February 2016 minutes

SW Trails PDX
Monthly Meeting
February 25, 2016
The Watershed Building in Hillsdale
6388 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland OR 97239

DRAFT

Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Dave Manville, Chris Mays, Glenn Bridger, Dianne Mays, Virginia Hendrickson, Keturah Pennington, Barbara Stedman, Doug Rogers, Sharon Fekety, Barbara Bowers, Keith Wymer, E. K. Cashman, Dale Sherbourne, Michael Kisor

The meeting was called to order at 7:01pm.

After introductions the agenda was approved.

Minutes Doug made a motion to accept the January monthly meeting minutes. Keturah seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Sharon made a motion to accept the January 2016 Annual Membership meeting minutes. Doug seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Strategic Planning:

Glenn handed out a draft SW Trails Strategic Plan. ( See Below.) He described the plan and went through each aspect. Several people made suggestions such as adding bikes and strollers. People suggested changing “walker” to “user”. Keith suggested adding “owner” to property rights are respected. Dave suggested adding transit connections to goals. Doug suggested adding shopping as well. Keith suggested adding “walks” to “opportunities for hikes” as it may attract people who do not want to do as strenuous hikes. Barbara suggested adding a bullet point for “outreach to other organizations. Barbara suggested doing this work should be done at a retreat.

Work with Parks:

Don talked about our work agreement with Parks. He said we are just laborers and we can do a lot more. He thinks we should be given responsibility for an entire project. He said it is important that we be able to put up a sign saying SW Trails built that section of trail. Dave said we are making a little progress and we should not push it so much that we break the agreement. He said we had nothing and now we at least have a once a month opportunity. Doug asked if it was changing. Dave said it has but it has not gone far enough. He said we have lost three trail administrators in the last few years at Parks. Keith said they have run into this at Tryon Creek State Park and there is friction there as well. He said it is important to get all people working on trails trained in standards. He said that sometimes their volunteers are more trained than the people they hire. Keith offered to teach SW Trail members at their trainings at Tryon Creek. Dave said it would help to have a certificate of training. Don suggested asking for a permanent sign for SW Trails maintained trails. Don pointed out that other organizations have signs. Dave said we are suppose to have our stewardship agreement review in the next few months. Glenn said lots of people credit or blame SW Trails for all the trails in southwest. He said if a trail was signed it would blunt some of those complaints. Don pointed out that there are many trails built by SW Trails in southwest and we should get credit. Don suggested asking for an annual summary of hours volunteered. There was a consensus that we ask for more independent work, singage and tracking hours worked.

Southwest in Motion:

Don had the motion for SW in Motion that will go to City Council in a month 270K for project.

Comp Plan:

Don displayed a map of changes to the comp plan he is suggesting. He described the stars on the Comp Plan maps. In most cases it is right-of-way that needs to be acquired. Don described a several such properties in southwest. Don suggested a pedestrian overlay to the map. Dave said there will be a training on the rebuild of the portlandmaps website.

St John Fisher:

Dave said they met with the building committee of St. John Fisher church. They were willing to engage SW Trails on building the section of trail that goes over their property. The next step is to see if the City will buy into this trail. Don described the location of the trail. He explained that St. Luke is not required to build a sidewalk.

Safe Route to School:

Don talked to Erika Nebel about the section of trail near Robert Gray at 25th. Erika said it is moving forward. They will send out Parks and PBOT representatives to look at it.

Albert Kelly:

Dave and Don talked to Parks about the trail in the north end of the park. They have agreement to build this section. Don showed the location of the trail on the map.

Ash Creek Trail:

Dave said they submitted a requested for a trail 45 days ago and he has not heard back.

South Portland crossings & Trail:

Lee talked about the crossings at Whitaker and Macadam, Richardson & Macadam and the trail on Seymour to Corbett. There has not been much action from the City on these items.

Don talked about bike and pedestrian safety as an aspect of the Vision Zero project and Southwest in Motion program. Doug said we need to educate the public that is important to wear visible clothing. Barbara said there is also a tendency to blame the victim. She said safe infrastructure is important. Don said he would put pedestrian education as an agenda item for future meetings.

Membership: thirteen people rejoined and four put an additional donation.

Walks: Sharon said Rick Kappler will lead the March hike. It will start in Tigard and go through parts of SW Portland. It starts at the Tigard triangle at Western Bike Works. It is 6.3 miles long.

Removal of Trail above Market Street:

Glenn said there is a trail that connects with Vista. He said someone removed stairs on the trail. The stairs were on private property but the public was allow to walk on them. The community would like to see the stairs rebuilt. They though it was on a public right-of-way and they now know it is on private land. Keturah said they use to close the trail for 24 hours per year to make sure it was kept private.

We discussed Sunday Parkways. The group decided to ask for a Sunday Parkways in Glenn made a motion to write a letter to PBOT requesting a 2017 Sunday Parkway Event in Southwest and offering our services for the effort. Lee seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Trail Work: Dave said the next First Thursday work party will be in Himes Park on the stairs at the lower end.

Keith said that people who work on trails in Tryon Creek will get items from REI and Pategonia. They meet at the Nature Center at 9:00am. He said they get funded by the number of people who volunteer.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:42pm

Respectfully submitted

Lee Buhler