session. It is Monday, October 13, 2025. We have one person pre-registered on our listening session agenda. Elizabeth Camron is with us again tonight. Good evening and welcome. >> Thank you. >> And if I could ask you move the microphone as close as you can to make sure that they can hear us at home. >> Is that okay? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, I'm Elizabeth Camron. Um, I'm up I'm here to update you all on some key issues regarding the community health and wellness center project. Uh, the first issue that I'll be talking about is construction disruptions and the second issue is communication failures with city staff. Hi. Um, so the first are construction concerns. Uh, we were promised Newton Avenue would not be used for heavy machinery and that Penn Avenue would be the primary entrance and that quiet hours would be respected. A few times in the past two weeks, heavy vehicles have been parked outside of my home with engines idling well before 7 a.m. The drive uh sorry, excuse me. Um alongside city vehicles even. Um one instance blocked some of our trash cans um on trash pickup day, which was problematic. Um, just this morning, another heavy construction vehicle was idling before 7 a.m. Um, on our way out the door, the driver said he wasn't given clear instructions on which gate to use. Saw that there was already a backup at the Penn Avenue entrance. So, um, he chose to just wait out on Newton Avenue instead. Now, I understand that miscommunications happen. People are human and make mistakes. Um, but we're so early in this two-year project and this has already happened a few times. I'm asking city staff to contact the person directing heavy machinery and clarify these violations and take steps to prevent them from happening again. Um the second issue that I'm here to address is um some communication issues with city staff. So on August 25th, six of you voted to move forward with the community health and wellness center despite it not being code compliant and promised to direct staff to work with Newton Avenue residents on traffic mitigation solutions. I've attended both Newton neighbors meetings and listened to the construction meeting. Um, but I'm deeply concerned about how our input is being handled. Um, the first thing is that our input is actually being ignored. At the first meeting, residents were asked for our input. I emailed two staff members, one of them being the meeting facilitator, with a clear summary of my and my neighbors suggestions and evidence-based studies on noise and light mitigation. At the next meeting after that, staff admitted that my input, my email with studies and input was not shared with the whole team. Why ask for input if it's not shared with the relevant people? And I'm also asking which one of you are willing to follow up to ensure this doesn't happen again. The second thing is that evidencebased studies are being dismissed. I provided studies showing effective ways to mitigate noise and lights from slow moving or idling vehicles. The data clearly shows that current mitigation plans are inadequate. Yet, my first attempt to share these studies was declined by Kirk Roberts, who then turned around and presented irrelevant studies to you all instead. My second attempt um was at this first uh Newton meeting um and it wasn't passed on to the decision makers. I'm asking if one of you are willing to review these studies with the staff to ensure evidence-based solutions are incorporated. None of us want to waste money on ineffective solutions. Number three, um the residents preferences are being overlooked. At the last park and wreck meeting uh last week I believe um a sidewalk on Newton Avenue was proposed at the Newton aidence but at the Newton aid sorry Newton residence meeting we ranked mitigation op options and a sidewalk was our least favorite because it would remove our mature trees and increase noise and foot traffic in our yards. We voiced these concerns clearly and a survey was conducted to confirm this. What happened to our feedback? What happened to that survey? I am asking if one of you would be willing to review the survey results or the meeting minutes. Um also my neighbor has the meeting recorded if it's needed. The fourth uh next thing number four um this is really presented to be a disingenuous process. The solutions offered by staff to us at these meetings had some serious flaws. Most of them, like the sidewalk, did not actually mitigate at all. Staff admitted that their own ideas were unlikely to be approved by the fire marshal or nearby businesses. And most alarming, all of their ideas lack funding clarity. Staff admitted there's little budget for mitigation, and they couldn't say whether homeowners taxes would have to cover the costs. They even suggested that some of it may have to be paid by homeowners 100% out of pocket. Again, this is all reported. Um, demolition begins in days. They've already began some work ahead of schedule because of the heavy machinery I already talked about. Um, if you do have competent staff, which I believe you do, you both have known that this residential road needed mitigation from the very beginning stages of this project. And yet, here it is. and it seems like an afterthought with no money in the budget, no real solutions, and no real communication. Going forward, I'm asking you all to ensure staff communicate effectively, review our input and evidence-based studies, and prioritize real solutions. Lastly, many of the homeowners on Newton Avenue are interested in the city purchasing at least some of the homes on Newton in order to preserve the integrity of the rest of the neighborhood. I would love to share some creative ways in which this could happen if any of you are interested. I think that there are some really creative ways that could happen. Um that's all I have and I'm also wondering if any of you have questions for me or anything that I can help clarify. >> Well, thank you for the input. Uh it greatly appreciated and appreciate the input early on here as you said to to uh to start looking at and considering and and talking about these types of things as we're getting going. Yes, now is the time that we can have that conversation about uh idling cars and we can have that conversation about feedback and and the different folks that are involved in the the committees and so on. So, I'm going to look at our uh our city manager and uh ask that we work closely with that committee and and share some of these concerns with this because um I would agree there's nothing worse than an idling vehicle prior to 7 a.m. because it's not it's it's pervasive. It's not loud, but it's the that Yeah, I'm I'm right there with you on that one. And uh I also want to make sure that um I'm not sure who is on that committee or who's on the uh the the review committee, but I want to make sure that we have it at a high enough level that we can get appropriate answers and and decisions made or at least uh if there are questions that need to be brought to the council, they're brought to the council and we have that discussion here. Make sense? Okay. Council, any questions here? Council member Lman, >> you know, really just a question for you, Mayor. Um, so in these types of situations with mitigation, um, I thought our policies had some leeway in terms of what the resident would be expected to pay. I know we have a we have a policy where uh you know if there is mitigation that there there I thought my understanding was there's there's some way to to kind of help uh that we could help with that uh from a uh from a council standpoint. Am I mistaken in that or >> and and off the top of my head, council member, I don't recall I'm not sure what our policy says in terms of city contributions to to mitigation or project contributions to mitigation. Um I we'd have to look into that. I'm not sure. >> Yeah. So I I would be interested to see what we can do around that. I know um another idea that was raised uh which you know we kind of struck down uh was this idea where we could uh do some swapping with H and I know we'd have to do that for the full city. We couldn't just do it just specifically uh for this. I know that was one of the ideas that was raised. So um but yeah, no I'd be interested to see what uh can be done um and work through that. especially I don't I don't I just think in this case it'd be nice to not see folks be responsible for uh you know I mean this is happening right out in front of their right right out in front of a way for us to kind of cover those things uh I know we were looking at doing different things so it' be great to help cover some of this stuff today a little better >> y thank you other input council >> council member >> checking make sure it's coming on there we Uh, Mr. Mayor, I guess I have a question for the resident if that's okay. Um, thanks for being here again. Um, so, uh, I want to be sure that I understand sidewalks are something that we're doing everywhere around the city. Anytime we do any kind of pavement management program, if there's the opportunity to do a sidewalk, we're going to do a sidewalk. So, is there is was this was this particular conversation that you had was that was that made clear that that was part of the reason why they were proposing a sidewalk under I understand the mitigation part of it and I would imagine I you know kids on sidewalks are better than kids in the street, right? And so I I get that from a safety perspective as well. Um, but we tend we we do kind of have a policy at council is when you do PMP, when you go in and you do street construction, we're going to add sidewalks because our goal is to get sidewalks on every street in in the city. So, I just want to be I want to understand if that was clear to you or if that was discussed at all and and what was the feedback there at that point. Thanks. >> Um, thank you for that question. Um, so it was presented to us that our street Newton is not on the the big plan right there. It's on a website. somewhere I don't remember the website of yes it is not on that to be redone anytime in the near future um so a sidewalk is not planned in the near future to be on put in our street um this would be put in solely for the community health and wellness center in attempt to I don't want to say appease us that's probably not the right word accommodate us um that that's what we how it was presented to us did that answer your question the the the problem the issues we have with sidewalk. A sidewalk, a sidewalk would be great. However, they explained to us it would have to cut down a lot of our mature trees, um, which exposes us more to the traffic, the lights, the noise. Um, it also is going to cut into our yards. So, without appropriate mitigation, you know, I would say mitigation and the comfort and safety of our own yards is priority number one, and pedestrian safety for our kids and our elderly are number two. >> Yeah. And if that makes sense. >> It does. And I thank thanks for the question or the answer. Um it does I'm I'm guessing that there was it was an accelerant on the program uh plan if you will to try to do the accommodation and um and I just I do want to be clear >> the ride of way that the sidewalk would take up doesn't really belong to any of us unfortunately. It it's a yardware. Yeah. Okay. So it could be somebody besides us that goes in there and does something and it's you know nothing we can do about it. Okay. So you're clear about that. Yep. Yep. Um and it'll happen eventually. But I do agree with you. I think, you know, given the fact the things that I saw on the burm plan and everything like that, letting them get more mature, get those trees more mature before we would go in and take out any of the trees that are over closer to the the the yards makes more sense because then you would have that natural barrier kind of already mature and constructed before we would impact those. So, I appreciate the the clarification. >> Any additional questions? Anything to add? Welcome. >> Oh, I do. You do please need you to identify yourself for the record just so we can move on. >> My name is Brian Emerson. >> Welcome. >> Live at 9911 Newton. >> I'm sorry that I was here late, but whatever she says I agree with. Um I believe that she was talking about all the wonderful trucks that are blocking our driveways and all that stuff. Okay. And then I'd like to go back to when the council approved this boondoggle and Miss Delisandro said that we should be happy because our property values were going to go up and she can prove it. Well, I would like to set up a meeting with you and my other neighbors so you can bring your data and prove my realtor friends are full of it. >> Sure, happy to do. >> When can we do that? Why don't we take that offline and make sure that we have an opportunity on vacation for a couple weeks and uh have some work travel, but I'll make sure that that happens. Um, >> thank you, Council Member. >> Yep, absolutely. >> All right, that's all I have to say. >> Very good. Any additional questions on that, council? All right. Thank you both for coming in tonight. >> Anyone like I know I said a lot, but anyone like this or I can >> Yes. Why don't you why don't you share with our council secretary here and we'll make sure that people see a path. Yep. >> All right. >> No problem. Thank you. >> Council, I don't see anyone else in our listening session room looking to come forward. I would entertain a motion to adjourn our listening session and head downstairs for our council meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by council member Lman, second by council member Mua to adjourn this evening. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Motion carries 5. We are. Thank you much.