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Residents urge Clean Water Services audit and a June proclamation for LGBTQ community; council proclaims Arbor Day
Summary
At the April 1 Sherwood City Council meeting, residents urged the council to push Clean Water Services for an audit and to issue a June proclamation recognizing the LGBTQ community; the council read and proclaimed Arbor Day for April 25 and staff described a tree-planting event.
Two members of the public used the city’s citizen-comment period on April 1 to press the City Council for follow-up actions: one asked the council to push Clean Water Services to audit itself and reconsider proposed rate increases; another asked the council to issue a June proclamation recognizing the LGBTQ community. The council also read a proclamation declaring April 25 as Arbor Day.
Nancy Taylor, a Sherwood resident, asked council members whether they planned to follow up on information she had provided about Clean Water Services and its proposed rate increases. “I’m just here in light of all this information asking you as a council if you’re putting a letter together or putting meetings together to ask Clean Water Services, a, to maybe audit themselves or have somebody come in and audit them, and b, to relook at their rates increases they're looking at,” Taylor said. The mayor replied that a meeting of mayors and county commissioners — who also serve on the Clean Water Services board — was scheduled for Friday.
Resident Sean Garland asked the council to produce a June proclamation recognizing the city’s LGBTQ community. In his remarks Garland referenced statewide and neighboring-city proclamations and said a city-level proclamation would be symbolic and inclusive. “A proclamation for pride month is not divisive. It really is the opposite. It’s inclusive to all of those who have been marginalized both locally and throughout our country,” Garland said. He described the request as symbolic and not a change to city code or law.
Separately, Mayor Tim Rosner read a proclamation declaring April 25, 2025, as Arbor Day in Sherwood and noted the city’s participation in the Tree City USA program. City staff member Kristen said the city plans to partner with a Sherwood elementary school (likely Middleton Elementary, pending confirmation) on April 25 and expects to plant roughly 100 trees or shrubs with third graders. “We usually plant about 100. We try to make sure that I think we’re gonna work with the third graders this year,” Kristen said.
No formal council action was required for the Arbor Day proclamation. No public testimony was recorded for the code and fee items heard later in the meeting during the public hearings.
