twalton, Oregon, that excuse me, Twellton recognizes the month of May as older Americans month.

We encourage community members to honor older adults, recognize their ongoing contributions, and support efforts that promote positive ageing and community engagement.

Introduced and adopted this 13th day of April 2026.

Thank you.

My dad always loved that he moved to Seattle and he was called an honored citizen.

And I think I I really honor the life and wisdom and experience that you guys have.

So thank you for being such great community members here.

We're gonna do a photo op, so bring your proclamation.

Yep, the whole crew over here.

Bring the one at blackening.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Where do you want us to make it?

Well, I'll do whatever.

We'll do whatever.

Is it just those two or all right here?

Apparently, yes.

No, it's okay.

We need lipstick.

Send lipstick.

Oh, sure.

Sure.

There we go.

So we all turn slightly.

Yeah, council works.

I think we're going to be able to do that.

I'm going to spend this one now.

There we go.

Okay.

Three, two, one.

I just gave it to you very unceremoniously.

Likewise, it's great seeing you, Dale.

Ed, I need to get you your canopy at some point.

All right.

I also want to give a shout out if she's on Zoom right now to Susan Nowak, who is the fearless leader of the aging task force.

She couldn't be here tonight, but uh we acknowledge your efforts with the aging task force and wish you well and hope to see you soon.

Well next let the next group leave.

Well, there's brains in the chair.

Okay.

Yeah.

I know I just wait for her.

Yep.

Things are quiet down.

Yeah.

We're losing them by the way.

Yeah, we're losing them.

All right.

Next up is our Parkinson Awareness Month proclamation.

Uh Sharon Kishner.

Come on up.

Welcome.

So yeah, go ahead and uh you can hit you have anything you want to say before we do the proclamation.

It's the guy with the little face with the lines on it.

There you go.

Got it.

Thank you very much.

Um I just wanted to thank all of you for um being aware that there are people in the community that have Parkinson's, and um you may not be aware of who they all are, we all look different, but um it's very important to be acknowledged though.

Thank you very much.

And Council President Pratt will read the proclamation.

My grandfather had Parkinson's, so this one's very special to me, and I look forward to the day when there's a cure for this disease.

Whereas Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive neurological disease and is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the United States, and whereas there is inadequate data on the incidence and prevalence of Parkinson's disease, however, it is believed that one that one million people in the US are living with Parkinson's and nearly 90,000 Americans are diagnosed each year.

And whereas Oregon has the sixth highest rate in the nation for deaths from Parkinson's disease, according to the Oregon Environmental Council, and whereas the symptoms of Parkinson's disease vary from person to person and include slowness of movement, rigidity, gait and balance difficulty, tremors, speech and swallowing disturbances, cognitive fit, cognitive impairment, dementia, mood disorders, and a variety of other symptoms, and whereas education and support services like the ones provided by the Davis Finney Foundation and other organizations are needed to inform, empower, and improve the quality of life for of those living with Parkinson's disease and their care partners in Twiliton.

Hope does exist for persons with Parkinson's disease, the intensive dedicated efforts in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy that can have a positive impact on living well with the disease.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of Tualaton, Oregon, that April 2026 is Parkinson's Awareness Month in the City of Twalaton.

Introduced and adopted this 13th day of April 2026.

Oh, okay.

Two more.

I love it.

Is this your new workout regime for this?

Uh next proclamation is Vietnamese American Remembrance Day proclamation.

Mr.

Two, you want to come on up and say a few words.

Welcome.

Good evening, honorable mayor bobunit and uh distinguished cows.

My name is Taute.

I'm honored to serve as president of the Vietnamese community of Oregon.

On behalf of my bar, I offer the restitude to all of you for the program in recognition of the Vietnamese American April 30 remembrance day.

Your program Mason reached beyond a ceremony.

It's honored the long journey of our bebo carry across the ocean.

And the ultimate scrify of the US and South Vietnamese soldiers who fight and fall for freedom and democracy in South Vietnam.

From our community, this moment is mini foon.

It's a form that our story matters, our heritage endure and that the natural can stand tall, knowing their identity honor.

From the bottom of our heart, again, thank you so much for the problem that you recognize and approve by it.

And we also have the uh thank you certificate for the city of Tuolatin today.

We'll do a swap.

Counselor Hillier will do the proclamation.

Thank you.

That was beautiful.

And you are seen and heard.

City of Tualaton proclamation, whereas Vietnamese refugees have proudly resided in the city of Tualaton and in the state of Oregon since the conclusion of the Vietnam War on April 30th, 1975.

And whereas Vietnamese Americans have put forth their full toiling energy, building the city of Tualaton and the state of Oregon in a multitude of prominent areas, including industry, economy, culture, education, and military service.

And whereas Vietnamese Americans have counted on the state of Oregon as being their second heart, mind and family homeland.

And whereas every year, Vietnamese Americans observe Remembrance Day on April 30th to solemnly honor the 58,000 American soldiers, 810 soldiers from the state of Oregon, one fallen soldier from the city of Tuoleton, and more than 300,000 South Vietnamese soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty for freedom and democracy in South Vietnam from 1955 to 1975.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of Tualaton, Oregon, that Tualaton recognizes the 30th day of April 2026 as Vietnamese American Remembrance Day.

We encourage community members to recognize this cultural heritage, cultural heritage celebration.

Introduced and adopted this 13th day of April 2026, City of Tualaton, Oregon.

Thank you, one more time.

One more talent.

Yeah, okay.

We're going to have to do a three information first.

Thank you.

And this proclamation was brought forward forward in partnership with the idea committee, where they recognize that the autism spectrum disorder is a disorder that impacts our community, and it in part of being a um an inclusive community and also providing access to resources, they thought it important to bring forward this proclamation.

So thank you all for approving it.

So declaring April 2026 as autism acceptance month in the city of Tualaton, whereas autism spectrum disorder, also known as ASD, is a complex and lifelong developmental condition that affects individuals across all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

And where it whereas, according to the Autism Society of Oregon, the prevalence of ASD among children age eight years old is one in 54, and among adults is about 2.21% of the population.

And whereas individuals with autism bring unique strengths, perspectives, and talents that enrich our community and contribute meaningful meaningfully to the culture, social, and economic vitality of the city of Tualaton.

And whereas increased public awareness and understanding of autism promotes acceptance, inclusion, and respect for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families.

And whereas Autism Awareness Month provides an opportunity to recognize the importance of early diagnosis, access to services, community supports, and inclusive practices that allow individuals with autism to reach their full potential.

And whereas the City of Twilaton is committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive and supportive community where all residents are valued and have the opportunity to participate participate fully in civic life.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the city council of the city of Tualeton, Oregon, that April 2026 is recognized as Autism Acceptance Month.

The City of Twalaton encourages all residents, businesses, schools, and community organizations to support efforts that promote understanding, acceptance, and inclusion of individuals with autism and their family.

Introduced and adopted this 13th day of April 2026.

Thank you, Counselor Sacco.

That brings us to two new employee introductions for Rachel Sykes, Public Works Director.

Come on up.

James and Steve, welcome.

Thank you.

All right.

It's been a while since I've had to do one of these.

And we figured we'd do two at once.

Mayor Bubenick and members of the city council.

Hello, I'm Rachel Sykes, Public Works Director here at the City.

And it is my pleasure to introduce two of our newest members here in the public works department.

As you may know, the department previously had a street sewer storm division, which was all managed by one supervisor, Bert Olheiser.

He was a long-tenured employee here with the city.

And upon his retirement in early September, we decided to take a look at restructuring the work group and creating two distinct work groups.

So a street division and a storm sewer division.

We set out to recruit two new managers, and we have found two great guys to join our team in the public works department.

First is our storm sewer division manager, Steve Curtis.

Steve started in late January, so it's been a little bit since he's joined us.

And he comes from the city of Beaverton, where he spent 12 years in various storm and sewer roles within the public works department there.

Steve has a wide array of technical knowledge about about sewer and stormwater infrastructure.

So we were super lucky to find somebody that knows both systems.

And he brings with him a large network of regional connections with partners like CWS and the Wetland Conservancy and all alike, people in other cities elsewhere.

And so those skills and abilities are really serving us well already.

On my left is James Scogan, and he is our street division manager.

James came on board in late February, and he has been really busy from day one.

As you know, I would say our highest volume of calls that we get pertains to our streets.

So James previously worked for the City of Hillsborough Public Works Department, where he spent three years as a lead worker in their street division.

And prior to that, he worked for Clackamas County Roads and in private construction.

So he comes with a long tenure in the roadway kind of arena.

So that's that's really important for us.

He's going to be really busy in his first year with the department.

So he's going to be managing our pavement maintenance program this summer and our sidewalk street tree backlog projects that's also kicking off in June along with a myriad of other things that we will throw his way.

Welcome both of you, James.

Thank you very much.

You want to say something?

It's probably a better speaker.

This gives you time to think.

I disagree, and I'll try and set the bar low for you.

Um I'm happy to be here.

It's a really good opportunity, and um I want to acknowledge the investment that's been made in the collections infrastructure and the projects moving forward.

I think it's something that a lot of other cities aren't putting the value in that Tualaton has historically.

So thank you all, and I look forward to uh working here.

Welcome.

Steve.

Thank you.

That wasn't too bad, huh?

Uh no, I've really appreciated this as a great opportunity.

Uh come from City of Hillsborough, being a larger community.

It was kind of odd my first few days coming here because it's so tight-knit, but I'm actually really enjoying it.

I mean, I never even met my public works director at Hillsborough, and now my office is next door.

So I really appreciate the family kind of atmosphere.

We're kind of one Tuolleton, and I I really am loving that, and I hope I can bring a great asset to the city and help the community in the best way possible.

So thank you.

Well, welcome to both you.

I'm super happy to have uh you both here for bigger cities, so you know, uh, like you're mentioning, you're going for a bigger city to a smaller city, so we're way more intimate.

You're gonna hear from a lot more folks who are used to, you know, residents, and that's where we excel in Tualeton that the responsiveness that Rachel and her crew have to our residents.

Um that when things happen, it gets resolved fairly quickly, and that um you know we're as you were mentioning, you know, we're trying to stay ahead of the curve with the folks before you in public works, uh doing that planning and making it so that uh when we do the slurry seals and stuff like that, that we stay ahead of roads and not let them turn the crap um like other cities do.

Um so looking forward to having you both on you know on board and welcome.

Awesome.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

All right.

That brings us to public comment.

Public comment is an opportunity for anyone to address the council regarding an item that is not on tonight's agenda.

Please keep your comments to about three minutes.

I'll take folks in the room who would like to uh present uh public comment first, and then I'll switch over to Zoom.

I have two sign-ups for the folks here in the room.

You don't have to be signed up, uh, but I'll take them first.

Uh the first uh sign up is Latino Business Network with Betsy.

I know.

Welcome.

Oh, here we go.

Okay.

Hello.

Um I'm here to talk about the Latino Business Networking event.

It's an honor to be here.

So thank you everybody for having me.

Um about me.

Um I'm a loan officer in the local area for PRMG, Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, uh, since 2020.

Uh so it's been a few years.

Um also I am uh the um the founder of uh Latino Business Networking Event, which started a few years ago, and La Cosina Dulce, which is a small catering event.

Uh what we do here with the Latino businesses, uh we create a monthly meeting every uh first Wednesday of the month.

Uh we welcome Latino entrepreneurs, uh professionals and allies.

A community uh gets to connect, learn, collaborate, and grow together.

Why matters?

Um I feel like this network brings partnerships and make people uh get together and collaborate, um share their experiences and their resources so they can all together be a group where it can help in the toileting area and um just um encourage everybody to make toiletin a point of uh uh meeting point, I guess.

It's very close to everybody, so it's not just toileting, but we bring people from all over uh the Washington County.

But here I guess it's uh a place where everybody feels comfortable to come and be part of it.

Our team, I just wanted to say a shout out for who made this possible, which is Betsy and Armando, which is um part of my team where I work at.

So thank you for all the help and support since the beginning.

Uh one thing I want to share as well is something that's like a tradition.

Um there's three things that we uh do, which is um la photo, which is our picture.

Uh we we have to have that.

We share breakfast.

Um, everybody brings um something, or our presenter brings uh something to share with everybody, and then we have our picture, and lastly, a raffle.

So this is an experience that we enjoyed everybody, and I guess keeps everybody coming back.

Um the impact that we make, I think is big.

Um, our network continues to grow each month and increases and um with the strong partnerships and the local organizations.

Participants are spilled meaning connections and the consistency are the positive feedback that reflects from the value that every professional entrepreneurs connect, learned and support one and another in Twilight.

And this is our tribe and community that brings us together.

Lastly, I want to say thank you.

Uh, we sincerely thank the city toileting for supporting inclusive engagement and helping create opportunities and strength our local businesses community.

Uh we value this partnership and appreciate your continued participation in future events.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh the next sign up I have is Terence.

Welcome, Terrence.

Thank you.

So I'm not sure to start with the uh City of Durham City Council, City of Twalton Council, or ODA.

I wanted to talk about what I feel is a glaring omission of uh crosswalks on Boone's Ferry between Twalton View apartments and the uh ODOT building as you're heading out of the city with the library at your back and you're heading toward Bridgeport Village.

The 76th bus will stop on either side of the road.

However, those who have to cross do not have a crosswalk to get back to Twalton View, or if you need to go from Twalton View to other places, not at 76 line goes to Oregon City.

So I'm not sure whose uh jurisdiction that stretches.

Google maps shows Twalton City on one side, and then looks like unincorporated Washington County where the ODOT building is.

And then there's the City of Durham sign.

Do you uh any of you have any uh comments or questions for me?

Uh no, I'll just because Durham starts at the railroad tracks, doesn't it?

It does.

So the department complex is technically in Durham.

But is that uh is that a county road or is that a might be an ODOT road?

Uh we could we can check with our chief traffic engineer and get back to you about whose responsibility it is.

Um if it's an ODAP, you know, if it's run by ODA, then we obviously we're gonna have to work with ODOT to get a crosswalk put in.

Um definitely not Durham because Durham doesn't have the main the money to do a crosswork and stuff like that, but I think we could probably work with um ODOT to check that out and get back to you.

So is it Twalleton up to the railroad crossing and then Durham once you start going up the hill?

It's we I think we end at the bridge.

Oh, okay.

And then from the bridge on is Durham.

Sorry, I said the railroad before.

It's the bridge.

Yeah, so basically where Twalton, the apartments are is dorm.

Okay.

Yep.

Which I didn't know until a little while ago.

I thought we went a little further too.

Okay.

Yep.

So it's more of a O dot since that's uh um it's a county this county road.

Yeah, okay.

Well, it's it's ODOT or county.

I believe it's ODOT, but it's got a railroad track, it's got the bridge.

Yeah.

We'll we'll find out and get back to you.

Okay.

Yep.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh anyone else for public comment in the room.

All right.

Do we have anyone in Zoom for public comment?

No.

Nope.

All right.

So that'd be it for uh public comment.

Next item on our agenda then is the consent agenda.

The consent agenda consists of items that are considered routine.

They'll be adopted by one motion unless someone on the council would like an item removed and heard separately later tonight.

Tonight's consent agenda consists of I'm number one consideration of approval of the work session and regular meeting minutes of March 23rd, 2026.

Item number two, consideration of resolution number 5950-26, authorizing the city manager to apply for and accept local government grant program funds to re to rehabilitate the restroom at Falati Park.

I number three, consideration of resolution number five nine five three-26, authorizing an amendment to the agreement between the city of Twalton and Tualeton Riverkeepers for management and operations of city property.

And finally, item number four, consideration of resolution 5954-26, authorizing the city manager to execute a collective bargaining agreement with the Tualton Police Officers Association Sergeants.

Would any member of the council like an item removed and heard separately later tonight?

I move to adopt the consent agenda as read.

Second.

I have a motion, second to adopt the consent agenda as ready.

Any discussions on those motions?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Abstentions.

It's unanimous.

All right.

That brings us to special reports.

Our first special report is from Tualton Valley Fire and Rescue District, State of the District.

Chief Weiss.

And his posse in the back row.

And the alarms haven't gone off.

Are those things muted?

This is the first time.

This is a lucky time.

Don't worry, jinx ourselves.

I know.

We talked about Fight Club.

All righty.

Well, good evening, Mayor, Counselors.

My name is Derek Weiss.

I'm the fire chief for Twalton Valley Fire and Rescue, and I could not be happier to be here.

I asked I always had the privilege of serving in Twalton for many years in different ranks.

So before I begin, because it is special, we have all the people that are still here, which is unusual.

But I brought with me our manager of government and public affairs, Stefan Myers.

Battalion Chief, or is Dan Mitchell, is he still here?

Yes.

And then you get the captain of your Twalton station here in person.

Captain Sherman, you want to introduce your crew for me?

Yeah, this is uh fire.

Uh our driver.

All of us are assigned to report.

Welcome.

Very good.

Thanks for having us here this evening.

I'll try and make it quick.

You had a busy agenda tonight for sure.

Uh this is a great chance for me to come and give you kind of a state of the district.

I don't get to do it myself every year, but hopefully we get somebody in front of the council to have a conversation and kind of tell you what's what's going on.

So this is what I will be covering this evening.

An incident snapshot, which is probably my favorite slide of all of them.

We'll talk a little bit about the wildland season.

A lot of people have been asking questions about that.

I know today uh the city of Redmond announced they're doing a burn ban starting at the end of April.

So it's a month early for the City of Redmond.

We'll talk a little bit about the EMS landscape and maybe how things have changed since, well, frankly, when I started uh and to today.

Uh bonding capital projects, which are moving along really well, and then something near and dear to me is struggle well, and you might not know about struggle well.

I'm going to explain a little bit about it, and I'm happy to do so.

So this is the first one, and I know it's probably an eye chart.

Uh I don't know if you have a bigger version of this in front of you, but I love to talk about this one because this is your city.

This is how many calls for service you've had in your city this year, and as you can see, it's a little over 3,700 calls for service this year.

We get a breakdown all this into different categories.

And if you weren't aware, Twalton Valley is data informed.

We make a lot of our decisions based on that data.

I know a lot of you have been through our community academy, so you've got a lot of our data, and I won't talk any more about that.

But what I typically key in on for a city is the lower right-hand corner, uh, which is the station 34 number at 52 percent, station 35 number at 21 percent, station 39 number at 17 percent.

Those are the numbers that tell us is your main station, your main fire engine the one that's responding to calls.

This is typically what we would like to see happen.

As the number starts to go down into the 70 percent range, now we start looking at other additional resources that can be added to your station so that we make sure we're covering the calls we need to.

Towalleton is a little unique because I know it says 52 percent, but 39s is actually Tualton serving as well.

So a lot of the call volume in Twalton is actually taken up by other stations.

And then King City being close to a very other close section of Twalton, they grab a portion of Tualton too.

So it's a little bit we have to look into it a little bit deeper than we do for some stations because we have these other stations that are impacting the call volume.

The other thing that affects call volume in Twalton is our hazmat team is right here in Twalton, half the team.

I was a part of that team for a long time, very proud of them.

They do great work and they work a little extra and they train a little extra.

So sometimes they're gone, and other uh apparatus has to take the calls for that hazardous materials team.

Uh as you can see, I'm not gonna get into this too much, but 70% of your calls are EMS just like everybody else's.

That is the standard.

Anywhere you go in the district, anywhere you go in the country, it's those calls for EMS.

And then it breaks down into fires, and we can keep track of a lot of those.

The dot map in the upper right hand corner, that tells us where we're going in your city.

And as it gets to that red color, that means we're going there a lot.

I can probably guarantee you that the four individuals behind me that work at the station will tell you exactly what is at that red dot.

And then we work to try and reduce those calls where we can.

So that's a tough one.

The next thing I was gonna talk about, and I mentioned about uh Redmond, the city of Redmond changing theirs.

Last year we talked about record-breaking wildfires across the state in 2024.

Then in early 2025, uh, some of your fire department went down to California to fight those big fires.

Last year's mobilizations through the Oregon State Fire Marshal, it wasn't as many acres as it's been some years, but the devastation to homes and communities was really impactful this past year.

So we don't talk about what's going to happen this year.

I think we can all see that right now the snowpack has been low, it's been dry, it's been warmer.

It doesn't always mean that uh anything's gonna be worse than normal, but there's just so many other factors that play into it, certainly humidity, wind, what the wind does, the direction the wind's coming from, topography, and then really how safer people and how are they taking care of what is in front of them and what they're doing to start these fires.

So hopefully some of those things will come into play and protect all of us.

We go through a significant amount of wildland training.

We have a wildland team that has special training and special gear, so we're able to deploy both within our boundaries and then across the state.

So we have extra people for that, and then we balance what we need in district to what we send across the state to some of the fires across the state.

We don't always get to send people because we need to have folks here as well.

So sometimes we keep them in-house and we use uh a good sheet to decide how we're gonna make that happen.

This year we had some wildland training in March and April.

I think it was near Mountainside, wasn't it Mount Side High School?

Yeah, Mountain Side High School.

So they got some additional training, and then I think these these folks know, but we're also getting a couple pieces of new equipment that we should be putting on the line here really soon, which is specific to wildland firefighting.

So more equipment, more training, more tools, and we should be set for whatever happens to the organization this particular year.

So EMS, and I did allude to the fact that I'm gonna go back to when I started because the 911 system was a little bit different back then.

The calls that we would get for service were pretty critical type calls.

Lots of traumas, lots of car wrecks, seemed to be more fires at the time.

And as time progressed, I think why people call 911 has changed a little bit.

And so what we're starting to see is we're still training, like nobody's business to make sure that we have one of the highest cardiac saved rates in the country, which we do, but we also have to go on the other calls that come in for service, which are more BLS, basic life support type calls.

People are using 911 different because maybe they're not going to a primary care physician, maybe they don't know where to get help, and so they're calling 911.

The way it is with the legacy system of responding is not going to work in the future, it will not be sustainable.

We have to figure out a way to balance this increasing call volume with having our people ready to go for those critical calls that might take more than one person or two people.

So as we watch this, we'll continue to work through ways outside of the box, if you will, of how we can affect change and still acknowledge the fact that people need help and still be trained ourselves.

So, a couple of those things we put on this one for you.

Well, you don't have them, but I do, and I'll tell you about them.

Uh so one of the things that we are doing uh is advanced practice community paramedics, which is specially trained paramedics.

They get a little additional training, a little additional equipment, and they engage with some of our high utilizers.

So when the person calls once, okay, it calls twice, okay.

As it starts to get up, we use our APCP, they can come in and they can help them seek actual help.

Where do they need to go and what do they need?

And then they don't uh become a high utiliser or high utilizer of 911.

We have a community risk reduction program.

Currently, the community risk reduction program is working with our care facilities.

I don't know how many of those red dots on the map were care facilities, but oftentimes that's what they are.

And so we're trying to do a community risk reprogram where we go in and have conversations, educate them about when to call, when not to call, or what other resources are available to them.

Hopefully, those take the calls out of the 911 system as well.

We started doing a program called nurse navigation a year and a half ago or so.

Does anybody familiar with nurse navigation?

Yeah, you might have heard about it, huh?

That's right.

Umse navigation is a way so when somebody calls 911, rather than it goes police or fire, it can actually go to a nurse navigation system that's actually down in Texas, and they handle the call.

And what they can do is they listen to what the situation is and they can give you a ride to an alternate facility, a ride to a hospital, they can help you reach your doctor.

And so that call actually never gets dispatched on 9-1-1.

If they come back around and it doesn't work for them, then it's dispatched through the ambulance provider and they can help uh mitigate that particular call.

So we are hoping that that can reduce the call volume in terms of those types of calls 15%, which is a lot of calls when you consider about 65,000 calls per year, and it's going up.

So we're hoping that that system is one of the things that can help lower that demand on the 911 system.

And then we'll continue to work with our partners, um, cities, counties, federal laws, whatever we can do to try and get funding to help with mental wellness uh response teams and any other services that are being provided.

We do an ARM car, and the ARM car is a grant.

It's a great idea.

It puts a nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant in one of our rescues with one of our paramedics, and they're actually able to go to some of these calls as well, intervene, write prescriptions, give them definitive care, a little bit higher level of equipment, and maybe they get to stay right where they are.

These are outside of what our funds are.

And we're trying to do the best we can with the funds that we have, but we are going to need some help and continue to partner with others in order to make some of these things happen.

But we're trying new things.

We know the legacy model isn't gonna work, so we're gonna keep working towards something new.

I mentioned bond and capital projects.

We were fortunate enough to receive a voter approved general obligation bond in 2021.

Seems like a while ago, and it does to me too.

We have been trying to get projects going for a long time.

It's just not as easy as you might think.

Hurdles tend to get in your way.

So we are up and running now.

Uh the stations that we're building these days are not the stations that we built in years past.

They're thoughtful designs, stations that can adapt to the future.

I know in my career here at uh Twalton Valley Fire and Rescue, it was difficult when we would need to change our response model, but you couldn't get a piece of equipment in a station because it wasn't built to have anything but what it had.

I remember a time when we wanted to move a car to a Beaverdon station.

Four pieces of equipment across the uh organization had to move to get a car in a station in Beaverdon.

We want to make sure our stations are adaptable.

We want to make sure our stations are flexible, and we want to be able to do that 30, 40 years into the future and not be confined to what it is when we build it today.

We are building these stations with health of the firefighters in mind.

We know that there's a lot of demand.

Uh the calls that they go on are traumatizing.

So, how do we help with the wellness?

How do we help with quiet spaces?

How do we help with cold, hot, and warm areas of a station so that the bad stuff doesn't get into the station where we are all the time.

So we're building these stations with our people in mind.

Uh they are they are not inexpensive, but that's why we were able to get this bond for these capital projects.

So we'll continue to move them.

I'd love to stay at station 34 is on this list.

They're not heritage.

They knew that.

Uh so up there is station 35.

Station 35 is in King City.

If you drive down 99W right now, finally it is on the ground.

It is dirt.

We got through the hurdles that we needed to get through, and we're super excited that they're actually moving some dirt.

The crews there are right next door.

They are in a uh mobile home with a shelter for the apparatus.

And then the other, there was two units there, and the other crew, I believe, went to Sherwood.

Nods right.

Okay, I got that one.

Uh station 20, downtown Newburgh is the next one on our list.

It's gonna be a big tear down and uh redo.

It's a large station, there's a lot of pieces of equipment there, and so it's gonna be a little bit bigger than the average station, but we're moving through that one and moving some crews out to temporary stations as well in that area.

And then the training center, which is real close here to Twalton, that has been there, it's been there longer than me, so I that part's good, but it's time.

It hasn't changed.

Uh there's a lot of things, systems that are failing on the building.

So the building's coming down.

We're already moving the recruits out, so they have places to stay on the training grounds, and that's where their headquarters will be.

And then we'll move the administrative staff out as well.

So that's that's changing in the future.

Hopefully, that starts real soon.

And then this is the one, honestly, that I really want to talk about.

Uh this one is near and dear to me.

It was around uh 2021 when this struggle wealth row program first became something that I was aware of.

I was at a conference and Bouldercrest was presenting for a very short period of time, and they talked about uh post-traumatic stress and what you can do about post-traumatic stress.

I think you probably know this, but for firefighters and law enforcement in the state of Oregon, uh, PTSD is presumptive now.

So we know it's there, we know it's real, and we need to do something about it.

So I was at this conference, and I happened to run into a firefighter that used to work for Twalton Valley Fire and Rescue, and he had to leave because of PTSD.

And I had a conversation.

I said, I want you to talk to this person from Bouldercrest about this struggle well program.

And I want you to give it some thought, and if you're interested in it, we are gonna put you through that program.

We're gonna find a way to get you in because a lot of times there's a waiting list for this program.

And uh this individual had the conversation with Josh Goldberg from uh Struggle Well in Boulder Crest, worked with our staff to get him into the program.

He went into the program and he came back to work.

And he came back to work and he worked until he retired, and he sent me an email saying, thank you so much for getting me that program.

I got to retire out on my own terms, and it was good for my family.

What folks don't understand is PTSD just doesn't affect the individual.

It affects their family, it affects their co-workers, it affects lots of lives around them, and it's extremely costly.

So we brought that program into Twalton Valley Fire and Rescue.

We want to become a struggle well organization, which means we will have our entire organization train with at least the two-day initial training for struggle.

Well, we partnered with every uh, I'm pretty sure every first response agency in Washington County, including your city police department, to go after some money from the state of Oregon in the short session this past uh few months and get money for struggle because we were going to train every first responder in Washington County in the first two days of struggle.

Well, well, the state doesn't have any money right now, but we're not gonna stop.

We continue meeting with our legislators that represent uh our district and other cities within Washington County, and we're gonna keep working to see if we can get this training delivered to everybody in Washington County.

This works.

It's about post-traumatic growth.

It doesn't mean it's over, it doesn't mean you go away, and that's it.

It means we can recover, you can recover, and this is the training.

This comes from Vietnam War.

This went through all kinds of uh hospitals and clinicians and doctors.

It is absolutely pro proven.

So we have roughly 50% of our organization.

There's other classes going on around the state.

We've started to invite in some of our law enforcement partners to take these two classes and to date all the training we've done.

I have not heard a single person have anything negative to say about this program because it's proven it works and we're getting people back.

The number of cases of PTSD in the state of Oregon went from something around 36 to 3.

And a lot of it had to do with struggle well and what we're doing across the state.

That is huge for everybody.

So I go on forever, I'm not gonna do it.

Uh so what we try to do every year now is we're trying to put together a video, and the video is with this QR code.

It's actually our year-in review.

Uh, it shows you video action, what we have done over this last year in your community and the other communities that we serve.

It's a great video.

We didn't want to take extra time this evening to show it to you, so you'll have the ability to grab that and take a look at it.

I hope you do.

Um again, thank you for letting us be here today.

Thanks to the crew for hanging around.

Uh didn't get tapped out.

That's super unusual.

So it was good.

So if there's any questions uh with that, I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

Questions for Chief.

Counselor uh goodzal.

So thank you very much.

I had the prep the privilege of uh staying overnight with Station 34, my home station, and I had a pretty traumatic experience because people somebody died in my throat.

Uh there was a police got accosted, it was a baby stuck uh locked in the car.

I mean, it was a pretty eventful night, and I I still can remember the husband, you know, the yelling that he did when he learned that his wife had passed away, or you know, right in front of me.

It was just very amazing.

Um and your team was so gentle, tender, kind.

I mean, they they all were just just amazing.

Um thing that I did learn is that that the calls that we are coming in are from the assisted living care facilities, and they really do tax the system.

And those facilities don't have their own on-site response people.

They have to rely on on you, which takes you guys offline, which is it and I know that there's probably some work being done around that with the assisted living retirement facilities.

Um, the other part that I learned um, which I'm hoping that'll change someday, is that when you're trying to build a new station to get the the distances short up based on there's I know there's distant requirements, you're competing to purchase land against private developers.

You know, it should be part of our own development code where if we're gonna build a new community, where's the fire station?

And pin you drop there first and then and then do the the planning.

Um so I just wanted to say I'm a fan, um I support these initiatives.

You know, I think there's some work being done around the assisted living and funding, but also given you priority on land utilization to making sure we're showing up, you know, the the response time where each station is located.

It's struggle.

It's a real struggle for you guys.

Uh and I really appreciate the struggle well.

I I'm I only win on that day.

And let me tell you, I drive by that home every single day on my way to my house where we where that person passed away.

You know, and and that's only one incident.

I would just imagine the experience that you guys go through.

So thank you for for being here and and sharing.

Thank you very much.

Did you want me to comment on any of any of that stuff?

Very brief, if you want to take the time.

Well, I I won't, it's just with the assisted living, oftentimes it's a it's a touch and a retouch.

Uh, there's a lot of turnover.

And so we don't have that silver bullet yet, that one thing that makes it work perfectly, and so we're gonna keep working at it with our community risk reduction program.

So we'll keep trying.

As a reminder, I do want to conduct some insurance fire hazard training.

There in on the I think you have a representative who can reach out to me.

Um I do a lot of classes on different events, and that's one that's been asked of.

Is fire prevention in homeowner associations, uh, which is a big footprint.

So thank you.

We'll get somebody in touch.

Thank you.

First, I want to thank everybody for hosting me this last whatever it's been now, feels I've had a lot of going on since then, too.

Um and the first question I've got, I'm such a big proponent for anything that helps touch PTSD and trauma, is if there's a way that our city council can or I personally can be supportive of that action that you're taking.

Yeah.

Great question.

And we've met with every single one of our representatives and senators that we have.

But having you all reach out in the same way if you have that conversation, that opportunity to have that conversation.

It's great education, and when they hear it from more than one individual, that might make a difference too.

So if it's something that that you believe in and we do, um, yeah, that would be one way that would it would be helpful.

Okay.

And um I and secondly, I just wanted to like thank you again.

Um was the um there was a uh app that you guys had discussed about um quick response in case somebody's having heart.

Pulse point.

Yes.

Yes.

Do you mind sharing a little bit about Pulse Point because you'll describe it much better than I can?

Yeah, I I don't know.

It's been a long time.

Uh so Pulse Point is an app that you can download as well, and you can have it on your phone and in public spaces.

If you have that app turned on and you've selected to be notified of cardiac arrest, you can be notified.

It also will show you the nearest uh AED.

If it's on that map, it'll show you where that AED is, and you can respond to that public place and you can provide assistance.

I think it's limited to about a quarter mile.

Are they nodding behind me?

Are they doing something?

Yeah, it's a it's a small space.

Yeah.

It's a small, it's it's not a huge area.

Um, and so that's how the public can help out.

We as firefighters, there's also responder version of that.

And so we'll get notified even in residences, then we can go and provide care with our AEDs as well.

So Pulse Point is the name of the app.

And one last question.

One last question is how many women are in executive positions in the TVF in our fire department now?

How high would you like to go?

Just curious how many.

Uh so let's see.

Yeah, there's myself and I have three deputy chiefs, and one of them is Chief Hit, and she is fantastic.

And you've met her.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Other questions comes.

Thank you.

It's nice to see you all.

I see.

Um, so you answered my nurse navigator because I was just curious about is how is that going, and so I appreciated you bringing that up.

I think that's a really critical tool to support what's happening, and so I'm glad that you brought that up.

And if I remember right, when I had the opportunity to be with you folks, you had kind of an on-site traveling, if you will, trauma counselor.

That's not those aren't the right words, social worker.

Is is the struggle well kind of something you're thinking about on top of that, or is is that position still being funded?

So when we do well, there's two years.

Yeah, if you mean the ARM car, which was with the physician assistant or a nurse practitioner, that was one.

We also have clinicians that that we use that folks can use too.

And it's more for the um your staff.

For our staff, yes.

Yeah, so it's okay.

It would have it probably would have been the clinicians that we continue to have.

This is in addition to great.

Yeah.

Okay, and but those positions are still ha you still have those and the and they're circulating.

Yes.

Great.

Okay.

And then I have kind of a weird question, and you can choose not to answer it if you'd like.

Um I'm curious.

I know that at the dispatch center, they're now using AI a little more, and I'm curious if you're getting the information that you need to do your job, and if you've seen any hiccups, I serve on that committee, and so I haven't I have conversations with our chief, but I just thought if there are ways to help advocate for different avenues on that on that committee, I'd I'd like to be able to support anything that's happening.

But specifically, my question right now is to AI.

If if if you've had any, if you have any feedback on that.

Well, the only thing I can speak to personally is that I was one of the people that said we need to start looking at a new technology, AI being one of them.

And then not so long after that, they started looking for how would AI assist with 911.

I've seen it nationally.

I've seen AI work in dispatch centers.

So I knew it was something that could be worked, it could help, certainly when it's challenging to find staffing at the dispatch centers across the country.

So they looked into it, they brought somebody on board, they're having good success with it for my understanding.

It has to expand more at some point in time, but I think it's the walk crawl crawl run, is or crawl walk run, excuse me.

Uh, and then we'll get to a point where we can use it more.

There's far more technologies, and I was talking to your uh police chief earlier this evening about we need to start leveraging this these technologies because the cost and the demand continues to go up.

Technology is one of the ways we can help reduce that impact.

So I love what what you're doing, uh, a part of AI and how do we take it to the next step.

To my understanding, things are going great with it so far in the trials.

Um I haven't heard anything, but I do have a CEO board meeting next week and or this week rather, so we can ask the question then too.

Great.

Yeah, I wanted to hear from your perspective.

And also just an extra thank you to all the community engagement that you and and all of your staff do.

I mean, from Safety Town to holidays in the park, let letting you know people ride in the in the engine and showing up at events.

It's a it makes an impact, it creates trust, and it for the kids that get to see all those things, they see trusted adults in uniform and they can see themselves and your staff.

And I just want to say thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for making sure that our kids are reflected in your staff and and that you're such active members of our community.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

It's absolute honor to serve this community, and uh I'm super super proud of all the folks that work for my organization.

I'm not gonna mention the pumpkin regatta.

They wanted me to.

They wanted me to, but I'm not gonna do it.

I'll keep it to myself.

We did cheat, but we know I'm just kidding.

It's it's it's an absolute honor to work uh for this organization, and uh you've seen the folks that I get to work with, the privilege to work with is a very high-class, passionate professional individuals, and I'm blessed to be where Matt.

So thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Anything else for Chief?

Thanks for coming tonight.

Thanks for having us.

Certainly appreciate it.

I think it's the first time that they've never gotten called.

I know.

Have a good evening, guys.

Thank you.

All right, our next special report is from the Twaltham Food Pantry, Danielle, outside agency grant awardee.

Thank you for your patience, Danielle.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, City Council, for having me tonight.

Um, I'm just gonna share a brief update about our pantry and a couple of exciting uh things that we have going on.

Um, so the Twalton Food Pantry is a community-organized food bank and it's a partner agency of the Oregon Food Bank.

We operate with a small paid staff of 2.4 FTE and a dedicated team of regular and occasional volunteers and are overseen by a five-person board of directors.

I know you had volunteer appreciation uh earlier today, um, so I would just add to that from the Twalton and surrounding community.

We have over 11,000 hours of volunteer time dedicated to our pantry, which is the equivalent of five and a half FTE annually.

Um, so we truly could not serve the community without all of the volunteers that um participate in our organization.

We operate in the lower level of the Rolling Hills Community Church.

We're not affiliated with the church, but we do receive a significant in-kind uh donation to be able to have the space that we have there.

Um, and I'll talk a little bit more about the people that we serve a little bit later in the presentation.

Um, clients can access our services twice a month, plus we have additional bonus events throughout the year.

Um, we serve clients four days a week for a total of 15 hours.

We actually increased our hours in January of 2026.

Um after three years of double-digit inclines, we could no longer uh continue to operate in the 13 hours a week that we were being open.

We try to provide five days worth of food and personal supplies to each household when they visit, and we're one of the few pantries in the area that routinely stocks things like milk, eggs, frozen meat, and cooler items, and so that's part of the the funding that you all provide, helps make sure that our pantry has those things available to us to provide to folks when they visit because we believe that nutritious food is a part of well-being and ensuring that everyone has access to that.

We are considered a low barrier service provider.

Um, we don't ask that you show proof of income or residency to receive services.

If you come and verbally attest that you meet uh the federal income requirements uh to receive food, then then we are happy to serve you.

Our volunteers check uh each person in so that we can track the number of folks that we serve, and our client clients will shop in the pantry like a grocery store.

So we have volunteers that help them, but they're able to select items off the shelves that work for their household.

Um, with that said, each the sections have quantity limits, so you can't just take everything, but um, you can select from the options available.

And then we do also offer pre-packed boxes, and we have a small um home delivery service that we provide.

It's limited to folks who are homebound, um, and we have a team of volunteers from a local company that make those deliveries uh once a week for us.

And a couple of exciting updates about our pantry.

Um, so thanks to Mayor Bubinick and the uh city of Twalleton, we are able to secure grant funding from Clackamas County.

This has been a long time coming.

It was a long process.

But in late March, the new walk-in was installed.

It's beautiful.

That's the walk-in in the picture there.

It's four feet longer, four feet wider.

It has wider doors from shoppers to access our foods from.

It also has one additional door on our cooler.

And the biggest thing is it has two exterior access doors.

So prior to get to our freezer, you had to go through our cooler, which meant we lost an entire wall of storage, and anytime you want to get into the freezer, you had to empty out the refrigerator in order to do it.

So this one you can access the freezer from the opposite side.

It also has a ramp, so we can roll a pallet inside of it.

We had only had it installed about three days, and I was already receiving messages from volunteers about what a huge improvement that it was.

So it's truly great, and it really helps us be able to respond to the increasing need in our community.

And we have more exciting updates.

Part of the funding was also to install HVAC into the space.

And so in the summertime it was very hot, especially because we had multiple freezers and coolers, including a walk-in running.

And then in the winter time, it was very, very cold.

And so we are excited to say that we're getting HVAC.

They have started the initial work, so they came in and they've hung the units and we're working through some other processes to make sure that we are ready to complete the installation.

But this will be a huge game changer for our staff and our volunteers, uh clients as well, but primarily for the staff and volunteers who are in the space most often.

So just a huge thank you to everyone who helped us uh get that funding to make that happen.

And I want to talk a little bit about our service statistics.

Um you can see on the graph here.

Last year we served uh just under 50,000 people.

We were closed for one week between Christmas and New Year's.

Had we been open that week, we probably would have gone over the 50,000.

Um in 2020 and 2021, which were during the height of the pandemic, there was a lot of resources pumped in the community to lift people out of poverty, both through food support and housing support.

And as you can see from this chart, it made a tremendous difference in who how many people that we were serving on a regular basis.

Um when those programs ended, our numbers can consistently grew.

Um we had three, I'm sorry, four years of double-digit growth each year, and this year alone, we have already seen an 8% increase over where we were in 2025.

If our numbers uh continue the way they will, we will serve more than 52,000 people in 2026, which is um, you know, if if you look at where we were in 2020, that's a huge uh jump in the number of people that we're serving.

More than 24,000 of those folks reside here in the city of Tualeton.

Um, Tualaton, Tiger are the primary places that people come to.

We will serve anyone from it anywhere that shows up and needs food support, but that's where the primary bulk of folks are.

Um that I'm happy a little bit about where our food comes from.

We get food from grocery store donations, many here in the Twalton community.

Local food drives, including uh the City of Twalaton did their bulky waste day.

And so when I walked into the pantry today, there were four pallets of food that have been dropped off, so that was great for the pantry.

Um we're just about headed into locally grown produce season, so we'll see a lot of community gardeners that come and bring their uh products to us, um, and then from the Oregon Food Bank, and then we also purchase food as well.

We purchase food both from the Oregon Food Bank and from local food distributors when we can't get what we need from the food bank.

Um so any questions that I can't answer for you about the pantry.

Questions for Danielle, Council Brooks and Council President Pratt.

Thank you very much for your work.

I was curious about that second to last slide, actually.

Oh, okay.

Um let's see.

Uh this is a little bit about how you can help.

Uh, we do have social media, so please share our posts.

Um, volunteer.

We have volunteers that do both regular shifts where they volunteer weekly, and then we have lots of drop-in volunteers for folks that are just looking for um usually they're about 90 minutes R shifts.

Um organize a food drive, um, which is a great way to benefit us, or as with all nonprofits, make a cash contribution to help support our work.

So um my question is I am still confused kind of about the counts.

Sorry to ask a question like this.

Um I just want to say I very much appreciate what you do, and I'm um confused because um it the statistic was that you serve 24,000 individual one time uh persons for from Tualeton.

It's duplicated.

So we consider a service being every time you access our food services.

So if a household shows up today and then they show up again in three weeks, we're gonna count each time that we distribute food to them.

Okay, so they're not single person.

Correct.

Okay, yeah.

I think you uh on average we see that a specific household will access our services about four times a year.

Okay.

Okay, so divide by five yeah, okay, great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And um because I just I was like, there's no way.

Yeah, it's each because the nature of our work is to provide emergency food support in the moment.

We consider each time that we interact with a household to be a complete interaction.

And so it duplicates.

Yeah, but it makes sense.

Okay, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Council President Pratt.

Um I'm wondering, I know um the 76th bus is going to get cut out there, and we're we're working with TriMet, hoping that ride connection will go out there.

But other than ride connection, if um someone doesn't have a car, how can they get food from the food pantry?

Yes.

So they can um have a friend bring them if they truly are homebound.

So we don't consider not having a car to be homebound, but if they're homebound um for mobility or um other reasons, then we will add them to our home delivery list.

We are very limited in how many home deliveries we can make.

Um we because our staff is so small, we uh we uh operate with volunteers to do home delivery.

Um and so unfortunately we do have to have a a limit on the number of those that we can provide.

But in other exciting news, I actually met with the city of Wilsonville today, and the city of Wilsonville is starting a similar program to the Red Connection here in Twellaton.

And so starting May 4th, they will be doing uh stop at our pantry that will enable folks from Wilsonville and Westlin uh to come and access our services.

So it doesn't um you know provide all the solutions, but that we are getting uh more and more public transit.

But yes, that's a huge barrier because the location that we're in, it's not I mean it's not safe to walk there because it it's so far away and there's a lack of sidewalks and things.

Oh, that's great to hear it.

Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Oh, I would sorry, I would also add um we have an authorized shopper program, and so you someone can authorize a neighbor or a friend or family member to shop on their behalf as well.

Yeah.

Other questions from Danielle.

I've just got a couple three things.

At one point, you had a dire need for milk and eggs.

That's been resolved, or you still need help with that?

Well, that is the thing that we buy most frequently.

Um so that's what our the majority of our grant funding goes to.

Um we are currently buying about 325 gallons of milk per week to meet the demand.

We did have to make a decision to start buying uh for small families half gallons and then larger families get full gallons because we were seeing the the need um grow so much.

We have been fortunate through the Oregon Food Bank, they used some of the funding that came to them through the SNAP crisis to do a bulk purchase of eggs, and so we have been able to get eggs through them almost consistently uh for free, and so that's really reduced the number of eggs that we've had to provide.

Um, but we are having to buy meat through them.

So oftentimes the only meat that will be available that's um even most of their canned meat, um but like frozen meat, we it comes with a cost with it, and so we use uh donor funds to purchase that.

So yeah, so my my plug was that to meet the needs for this kind of stuff where you don't get it from the Oregon Food Bank, you know, direct funds contribution helps the food pantry, you know, procure these things, and I know you get them in a discount and stuff like that as much as you can.

Yeah, but the cash helps.

That's right, absolutely.

We actually run a pretty lean operation, and so we really um try to put as much as we can back into the direct services that folks are receiving.

All right.

And then uh getting back to the uh HVAC and the fridge, I just want to thank um Clackmas County.

Uh that was uh Clackmas County is kind of different than Washington County.

They under their SHS money they do do city grants.

And one of the things that uh former Commissioner Smith did uh in the final days is I made that frantic call to her uh where she said that it they had some money from Clackmas County and we lost the Merkley Ear Grant, the uh earmark that Clackmas County can uh Clackmas County came through.

It seems like it has taken forever to get it done.

But uh a big thanks to the Clarkmas County Commissioners and the Clackmas County SHS SHS folks who've made it fairly easy.

I it's been forever, but yeah, uh to get that money to the food pantry.

And then finally, I just want to thank you for hosting the NNC coming up here in May with our next plant handout.

Where you know we'll hopefully get a whole bunch of gardeners again who doesn't then donate 80% of their product, yeah, and we end up giving it to the food pantry.

Yeah, absolutely.

We're looking forward to that.

We've been uh working with Peggy on the logistics, so um, we'll be having folks come by and pick up their plant starts, and and then it will be tomato season in the pantry.

That's it.

All right.

Anything else for Danielle?

Well, thank you again for your patience coming out tonight.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for the update.

All right, I think that's it for presentations and all that good stuff.

Uh let me get all the way up back to my beginning.

The agenda here we go.

All right, so special reports.

Items removed from consent.

We had none.

Uh Council Communications.

Council Brooks.

Thanks.

Um, I just want to mention I went to, I forgot, I went to the Metro Mixer, and I'm just gonna say people are super excited there about Twilight and so I just want to share that with this council and um city may everybody.

Um there's a survey that they're doing, so I'll get the information out on my email.

It's I've been a little disorganized without my car.

Um, and then um I went to just talking about this.

I went to a mayor's initiative um webinar today that was um about um uh leaving no child hungry or something like that.

And so I am looking more into what the details of those are, but it is like corporate funding for um directly to cities to share how they would like to, and they're trying to make it so it's really easy to apply.

Um, and then the um good news also is um create Tallton Valley looks like they're going to be coming.

Um they do like a professional circle with artists, and they haven't really come here and done like a look at our city.

So they're looking at planning that coming up in June.

Um, so I just want to thank them for thinking of us, and um and then I think that Twalton Valley Explore Twaltesman Valley is actually confirmed with having their summer banquet here in our park.

So I signed up.

You can sign up for a walkthrough, kayak or something else.

There's three different activities, and it's explore outdoors, and there'll be food and it'll be right in community park.

So if you want any more information on that, look at the explore twelve valley website, or you can reach out to me.

I'm happy to answer those questions.

And I would be remiss if I don't say there's gonna be an earth day um event over at Twalton River Keepers and this Saturday and the housing fair that um council president Pratt and Councillor Reyes and I went to the preview for is also this weekend on Saturday.

So if you want any more information about that, let me know.

Thanks.

Any other communications?

I move to adjourn.

Sorry, second.

I thought you were taking a couple of years.

I got a motion, second for a motion to adjourn all those in favor say aye.

Aye, aye, opposed, we are adjourned.

Have a very good evening.