Chief Deputy Assessor Joe Hollenbeck updated commissioners on ongoing work related to PFAS/PFOS concerns in the West Plains area, describing the county's effort to study sales, well-test results and assessment impacts.

Hollenbeck said the office applied for and received a grant (he presented an award letter in his slides) and that the issue extends well beyond Spokane, noting more than 300 Air Force bases nationwide have used firefighting foam that can contain PFAS. He said the assessor's office isolated parcel groupings for study (roughly 6,000 parcels in the two study areas reduced to samples of about 688 and 370 in the priority and Air Force sampling areas, respectively) and worked with the EPA to obtain well-test results in the priority sampling area; the Air Force base has not shared well-test results with the county.

Hollenbeck told the board he expected a wave of appeals but that only one appeal was filed among roughly 800 affected notices and that appeal was withdrawn. The assessor said staff made no adjustments to assessed values related to PFAS as a result of the study to date. Hollenbeck also described planned public outreach (presentations to West Plains Water Coalition, mailers and possible social-media updates) and forecasted continued study through 2026 and academic presentations arising from the grant work.

Commissioners received the briefing and asked clarifying questions about sampling areas, appeals, and outreach. No formal board action was recorded in the briefing transcript.