Port Commission Minutes

MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR PORT COMMISSION MEETING FOR THE PORT OF HOODSPORT

October 12, 2022

Call to Order:   9:04am                                                   Adjourned:  10:00 am

Hybrid Meeting Held at:   24113 North Highway 101, Suite A Hoodsport, WA 98548 / Virtual Zoom Conference Meeting Room ID#406-238-9936  

Roll Call:    Commissioner Kincannon – Chairwoman / 2^nd Trustee, Commissioner Brazil – 2^nd Chairman / Trustee   

Commissioner Morris  

Staff Present:                    K. Wyatt, Executive Director, S. Lindgren – Maintenance Supervisor

Public:                                                  Forest McCullough – NW Land & Tree

Approval of Agenda:       Commissioner Brazil motioned to approve the agenda dated October 12, 2022, as written; Commissioner Morris seconded; all in favor, unanimously approved.

Minutes: Commissioner Brazil motioned to approve the regular port commission minutes for September 7, 2022, Commissioner Morris seconded, all in favor, unanimously approved.

Vouchers:  Commissioner Kincannon motioned to approve the Vouchers for September  2022, in the amount of $7,827.50 & Q3 Payroll in the amount of $2,058.46, Commissioner Brazil seconded, all in favor, unanimously approved.

Public Communication:   

F McCullough provided an update on the removal of the dead, diseased and damaged trees in the Hoodsport Trail Park. We estimate one and half more weeks on the disc golf side of the trail park cutting along the line by the Lake Cushman neighbors.  Commissioner Brazil said there are big piles of logs they are hauling out.  F McCullough said yes, they were here two days last week, are here today and tomorrow.  We will start on the North side of the creek in a week and a half, it will take us a couple of days to reconstruct the road for access. People are coming by telling us how good the trail park looks; acknowledging how many small trees will start to grow from the light that is reaching the forest floor, they are happy that to finally see what the finished product is shaping up to be.  Commissioner Brazil asked if they would clean up the debris from limbing the trees before cutting.  F McCullough said they will disintegrate and eventually turn into the forest floor which will turn in to food for the smaller trees.  By the time you have the grand reopening in May, the debris will disappear, the forest will grow back and look good.  The disc golf parking areas will be cleaned up, we will make a trench so it will drain better, then level it up and put down another layer of rock. Commissioner Kincannon thanked F McCullough for his care and hard work.  F McCullough said he spoke to Commissioner Brazil about reconstruction of some of the bare areas with bushes around the disc golf course.  I wouldn’t plant Rhododendrons or any other species that are poisonous to the deer, stick with replanting native species.  I will suggest a company you can talk to for reforestation of those areas.  Commissioner Brazil said he is starting to organize labor for spreading the shredded bark and for trail maintenance.  I see where rounds are stacked up, S Lindgren said, I did that to use as a border along the walkways.

Commissioner Reports    Commissioner Kincannon said the web designer is working with the director and has started work on the updated format for the Port of Hoodsport’s website.   Commissioner Kincannon asked if the commission saw the new brochures for the Hoodsport Trail Park and asked Annie with the Timberland Library if the Port could display the brochures at the library. Annie said she would hang a brochure holder on the bulletin board.  Commissioner Brazil said he would like to hold off on placing them at the trail park until the park was open to the public.  S Lindgren said he has taken them to the Visitor’s center, posted them at both kiosks and at the disc golf course.  Commissioner Morris said he will give a stack of the brochures to Rachel who publishes the Fjord Magazine, and he will place them at the Potlatch Brewery.  Commissioner Kincannon said I have a contact at the Shelton high school who will bring students to identify plants/trees to create new trail signage for the trail park.  S Lindgren said he is happy to help the students with the signs. Commissioner Brazil said he would like to have a grand reopening of the trail park in the spring of 2023 when the hazard trees are gone, the trails are clear, the new signs have been posted, it will be fantastic.  Commissioner Kincannon said the public is anxious to have it reopened.  Commissioner Morris said he liked the idea to welcome the public to a clean and fresh trail park and disc golf course.  Commissioner Morris said the director and I talked with YSS Dive shop regarding their dive events making sure it is understood the event application process is structured for all event holders and for every scheduled event.  When I did the walk through on the dock with the dive shop before their event, I understood why they wanted a damage list as I noticed the southwest slip was in rough shape and the condition of the dock needs attention, I underestimated that parts of the dock are in rough shape.  I am hopeful that when we attend the Small Ports conference, we will be able to talk to other ports and gather information on how to proceed to get things fixed up.  The Port of Shelton has an engineer who regularly uses the Port of Hoodsport’s dock to kayak, he worked on making docks flexible to survive winter, he said they may have surplus parts we can use; I will reach out to him.  The dive shops PADI event was well attended with no conflicts with boaters or people fishing, the potential tension never came up.  They pulled up a lot of debris like old fishing nets, lines, ropes, and a boot.  One comment they had to me was that they hoped the Port’s event application could be a pdf downloadable form as they would like to schedule more events at the waterfront park and marina dock.  Commissioner Kincannon said we should discuss the possibility for the Port to charge more for event fees and deposits, we may be able to provide more services, we don’t have funds to hire people to help with events but maybe we can hire them to work 8-hour shifts on a weekend.  Commissioner Morris said it solidifies charging more to have events, hiring people to keep the areas tidy, being respectful of port boundaries and conflicts of space.  The port director said after the commission meets with the other small ports, we can discuss event procedures and charges.  Commissioner Brazil said it will be resourceful for us to attend the Small ports meeting as it is a great time to gather information from other ports to help put together a format and create a procedure.  Commissioner Morris said we will talk to other ports about their overnight moorage fees as well. 

Port Maintenance Reports:  

Hoodsport Trail Park & Disc Golf Park:  Currently closed for fallen and hazard tree removal and clean up.  The storybook trail is in great shape, clean and ready to go when Annie is ready to post the next story.  Commissioner Kincannon said, let’s wait until the entire park is ready.

Hoodsport Marina, Dock & Waterfront Park:  S Lindgren said, each time a new commissioner oversees the marina, they have a different approach to repairing the weather-beaten dock and whether the dock should be flexible or stiff.  The ramp beats the slips up in weather, especially in a South wind, it will be good to talk to the Port of Shelton’s dock engineer.  The wild roses have been trimmed at the North end of the waterfront park.

Portable Restrooms:  During the summer season, the Port and Hood Canal Grocery store rents 3 each of the portable restrooms with hand washing stations for the publics use, they are serviced 3 times per week.  In winter, the Port and grocery stores rent two each which are serviced twice per week.  The Port checks them for trash and additional toilet paper in between services

Port parking/Office building/Maintenance shed:  The garden area around the sign by the office has been cleaned out. S. Lindgren monitors live stream surveillance cameras overlooking the public restrooms, office building, port shed, parking lot, waterfront park and marina dock. The same people continue to dump household garbage in the trash receptacles.  The garbage company’s pick-up schedule has been changed to twice per month for winter.

Port Directors Report:

The Port director submitted the Fall Newsletter to the Lake Cushman admin for publication in their monthly newsletter, the newsletter was posted to the Port of Hoodsport’s website and posted in the port’s office window.  The DNR application for lease renewal was completed, submitted and the land/water surveyor was hired to complete the required marine survey.  Information is being gathered for the 2023 Budget for the Budget hearing on November 9^th. Required newspaper public notices were scheduled, 2022 expenditures, 2022 revenues, 2023 levy rates and spreadsheets from the County are being reviewed to gather information for the 2023 budget. Port memberships, insurance fees, internet/phone fees, gas costs and many other rates are rising. Despite the rising values for homes in the last few years, the ports revenue on property taxes will only increase by 1% over last years property tax levy rate, increasing the ports regular levy revenue by approximately $1850.00.  Information will be emailed to the commission; time will be available to individually discuss the preliminary budget draft worksheets in detail with each commissioner until we arrive at the numbers for the 2023 Budget.  The budget hearing will be on November 9^th at 9am.  The port commission will be attending the upcoming Small Ports seminar which will be held in Leavenworth on October 20th-21^st.

Budget:               September financial statements were reviewed

Old Business:  As discussed above        New Business:    As discussed above

Next Meeting:    November 9, 2022

Adjourn:          Commissioner Kincannon made a motion to adjourn the Regular Port Commission meeting, Commissioner Morris seconded, all in favor, unanimously approved, meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.

2022 Regular Port Commission Meetings are scheduled as follows:

Wednesday’s at 9am   November 9^th, December 14^th

2023 Budget Hearing meeting is scheduled for November 9^th at 9am

_______________________  _____________________  _________________________                  

Commissioner Kincannon         Commissioner Brazil         Commissioner Morris

MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR PORT COMMISSION MEETING FOR THE PORT OF HOODSPORT    October 12, 2022

MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR PORT COMMISSION MEETING FOR THE PORT OF HOODSPORT

September 7, 2022

Call to Order:   9:05am                                                   Adjourned:  9:49 am

Meeting Held at:              24113 North Highway 101, Suite A Hoodsport, WA 98548 / Virtual Zoom Conference Meeting Room ID#406-238-9936  

Roll Call:     Commissioner Kincannon – Chairwoman / 2^nd Trustee, Commissioner Brazil – 2^nd Chairman / Trustee   

Commissioner Morris  

Staff Present:                    K. Wyatt, Executive Director, S. Lindgren – Maintenance Supervisor

Public:                                 Forest McCullough – NW Land & Tree

Approval of Agenda:       Commissioner Brazil motioned to approve the agenda dated September 7, 2022, as written; Commissioner Kincannon seconded; all in favor, unanimously approved.

Minutes: Commissioner Kincannon motioned to approve the regular port commission minutes for August 17, 2022, Commissioner Brazil seconded, all in favor, unanimously approved.

Vouchers:  Commissioner Kincannon motioned to approve the Vouchers for August 2022, in the amount of $15,755.60, Commissioner Morris seconded, all in favor, unanimously approved.

Public Communication:   

F McCullough provided an update on the removal of the dead, diseased and damaged trees in the Hoodsport Trail Park. We moved our operation over to the disc golf course side of State Rt 119 a week and a half ago and are a quarter of the way through.  We will move to the residential area due to concerns from the neighbors on the adjacent properties which will require more technical maneuvers for safety purposes, they are very anxious to have these danger trees removed.  There are so many diseased and infected trees, you can literally watch the trees show signs of dying daily.  The bark beetle is prevalent, you can tell where they are, their burrowing looks like piles of sawdust around the exterior of the tree bark and down by the base of the tree.  Commissioner Kincannon asked what the estimation of completion is now.  F McCullough said it will be the end of October or later before we are finished depending on what we find when we cross back over the creek on the North side, there is an open area in the middle with a lot of tangled blow down trees, it’s a mess. They will have to be carefully removed for obvious safety reasons.

Commissioner Reports     Commissioner Kincannon asked the commission if they reviewed the Digital Presence Proposal from Zech Design.  The web designer checked into why the port’s website presence is inadequate, it’s because there are no google analytics, people have a hard time finding the webpage. Also, the WordPress platform is antiquated and must be updated, we can update it and plug it into the old website. Plugging the old website into the new platform will look the same with the same navigation but will update the entire website. This portion will cost $950.00 We will need to create a master Gmail account; it will cost $95.00.  If we start by claiming the Port’s business page, we can update its presence with correct information that will carry over to the main Ports website listing.  We can table the social media part at this time, Facebook the Port of Hoodsport by virtue of being tagged. Commissioner Morris said the incremental approach makes more sense in managing the 22/23 budget, so the cost is easier to handle.  The proposal makes sense having to play the google game to appear, first master the Gmail account, do the website update breaking it in to two parts, the scope of work makes sense to me.  Commissioner Kincannon made a motion to accept part of the digital presence proposal.  Updating the website $950.00, create a Gmail address $95.00 then claim it’s google business page $400.00.  Total cost to start this process now is $1,445.00.  Commissioner Morris seconded the motion.  All in favor, the motion was approved.  Commissioner Morris said if we claim the Facebook page, can we lock it in to prevent comments.  The director said we will have to find a way to store all records on Facebook as it becomes public record.  Commissioner Morris said, that is a topic we can discuss with other ports at the Small Ports Conference.  Commissioner Brazil said in looking at the Facebook pages, it shows the Hoodsport Trail Park as a state park.  Commissioner Kincannon said a Facebook page was created by default as people on Facebook added tags so it’s out there but we need to claim it and own it so the facts can be updated, but once we claim it, we must manage it as a public record.  Commissioner Kincannon said let’s gather information, see where we all are next year and discuss concerns by the director and ports attorney.  Commissioner Morris said it would be interesting if someone wrote a program that covers government agencies on how to make them public record in social media.

Port Maintenance Reports:  

Hoodsport Trail Park & Disc Golf Park:  Currently closed for fallen and hazard tree clean up

Hoodsport Marina, Dock & Waterfront Park:  The weather is attracting lots of people to the waterfront park, dock, and marina.  It has been tremendously busy; people are dumping trash in all 5 garbage cans consistently.  Our second maintenance person left; I could use someone to help with garbage in the winter months.  Commissioner Kincannon asked if we could advertise.  S Lindgren said he may have someone in mind.  Commissioner Morris said he has someone in mind as well.

Portable Restrooms:  During the summer season, the Port rents 3 portable restrooms with hand washing stations for the publics use, have them cleaned 3 times per week and checks them for trash and toilet paper in between services.  The grocery store also rents 3 portable restrooms for the publics use.  Starting in October, the Port will rent 2 portable restrooms for the public and cut cleaning to twice per week.

Port parking/Office building/Maintenance shed: S. Lindgren monitors live stream surveillance cameras overlooking the public restrooms, office building, port shed, parking lot, waterfront park and marina dock. The same people continue to dump household garbage in the trash receptacles.

Port Directors Report:

The Port director asked the port commission if they had questions after reviewing the application to renew the Aquatic lease with DNR.  The director and Commissioner Kincannon had a conference call with the WA State DNR representative to go through the application process and to ensure the correct content is filled in the required sections of the application.  The director will complete the application, obtain proper signatures then will go through the list of surveyors provided by WA State DNR.  In response to YSS dive shops email regarding a past event in April 2022 and an upcoming event on September 24^th, the port commission approved the PADI clean up event and responded in an email with an Event application and Facility Use agreement for their information and to be filled out and returned along with their certificate of liability insurance and the event deposit.  The Digital Presence proposal was previously discussed.  The director and Commissioner Morris visited the Hoodsport Trail Park after the September 7^th meeting and met with NW Land and Tree. They toured the logging operation and were shown diseased trees that had Poria Laminated Root rot, in looking at the diseased cut trees, they were unbelievably spongy and hollow in the core of the tree trunks, you could put an entire foot inside of the tree.  In looking at the standing trees, you could not tell they were diseased until looking up at the tops which were not green.  A core borer takes a sample of the interior and shows layers of hardwood then a spongy material further into the tree trunk.  A sample of the interior of the diseased trees was brought back to the office so the commission could see what it looks like.  Trees with bark beetle infestation showed beetle bore holes, sawdust around the hole and down the exterior of the bark, leaving a mound of it at the bottom of the tree.  Entanglements of blow down trees from last years winter storm were being carefully removed like pick up sticks to prevent them from springing up and damaging the crane operator and live trees.  Log trucks were at the staging area in the parking lot, it was very interesting to watch the log crane operators pick up huge logs and set them perfectly on the truck trailers to be hauled away.  The port director reminded the commission, this was the last regular port commission meeting in the third quarter of 2022 and a timesheet will be emailed for their payroll.

Budget:               August financial statements were reviewed

Old Business:  As discussed above        New Business:    As discussed above

Next Meeting:    October 12, 2022

Adjourn:          Commissioner Kincannon made a motion to adjourn the Regular Port Commission meeting, Commissioner Morris seconded, all in favor, unanimously approved, meeting adjourned at 9:49 a.m.

2022 Regular Port Commission Meetings are scheduled as follows:

Wednesday’s at 9am   October 12^th, November 16^th, December 14th

_______________________  _____________________  _________________________                  

Commissioner Kincannon         Commissioner Brazil         Commissioner Morris

MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR PORT COMMISSION MEETING FOR THE PORT OF HOODSPORT    September 7, 2022