Lewiston Council Reviews Spurwink Mobile Unit, FERC Relicensing

[2:13] Carl L. Sheline: Hello and welcome to our Tuesday evening 6 p.m. workshop. We're joined here by Catherine Reiter from Spurwink. She brought along two colleagues. If the three of you could introduce yourselves properly and then kick us off. And if I can have counselors hold their questions until the end of the presentation, that'd be great. [2:33] Catherine Reiter: Good evening. Catherine Reiter, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for Spurwink. Thank you so much for your time this evening. We have provided you with a packet of information which I imagine you have before you and I have those same materials in front of me as well as a few additional which I will offer to leave behind with me when we complete our presentation this evening. But if you would allow me just a few moments to give an overview of Spur Wing and its services and its partnerships in the community, I would love to set the stage with that. And I have written this out just to make sure I don't leave anything out. Good evening Mayor Chalene and Lewiston city councillors. My name is Katherine Ryder and I serve as the senior director of strategic services for Spur Wing. I would like to extend my gratitude for the opportunity to speak with you today. We appreciate the council's commitment to addressing the challenges of substance use disorder, mental health concerns, and homelessness in our community. These are complex issues that require practical evidence-based solutions and strong partnerships. At Spurwink we are a health care provider first and foremost. Our work is grounded in clinical integrity, evidence-based practice, and a belief that every person deserves the opportunity to recover. Our focus is not simply on providing services. It is on building trust, offering hope, and creating pathways to recovery. One thing we have learned through decades of behavioral health care is that recovery cannot be forced. People engage in treatment when they feel respected, supported, and connected to trusted providers. Lasting change happens through relationships. That is why our secondary prevention program is designed to meet people where they are, reduce barriers to care, and connect them to treatment and recovery services, whether those services are provided by Spur Wing or another community partner. You will soon hear from my colleague, Ernestine Peralt, about the success we have had in connecting those we serve to treatment and the joy experienced when someone reclaims their health and ultimately their life. What makes this work effective is not any single organization acting alone. It is the network of partnerships that we have built throughout Lewiston and the surrounding communities. Today Spurwink works closely with community hospitals, behavioral health providers, recovery organizations, first responders, and healthcare partners to ensure individuals can access care when they are ready to take that next step. One example is our lengthy collaboration with United Ambulance Service. When individuals experience an overdose in the community, United Ambulance will soon be able to offer real-time opportunities to begin treatment. Through Spurwink's Options and Project Support You programs, we have committed to accepting their referral within 72 hours to support those individuals and connect them to ongoing care and recovery resources. This is exactly the kind of rapid intervention that research shows can make the difference between continued crisis and a pathway toward recovery. We are also excited about the pending opening of Spurwink's Crisis Center, which will provide an important alternative to emergency departments and law enforcement responses for people experiencing behavioral health crisis. The crisis center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and will help ensure that individuals receive timely assessment, stabilization, and connection to appropriate treatment in the least restrictive and most therapeutic setting possible. Spurwink also collaborates with Maine Family Planning's mobile health care services and a network of community providers to bring health care directly to individuals who may otherwise have difficulty accessing services. These partnerships allow us to address both immediate health concerns and the underlying issues that often contribute to ongoing instability. Our presence in the community is focused on engagement, healthcare access, privacy, dignity, and connection to treatment. The ability to offer confidential spaces where people can meet with medical and behavioral health professionals is a critical component of effective care and an important part of respecting the privacy of those seeking help. The outcomes we see every day reinforce what the evidence tells us. When people are engaged rather than judged, when they are offered support rather than barriers, and when providers work together instead of in silos, more people enter treatment, more people remain connected to care, and more people move toward recovery. Spurwink is committed to being a trusted healthcare provider and community partner. We look forward to continuing to work alongside the city of Lewiston, our health care partners, first responders, and community organizations to create solutions that improve individual lives while strengthening the health and safety of our community as a whole. Like you, we are waiting on the outcome of the November referendum. Our position is that reducing barriers to proven health care and recovery services matters. Tonight our focus is on the broader work of the secondary prevention program, including connecting people to medical care, behavioral health treatment, recovery support, and community resources that will help them move towards stability. Thank you for your time, and those are my formal written comments. We also have a PowerPoint, which I believe is in your packet, and you will see that it goes with our proposal for a mobile unit, and the mobile unit is designed to provide all types of interventions to folks in the community, most importantly to those who may not be able to reach us. And this was a conversation we had last year during Council meetings, as well as when we went in front of the zoning board, and there was concern from members that not everybody would be able to find their way to us at the end of 1155 Lisbon Street. That being said, we went forward and we pulled together a proposal that we have submitted to you, as well as to the city of Auburn, and with the hope that they would be a sharing of the cost of that unit, so that we could deploy out and care for those individuals for whom there may not be another alternative. And so you can see we've used the term community care mobile unit. Our outreach programs have long come under the term of community recovery, and so we borrowed that for this program as well. So I could go through the roster of challenges, but I think you're probably pretty familiar with those. They are listed on the second slide, where we're talking about the fact That we still face an overdose issue and an addiction crisis, and we are seeing increases in homelessness clear across the board, all ages, including older adults, which we have not previously experienced. The same number of people that are beginning to be faced with losing their homes, and Ernestine's folks have been reporting back to us that there is a specialty population of folks they're working with that we have not seen before. So seriously concerned for them and wanting to make sure that they have an opportunity to access care. We know that transportation is an issue. We have been told that repeatedly by the [10:33] Carl L. Sheline: people that we serve. Once again, Counselor, if you have that PowerPoint, the folks at home [10:40] Catherine Reiter: are looking at it. I am so sorry. Oh, thank you. Yes, would you mind doing that while I do this? Thank [10:46] Carl L. Sheline: you so much. And maybe, thank you, Counselor, can you just move the mic a little closer to you? [10:52] Catherine Reiter: We're going to share the same nightmare, Council Roy. There we go. So barriers to treatment, we know transportation is an issue. People tell us that all the time. They often have to be picked up by someone else who has a vehicle and can bring groups of folks to our brick and mortar facility. Some walk, some bike, others may be able to take a bus route if they have the available cash to be able to do that, but there are many that we reach out to in the community for whom that would not be possible. We also know that stigma is an issue, and so when we are out in the community tapping people on the shoulders, bringing them warm socks, bottles of water, food to eat, we are building relationship and trust, and over time that transitions to conversations that allow us to dig a little bit deeper using what we refer to as motivational interviewing. It is an evidence based practice designed to help people come to their own conclusions through a series of prompts that we use that are mostly question marks and not periods about how their life is going, health and social impacts. We know that untreated addiction increases fatal overdoses, spreads infectious disease, and raises the costs of care. So when somebody shows up at the hospital and they don't have a pay source and they're needing emergency care, that has a much higher price tag than if we are able to meet people's basic needs in the community, and a need for innovative solutions. So we believe that we have some opportunities here. We know What works, we've seen it working. We've been doing this work for a half a dozen years, and we are very confident that we can continue to produce excellent results. Why mobile care? We've talked a little bit about getting to where people are, but there are folks that are embedded in encampments that are not receiving much care, if any at all. And we have built into this program design the ability to go into those spaces and places. The unit that we're looking at would allow us to be able to bring care through telehealth. So if we do not have the nurse practitioner on the mobile unit with us on any given day, we can dial back into the center and be able to bring a provider onto a screen to be able to work with someone. Let's see, community trust and support. I believe that we are known in the community. I would like to think that we have an excellent reputation of clinical integrity, and we live by the ethics of our professional codes and firmly believe that we should be doing the best work possible in the interest of saving lives and moving people forward. And then we have good technology available to us that we can bring out into the community as well. So our solution and the Spur Wink mobile harm reduction unit would include integrated primary and behavioral health care. So we are currently, we have been and will continue to do wound assessment, emergency first aid, HIV and HCV screening with referrals, and telehealth behavioral health. Comprehensive secondary prevention services would include naloxone, fentanyl strips, all of the things that will help produce overdose and potentially bring someone into some kind of a contagious illness. And then we use peer support and community connection. For folks who don't necessarily understand what peer support is, it is someone who has lived with addiction and or a mental illness, has recovered from that, and is in a place in their life where they have held recovery for six months to a year, and they are now ready to give back. And I would probably draw a comparison to, if you think about AA and having a sponsor. It is somebody who is able to now give back because they have walked that path, and it often creates very quick bonds between people because it's not somebody who does not understand what that individual is going through. And so we see that in a lot of different services. Safe Voices, often the volunteers there are people who have been victims of sexual assault or violence, and so they again are able to build those bridges quickly. Let's see, and then data-driven. So we collect a lot of data, we're going to report some of that data out to you. I've asked Ernestine to have data ready for you tonight, and she will share that with you in just a few moments. Our guiding principles and what we believe our best practice is, humanism and respect. I have always believed, and I have been a clinician in the field for 40 years now, and it has always been my way of approaching people is to give them the respect that I would want to receive back from them, and it doesn't matter where they are at that point in their life. I think that's a critical connector between two human beings, and so that is how we deliver our services. We focus on reducing harms by acknowledging drug use rather than insisting that somebody be abstinent from the get-go. And I will tell you that many years ago when I was a young clinician, if somebody came to the agency and they had alcohol on their breath or they smelled like they had been smoking marijuana, we turned them around and sent them home, and they felt immediate shame, perhaps some guilt, and I can almost guarantee you that a fairly significant number of them never came back again. And so today we greet people where they are, and as long as they're able to participate, we are working with them and trying to move them towards harm reduction, which means less use until you can get to the place where there is no use. Individual autonomy, we believe people should drive their own treatment, they should be telling us what their goals are and how they think they can get there, and we will support that. And then holistic integrated care, we cannot do the work alone, I just said that a few moments ago and my summary statement to you. We have excellent partnerships with community providers and we have built those over years, and those are critically important. We continue to draw on them and plan to do so in this process as well. Building healthier communities, we built into our application to you for the syringe services program a commitment to being good neighbors there. Is a good neighbor's policy that has been drafted. I brought a sample of that here, but if you wanted the full document, it is on file with the city. And we have scheduled in cleanups across the community. We recently completed one less last week, boy, time flies, two weeks ago, and in preparation for the balloon festival and smart pain Park, we swept the park and the river walk and some of this, excuse me, surrounding areas and collected six bags of trash. And so that is part of what we want to give back. If we're out there doing this work, and so everything that we are suggesting here is that we will continue to be good stewards of the funding that we receive. We will continue to be moving people towards treatment and recovery, and we will continue to be good collaborators with other providers in our community. So I'm going to stop there, and Ernestine, I wonder if you would go into the data points that you pulled together. I [18:19] Unidentified speaker (Spurwink colleague): wanted to give just a snapshot of the past six months. I think it's important to understand the community impact that our small Program that 1155 has had upon the city of Lewiston just in a few months. So some basic numbers that I drew upon is that we've had nine hundred and sixty one visits to our clinic in the past six months. That's an increasing number every month, so we were ranging up to, I think our highest numbers have been about 170 people in one month that we've served. But the ballpark is usually around 130, 150 people that are coming through. And within the past six months, we have provided, when Catherine was talking earlier about peer recovery supports, we've provided over 300 hours directly to our clients that are coming into the clinic over the past six months. And that is one-to-one engagement with an individual that comes in. And no matter where they're at any stage of being able to seek recovery, be interested in recovery, Access to treatment wherever they are, That's where we begin with them. And we are constantly every single time That a person comes in, no matter if it's the first time or the 20th time that they've come in, They're constantly being assessed. They fill out paperwork every single time. They are constantly reviewing where they're at with their progress, where they're at, and we're reviewing the options available to them for treatment and recovery. And there are about 26 data points that we have to report back to the state on that are all access and referrals, referral sources. And so we're constantly, it's a, it's a, it's a normal constant conversation every single client, every single time, to kind of come in and continue to obviously foster them towards wellness no matter what that looks like for them. So it's, it, that's where the recovery supports. The system is really critical because they are hearing support, you know, they're getting support. They're hearing encouragement and they're also, they're really, if they have questions about how this is going to play out for them, what it will look like, any anxiety that they may have about taking those steps and whatnot, they have a person who's been through it and they can sort of obviously support them through that process as well. I talked about some of the 26 data points and whatnot. These, I say data points because they really are things and information that we collect, but they're also, they're moments for conversations. They're moments to kind of talk about and educate people. Sometimes it isn't a person's choice to, that they just don't want to engage. Sometimes they don't know what that means, what that looks like, what's available to them. They're, you know, it's, it's a complicated system that we have oftentimes regarding seeking health care, so not knowing, you know, how to start, where to start, do they need insurance, all of those things. That's where they can get that information from our peer support and our staff there to kind of really educate them. And oftentimes they're sort of like, wow, I, if I had known it was that easy in that sense, like picking up a phone, you know, connecting with, you know, with a provider, doing telehealth at this moment, anything like that, then, you know, oftentimes they'll say I wish, you know, I knew this before I came here. But they're grateful in that moment that they get that information, and it begins a conversation where they're going to continue to have that conversation every single time they show up. It's, you know, to the point where it's a bit repetitive, but that's actually what works oftentimes with folks is just, you know, because they might not be clear today to hear everything that they maybe should hear, but next week, next month, you know, they might be in a place where they say yeah you've mentioned this before like what would that look like and the next thing you know they're making a referral having a conversation walking down you know the you know up to back up to the front desk to make an appointment but it takes you know countless conversations and support and they also go it goes a long way when you have someone who's literally physically mentally emotionally walking through the process with you there's a lot more follow-through that people are going to engage in these things if they have someone literally sitting there or standing with them through this process they've built that relationship and that trust with the individual so they're more likely to take that step and i think that 's where we arrive at our outcomes our outcomes are very high and that's you know the thing that i think is really important in this day and age when you talk about data points to really understand that you know the it's very difficult to change no matter what it is of the topic that we're talking about and so people oftentimes will try and try and try again and sometimes you know it takes half a lifetime to really make a change stick and so when we talk about our outcomes you know we're very proud of the fact that more than 50% of our current clients that are coming into the clinic are actively engaged in recovery resources you know that's a big number and we only get there because we actually purposely make that an intended conversation every single time they come in and they you know we probably aren't not we power are not going to be the favorite clinic for a person who was like just give me the supplies and I'm walking out the door and I have no you know I have no intention of ever getting well we're probably not going to be the clinic for you because we're we're going to constantly instead sort of support you towards understanding that there are a lot of options available to you some of those options are case management services where you know they can work with a particular provider and they can work through all the facets and aspects of things that oftentimes are create barriers just having an identification card is a barrier to Multitude of, you know, opportunities for them, so someone assigned to them working with them on just getting an ID can open up a lot more doors for folks, and it's, it's a barely, fairly basic process, but oftentimes you need someone to kind of coach you through that. Access to treatment, connections, detoxes, residential substance use counseling, mental health counseling, self-help programs, sober living, primary care. Many of the folks that we're serving, they haven't seen primary care in years, they might never have, they may never have set foot in, you know, in a medical facility unless it's emergency department. A lot of our folks are using the emergency department for their care, and so we're working with them to not have that be their first go-to, you know, for their, for whether them, their medical or mental health needs. Access to med management, someone talking with them about our medications appropriate for them and providing that access, getting farmers, you know, we have a pharmacy at 1155, so connecting them with the opportunity to actually get a prescription filled, and then the management of that, how are you doing with the medication, constant conversation. Access to medication therapy as well, sort of Suboxone and Vivitrol and various different medications that will help obviously support someone in the early parts of their recovery. Access to main care, it's a complicated program and whatnot, trying to be able to navigate that. Food insecurities, dental care, family planning, veteran services, we're constantly screening individuals for have they ever put the uniform on oftentimes they think they the definition of veteran is that I serve during wartime we obviously you know or we've tried to educate people that 's not that's not the situation in the in the case and that there might be afforded some you know some recommendations for support and services so we're reaching the veteran population as well we've had so that's probably, before I continue on this, just important to understand that these are, these are area resources. We tried really hard to get connected to what is in the city of Lewiston because transportation is a problem, and within our opportunity at spur wink we do what we can for folks, but at the end of the day, wherever we can get someone in, regardless of what type of treatment it is, wherever we can get them in soonest is really, that's where we're going to refer them to. That's not always Spur-Wink just being very transparent with you, we will just go, you know, if the person says today's the day, you've talked to me four times now about going into, you know, medication assisted therapy program and whatnot, where can I go and do that, then we're, you know, pulling out our resources at that moment and making connections, and sometimes that's not within our own building, so really, you know, getting them access to care when they say today's the day is critical in that moment to do that outside of connecting them to resources, which obviously is a huge aspect of our time that we're doing with individual when they come in for assessment, we're also doing wound care assessments. In the past six months, we've done 267 wound care assessments. That's really important to understand that people are not getting, they're not necessarily getting wounds from substance use, they very well could be, but oftentimes it's also just the living conditions, living out on the streets and whatnot as well, getting a you know, a basic cut while you're unhoused and living in the woods can quickly, go into, you know, infectious kind of opportunity for other things to kind of manifest from just a basic cut, so coming in and getting first aid supplies, getting someone to assess that wound and giving them, you know, proper guidance in terms of how to do that, even application of, you know, how to use some of the products and whatnot that we're supplying them with, so a critical aspect of working with our population some of the other things I think that's really important to kind of understand when we talk about how we also support the community is by supplies in general, so in the past six months we've given out over 400 blankets, we've given over 600 handed foot warmers, which is really critical in the early parts, you know, of the year of when it's cold, we over 500 hygiene and basic hygiene kits, this could be anywhere from soap to shampoo, deodorant, you know, body wipes, anything that kind of helps them to stay, you know, as clean as they possibly can given the circumstances and conditions. We've given over 700 pairs of socks. I think that's an important fact to kind of point out, because a pair of socks is a game changer when you're out there, you know, living in unsafe conditions. It really can, it can be, it can be a game changer for having a clean pair dry of socks, and you know, in dealing with the elements out there that they're working with. Over a thousand, we've distributed over a thousand water bottles. You know, we not only provide the water for them, but we also are giving them refillable containers, so it's not just about a plastic container hand them, but we're also providing them additionally with one that they can continue to refill themselves. Hydration is very important. We oftentimes are giving them hydration packets as well that they can put into the water, and that can help obviously with some of the nutrients and things that they're missing, you know, from every day. And lastly, I think it's important to kind of understand that we're, we're gaining in people coming in to the clinic because they have heard me testify multiple times in the past year and a half about what our, what our small clinic can do for the community, that people are starting to come there for other means. It really isn't about, it's very little, I've spoken about this many times, our footprint for people coming in and asking for syringes is becoming a smaller list, and are the folks that are coming in for all these other things that I, the coordination, the care, the support, all of those is really a growing consensus as to why people are coming to the clinic. It's very well known that we really do, you know, care about the individuals that are coming in and want to continue to follow and support them. And so, you know, one aspect of the way in which we've been able to do that and getting people to come in that are what we call non-exchange clients, they're coming in for food, and in the past six months we've given almost 400 bags of food out to the community of just people coming in saying I'm hungry, literally I'm hungry, and you know, and that's a sadly a growing statistics, but it's also another way in which we can support our community. I would just like one more [31:21] Catherine Reiter: quick thing about the crisis receiving center, which is pending opening, we're not, we're very close, but it has washer and dryer so people can come in and clean their clothing. It has showers so people can take a shower, and we have a clothing closet so we can provide people with clean clothes. I'm [31:41] Carl L. Sheline: Sorry, I just want to make sure we leave time for the questions. Thank you so much. I come [31:47] Michael R. Roy: somewhere tell yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you guys for presenting 400 bags of food, 400 blankets, 500 hygiene kits, 700 pairs of socks, 1,000 water bottles. Do I have that correct? The cities paid or committed approximately $539,000 less far to Sparwink. How many unique individuals have actually entered treatment as a direct result of that investment, and how many remained in treatment for at least 90 days? Do you have that stat? [32:16] Unidentified speaker (Spurwink colleague): Like I just spoke about, over 50% of the people that are engaged in our in our program are involved with resources and you know connections to [32:24] Michael R. Roy: treatment and whatnot so that's you know no I want to I want to know about successful treatment how many have remained clean for 90 days based on this almost 550 000 I don't I don't know that I [32:35] Unidentified speaker (Spurwink colleague): would necessarily know how many people are you know are clean and sober after 90 days what I will say to you is that folks are coming in and continuing to gain that peer support there you know there's a increasing number of folks that once they're engaged in some sort of you know treatment resource out there they still are wanting the peer support so that number is increasing where they're coming in and gaining that they are obviously reporting that they're you know clean and sober they're also we're coordinating with the case managers with their counselors we're having constant dialogue with their you know with their providers so we're aware of what that how many [33:10] Michael R. Roy: have entered treatment and been successful for 30 60 or 90 days you've got lots of numbers locked down I'm just for the ultimate goal is to get someone into treatment and successfully get them cleaning their lives back on track do you have any of those stats I don't have those right off the top of my head now you didn't think it was important to have some of those you had lots of [33:28] Catherine Reiter: stats tonight I think it's important to know that the program that we operate that we're talking about tonight and Spurwing has multiple programs and I provided an overview of that and another [33:40] Michael R. Roy: other sheet counselor thank you no please continue these are fair questions Mr. Mayor I understand [33:46] Catherine Reiter: But we're going to have one person speak at a time, okay? So clinical data would not be something that Ernestine could pull down independently because we're not providing the clinical service out of the programs that she manages. It's a different part of the agency, and some of those referrals are going to other providers in the community who have, they're not going to be able to provide us with that information because of HIPAA. So you don't know, we can make the referral, we can know that the referral was connected to the individual. We will not necessarily know whether they complete treatment. So you can't tell me [34:18] Michael R. Roy: what the cost per successful treatment outcome is from the money that we've already given you. Are you saying per individual? Yeah, what's the, like say how many people have gotten clean and moved on in sobriety in their lives divided by the roughly $539,000 we've already given [34:37] Catherine Reiter: or committed to you. Yeah, I mean, people's treatment length varies depending on their personal needs, and treatment is not always, I mean, recovery is not always linear. Sometimes people will relapse and come back around through again, so no. If we had that question in advance, we might have been able to cull some data for you, but we were not anticipating that particular question tonight. [34:58] Michael R. Roy: You weren't anticipating a question about results? One at a time. I'm speaking one at a time. [35:05] Carl L. Sheline: Counselor, we will treat our presenters with respect. [35:09] Michael R. Roy: I am treating her with respect. I'm just asking difficult questions. [35:12] Carl L. Sheline: You've asked the question. They have already told us that they do not have the data right now, and I think what I heard Catherine say was that they will get back to us. I didn't hear that. [35:24] Catherine Reiter: What I said is our program is responsible for making referrals to treatment. We do not provide the treatment and not all of the treatment that we refer people to is actually within the walls of Spur Wink [35:35] Michael R. Roy: so then how are we supposed to gauge measurable success against the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you're being provided [35:44] Catherine Reiter: I would say that the measurable success is that people accepted a referral, people who heretofore probably would not have even considered treatment. That we are outreaching them in the community, finding them where they are, engaging them, building trust to the point where they say today's my day, please tell me where I can go to receive treatment. I think that's a huge success personally. Okay, let me [36:06] Michael R. Roy: Shift gears for a second. Currently we have an ordinance that prevents any mobile syringe services. Your proposal specifically states that you'll, one of the several services that you'll provide will be clean needles and syringe exchanges. How are you, it feels contradictory for you to be asking us for funding to do something that is currently prohibited via CD ordinance, and you mentioned it yourself there's a referendum coming up in November that may make this, if the people so choose at the ballot. Box to make it so that this essentially won't be legal for you, for you to give needles out, and you're asking us to fund it prior to that. No, not necessarily, and I. [36:53] Catherine Reiter: Also said that we would align with whatever position the city takes. There are many other things we do. It is not just about an exchange of syringes, and Ernestine has testified repeatedly that is the smallest part of the work that we do. I understand, but it's still part of it, and. [37:09] Michael R. Roy: It's currently prohibited under city ordinance, and you're asking us to fund it. Not tonight, night, it's in your proposal. Okay, another one is we have a city ordinance against camping in public places and encampments. It specifically says that you plan on servicing encampments. You're asking us to fund something that's going to service people taking part in activities both using illegal drugs with those needles, or with, let's take the needles out of it, but encampments are currently prohibited under. Ordinance, and you're asking us to fund something that's going. [37:41] Catherine Reiter: To serve as encampments. What I'm telling you is that there are people on the streets and on the riverbank and in the woods that are desperate, and we have been reaching out to them to get them out of the woods, out of the parks, out of the river, so that they can come. [37:58] Michael R. Roy: Into treatment. I understand that. Can you address the contradiction? I don't, I did. First of all, I. [38:05] Catherine Reiter: Have to tell you that I did not know that there was a legal position that encampments were not. [38:09] Carl L. Sheline: Allowed here in Lewiston. So, you know, counselor, do you have any other questions at this time? [38:17] Michael R. Roy: I do, but I will default to my other counselors right now, and I will circle back if I have. [38:22] Carl L. Sheline: Anything else. Thank you, counselor. Counselor Noble. Hi, I just want to thank you for what. [38:29] Susan G. Longchamps: You do, I know that it's a difficult job, and I know that it's not easy for you to come up here and talk about it in this way, so thank you for that. I wanted to a few questions you did answer for me. One of them was that you will be doing needle cleanup with the mobile with them if you got the, we do it now, we have been, we've [38:55] Catherine Reiter: done two we walk, and honestly we don't find too many needles. We have found syringes without needles. We provide one of the tools, and Ernestine Dean, can you share what it is, because I can never get the name right. Sure. [39:12] Unidentified speaker (Spurwink colleague): The technical term is called the BD clip, and what that does is actually breaks off the end of the syringe, the needle, actually, and it stores about 1,500 of them. So it's sort of a pocket device, and we give every single brand-new person that comes in that talks about intravenous drug use that they're participating in, we give them one of them in addition to sharps containers and you know safe disposal instructions and whatnot, so it's a way of making it [39:41] Catherine Reiter: safe. So to finish answering your question, we picked up six bags of trash, we swept the park, and had pickers and picked up papers and you know plates and pizza boxes that had been left behind, very small number of empty syringes, and I think there were two needles. I've [40:01] Susan G. Longchamps: experienced the same when I've been picking up trash in park. I haven't seen any needles yet. Also I wanted to know more about the behavioral health part. Well, is it just somebody who is struggling with addiction that's going to have access to the crisis part, or the behavioral health, any of the medical things that you spoke about? Yeah, [40:29] Catherine Reiter: anybody, I mean the crisis receiving center is open to anybody who feels the need and wants to pop in, either on foot, or if they're transported by someone, or if a law enforcement thinks that they're safe to come to the crisis receiving center for assessment. Am I missing anybody in that population? No. Were you thinking about the crisis center specifically, or more, well, kind of [40:53] Susan G. Longchamps: unit and kind of all, I'm sorry, kind of all of it. Yeah, you know what I mean, is like say somebody downtown or wherever is struggling getting a doctor, or you know they maybe can't, they're new to the area, because I've experienced this working at where I worked, you know they're new to the area, they don't have a psych doctor, their meds are running out, and they need that. Is that something that like say they could access through you guys, if you're you know doing that type of work, same thing with the Medical stuff, if somebody's not feeling well, they can't get a PCB. Are they able to access this too, or is it something they need to be, you know, struggling with addiction to access, is [41:35] Catherine Reiter: basically what I'm wondering. Yeah, so both for the mobile unit but also the crisis center, really anyone can present with a self-defined crisis, and the goal is really to connect them to resources. With the crisis center, people will be able to stay there for up to 23 hours in an episode, so there is some time if somebody sort of needs that time and space. In terms of the mobile unit, certainly work, you know, it could be a connection to any of our resources at 1155. Part of the idea with the crisis centers that someone can present and really access support in that same day, so if they need a referral to med management, we actually have a provider who is going to be available in the crisis center 40 hours a week, available after hours on call, so that someone can really get those needs met [42:30] Susan G. Longchamps: in the immediacy. That's actually a really great service, so thank you for being here. Thank you. [42:37] Joshua L. Nagine: Counselor Longchamps, and then counselor Neijing. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, guys, for being here. I think one thing is for certain is if we are going to allow a provider to distribute needles, I am grateful that it is you guys. As you know, we had lots of trouble with our last organization and plenty of needles found everywhere with the actual needle in there, in the syringe. I think, you know, for myself and probably speaking for another counselor here, the tough part for me is giving out a tool that in my opinion could potentially be the last injection, because they, it could be the lethal one, or it could be the one that causes a wound that causes infection that puts them in the intensive care unit, which I've seen many times. So I can't wrap my head around that part of harm reduction. I've tried really hard, really hard. I just can't do it. I think meaningful recovery is more of really trying to get people to go to rehab and those type of resources, rather than giving them, in my opinion, a tool to help them. The majority of people that I speak with on a day-to-day basis that are fighting addiction share those same thoughts with me, that, you know, we're grateful we can go and pick up the syringes, but it's also helping us stay in that crisis that they're in. So for me, I will never be able to support that, but I do appreciate your program. I appreciate that people can go In there and kind of get, it's like a one-stop shop, in my opinion, for mental health, to see a doctor, get medication. I'm very grateful for that, and I hope you can forgive me for not being able to support. It's just that I have a lot of people that I love dearly that are fighting addiction, that I don't feel as though that tool actually helps them. I do have one question. You had mentioned that it is in your opinion that recovery only happens when someone is ready. Do you, it's not just my opinion. [45:31] Catherine Reiter: It has been our experience over and over and over again, and if you, and we receive forced referrals, so if it's mandated treatment through DHS or from Department of Corrections, people do not do well. They do not want to be there. They do not engage in the same way they engage when they make that [45:49] Joshua L. Nagine: decision themselves. And I can appreciate that, and again though, for me, my experience is the majority of people that I have seen that has had that have had long-term recovery were made to, whether it was from incarceration or losing their child from DHS, they really were forced to, but were very grateful after. So I view things a little differently, but I appreciate what you ladies are here doing and what you're doing in our city, but I will not be able to support that. Thank you, Counselor Nai Jean. [46:24] David B. Chittim: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First I'd just like to state, thank you very much for coming and presenting. You've also met with the Lewiston Area Public Health Committee, and I'm just going to read into the record the Lewiston Area Public Health Committee's recommendation concerning the request for opioid funds and the mobile syringe unit. As the member of the council who sits on that committee, so the Lewiston Area Public Health Committee respectfully recommends that the Listing City Council supports Spurwinks services proposal to establish a mobile community recovery unit serving the Lewis and Auburn area and Approve the requested allocation of opioid settlement funds to support its implementation The committee believes this proposal represents a meaningful investment in the health and safety of our community and is consistent with the intended purpose of opioid settlement funds to address the ongoing local impact of substance use disorder through prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery. Spurwings proposed mobile unit is not simply a mobile syringe service program. It is a comprehensive low barrier recovery and harm reduction model designed to meet people where they are at and connect individuals with services that can reduce immediate health risks while creating pathways towards treatment and recovery. The proposed unit would provide for or facilitate access to services including same day medication for opioid use disorder, overdose prevention and naloxone distribution, fentanyl test strips and other harm reduction supplies, wound assessment and first aid, HIV and hepatitis C screening, behavioral health and peer support, case management, transportation and benefit assistance, housing referrals, and connections to ongoing treatment and recovery services. The proposal is specifically designed to reach individuals who face barriers in accessing traditional fix site services including people experiencing homelessness people with limited mobility or access to transportation those who are not currently engaged in treatment. The committee recognizes that Lewiston is currently engaged in a broader community discussion regarding syringe service programs and that a referendum concerning the city's SSP ordinance will be decided by voters in November. The committee also recognizes that the outcome of the referendum may affect whether syringe service activities can be provided from a mobile unit. However, the public health committee believes that the value of this proposed mobile recovery unit extends far beyond syringe services. If the referendum ultimately prohibits mobile syringe service activities the remaining services proposed by Spurwink would continue to provide substantial public benefit health benefit to the Lewiston Auburn community. Individuals would still have access through the mobile unit to overdose prevention, naloxone, fentanyl test strips, wound care, infectious disease screening, and connections to same-day medication for opioid use disorder, peer recovery support, behavioral health services, case management, housing navigation, and to other community resources. For these reasons, the city's investment in the mobile unit should not be viewed as an investment contingent on the ability to provide mobile syringe services. It is an investment in bringing recovery, treatment, prevention, and harm reduction resources directly to the community and removing some of the geographic, transportation, stigma, and other barriers that prevent people from accessing care. This distinction is important. Public health policy should be evaluated based on the totality of services and outcomes to a program that a program can provide, rather than reducing a comprehensive community-based recovery model to a single component of that model. There's a little bit more, but I've taken a few minutes to read that. So the position of the Public Health Committee is that it does recommend to the council to support the unit. Thank [50:27] Carl L. Sheline: Council Herman, and recognizing that we're going to try to wrap things up to get to our next meeting. Council Herman. [50:34] Scott A. Harriman: Thank you all for being here. I really appreciate what you do for our community and for the people in need. I'm definitely in favor. Basically, I was at the same place as the Public Health Committee. There are so many other services that you provide that are not just the syringe service program, and I think that expanding those to a mobile unit would be very helpful to our community. I see a lot of people just around town. I don't see all the ones who are probably living in the woods and in other places, but there are, there are certainly a lot of people in need, and I would definitely support this proposal. So thanks again, that's all. Roy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for [51:22] Chrissy Noble: COMING. UM, I APPRECIATE EVERYTHING THAT YOU'VE DONE FOR THE COMMUNITY. THE WORK THAT YOU DO IS VERY VALUABLE, AND I REALLY APPRECIATE THE CHANCE THAT YOU WOULD BE GIVEN TO REACH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. I THINK THAT'S VERY IMPORTANT, SO THANK YOU, AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. COUNCILOR CHIDDOM, [51:39] Bret Martel: DID I SEE YOUR HAND? YOU DID. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. AGAIN, I EXPRESS MY APPRECIATION AND THAT OF ALL THE COUNCILORS FOR YOUR BEING HERE AND FOR THE GOOD WORK THAT YOU DO. AS COUNCILOR MARTELL, Councilor Longchamps, and I think a couple others have pointed out, mobile needle exchange units are prohibited, as you pointed out, and I wish you would emphasize this. Needle exchange is a very small component of the many services that you provide to those in need in our community. I did not get the impression that Your proposal included a needle exchange in the mobile unit. Perhaps I skip that part, but I would ask you to submit your application, to submit the request formally for the council to vote on, to exclude needle exchanges until such time as a, the referendum has been resolved in November, and b, the next sitting council may have a chance to go back and re-examine the ordinance which prohibits mobile needle exchanges within Lewiston. Those are the laws, unfortunately, we're operating under today. So I would encourage you to submit your proposal eliminating that aspect of it if it is indeed included in the current proposal. I think this council would look very favorably on the mobile unit that provides all of the manifold services that's Berwyn provides, accepting the one small component of needle exchange. So I would encourage you to do that. Thank you. [53:10] Carl L. Sheline: Counselor Nagin, we are recognizing you again. The only thing I'd like to [53:15] David B. Chittim: bring up in this space is that we have three years of opioid recovery funds that have come into our, into our coffers, so to speak, and the discretionary funds that the council decides how to spend. I believe we're going to receive funding for the next 16 years, and that amount totals almost 16 million dollars. I would suggest that this council consider directing possibly the Community Development Department in conjunction with the LA, the LA PHC, to come up with a strategic plan on spending that money overall, instead of having these back-and-forths about what is fitting or what is appropriate. If we have a strategic plan that we say this is what we want to spend this money on and this is the impact that we want to make over a period of 16 years, there's guidelines for people to follow, and I think it would be helpful. So I just want to point that out to everybody. We can approach this from a, from a way that is strategic as opposed to one-offs here and there. Thank [54:22] Carl L. Sheline: you, and thank you three for being here. We are owned by your service. Have a wonderful evening. That concludes our workshop. We will attempt to start our city council meeting right at seven. Thank you. Hello, and good evening. Welcome to our Tuesday evening council meeting. We are joined here, we're going to kick things off, the pledge of allegiance as we always do, and we are joined by Cass and Mimi from out of town, tourists as it were, and they have graciously agreed to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please, I invite you all to join me in a round of applause for Cass and Mimi. We appreciate your service to our city. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. I believe we're ready to begin. Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. All roll call votes for this meeting will begin with the council of ward two and I understand we have minutes you do at the August fourth meeting. Yes, may I have a motion to accept the minutes? So moved. I'm saying by Councillor Nagy and Madam Clerk, please call the vote. Yes,. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. We're now at the public comment. Any member of the public may make comments regarding issues pertaining to Lewiston city government. This period is reserved for non agenda items. Public comment is also allowed during individual agenda items. Public comment is limited to three minutes per person. Please state your name for the record and please indicate if you're a Lewiston resident. Per our council rules, this period is reserved for Lewiston residents only because this is the business meeting of the City Council. All questions should be directed to the mayor who will ask staff to follow up at a future time. It is illegal for the City Council to allow comments related personnel matters. Our personnel complaint should be made directly to the City Administration office. Please [1:04:10] David B. Chittim: continue Ronnie Parity, ward six. I hope everybody gave somebody a compliment tonight before they came and everything and remember as voting starts not vote well voting and that we talk about issues instead of person personalities. I want to go to the mobile unit since we were not allowed during thing. I have to agree with Councillor Long Champs. I feel that it's true and with Brent and they could not answer Ward Sevens questions tonight. My questions are what are the police who's going to protect them when they go out into these camps quote-unquote. The police has enough work to do and they agree in with this mobile unit. We still haven't settled the violence in the shootings. I can see people trying to go after that mobile unit especially out in the middle of the woods or wherever they're going to be. That's given the police more work. Second of all, they did not say the reduction of how the reduction their harm reduction is supposed to be hepatitis B, C and HIV. They did not give that information and even though they go to practitioners they can get it online, they should have had that data ready for us tonight. And the questions that counselor was from seven ask, they did not know those questions, and it really bothered me that they did not know. So at this time I have to disagree with the mobile unit, and again I think we should wait to the election for the thing, and I'm saying this as a public health nurse, and I'm just looking at the city too and pay Bangor had to hire two case managers up mangler because of the HIV spread up there and the homeless. My brother who lives in Bangor said the homeless situation up there are on house is desperate and everything like that, and HIV is still around. So we got a higher some case managers to take care of these people that have HIV when we don't even know the numbers that thing. So harm reduction is all supposed to supposed to reduce HIV and hepatitis B and C, and that was not talked about in the thing. The other things they do are wonderful and they should not be doing the syringe exchanges and Van Gogh is still doing 100 syringes and they're still spreading HIV. Thank you Melissa [1:07:04] Unidentified speaker (Public commenter): Dunn community organizer homeowner on Blake Street in Lewiston. I've been dealing with a growing concern of not only seeing classism and racism and what it looks like through City Hall and police through community engagement projects disguised or as a guise of engagement and accountability when I am witness to and observe observation of civil and human rights, even searching vehicles without having the warrant in the person's name that the car belongs to, if I said that right. Anyway what's resulted in I'm about 14 15 Lewiston mean police department officers that have stalked and cyber stalked me, some family members too who are on the panel, even just for observing a community. And the most recent was when a van was pulled over on the end of opposite of the root cellar that half section on Pier Street, even one man had a nazi tattoo on his back and sitting on the sidewalk, but my number one concern was that people knew their rights when being engaged by police or stopped in Frist or their car searched. And so anyway they were hooting and hollering celebrating me and told me to keep doing what I was doing, but Dalton Wing and Joe Dighton Lewiston police have me on their personal devices either recording or [1:08:43] Carl L. Sheline: taking. If there's personnel complaints you need to address them to [1:08:46] Unidentified speaker (Public commenter): Administration, and you cannot use names here. That's okay, I just did. But anyway, I told the, I didn't acknowledge the Nazis leaving in the van because I don't entertain them. But I think it's, there's a growing concern that in my amendment rights to observe police or even record free from degradation, abuse, stalking, cyber stalking, harassment, terrorizing, menace, and even much worse. I'm concerned for people that might speak against the city of Lewiston or city administration or, you know, elected officials or police. When we have concerns, what we want is trained officers on the streets. When they're engaging people that are in their survival, that when they're told that their way to survive isn't the right way, but they're still alive, they're still alive, that's the right way. I don't condone things like selling substances or using or things like that, but I will support somebody in community who is in that struggle. It's a whole different approach. So I see this as the white supremacy mating calls for the national guard just redisguised in community engagement project and community ambassador. Stop [1:10:04] Carl L. Sheline: trying to kill us. Thank you. Further public comment. Hello [1:10:12] John Horton: John Horton from Ward 2. I'm here to speak against the manufactured home park rent stabilization. As you all know, I'll start with a quote from Ronald Reagan, my favorite right now, the nine scariest words in the English language are, I'm from the government, I'm here to help. Well, the intent and everything was good with this ordinance. It does not work. The simplest explanation in the world is if you've got a bucket and you've got a six-inch pipe on one side, a six-inch pipe on the other, and you change the inflow to a four-inch pipe, sooner or later that bucket's empty. That's what's going to happen. And when you look at the numbers, some of the counselors have this because I've sent it to them. We did 2026 to 2027 quick analysis showing current and next base charges. I'm just talking taxes, water, sewer, electric, grounds care, trash removal, very basic, not including anything special at all. A storm hits or a pipe breaks in the ground or anything and we're four dollars and thirty one cents in the hole per lot on every single lot in the park based on that, the regular rate. I didn't use the modified Increase because we're below market. I use the standard rate. I did that on purpose to show what all the parks in the place have a potential of seeing. These things compound. It's not simple. You're using a simple CPI number with a compounded interest on top of it basically and expecting the parks to survive. If they do survive under the ordinance, every three years you might have small increase, small increase. That third year you're gonna have us all coming in saying I need a big one to make up for it. And you're right back to where you're started. A problem with the increase getting hit big instead of small. You know this is a problem. You know on top of that you've got the state doing all kinds of things on mobile home parks right now. They just bagged the manufacturing housing board and they're moving in into main office of community affairs using their own little website they put up. We're asking for 502 is the target according to the housing committee for the normal rate, the current rate. Published today for all of Anders Coggan County is 523 per lot. You don't have a problem in Lewiston. Your average in Lewiston is 502. That's why you went for that. You're below the average in the city with the higher taxes, the higher water and sewer costs. There isn't a problem here. Look at the numbers, look at the facts and you should understand the parks have been good. People like me, the eight other parks that are owned by. [1:13:12] Carl L. Sheline: Local. That's time. Thank you. Are not the conglomerate California. Thank you. Further public comment. My. [1:13:22] Chris Roy: Name is Chris Roy. I'm John's business partner. I'm going to continue with what John was discussing, the fact that the targeted rate in Lewiston is 502 or 503 whereas the average in Androscoggin County is 523. It seems to me this ordinance is a solution in search of a problem. But one of the things that the one of the problems that this ordinance would create as John indicated is that you're going to restrict the inflows. Now historically we've been very cautious with our rental increases over the. Years, in fact we own parks that have the lowest lots lot rents in the community. However, there are times when you need to increase your lot rents more in order to keep up with expenses. As John indicated, just the normal operating expenses we're not going to be able to keep up with under the standard increases with the ordinance. That said, what's going to happen is that we're going to have to cut reserve funding. So you're going to end up with a situation where the parks can't fund the reserves that are needed to properly maintain infrastructure, paving, water and sewer lines, electrical lines, cutting back brush and trees as necessary. These are the things that's going to, that are going to affect the quality of life for those people living in the mobile home parks. The other thing I want to mention, and I think I alluded to this in the last council meeting, was that the lot rent increases are only one of the increases that people in the mobile home parks may be facing. And if they're facing a $50 a lot rent increase versus a $20 a lot rent increase, I would say that probably pales in comparison to what they've seen an increase in groceries for instance in recent years, or the cost of fuel, or the cost of health care. So you're targeting one aspect of their personal budget. What you can end up doing is affecting people like John and I, whose livelihood is derived from the rental properties that we own, two of which are these mobile home communities. If you cut our income to subsidize somebody else, this is a targeted charity that's using the authority of the council to force one small group of people subsidize the budgetary concerns of people that are, they're not related to me. That's morally and ethically wrong, and I think what you're going to see, as John mentioned, is that you're going to see small increases, and then the owners are going to have to come to the city every three years and request a larger increase, so like John said, you're right back to square one. Further [1:16:25] Carl L. Sheline: further public comment. If we can silence our cell phones, that'd be great. Good [1:16:42] Destiny: evening, my name is Destiny. I'm from Wyndham, but I'm a Lewiston shooting survivor. Like many people in this community, the Lewiston shooting on October 25th, 2023 changed my life forever. 18 innocent people lost their lives, many others were injured, and survivors and families continue to carry the trauma of that day every single day. After everything this community endured, many residents expected our leaders to make public safety, accountability, and preventing another tragedy the highest priorities Instead, we have watched Mayor Carl Chalene devote significant time and energy to opposing federal immigration enforcement efforts and supporting policies that many residents believe make cooperation with federal authorities more difficult. The lessons of October 25th should have pushed all of us to focus relentlessly on public safety, communication between agencies, accountability, and doing everything possible to prevent another tragedy. This is not about politics, political parties, it's not about any of that, it's about priorities, mayor. Serious QUESTIONS STILL REMAIN REGARDING YOUR ROLE AS A BOARD MEMBER OF THE MAIN MILL AND WHETHER THAT RELATIONSHIP CREATED A CONFLICT OF INTEREST AFTER $65,521.79 WAS DIRECTED TO THAT NONPROFIT. ON JUNE 30TH, I ISSUED AN INVOICE TO THE MAIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR THE REMAINING 1.9 MILLION THAT I BELIEVE IS STILL OWED TO THE LOOSE AND SHOOTING SURVIVORS. I also wanted to hand deliver you a copy, mayor. I included avoided check should you wish to arrange those funds to be deposited directly into the account. If you need the amount, it's on my shirt. Lewiston deserves leadership that puts the safety of residents first, listens to survivors and families, and works to rebuild trust within our community. We owe that to 18 people who never came home, INTO EVERY SURVIVOR WHOSE LIFE WAS CHANGED FOREVER ON OCTOBER 25th 2023. THANK YOU. HI [1:19:08] Chrissy Noble: MY NAME IS DARREN GALANCE. I'M A CANDIDATE FOR THE FULL MEMBER FOR THE [1:19:13] Carl L. Sheline: PLANNING BOARD I CURRENTLY SERVE. WE ARE, I MIGHT HAVE MISLED YOU, 'RE YOU WILL, SO THIS IS PUBLIC COMMENT, BUT SINCE YOU'RE AN AGENDA ITEM YOU CAN SPEAK DURING THAT AGENDA ITEM. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE CONFUSION. GOOD [1:19:32] Christine Holden: EVENING CHRISTINE hold in Ward one. A couple of nice things, a lot of sidewalks and roads that were in pretty bad shape have been paved recently. It's looking very good, but I do have a couple of concerns. One, I'm apologize, maybe the city administrator will be speaking to this, but I would like to suggest that given the recent delivery of the new carts that the city consider some kind of review after a month of use. There's a lot of concern and confusion already. I've experienced it in calling both Public Works and Casella. So have other neighbors. So please, I know it took a lot of work to get this going, but could we please at least have an early evaluation before people get really upset and start doing strange things? I'm not threatening to do anything. I'm just saying I've heard rumblings. Okay, the second thing I want to address is somewhat more serious, and that's the incredible dangerous usage of two-wheeled electric vehicles, whether they are scooters, e-bikes, or whatever. I can always say, but one day last week I was coming down Bartlett Street and crossing Sabata's to go up College. And a gentleman who was probably in his middle age, let's say 40s, was coming down Sabata Street, crossed right in front of me when I had the green light, and stayed on the left side of College Street up to Holland. When he turned left, of course, without signaling, he was going extremely fast. And by the time I went past to turn left on Elm and stopped at the stop sign on Elm and Oak, he was whizzing past me. He was paying no reward to any of the rules of the road. We all know that small children and those new to biking occasionally ride on the sidewalk. Very occasionally, they may ride on the wrong side of the street, though that's not recommended. But an adult speeding along faster than my car was going, crossing traffic with a green light, and being on the wrong side of the road is only one of many such things. I hope we can address that as another aspect of public safety. [1:22:10] Carl L. Sheline: Excuse me, sir. I recognize you. And, you know, we try to give people the benefit of the doubt around here. But if you can just make sure that your comments pertain to City of Lewiston business, that would be great. [1:22:23] Nathan Pearl: I would say the same thing I have said before. Nathan Pearl from Lewiston, born and raised. Our country has been capable of building skyscrapers since 1885, for 141 years now, yet we're allowing 800,000 plus citizens to suffer unhoused. And that does affect our locality no matter what. Further [1:22:51] Carl L. Sheline: public comment. Hi. [1:22:59] Unidentified speaker (Public commenter): I guess there's been a lot going on over the past couple of weeks, that's for sure. If I can get you to thank you, thank you, sorry. Kim from Ward two, please continue. Thank you. A couple of friends, and you know, a friend of mine got hurt lingering outside of a store. I guess it's, it's like a new safety concern that a couple people are talking about. They're wondering about stores being open till midnight, and it just seems like that's when a lot of the chaos tends to happen. Just a thought to think of. This person was hurt pretty bad. They were hospitalized. Nothing really came out of it. So I've been just wondering, you know, what's going on in the homeless community, what's going on with the shelter. I've been getting real frustrated because I'm like, why are they not having turnover? Why do people keep saying there's no room? So I got to know them a little bit, and it turns out they're under construction. They have 40 beds on Horton Street, and they're in the process of something or other, protocols paperwork, ordinances, requirements, and things of that nature. So I'd really like to see that speed along. I don't know where they're at in the situation. I also heard about the Methodist Calvary Church. They've been doing meals, a meal program for people for quite a while. Big concern is that they're shutting their doors. They just don't have the funding, and I guess they apply for grants every year, and they just, they're not getting one. So I don't know if there's a way to push that along at all. I find that getting to know people that work with people in the homeless community or substance use people, that there's a lot of stuff that's not really true that I initially thought might have been. So I just been out there asking questions, getting some answers, and basically a lot of people are just falling through the cracks. They're waiting on housing. There, they can't get into a drug program. They may have some mental health issues. They don't have case management and all this and that. And I think that's what the shelters would be doing more of if we had a bit of a higher turnover. So I don't know what the solution is for that for people, but it's definitely something, you know, I'd like the city of Lewiston to think about. Is there any other way we could push that along for them? Can we make sure that our meal assistance programs stay running, take a second look at their funding. People that are out in the community, such as myself, I've delivered first aid to people that were having pretty significant issues, offered rides, given food and water. And according to the people that I've met, there's a lot of people out there that do that. They're taking the overflow from what the shelters and the crisis places can't help with, and they're getting some flack for it, including me. And I don't want to make my neighbors mad. I don't have people lingering, but I just want to do the best that i can to see if there is anything the city can do to assist with funding and grants to make things easier for those that are out there and also just ask the public in general please be patient with those of us that are willing to hand out closed food and first aid we're not having anybody lingering we're doing it that's time thanks have a good night matthew agren ward 4. i'm hoping to hear very soon how the new plan for the full reorganization of the third floor is going to go with code planning and economic development into one fully integrated organization it's been months since it's been proposed i'm hoping we'll hear more about it tonight but what i really want to talk about is public safety i've had a couple really interesting conversations with people in town some people about why they don't come down to these meetings things, because they just don't feel safe down here. They question why I feel safe to come down here. And I'll be honest, I say, because I'm a larger gentleman and, you know, people don't really bother me. But I understand how somebody who's older might not want to come down here. They don't feel safe. Because you have the news that publishes every incident that happens downtown you have social media which magnifies everything that happens downtown our police department is doing amazing work look at the their clearance rate of cases is above national average but they're down 12 officers maybe 13 depending on if the officer got injured in the car accident how long can we keep this pace up we need to get public people aren't going to COME DOWNTOWN PEOPLE AREN'T GOING TO COME INTO LOUISTON IF THEY DON'T FEEL SAFE HERE WE'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE GROWTH WE'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE DEVELOPMENT WE'RE GOING TO LOSE THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO ALL OF US WE NEED THAT PUBLIC SAFETY [1:28:05] Carl L. Sheline: FOR THE PUBLIC COMMENT PUBLIC COMMENT IS NOW DO YOU HAVE PUBLIC COMMENT OKAY ANYONE ELSE HAS PUBLIC COMMENT PLEASE LINE UP SO WE CAN MOVE THROUGH PUBLIC COMMENT oh you are okay if we can make it so you can both stand in front and then both hear both through the microphone [1:29:14] Unidentified speaker (Public commenter): Leave my house. My car was in a parking lot close to my house, and there was no construction happening on the street. They gave me a ticket and they tow it. Usually, I'm careful around wintertime because of the snowstorm removal. There was no snowstorm and there was no construction happening, so I didn't think my car was going to get towed. That's my problem, and I would like for you guys to do something about it. Okay, thank you. Thank [1:30:22] Carl L. Sheline: you. Deputy Administrator, can you please hand her my card if she can? Please email [1:30:32] Unidentified speaker (Public commenter): email me or with your help. Thank you. [1:30:40] Carl L. Sheline: For the public comments, public comment is now closed. Administrator Kainrath, I understand you have a report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [1:30:51] Bryan Kaenrath: appreciate it first quick update on cards a curb because so has now nearly finished delivering all 22,000 trash or a slightly in carts in time from new service to start the week of August 24th they appreciate everyone's patients throughout the process if anyone did not receive a car or they have the incorrect carts they're encouraged to please contact casella the direct number is 207-518-8653 or email or if you need assistance contacting them please call city hall we can help set that up for you. So again, August 24th new server starts. If you had any trouble with your cards, please get in touch with Casella, or you can contact City Hall and we'll help arrange those communications for you. Thank you to everyone who showed up last week for the kickoff of the new community ambassadors program. We now have over 40 people signed up to be part of this effort. We really appreciate everyone's passion and optimism, and we hope this can be a model for harnessing community spirit and volunteerism into action for the City of Lewiston to better our community. So thank you to everyone who was there last week. Don't forget this weekend coming up is the 2026 Balloon Festival, August 21st to 23rd at Samar Payne Park. For a full schedule, please visit laballoonfestival.org. Again, should be a great event. Weather looks promising at least through the first half of the weekend. We'll see how it goes. Weather is obviously very important for launching balloons, but again everyone please come down this weekend to Samar Payne Park a great event, our largest event for the city of Lewiston. Staff achievements and milestones I want to recognize. This is, this is a big one to recognize. I want to congratulate Elaine Brackett, who is our director of social services, for now 40 years of service with the city of Lewiston. Four decades of public service represents far more than a milestone. Reflects a more remarkable commitment to the city, its employees, and our community. She has served throughout her career. Elaine as of this November is also marking her seventh year as director of the department. Her experience is deep and wide, and she's a leader in her field, and we just want to recognize Elaine for a remarkable 40 years of service to the city of Lewiston. So we thank Elaine for all of her years. We congratulate her and hopefully get at least a few more out of Elaine and her time here, but we will see how long she wants to stick around. But again, Elaine, thank you so much and I appreciate your 40 years. The Business and Opportunity Loan Program from the economic development department is again launching. New and existing Lewiston businesses may be eligible for financial assistance. For profit, for-profit businesses may apply for a loan of up to $50,000 or a competitive grant up to $40,000. The businesses must be located in the city of Lewiston, employ fewer than 100 people, and be in good standing. Home-based businesses including childcare providers, bookkeepers, home bakeries, marketing professionals. Or other professional services may also qualify. Funding may be used for working capital, rent, payroll, utilities, equipment, inventory, marketing, professional services, or code-related improvements that are necessary. To request an application or to learn more, please contact our Economic Development Department, or you can email ecdgrantprogram at lewistonmaine.gov. We had a really successful last year, really supported some great new startup businesses in the city, so we're looking forward to this year and continuing growth growing small businesses throughout our city 1820 spirits is receiving an award i want to congratulate local business 1820 spirits who has been recognized by its international parent company sazerac as the 2026 eh taylor plant of the year the prestigious company-wide award honors exceptional performance in quality safety employee engagement service cost management and Innovation. The recognition reflects the dedication and pride of the employees at the company's 21 Saratoga Street facility. Employees and their families will celebrate the achievement on Labor Day, Monday, September 7th, with a banner unveiling at their location. So congratulations to them. We appreciate them being in the city of Lewiston. Lastly, I just want to extend a reminder, Councilor Martel and I will be co-hosting my next meet and greet. It will be at the new and revamped clarion hotel and conference center 490 pleasant street on august 20th 5 to 6 30 p.m please come down and share any of your thoughts concerns questions or anything else you'd like to share with us and again i'm hoping to hold one of these with all the counselors and their awards coming up thank you very much thank you [1:35:29] Carl L. Sheline: Administrator Kenrath, we appreciate your service to our city, and you know, Deputy Administrator or Malley Welsh, appreciate your service to our city. So thank you. Madam Clerk, we have a consent agenda. I understand we do. There are five items on the consent agenda this evening. Item number one, authorization to accept transfer of forfeiture funds. Number two, amendment to the traffic schedule to add two hour parking on a portion of Bates Street. Number three, order authorizing execution of waiving the utility lien foreclosure on certain distressed structures on leased land. Number four, order authorizing the application and acceptance of funds from the Main Bureau of Highway Safety. And number five, order calling for a public hearing for the proposed city charter amendments. I have a motion. Please so moved, Councillor Chittim, second by Councillor Najee. And Madam Clerk, please call the vote. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. And just like that, item number six. Number six, appointment to the Planning Board. Requested action to confirm the mayor's nomination and to appoint the following resident as a member of the Planning Board, Darren Gallant, 40 Benson Street, term to expire January 2nd, 2029. Have a motion. Please so moved, Councillor Chittim, second by Councillor Nagine. I just want to kick things off. Really appreciate Darren serving on the, what is the title of that position? Yes, you know, the associate. Thank you. Yes, I really appreciate you serving as associate member, working hard here to move him to a full member position that opened up. Questions, comments from the council, public, or Councillor Chittim? Yes. [1:37:22] Bret Martel: I'd like to thank Mr. Gallant for being present. That's not often the case with appointees, and for being willing to speak earlier even though it was aborted. Thank you. [1:37:34] Carl L. Sheline: Thank you, counselor. Yes, as previously noted, he is in attendance. Public comment for this agenda item. Hi. [1:37:51] Chrissy Noble: Darren Gallant, I'm a homeowner in Ward One and associate member of the Planning Board. Currently really enjoy the work. I would really be honored to continue to serve in the Planning Board as a full member. I'm really focused on keeping a future focus city that's considering the safety and future growth of the city. I moved to the city and thought, wow, there's so many opportunities here. I know we have our challenges, but I think through some conscientious planning and future focus work we can continue to take advantage of the many opportunities here. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Look forward to working with you all further. [1:38:26] Carl L. Sheline: Public comment back to the council. Madam Clerk, please call the vote. Councilor from word 2? Yes. Word 3? Yes. Word 4? Yes. Word 5? Yes. Word 6? Yes. Word 7? Yes. Word 1? Yes. Motion passed by vote of 7 to 0. Thank you very much. Item number 7. Item number 7. Public hearing regarding the Lewiston Falls hydroelectric project federal energy regulatory commission relicensing. Requested action to conduct a public hearing to receive input from the public regarding the proposed relicensing of the Lewiston Falls hydroelectric project. Public hearing is now open. Director Connor, I understand, did you bring a friend, Director Gagne as well? I did. We're here tonight too. Could we just have you just move to the table? I think that'll just be easier. Sorry, I should have prepped you guys. I take, I take full responsibility for this delay. If you can both introduce yourselves and kick us off, thank you. [1:39:28] Kevin Gagne: Good evening, Kevin Gagne, Director, Lewiston Public Works. [1:39:31] John Connor: And I'm John Connor, Director of Planning and Code Enforcement. So we provided our packet last week to you guys. It's got a wealth of information in there. We heard back from the state, from the EA. We received that. And we have until Monday to submit all of our rebuttals and further comments. This is our last bite at the apple. But obviously staff needs to prepare all that and submit it by Thursday of this week, so we are kind of on a time clock here. The whole purpose of this meeting tonight is to get City Council's comments, open it up to the public, get as many of the public comments as we can. We'll act as a, I'm acting as a scribe tonight to write down all of the comments that you guys have. Director Gagne is well versed in the FERC relicensing, so he can answer any questions that you or the public may have. But our goal is to have something concrete that we can submit back to the relicensing agency by Thursday. Excellent. [1:40:39] Carl L. Sheline: Thank you very much. Dr. Gagne, is there anything you'd like to say? [1:40:43] Kevin Gagne: Thanks for having the conversation. I think this, to reiterate the lifecycle on these permits, we need to act now, and we've had a lot of input, but it's a 40 year cycle, so we need, we need to make sure that we really raise our voice one last time and get in there what we'd like. Thanks. [1:41:05] Carl L. Sheline: Questions, comments from the council? Councillor Nagine? Yes, so the way this all [1:41:11] David B. Chittim: breaks down, we have the request that we put forward originally, and then it on the front of the document it gives us kind of some guidelines over what is pending. But I guess like the questions that I have specifically on the signage, the access to the river, the improvements for Lewiston side, for the portages, including on deer rips, which 18 year old just died out there due to the conditions that are out there, and also the amount of water that's flowing through the canals, which ice, if I'm, if I'm correct, we still hold two FERC [1:42:04] Kevin Gagne: licenses in the canals. Is that correct? We do have FERC license, we're trying to get out of those because we no longer are purchasing, we no longer are manufacturing power, so those FERC licenses are for power generation, which we cannot do. When we say we cannot do, why? So we have, we have limits on the amount of water coming through the canals, and it's part of when we purchased the canals, so from Brookfield, right, that's the 50 cubic feet per second per second. [1:42:40] David B. Chittim: Right, so you're saying that we're attempting to allow FERC licensing to expire because the dam owner won't give us enough water to run our own FERC licenses in order to generate our own electricity based on the system that we [1:42:57] Kevin Gagne: built I'm just checking that is the crux of it through the years of different negotiations to procure it our land our water rights were given up for power generation and that was not part of any administration or council that was here but we are limited to non-generation flows for aesthetics or for recreational use if there were to be recreational use or other uses on the canal and that's based on the current FERC licensing and not that is that is for our purchase and sale agreement that we secured. Interesting. [1:43:38] David B. Chittim: the reason why i'm asking those questions specifically i you know when we're talking about the data center the fact that we were going to look at providing a tiff in order to buy power from a spanish energy conglomerate brookfield is a multinational power company i don't know that i 'm just bothered by that but i guess if that's nothing we can move in the first licensing [1:44:06] Kevin Gagne: So we have brought this up during the last several years and iterations that this is the culmination of our input over the last five years. We have said we want the canals included. We want the portages included. We want the signages included because, you know, just because it's on the Auburn side of the river doesn't mean there isn't use and valid benefit on the Lewiston side. And they keep coming back to it's out of the project area, so they've reduced the project area to actually to the, to the dam and immediate to that. So our canals are now private, are publicly owned by us and outside of the project area, and yet Durham somehow falls into the, so it's still outside of this permitting cycle is my understanding. So those are already launches that are already in there, they're, they're what they're providing for public service as part of having the dams up and down [1:45:12] David B. Chittim: the stream. So okay, my personal opinion, I think that we should push back on both the signage pieces, the access or egress around Brookfield's dam in order to ever possibly see some type of river walk. I do believe that improvements around how do you portage currently around [1:45:39] Kevin Gagne: around the Brookfield dam on the Lewiston side, it's not on the Lewiston side, it's on the Auburn [1:45:44] David B. Chittim: side that's established so that means for instance when the iron man used to run here which at one point in time had i think a thousand people per they would they would run the canoes down West Bates Street right like that 's literally what they did what I'm talking about is basically if all of the activity is going to happen on the Auburn side and all of the improvement happens on the Auburn side what is the benefit to Lewiston having this structure in the middle of our River right so I would I would also suggest that we push pushback on both the portage at Deer Rips Dam and the portage for the Brookfield Dam at Great Falls. Those would be my suggestions. I don't know if anybody else has any. [1:46:41] Carl L. Sheline: THANK YOU, COUNSELOR. YEAH, I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING COUNSELOR NAGIN JUST SAID. AND DIRECTOR GANIER, IF I'M UNDERSTANDING CORRECTLY, THEY JUST DREW, YOU'RE SAYING THEY JUST DREW [1:46:51] Kevin Gagne: the circle smaller, correct, is that what you're saying, correct? And we've, we've heard from several, colleagues in the industry that have been doing this a lot longer than I have, you know, our previous generation, and they over the last each permit cycle they've narrowed this one down to where it's very immediate to the dam. Sneaky. All right, thank you. Councilman Herman. [1:47:19] Scott A. Harriman: Thank you. I don't have any specific suggestions, but I would just encourage you to push for as much as you can for public accommodations. I mean, essentially, we have a public resource, the river, that's basically owned by everyone in the state of Maine that's been taken for private use and private profit by a for-profit corporation. And they block fish passage. They block the passage of boaters. We don't have flows, water flowing over the falls as much as they, as much as it should be, and I just think for that, for that benefit that they're gaining in income, they should provide as much as basically as much as we ask for in public accommodations. [1:48:12] Bret Martel: Councilor Chittim. Yes. Thank you. This is a stretch here and it is coming at the 11th hour but we have recently received word from the DEP in the main legislature that the water quality in Ennis Gargan River will not be upgraded from C to B I believe part of that is because of the impoundment upstream of the dam and I'm wondering if there's anything that FERC can do to increase oxygenation aeration something to allow DEP and our legislators to consider upgrading the river to the class b standard that it should be [1:48:49] Carl L. Sheline: Councilman Aging, and just to follow up on that. [1:48:52] David B. Chittim: From what I understand, Brookfield refuses to test the quality of the water from [1:49:01] Kevin Gagne: the dam as well, right? Is that something that I'm not going to, I am not aware, I'm not up to speed on the water quality of what's in this agreement or what they're willing to do. In the past, the Androscoggin River Water Alliance, you know, we sampled all the way up and down and it was a full partnership with all municipalities as well as some of the pulp and paper and I believe Brookfield participated, but that was 25 years ago, so I'm not sure. [1:49:26] David B. Chittim: So one of the things I would just mention really quickly, the Lowell Street Lofts, when that project goes into place, right now Lowell Street from what I understand does not have runoff containment, that water actually runs directly into the dam, into the [1:49:45] Kevin Gagne: backfill of the dam. Is that correct? I believe most areas along the river are flowing directly and that's, that's something that it was in the design of previous developments, it was all beat the peak on a spring flood or some flood conditions, so it was more of a hydraulic issue than a water quality issue. So look, I believe you're right. So looking at the elevation [1:50:13] David B. Chittim: aspects of Lowell Street, right? So I run to the exact same situation at the end of Riverside Street. Water pushes down Riverside Street until it hits Riverside Cemetery at a pretty exponential rate, which causes some of the erosion that Riverside Cemetery currently experiences. Can we ask for a OC container or some type of water diversion along long the retaining system to keep all of the water from dumping directly into the river, into the backfill of the dam? Though I would, I would request that, I mean, I would rather see us getting egress through there because I think that's more important, but I'll take both if we can get or either. So we're [1:51:00] Carl L. Sheline: not having a public comment for this agenda item, Matt. [1:51:05] Michael R. Roy: Roy Ward, six, Mayor and Council. Yes, Council Children. Yes, this is ridiculous. As Councillor Jean pointed out at last December when you for the AI data center, I sent an email to original East Council Harriman and then January to both Council Harriman and Jean. At that time we knew then in January through the emails provided from both councils from Deputy Director Norton that the two current licenses were going to be merged as one to have one unified process and then here we are nearly eight months Later, and we're just going to have a public hearing on the future, a 40-year future, days before it is due again. This is malpractice of governance, if there's ever such a thing, although lately, in the last numerous years, that list seems to not get shorter but longer again. And of course, my original question was exactly to the point Councillor Nejean made, and because of the proposed, the then proposed TIFF, but as the circle keeps on getting smaller, there is a argument that as Councillor, I believe my interpretation of what Councillor Harriman was stating, that it is a public asset, FERC, you could make the argument that FERC is outside the Article I, Section 8, enumerated powers given to Congress, i.e., the federal government, that only really relate to wildlife. Well, I guess there is a fishery aspect, but that's been getting smaller and smaller. Of course, then there is the irony when a certain Prime Minister of Canada was not busy being a central banker on either side of the pond was the head of Brookfield. Thank you, a [1:53:05] Carl L. Sheline: further public comment, Christine [1:53:12] Christine Holden: Holden, Ward 2. I'd like to note that this is a very complicated material, and as Mr. Royce just said, there's, it's not exactly new news, it's historical. I did want to make a comment about the access for public recreation, and unfortunately, carrying my computer over here, it's gone back on pages, but I was going to refer to a letter which was sent by Shelley Norton to the FERC secretary. There are, there no page numbers on these letters, and which is makes it a little difficult, so I'm going by the count that shows up on the computer. This is pages 106, 107 of the today's agenda items, and I would like to say that the access and recreation to the river really is important. I say that as somebody who chose to buy a house very near there, as a member of the board of Riverside Cemetery, and somebody who's very well aware of the appreciation of people for access to the water, to the greenery, and all that provides, and specifically in the section of that letter that is mitigation requests, there are the illustrations of what was on the comprehensive plan, which I remember many of us looked at in Callahan Hall some two or three years ago. Having access under Longley Bridge to the main part of what is going to be, what we're calling the island, is really also important. The more people can get close to the river and see its potential, the more they appreciate it. I hope we can do something, and I do appreciate the time constraints for the department, but again, I wish it [1:55:04] Carl L. Sheline: were not so tight. Thank you. Further public comment. Back to the council. Dr. Gagne, it's my understanding that we've had many bites of the apple here in terms of public feedback, or am I not remembering correctly? I [1:55:26] Kevin Gagne: think Director Khan has some more information, but yes, we brought this several times. When I was acting with Acting Deputy Director Norton, we brought this forward several years ago, and each time there's been an update or an opportunity, we brought it forward. I think we've also put out some of the FERC public hearings that were held locally at the Hampton Inn, an opportunity for the public to come, and we sent out those messages through our social media, our web page, and things like that. So really want the voice of all the Lewiston residents and visitors to be able to be heard and I think we 've tried to make that known given all those opportunities they appreciate [1:56:10] Carl L. Sheline: you coming back tonight to give us one last chance to chime in councillor Nagin back to you Thank You mr. mayor I would also point out that [1:56:20] David B. Chittim: the Berkeley licensing process is overly complex, opaque, and actually does not care about community feedback in any way, shape, or form. That's not the process that this is set up for. I, you know, I showed up at the Hampton and spoken to a microphone that I guarantee you know what he has listened to, and I'm sure it's filed away somewhere, but it is what it is. One of the points that was interesting, if we, if we're unable to get any type of concession around, and I understand the footprint that we're talking about of the project, but if we're unable to get any type of concession whatsoever around access on the Lewiston side of the river, around those dams, then I would highly suggest that we pressure to get an underpass under our bridge, under the Longley Bridge. I mean, these are small amounts of dollars for this humongous corporation, and you know, I understand some of the concerns around immediate access to the, to the dam space because of some of the damages that have occurred, things like that. You still need to make it safe for people to navigate those spaces, but if we can't move them in any way, shape, or form, yeah, I would highly suggest that we get an underpass on our side of the Longley Bridge, because that actually makes the area in front of the dam usable for people on foot, so if I could. [1:58:00] Kevin Gagne: So to follow up with that, we have looked at that engineering wise as part of a separate project and really tried to evaluate and get it done somewhat of what the Auburn side has, and just for the public information and for you all, the Auburn constructed it as an earthen embankment as a walkway down through and underneath their side of the Longlea Bridge. That volume was considered by DOT and we are not able to construct it in the same way because that volume would take away capacity under the. Bridge during a flood, so that basically created an instance where we need to make kind of a bridge, so we have it piers and we have an open space to be able to get flow underneath there, so that raised the price. So yeah, this was kind of queued up as a project several years ago when Director Brenchick was here, but we can follow up with that and update that and put some pressure on the dam owners. [1:59:03] David B. Chittim: Well aware during the review of the redundant water line, right, like that was part of the project, I remember that fully, but what I'm saying is we're not talking about spending our money, we're talking about Brookfield spending money in order to. [1:59:20] Kevin Gagne: Operate a dam in our community. Yep, we don't need to do research, we've done a design and a scope and a cost and we can bring that forward and present that to them and make it an ask. Yep, thank you for the comments, questions. [1:59:35] Carl L. Sheline: QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILORS. GENTLEMEN, OR COUNCILOR CHINNAM, DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING? YES, THANK YOU. A QUESTION. [1:59:42] Bret Martel: THE FINAL STATE WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION FERC MANDATE, IS THAT A FEDERAL COMPLETE? WILL THAT BE INCLUDED IN THE RELICENSING AS IT STANDS NOW? [1:59:53] John Connor: THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION. I DON'T, I HONESTLY DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT, COUNCILOR. [1:59:57] Bret Martel: THERE IS A MATRIX IN YOUR PACKET. RIGHT. AND IT DOES SAY, BECAUSE I WANTED TO MENTION THE releases it does say that it mandates 16 total aesthetic flow releases and I want to make certain that doesn't get lost correct that's. [2:00:11] John Connor: That's what we're currently at is the 16, right? We're working with our counterparts across the river to come up with some dates that work for both. We're trying to get some clarification on what constitutes an event, the balloon festival over three days, you know, if we want, you know, is that one event or is that three events? So that's what we're trying to push back on with what, you know, with the licensing as well as around the hours. Do we, if they, if they're gonna come back and say you only get the hours, we're gonna ask for the hours in the morning launch and in the evening launch and try to make it as most efficient as possible and get the maximum value out of it. So we don't [2:00:49] Bret Martel: actually know then whether the relicensing that will be issued is after the final public comment and after this process will contain those 16 mandated releases. So this is annually, not total over the 40 years, correct? Yeah, okay, we don't know [2:01:06] John Connor: whether those will be included at this point. We feel confident, I mean, the main came back and mandated the additional, so we feel confident that we'll get at least the 16. Okay, well that's [2:01:17] Bret Martel: my confusion is mandate versus, it sounds as though fur can do pretty much whatever it wants to do in THE 40 YEAR RELICENSING. SO OKAY, I JUST WANT TO MAKE CERTAIN WE DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF THAT. [2:01:29] David B. Chittim: UH COUNSELOR NAGINE, I JUST TO SPEAK TO THAT, WE HAD ASKED FOR 40 AESTHETIC FLOWS AND THE ORIGINAL ANSWER WAS FROM BROOKFIELD WAS FIVE, I THINK IT WAS WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT, BUT IT GOT PUSHED UP TO 16. I AM TOTALLY HAPPY WITH PUSHING AGAIN FOR 40, RIGHT, AND IF WE get that 40, we get that 40, but we've gotten 16 right now, so that's an improvement over five. [2:02:00] Carl L. Sheline: Yeah, I'm telling you to get us to at least 20. Further questions, comments from the council? And I'm, I'm thinking that you two are probably a heading home after this, so if there's something else that counselors think of, they can, they can email later on tonight and you can get it in the morning, and then if public who are not here want to email public comment at Lewiston main gov, that will get forwarded to these fine two gentlemen directors. Yes, thank you. Any, anything further from you two? [2:02:44] John Connor: Thank you very much to the council, mayor, and the public for all the input. We greatly appreciate it, and we'll, we'll diligently start putting all this together. Thank you very [2:02:54] David B. Chittim: Much or counselor and agent. Yes, sorry, I just want to say thank you both. I know this has been a process that's passed through a few different hands, and I know it's been difficult to move this forward. Thank you both, and City Planner Norton, it's, it's, I know it's not perfect, and it must feel very frustrating, but it's much appreciated. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. [2:03:17] Carl L. Sheline: Both, and yes, thank you, Planner Norton. Item number eight. Item number eight, amendments to the city's ethics policy manual number 94. Requested action, to approve the proposed amendments to the ethics policy, city policy manual number 94. I have a motion. Please. So moved, Councillor Nagine. Second by Councillor Longchamps. Discussion, or Councillor Martel. [2:03:45] Michael R. Roy: Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I might be mistaken, but I'm under the impression that this was supposed to be workshopped. Were we not, was that not the consensus? I see on the agenda that it says it was continued to the next meeting, but I was under the impression this was going to be scheduled for a workshop where we could sit and talk and work through this. Is that what we're intending to do right now and pass it, or let me rephrase that, I would like to make a motion to table this until we can have a workshop and bring it back at the next available date. Do we have a second for [2:04:18] Carl L. Sheline: this? Second. We have a second. Madam Clerk, did you get the motion on the floor? Yes, to table this to a future workshop. Okay, discussion on this motion from the council. Madam Clerk, please. [2:04:30] David B. Chittim: Counselor Managing, yes, when could we, based on the schedule, when could we see a workshop for [2:04:38] Bryan Kaenrath: this ethics piece? We'd have to go back and look at the schedule. It perhaps the next meeting, but we'd have to go back and check the schedule, see what's already on there for the work. Basically, the workshop slot is that 6 PM time frame, unless you can come a little bit earlier, we could maybe move [2:04:54] Carl L. Sheline: to 5:30, but depending on other business. Well, if I may, occasionally we've made a workshop like items just later on in the agenda, and in that case we would have more time. I would actually argue for that, because I fully expect this discussion to take longer than an [2:05:12] Joshua L. Nagine: HOUR COUNSELOR LONGCHAMPS THANK YOU I'M NOT IN FAVOR OF TABLING THIS. MY HOPES WERE THAT WE COULD HAVE DISCUSSION REGARDING THIS ETHICS POLICY CHANGES that our administrator took time to do, and we would have discussion, and then if there were lots of concerns or amendments, then we could move this to our next council meeting and share those amendments with our city administrator, is what i was hoping for. Thank you. Further comment or sorry, were you finished? [2:05:56] Carl L. Sheline: Councilor Longchamps? Yes. Okay. Yes, Councilor Harriman. [2:06:02] Scott A. Harriman: I would agree with moving it to either a workshop or an agenda item that's like a workshop. I feel like the number of changes being made are pretty significant. It's creating a brand new board, an appointed board in the city, and I feel like those are large enough changes, and I have some questions about some of the provisions of the of the ordinance as well, so I feel like a workshop would be helpful where we could go back and forth with staff possibly with legal counsel and get those questions answered. [2:06:36] Carl L. Sheline: thank you yes I've advocated for this to be a workshop from the beginning and support this motion. Are we councillor Martel did you have something? yeah thank [2:06:47] Michael R. Roy: you i was going to mirror some of the comments counselor harryman made, but also i don't see a particular sense of urgency to it to adopt this tonight or to run through this tonight or run through it partially tonight to potentially run through it again. i definitely think that city attorney should weigh in on this. we're creating another committee another board i don't know if it's permanent or but and i'm not looking to abandon the ethics policy. i Hold on. I'll get some notes here. Yeah, it's about the board. I just think there should be safeguards in place. We should clearly define the authority of the board. I think there's some confusion in the wording about, you know, this the city council is still going to have the final decision in the final vote. but we're we're also there's some wording where we're challenging the committee to make certain recommendations that the council doesn't have to follow those recommendations. i just think there's a lot to do here and i and again that 's hence asking for the workshop. thank you [2:07:52] Carl L. Sheline: i'm planning to take a vote but administrator ken rath you first. yeah just [2:07:59] Bryan Kaenrath: a quick note for the workshop we can invite the city attorney but just so everyone knows the city attorney has already reviewed this and is okay with all these proposed changes but we can [2:08:07] Carl L. Sheline: Invite him to the workshop for further discussion. I think that might be helpful because there's bound [2:08:12] Bret Martel: to be questions. Counselor Chittum? Yes, thank you. Yes, I'm not sure whether it's in order now since we're debating the motion of table, but I'd like to know the origin, what instigated this request for a change to the ethics policy. I'm, yeah, that's not in order right now. Thank you. We're [2:08:30] Carl L. Sheline: gonna get Mr., we're gonna stay on topic here. Counselor Name Gene, do you have something about [2:08:35] David B. Chittim: the motion to table? Yeah, I'm just going to speak briefly to the fact that the, if we do table this and then go through a workshop, which I'm not opposed to, but at the same time this has been put before us now two different council meetings where we were looking to put something in place based on a concern from one of the counselors that sits to the, well, the one that sits a meet to the immediate left of me, and I had reached out to all of the council just to say, please read through this policy indicate anything that you wanted to change. I realize this is a complex document, right, and I think that having somebody explain all of the ins and outs is valuable. It may be in the presentation format like a workshop, but I would say the biggest challenges that I've seen or concerns that I've heard or appointments and how appointments occur for the board, and then secondly, if you are shown to have a conflict of interest, asking somebody to leave the room when they're actually a citizen who can speak to any agenda item and also has the right to see their elected officials make decisions, doesn't make sense. I think we just need to kind of change those two pieces, or if I may interrupt her talking about the motion to table. Yeah, but what I'm saying is I don't think there's an enough here. Oh, I'm fine either way. Okay. [2:10:27] Carl L. Sheline: Madam Clerk, can you please read the motion and then call the vote? The motion before you is to table this item to a future workshop counselor from word to know word three Yes word for yes word five. Yes word six. Yes word seven. Yes One, yes. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We will administration get back to us. We're now Up to item number nine. I don't number nine, order approving the amended city fiscal year 27 federal fiscal year 2026 home budget and action plan for submittal to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Requested action to approve the order adopt, I'm sorry, to approve the order, I'm sorry, to adopt the order approving the amended city fiscal year 2027 federal fiscal year 2026 home budget and action plan for submittal to the u.s. Department of Housing and Urban Development. May have a motion please. Shall move counselor Chittum, second by counselor Martel. Manager Ruth, thank you for joining us, please kick us off. Thank you, Katherine Ruth, community [2:11:35] Unidentified speaker (Public commenter): development manager. Thank you to the mayor and the City Council for having this item on the agenda. I'll be very brief because you have seen the home budget before. Your package includes the budget for federal fiscal year 26, which is our fiscal year 27, for the period of July 1st 2026 through June 30th 2027. Home stands for the home investment partnerships program, which is funding for housing, which the city of Lewiston has been receiving since 2002, when it joined with the city of Auburn in order to have a large enough base to do so. In 2002, the city of Lewiston and Auburn formed the Auburn Lewiston consortium. You have a current agreement that was approved last year in 2025. The community development office brought in the proposed budget earlier this year in May, along with the regular budgets. Unfortunately, the grant agreements are coming through later in the years, as we've seen, and there is a slight change. The exact budget for federal fiscal year 26, or our fiscal year, is one million one hundred ninety five thousand three hundred seventy four dollars and four for the City of Lewiston. Over last year, that is an increase of $2,614.37, or 0.22 of a percent. So basically, 0.22 of 1%. So basically the same as last year. And as a subrecipient, where this is our only grant in which we are a subrecipient, we can't be reimbursed for any of our expenses for fiscal year 27 because we don't have a signed contract, which just came through to the city, so it's important to bring this to the council as soon as it was issued. We have a large payment coming up for choice dewitt project, in which we'll be providing 205 000 toward a two-bedroom unit as part of the agreement. Thank you. [2:13:49] Carl L. Sheline: Questions for manager Ruth? Public comment for this agenda item? Back to the council, please call the vote. Yes,. Thank you very much for Joining us this evening, item number 10. I don't ever tend order directing the city administrator to explore the disillusion of the Lewiston Auburn Railroad Company. Requested action to approve the order directing the city administrator to explore the disillusion of the Lewiston Auburn Railroad Company. [2:14:29] Bret Martel: Have a motion, please. Mr. Mayor. I move that this item be postponed indefinitely. Do we have a second for that? Perfect. [2:14:39] Carl L. Sheline: Discussion on this motion MADAM CLERK, PLEASE CALL THE VOTE. COUNCILOR, FROM WORD 2. YES. WORD 3. YES. WORD 4. YES. WORD 5. YES. WORD 6. YES. WORD 7. YES. WORD 1. YES. Motion passed. I vote 7-0. Item number 11. Item 11. Order. Approving the acquisition of a 1.44 acre portion of 9 Foss Road. Requested action to approve the order approving the acquisition of a 1.44 acre portion of 9 Foss Road. I have a motion please. So move Councilor Chiddom. Second by Councilor [2:15:13] Kevin Gagne: Martell. Director Ganye, please kick us off. Yes, good evening. This is a bridge that we've been dealing with for several years. In the packet you have a memo to the Planning Board from Deputy Director Boli, also City Engineer. The Planning Board actually did vote on this and gave a positive outcome to purchase this land. I can get in some of the details if you'd like, but the 60 year old bridge has issues with wing walls and abutments that are dry laid stone. It is more costly to re repair and replace this bridge at 1.5 million, which is estimated by Thornton Tomasetti. This alternative for purchasing this land will allow us to demo the bridge after construction of a city road along this property. The property is a little bit higher than the assessed value of twenty seven thousand because some of the aesthetics we are creating a street and through and in front of the church, so we've made the comp some accommodations for that and the price seems fair and I'm more than happy to given to more details or answer any questions that you may have questions councillor martel yes [2:16:34] Michael R. Roy: Thank you Mr. Mayor and they may not have caught this yet. What is the what is the projected [2:16:42] Kevin Gagne: cost savings over redoing the bridge? I did the our city engineer is out right now but I did talk with him and it's at least half is what we're expecting to save. Okay thank you. Yeah. [2:16:53] David B. Chittim: Concern aging. No, I would just like to speak to the fact that this was a creative and enterprising way to solve a problem. Ultimately, we've been dealing with this bridge for quite a while and the washouts that have happened from it, and no bridge means no problems and it's cheaper too. So that's, that's great, fantastic. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Public comment for this agenda item. [2:17:18] Carl L. Sheline: Back to the council. I'm Clerk, please call the vote. Yes. Yes. Thank [2:17:30] Carl L. Sheline: you very much, Dr. Gagne. Thank you. We are now up to the second public comment period for those that did not speak during the first public comment period, and public comment is now closed. We are up to reports and updates along with new business should there be any from counselors. Counselor Noble. Yes, I have a couple things. [2:17:54] Susan G. Longchamps: Hold on one second. One of them is I have a couple traffic things. So there apparently is a school bus that's running down Marcotte and Baron Avenue, it's going really fast according to constituents. I haven't seen it, but it's an ongoing issue that they're concerned about. And also half of Sylvan is a one-way and people don't necessarily realize that when they're going the opposite way and they're just continuing down the road at a normal speed, which is extremely dangerous for the kids that are living on that street and people who are going to Dairy Joy thinking that, you know, not expecting traffic to come in a certain way. And it is the second thing that I would like to ask is if we could research doing a workshop about the abandoned car ordinance. I'd like to know if we could talk with the police and maybe planning and code to see about rezoning the city in a way to make it more fair for the people who have to park on the street. And I wanted to say thank you to everybody who showed up at the community ambassador kickoff and I wanted to just give a couple shout outs to Marcelle LeClaire who did the music and to Dina who sprung for lunch but there was a mishap with that but she's donated $100 for a community investment fund and I just wanted to say thank you to both of them for their time and money and their investment in [2:19:42] David B. Chittim: lewiston and that's all i got thank you counselor neijin so i have a few pieces to go over but i'll be quick about them hopefully i'm wondering if the council could receive any ordinance information about e-bikes and e-motorcycles and whether or not we license or register them as well as whether or not we require lights on the these vehicles for the night driving because i can tell you that we do have something in place i believe for at least reflectors for bicycles and i can tell you that i've come out of a couple council meetings and folks have zoomed out of the dark at 35 40 miles an hour which indicates me that's an e-bike and not an e sorry an e motorcycle and not an e-bike but yeah if we could get information about those ordinances sent to us so we can make a decision around whether or not we'll act on any of those pieces i would also like to quickly read a statement from again the lewis area public health committee concerning vaccines they just wanted to share this with the general public as well as the council. A message from the Lewiston Area Public Health Committee. In light of the recent statements regarding childhood vaccination recommendations at the federal level, the Lewiston Area Public Health Committee reminds parents and caregivers that Maine's childhood immunization guidance remains in place. Maine CDC continues to recommend the health care providers follow the evidence-based pediatric immunization guideline of the American Academy of Pediatrics, including the recommended two-dose MMR, which is measles, mumps, and rubella, vaccination series for children. We encourage parents, guardians, and caregivers to follow the guidance provided by the Maine CDC and consult with their child's pediatric or healthcare provider about their child's individual vaccination needs, if they vary from recommendation. The health and protection of Maine's children remain our shared priority. Also I would just like to quickly check with the administrator, from what I understand the Maine Resiliency Center survey is closing in about a week, is [2:22:05] Bryan Kaenrath: that correct? I believe that's correct, although which I think it's the last day [2:22:12] David B. Chittim: of August. Okay, last day of August, and will we have findings brought back to us in public session, or how is that data going [2:22:26] Bryan Kaenrath: to be shared we will we will discuss with them Daniel parent how the information will be brought back but I know that their timeline is I believe it's end of August is the survey period and they'll need some time to compile and then they'll come back to us with results and the fall time frame is what they gave us so i'll follow up with her for some specific dates if they can nail anything down and also just kind of format of how we'll be receiving that information on anywhere [2:22:53] David B. Chittim: okay i appreciate that thank you [2:22:58] Michael R. Roy: counselor martel thank you mr mayor i just want to mention once more the city administrator did mention this earlier thursday august 20th the mixer at the new renovated clarion in main grill i have heard from multiple residents that there are safety concerns throughout the city due to some of the ongoing violence I've gotten a commitment from both the chief members of the command staff and officers they'll be there in both the security capacity and to answer any questions about the CEA how they're dealing with the violence any questions that anyone might have any comments and absolutely criticisms as well I want to invite my colleagues up here any members of city staff that want to join and remind our city that it's not limited to just ward 7 residents anyone that wants to come down and take part and get engaged is absolutely welcome and i hope that we see a lot of people there and have a great turnout so and i want to thank the city administrator for getting this on the schedule and attending and i think it'll be a good chance to engage with the community i know there's a lot of people with a lot of concerns and questions right now and I really hope that they'll come down and voice those thank you [2:24:18] Carl L. Sheline: any further reports and updates from counselors comes our lunch [2:24:23] Joshua L. Nagine: ramps Thank You mayor I have not given the been given the opportunity to share why that item was placed on the agenda so I would like to just share that now that item was placed on the agenda because we had two businesses that had a dispute that was increasingly getting worse by the hour to the point of where someone was going to get hurt two businesses that were directly across from each other we received complaints and emails regarding a committee member a committee member affiliated with the City that was online engaging in negative comments that could have been very harmful. I asked our city administrator to please review our ethics policy and sharpen it up and make any necessary changes to help prevent this from happening in the future with any of our council members, committee members, or board members. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you. [2:25:29] Carl L. Sheline: Madam Clerk, it appears that we're ready to head to executive sessions we have. The two motions, the first one is executive session regarding consultation with the city attorney. Requested action to enter into an executive session pursuant to Main Revised Statutes Annotated Title 1 Section 405 6a and e to discuss a legal matter with the city attorney and executive session to discuss acquisition of disposition of real estate of which the premature disclosure of the information would prejudice the competitive bargaining position of the city to enter into an executive session. Pursuant to Main Revised Statutes Annotated Title 1 Section 405 6c to discuss the acquisition or disposition of real estate of which the premature disclosure of the information would prejudice the competitive bargaining position of the city. I have a motion please. So move to both their chitum seconded by second by Counselor Martel. I'm Clerk please call the vote. Counselor from Word two yes, Word three yes, Word four yes, Word five yes, Number six yes, Word seven. Yes, Word one yes. Motion pass a vote of seven to zero. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you, Madam Clerk, and good night, Lewiston. We're heading to executive session. We will not be back.