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Residents press council on EMS coverage, cemetery flooding and local trash during public comment
Summary
Public commenters at the Green River meeting raised concerns about delayed DEQ testing, county EMS staffing and pay changes, cemetery drainage that could affect graves, and remodeling debris from the Comfort Inn; staff acknowledged statewide processes and said the city will continue outreach.
Residents used the public-comment period to highlight several local quality-of-life and public-safety concerns and ask the council for action or follow-up.
One commenter asked the council to publicly recognize Leanne Chidester for organizing cleanup work on a local site. Multiple speakers praised the cleanup as "looking nice." Another commenter raised a procedural concern about state environmental testing, saying, "The DEQ testing took almost 2 months to get someone down here to do the testing and pull this up," and noting testing and lab turnaround times delayed results for two locations.
Several speakers pressed for a discussion about emergency medical services coverage. Speaker 4 said it "seems like we don't have too much coverage" and described ambulances sitting for long periods and delayed responses during a busy season. Speaker 5 confirmed broader countywide struggles, saying the county is "still trying to see how that is working" and linking the problem to a different pay schedule and budget pressures.
Concerns about cemetery drainage and potential damage to graves came from another resident, who said a small rain created a large pool at the entrance road and urged the city to check a missing culvert before burials. The same commenter and others raised complaints about construction debris from a Comfort Inn remodel blowing across the flats and suggested the city ask businesses to improve cleanup practices or install curb-and-gutter where feasible to make walking routes safer.
Staff and the moderator responded with procedural context: the Department of Air Quality and DEQ processes control when material can be moved and when sites are cleared; the moderator said certain state grant funds (referred to in the meeting as TRT drawdowns) could be accessed by communities that prioritize fire and EMS in applications, though final state decisions are needed.
No formal council action on these public-comment items was recorded at the meeting; the meeting record shows the city will continue outreach and follow-up with relevant parties. The meeting closed shortly after the substantive comments and formal business.
