City Council

1 CITY OF PORT ORFORD REGULAR SESSION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL THURSDAY, August 21st, 2025, at 5:00 P.M. If you cannot join in person, please feel free to join this meeting from your computer, tablet, or smartphone. https://meet.goto.com/845120101 You can also dial in using your phone. United States (Toll Free): 1 (877) 309-2073 United States: 1 (646) 7.49-3129 Access Code: 845-120-101 AGENDA 1. Call to Order/Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance 2. Executive Session Under ORS 192.660 (2)(h): To consult with counsel concerning the legal rights and duties of a public body with regard to current litigation or litigation likely to be filed. 3. Possible Action Out of Executive Session – Normal business will not resume earlier than 5:30 PM 4. Additions to the agenda 5. Citizen Concerns (On agenda items only – not on the Public Hearing – 3-minutes) 6. Consent Calendar a. Minutes 7/17/2025 b. Application for appointment: Carol Lawton – Planning Commission c. Application for appointment: Geraldine Rickle – Parks Commission 7. Presentation to the Council: Dr. Lisa Ballence & Cinnamon Moffat Changes in Operations at the Port Orford Field Station 8. Elk River Property Development; appeal on Planning Commission denial of extension 9. New Business a. Tom Calvanese Day Proclamation b. Civil West Request to progress to task 2 of phase 1 of the feasibility study of Water Recycling c. Discussion on the authority to approve bids for City projects 10. Old Business The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 2 11. Departmental Reports a. Administration b. Mayor’s Report c. Finance d. Public Works e. Planning f. Liaison i. Parks ii. Historic Preservation iii. Emergency Prep. iv. Port v. Watershed vi. Fire 12. Considerations a. Citizens b. Staff c. Councilors & Mayor 13. Future Meetings: a. Regular Meeting of the City Council: August 17th, 2025 @ 5:30 PM 14. Adjourn The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 3 1 Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Vileisis will take roll call of present Councilors and lead the chambers in the Pledge of Allegiance 2 Executive Session The Council will be holding an executive session “To consult with counsel concerning the legal rights and duties of a public body with regard to current litigation or litigation likely to be filed” (ORS 192.660 (2)(h)). 3 Possible Action Out of Executive Session The Council may need to take action after its executive session. A motion and vote will be held, and any vote will be recorded in the minutes and as part of the meeting video. Normal Business will resume no earlier than the normal meeting start time of 5:30 PM. 4 Additions to Agneda The Council, Mayor, and City Administrator may submit additions to the agenda, which can be added via a vote or consensus. 5 Citizen Concerns Citizens may approach the Council to speak on any matter that is on the agenda, other than the Public Hearings, which have their own time for citizen comments. Limit 3 minutes per person. Due to the history of innumerable citizens commenting on Conditional Use Permit Extension Appeals, the Council requests that comments concerning the Elk River Property development be held until that item. Citizens for or against the project will be allowed to speak at that time. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 4 6 Consent Calendar 6(a) Minutes for July 17th 2025 City of Port Orford Regular City Council Meeting In the Gable Chambers / Virtual participants Thursday, July 17th, 2025 at 5:30 P.M. Mayor and Council Present City Staff Present Ann Vileisis, Mayor (AC) X City Administrator (CA) Melissa Excused Radcliffe Brett Webb, Councilor (BW) X Joseph Harrison, City Recorder X Gary Burns, Councilor (GB) X Perri Rask, Councilor (PR) X Deanna Brennan, Councilor X (DB) Greg Tidey, Councilor (GT) X Tim Pogwizd, Councilor (TP) X The minutes were prepared to the best of our ability using the recording available at: 1. (0:00-0:02) Call to Order/Roll Call a. Mayor Ann Vileisis calls this regular session of the Port Orford City Council to Order @ 5:30 pm and leads the chamber in the Pledge of Allegiance. 2. (0:01-0:03) Additions to the Agenda a. Possible letters from Council regarding the pending closure of two key facilities in Port Orford: the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) work station and the Oregon State University (OSU) field station in town. Added as new business item (c) 3. (0:03) Presentations to the Council/Citizens a. None 4. (0:03) Citizen’s Concerns a. None 5. (0:04) Consent Calendar: Council votes to schedule another meeting a. By Consensus; Council agrees to a special meeting on July 31 st. Councilor Burns Yes Councilor Pogwizd Yes Councilor Rask Yes Councilor Lovendahl Yes Councilor Brennan Yes Councilor Webb Yes The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 5 6. (0:04-0:35) Departmental Reports a. Administration: Mayor Vileisis highlights some items from the written report; there is a group of citizens that is getting organized to clear Scotch Broom from the lot north of Rays. That will be August 13 th. b. Mayor's Report: Written report. The Mayor was contacted by the Attorney General office that the Oregon Attorney General has joined a 20 state lawsuit against the Federal Government for terminating the FEMA BRIC grants illegally. c. Public Works: A written report was provided in the packet. d. Police: None e. Planning: A written report was provided in the packet. f. Liaison i. Parks: Written report is in the packet. Councilor Lovendahl formally thanks Skaidra Scholey. Parks Committee needed to vote to renew the Park Host position. They voted to not renew. ii. Emergency Prep.: See item 7(a) iii. HPC: Working on Fort Point trail sign. Hamlet survey complete. iv. Port: New cranes are about a week away from the construction start. The Commission is working on policy matters that will effect port operations. v. Watershed: None vi. Fire: None 7. Old Business a. None 8. (0:37-0:45) New Business a. Res. 2025-12 Decommissioning of the EPC i. Councilor Burns summarizes why the Emergency Preparedness Committee would best be decommissioned and turned into a community group instead. ii. TP moves to adopt Res. 2025-12 Decommissioning of the EPC iii. GB seconds the motion iv. Discussion: Council discusses budgetary concerns related to this decision v. Vote: 6-0-0 yes. Motion passes @ 6:15 Councilor Burns Yes Councilor Pogwizd Yes Councilor Rask Yes Councilor Lovendahl Yes Councilor Brennan Yes Councilor Webb Yes b. (0:45-1:00) Review of annual Mainstreet TLT advertising expenditure report Susan Russell reviews the report which can be viewed here and here. Mainstreet has begun working on Halloween – Look forward to Port Gore-ford in October. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 6 c. (1:00-1:12) Letter of Support ODOT i. Mayor Vileisis reviews the background of the issue for the Council while giving them time to read the drafted letter of support. It can be viewed here. ii. The Council makes recommendations on additions/revisions. iii. By consensus, the Council agrees to send the letter. d. (1:12-1:15) Letter of Support for the OSU field station i. Mayor Vileisis reviews the background of the issue for the Council while giving them time to read the drafted letter of support. It can be viewed here. ii. Tom Calvanese is invited to answer a question: 1. Since the building can't be sold, what will OSU do with it? a. TDB iii. By Consensus, the Council agrees to send the letter of support. 9. Continuing Action Items a. None 10. (1:15-1:21) Considerations a. Citizens: i. Tom Calvanese: Speaks on the matter of the closure of the OSU field Station and says there will be more discussion on what's to come. Thanks the Council for giving time to speak and for the letter of support. OSU has decided to reduce operations at the field station due to federal budget cuts. Please feel free to reach out to the field station if you have questions. Thanks the City of Port Orford for 15 amazing years of community and support. b. Councilors: i. TP thanks the Jubilee for the 4th of July celebration. 11. Future Meetings a. By consensus, the Council agrees to a special session on July 31 st. b. Next normal meeting will be August 21st, 2025, at 5:30 pm in Council Chambers. 12. (1:21) Adjourn a. Seeing no further business, Mayor AV ends the meeting @ 6:51 pm Attest: _____________________________ _______________________________ Mayor, Ann Vileisis Date _____________________________ _______________________________ City Recorder, Joseph Harrison Date The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 7 6(b) Application for Appointment: Carol Lawton – Planning Commission The application for appointment can be viewed by clicking here or copying and pasting the following link: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/App-for-appointment-Lawton- planning.pdf 6(c) Application for Appointment: Geraldine Rickel – Parks Commission The application for appointment can be viewed by clicking here or copying and pasting the following link: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/App-for-appointment-Rickle-parks.pdf 7 Presentation to Council: Dr. Lisa Ballence & Cinnamon Moffat on changes at the Port Orford Field Station From OSU: OSU is implementing a seasonal reduction in personnel for the fall and winter of 2025/26. An on-site coordinator will focus on continuing to keep the Port Orford Field Station open and accessible to users. At the same time, there will be an increase in support through personnel and services provided through the Hatfield Marine Science Center. More information can be found on the Port Orford Field Station website. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 8 8 Elk River Property Development: Appeal on the Planning Commission denial of extension On June 10th, 2025, the Planning Commission reviewed an extension request from Elk River Property Development (ERPD) on Conditional Use Permit (CUP) 2016-02 & 2016-03 for an effluent pipeline through the City of Port Orford. After hearing from the applicants and citizens and deliberating on the facts presented to them at the meeting, the Planning Commission voted not to grant the extension. ERPD has since filed an appeal to the City Council to review the Planning Commission decision. The City Council must now review the following documents, hear from the applicants, take citizens' comments then deliberate on whether they will uphold the Planning Commission decision. Request for extension from ERPD: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ERPD-request-for-extention-2025.pdf Staff report from Crystal Shoji: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Shoji-Staff-Report-ERPD-2025.pdf Minutes from June 10th, 2025, Planning Commission Meeting: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/PC-minutes-6.17.2025.pdf Request for appeal from ERPD: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ERPD-Appeal-to-City-Council-7.7.2025.pdf Staff report from Lori Cooper: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ERPD-2025-finding.pdf The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 9 9(a) Tom Calvanese Day Proclamation For nearly a decade, Tom Calvanese has dedicated his life to establishing the Port Orford Marine Field Station and positive relations between fishers and scientists, educating the next generation of curious minds, creating a positive learning environment in the City of Port Orford, and studying the unique marine environment surrounding it. In recognition of this, the Council has received requests from appreciative citizens to proclaim August 21 st 2025, as Tom Calvanese Day. 9(b) Civil West Request to Progress to Phase 1, Task 2 of the Feasibility Study of Water Recycling Civil West has been working on the Recycled Water Use Feasibility Study and has requested approval to move to Phase 1, Task 2 of the project. When the Council approved a scope of work for the project in March, it was just the first task of phase 1, “Project Management & Administrative Services”. According to Civil West, in order to properly finish the first task, the second task, “Project Research & Data Gathering,” needs to begin. A link to the scope of work includes all tasks of phase 1 and can be viewed below: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Civil-West-750-Scope-Phase-1.pdf 9(c) Discussion on the authority to approve bids for City projects We have two bid openings coming up in early September (3 and 8), one for dredging the City reservoir and the other to remove the collapsing culvert upstream of the reservoir. We will need to award contracts in short order to get contractors lined up to complete work in October before the instream work season ends. Council needs either to give Melissa authority to select the best bids based on the engineer’s recommendation and cost, or Council will need to schedule a special meeting on September 11 to approve bid selection. 10 Old Business: None The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 10 11 Departmental Reports 11(a) Administration Summer Water Conservation Summer water is at a premium in our system. We have not had more than a quarter of an inch of rain in the area since April 6th, 2025 (as of this writing). This lack of water makes the recovery in the reservoir very slow. We ask that residents and visitors alike be mindful of their water use. Watering plants for food is acceptable, but please limit extra sprinkling. We want to have enough water to respond to fire dangers, if needed. Right-of-Ways Owners of adjacent property to the City’s Rights of Way are responsible for their upkeep. Cutting brush and general management are allowed without a ROW permit. If you plan to cut trees, add a structure, or do something similar, you need to come to City Hall and get a permit. If there are inoperable vehicles, boats, or RVs in the ROW, they will be tagged and towed soon. We want to give people some time to fix these problems on their own, before we have to tow them away at the owners’ expense. Please help keep our ROWs clear and safe. Community Building Information As residents can see, the hardscape of our new ADA-approved “plaza” for the Community Building and the American Legion Hall has been poured. The next steps include the framing of the infill, the setting of the entrance vestibules, replacing siding, and roofing of the Community Building. We will complete the project in phases… one will focus on the Community Building and the grant money received. The second phase, after more money is raised for the ALH, will be to remodel the ALH industrial kitchen, update the HVAC system, and replace the siding. We are working with a volunteer fundraising committee to make this happen. According to the contractors, the Community Building should be ready to open by mid-December! Ray’s Woods Brush Clean-up A group of City Staff and volunteers cleaned up trash in the area. Councilor Burns had most of the brush cut and cleared by the morning of the 13 th. We made sure the items that were usable were left for the owners of the items. Other things that were broken, or a health and safety hazard were removed. We have a plan to convene a small committee to discuss the management of this City lot in the future. We appreciate the help! General Updates  We were not awarded the ODOT grant.  Anne Heath is helping Gold Beach as the temporary City Admin. We are posting a Finance Contractor job description because Anne would like to retire. She will be with us until this position is filled.  Thank you to the Main Street crew that did the weeding last week at City Hall.  Kudos to our Public Works crew for starting to remove one of the culverts above our reservoir this week. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 11 11(b) Mayor’s Report MAYOR'S REPORT, August 2025 After our last Council meeting, I sent a letter regarding the mothballing of our local OSU Marine Field Station and the ODOT maintenance station to higher-level elected officials. I received a response from our State Senator David Brock Smith, and from our U.S. Senator Wyden’s and Rep Hoyle’s staff as well as from the Governor’s regional solutions staff person. The Governor is convening a special session of the legislature to deal with ODOT funding so fingers crossed that there will be a solution that keeps the Port Orford maintenance station open. It’s been announced that OSU will hire a coordinator position to allow the facility to operate on a nominal level through the winter season. Rep. Val Hoyle has been advocating to reinstate the BRIC program Congress. Also just last week, a Washington state judge granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump Administration from spending BRIC funds for other purposes and are trying to reverse the termination of the BRIC program. I am not holding my breath, but I’d like to remain hopeful that we might not lose that opportunity. You can read more here: https://www.chronline.com/stories/grays-harbor-county-levee-projects-not-dead-yet- federal-judge-grants-preliminary-injunction,385141 I was invited to be a guest on Think Out Loud, an OPB radio program, to talk about the OWEB grant our city received to pay off the loan we took out to buy 160 acres of land in our drinking water source area. Our community has been recognized as a pioneer in such efforts with other cities, such as Reedsport aiming to follow in our path. You can listen at this link: https://www.opb.org/article/2025/08/01/think-out-loud-community-forest- ann-vilesis-port-orford-oregon/ This story was also featured in a story map developed by Sustainable Northwest about communities buying and managing their forests for drinking water. You can scroll down to see Port Orford’s story here: https://www.nwcommunityforests.org/forests-for-communities As a condition of the grant, we will need to update our Forest Management plan this fall to reflect our actual ownership of the land and OWEB requirements that the land be managed for drinking water. Councilor Pogwizd and I met with Main Street leaders to discuss developing an MOA between the City and Main Street to clarify guidelines for expenditures of TLT funds. Together with Erin Minster of the Curry Soil and Water Conservation District, Melissa and I hosted the the Judith Ann Mogon Foundation (JAMF) for a site visit to consider our grant application seeking funding to remove our failing culvert. We are still waiting to hear from both the Oregon Department of Forestry’s S-Fish program and JAMF to determine if we will have funding to tackle this critical project. We also met with Erin and Civil West to line out how the RFP will work for this project. The bid went out in mid August, contingent on grant funding. The project is slated for October. The RFP for the dredging project also went out in early August. We will need to tap our secondary water source —Garrison Lake —while the dredging occurs, also slated for October. We conducted water tests earlier this year and confirmed that quality is sufficiently high to use as a raw water source for our Treatment Plant. However, the lake is known to have the invasive New Zealand Mud Snails (NZMS), which pose a possible risk that they might be drawn into the Water Treatment Plant and gum up the works. Our engineer at Civil West has been in touch with a firm that provides temporary water works to The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 12 figure out the best options to deal with this situation. I’ve also done a lot of additional research to do extra due diligence. I learned that while people are very concerned about moving NZMS from one water body to another, I found almost no instances of NZMS getting into municipal water systems. I reached out to Curry Watersheds Partnership (CWP) to help us with a survey of current presence and abundance of NZMS. (A big THANKS for CWP for technical assistance!) Our survey confirmed that we have NZMS very close to the boat ramps but not in deep water. I also talked to consultants who are experts in dealing with invasive species and water systems. They suggested that if we source raw water from deep areas we can minimize risks. All this will help us develop a solid plan for a secondary water source as we move forward with dredging our reservoir. Regarding our drinking water delivery infrastructure, Melissa and I also met with our Regional Solutions and Biz OR contacts about how to find new funding, now that the BRIC grant opportunity seems to have evaporated. We have scheduled a meeting with Biz Oregon specialists in mid September to help us to better understand the options we may have for state grants and loans. I met several times with John Isadore and our Civil West engineer to refine city water infrastructure priorities and strategize about upcoming grant opportunities, ahead of that meeting. Also we applied for a SIPP grant to do a leak study and analysis of water loss that will help us to have better data needed to apply for Oregon Water Resource Department (OWRD) grants. Along with the grant to fund the leak study, there was an opportunity to request funding for another study to evaluate possible secondary water sources that our engineer advised us to pursue —so we put in for that too. I attended a Rotary meeting, where I was welcomed heartily. I learned about all the good things that Rotary is doing for our community, including raising money for scholarships, and providing fresh blueberries for the Common Good, among many other things. I thanked them for help with our Community Building renovation project and all the positive projects they do for our community. I worked on the Tribal consultation and SHPO review for our raw water tank project to be located beside the Water Treatment Plant—assembling a site report documenting its history to facilitate the review. It was interesting to work with Historic Preservation Chair Rick Cook to learn more about the history of the Trans-Pacific Mill and Buffington Park, and then to track down some of the history of our water treatment plan, which was built in 1978. Historic documents comported with a geotechnical survey that indicated about five to nine feet of fill were placed in the area. Melissa and I continue to meet regularly with the architect and contractor working on the Community Building renovation. We expect that there will be more activity again soon as contractors finish up school projects with tighter deadlines. We also met with the Community Building Friends group to figure out how to raise funds that will now be needed to finish the renovation of the American Legion Hall. 11(c) Finance 11(d) Public Works Water numbers sold for July 2025 Treated water produced 5,617,000 Water Sold-3,042,935 Back-washes 346,000 leaks 130,000 WATER = LOSS EST. 46%. Rain for June 0’’ The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 13 Water Treatment plant, 1. State reports submitted for the month of July 2. Update evaluation of filter media and backwash aerator system. OAWU was on site last week. After testing and evaluating filter system media and underdrain mainafold has failed in several spots. This is now the #1 priority changing out the filter media and repairs to underwater manifold system, these issues will continue degrade and could cause a plant shutdown until repairs can be made. Working on cost estimate and suppliers for fabrication of underdrain / aerators / media. 3. New pump for Hubbard’s will be installed the week of the 18 th Aug. 4. Coast Guard hill pump station, waiting on welder to start hopefully this month. 5. Culvert removal is underway and almost completed @ Watershed. Water distribution leaks repair: 1. Lots of locates for fiber drops Beacon continues and work at the Port. 2. Repaired several leaks on meters 3. Several leak repairs on lines Waste Water plant / Collections: 1. Outfall inspection waiting on scheduling with diver. 2. Mixer for anoxic zone, motor shorted out, pending quotes 3. Recycled water pump for sprayers is down, need new wire and 50amp circuit approx. 200’ of #6 wire/50-amp breaker service. 4. Lake-Shore lift station electrical service replacement, temp service panel is installed. Scheduling with CCE for switch over in order to replace meter base and service connection. 5. Lift station PM’s degrease floats, lots of grease and wet-wipes City shop yard 1. Dump runs to remove old debris; work will continue until its completed 2. Vehicle PM’s Streets, cleaning up right of ways mowing and trimming trees. Parks Mowing / brushing / debris removal prep for the 4 th of July If you would like to view the consumption report, please click here or copy paste the link below: http://portorford.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-July-Consumption-Report.pdf 11(e) Planning The housing code revisions funded by a DLCD grant has been completed, and the final paperwork has been filed with DLCD. The City has applied for an additional DLCD grant for $2000. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 14 11(f)Liaison Reports 11(f)(i) Parks Liaison Report Parks Commission met on August 7, 2025, the following was discussed: 1. Established nine priorities/goals for the coming year. Focus on safety and repairs with community involvement. 2. Recommended City Council approve Geraldine Rickel’s appointment to the Parks Commission 3. Need to recruit two new Park Commissioners. Kocurek and Fraser will no longer serve after this September. 4. Expect to hear the results of the Planning Grant application. 11(f)(ii) Historic Preservation Liaison Report The Hamlet Survey has been completed. The survey can be seen on the Port Orford Historic Buildings and Sites website. 11(f)(iii) Emergency Prep. NEW COMMUNITY EMERGENCY NETWORK STARTS Our first Community Emergency meeting was held on August 6, 2025, at 6:00 pm at the Tree Wizard Gallery. We established a name for our group. It will be the Port Orford Community Emergency Network or CEN. We discussed our goal and mission and determined that we will continue to work on these. We discussed having a core group of whoever was interested in attending that would meet twice a month, on the second Tuesday at 10:00am and on the fourth Thursday at 6:00pm each month. We will work on creating smaller groups that would work on specific parts of our mission and report back to the core group. Harry Bryant will ask the First Community Church if we could meet there and he will get back to us. A meeting place can continue to be worked on. When the remodel of our Community Center is finished we could meet there but it can be flexible until then. We briefly discussed working on reaching out to the existing Community organizations that are already networks and keeping them up to date with what the CEN is working on and including them in our overall mission. We agreed that we would continue to work on the Standard Operating Procedures for our Community Incident Command. The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer 15 And we discussed how we would work on finding ways of incorporating as many Community members as possible into our work. We'll continue discussing these items in future meetings. If you know anyone who might be interested in being a part of our group please let them know. We encourage everyone in our Community to be some part of this group. We each need to be prepared for future emergencies. Each household should have Go Bags for each member and for their pets. And each household should be able to shelter in place for at least 2 weeks or more if need be. That's water and food for your people and pets. 11(f)(iii) Port Liaison Report: None Submitted 11(f)(iv) Watershed Liaison Report The Port Orford Watershed Council has been working to renovate the bioswale down at the Visitor Center which had become overgrown. They have been having work parties every couple of weeks so if anyone is interested to help, contact Watershed Council Chair Meg Humphrey: powc99@gmail.com Meg also attended an Extension Service training for small woodland owners about how to mitigate for landslides. 11(f)(v) Fire Liaison Report: None Submitted The City of Port Orford is an Equal Opportunity Employer