REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

MINUTES FOR REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Fire Hall - 111 D Street January 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM FLAG SALUTE - PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE CALL TO ORDER - ROLL CALL Mayor Springer calls the meeting to order, Clerk Barr takes Roll Call. PRESENT: Councilmember Kim Skinner, Councilmember Jeremy Winn, Councilmember Justin Spargo, Councilmember Mark Collett, Councilmember Sue Darcy. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Councilmember Skinner motioned to approve the agenda, and Councilmember Spargo seconded. Motion passed unanimously. CONSENT AGENDA Councilmember Collett motioned to approve the consent agenda, and Councilmember Darcy seconded. Motion passed unanimously. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilmember Skinner wishes everyone Happy New Year. Councilmember Winn also wishes everyone Happy New Year and is excited for all the work coming up this year. He is excited to pursue a more positive vision for the future of the city moving forward. COMMITTEE REPORTS Auditing – Councilmember Darcy states there was no meeting but went over Vouchers and signed off on them. Finance – No report. Page 1 of 3  Parks – Councilmember Winn states there is no report as there was no meeting. The meeting is scheduled for final Wednesday in January if citizens would like to attend. Councilmember Spargo states it will be January 29th at 5:30PM and the location is to be determined but will be posted when determined. Public Safety – Councilmember Skinner states there has been no meeting so no report. They will work on scheduling a meeting this month. Public Works – Councilmember Spargo states they are still working on cleaning drains and clearing log jams. Long time Public Works Employee Tom is all we have working for PW at this time, hoping to get some new employees hired ASAP. Councilmember Darcy adds the first round of interviews have been done and hope to make decision to get employees started soon. At the next meeting they plan to talk about prepping for the upcoming Spring Season and work that needs to be done. CITY OFFICIAL REPORTS Clerk/Treasurer – Clerk Barr states she is working on Year-End accounting and preparing for the New Year. Police Chief Report – Chief Layman informs they had several major incidents that occurred since December 1st including a complex sexual offense case. He would like to publicly thank the Aberdeen Police Department with all their help with this sensitive case which resulted in an arrest being made. Fire Chief Report – Lieutenant Coker is filling in for Chief Falley, states 3 people are in EMT class and soon we will be getting more people who are trained to help the city out. Chief Falley and his Wife had their baby boy so Congratulations to them. Building Inspector – Bill Sidor states he has nothing to report this month. MAYOR'S REPORT- Mayor Springer informs of the walk-through that happened at the new municipal building on January 9th. There are a few things that Rognlins is addressing, and the city has a few things we are responsible for that will be taken care of very soon. Negotiations are still happening between the city and Aberdeen over the sewer contract, rates have not been decided but are expected to go up unfortunately. Believes Aberdeen will work with us the best they can. The city did get some grants and donations recently. Received a small grant of $5,000 for new basketball hoops at our Parks. We also received a generous donation from the Druzanich Family Charitable Foundation for the Fire Department, for new bunker gear washers. Also received $10K for tree removal at Mill Creek Park and other park projects. Continuing to look at other grants for the city. Sunday January 12th, we had a major water leak found by Officer Bailey and reported to Tom of Public Works. Tom reached out to Aberdeen, and they came to help within an hour to assist with the repair. Page 2 of 3 Notices were posted online and at the Post Office throughout the repair and aftermath. Thank you to our citizens who were patient and gracious. Chris Orkney of Community Water Systems gives some more information on this leak situation. This impacted around 300 citizens. Mayor Springer touches on how many citizens called 911 during this situation, Chief Layman explains how this was not necessarily an emergent situation where calls needed to go into 911 but understands citizens need information on what is happening. The city has added a new email address to give citizens an avenue to send information out to people who are subscribed, as to situations we are dealing with and handling. The email address is publicworks@cosmopoliswa.gov Chief Layman also encourages citizens to reach out to the Grays Harbor County non-emergency number (360) 533-8765 in this type of happening rather than 911. Mayor Springer states that we are now working together with Emergency Management of Grays Harbor County to be better prepared in case of different kinds of emergencies in our area. Councilmember Spargo will be part of this Committee and there will be a meeting January 23rd in connection with this. More discussion over the leak and how timely it was handled. NEW BUSINESS DISCUSSION 1. Clerk Barr gave her presentation on the most recent audit. This was for the years 2022-2023 not the current year. The audit cost $32,900, it was over our projected budget of $25,000 because they did a deeper dive than expected. Clerk Barr explains detailed information on this audit that is also available online. After explaining she assures citizens new processes and procedures are in the works to prevent these kinds of findings from happening again. There were a few questions within the Council that were answered or discussed. PUBLIC COMMENTS – Citizen wanted to give thanks for the quick response with the water situation. Says personally she would prefer a text notification on the leak/boil advisory rather than Facebook and the Post Office. NEW BUSINESS – No new business. PUBLIC COMMENTS – No comments. COUNCIL COMMENTS – Councilmember Skinner comments on using the Grant money to take the trees down around Mill Creek. Think this is a good idea that can prevent damage or accidents. Councilmember Spargo states we are working on replacing stop signs throughout town, hoping within the next 3 months. Councilmember Darcy comments we could utilize the PUD for surveying trees near power lines to prevent further damage. Mayor Springer thanks Councilmember Skinner for all his work while she was out, and Clerk Barr for all her hard work. Councilmember Spargo motioned to Adjourn; Councilmember Collett seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 8:06 PM. Page 3 of 3