SW Trails PDX
Meeting Minutes
February 23, 2012

Attendance: Don Baack, Sharon Fekety, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Michael Harrison, Sue Hatt, Brain Hatt, James Allison, Arnie Pantich, Lee Buhler

The meeting was called to order at 7:00

James from Portland Parks talked about parks in southwest Portland. He lives in Collins View.  He thanked SW Trails for the work they do.  He said people in SW realize how important safe trail connections are. They are concentrating on maintaining trails. They had a wash-out in McClay Park that took a lot of work to repair.  They are doing planning for the Riverview Cemetery property Parks purchased.  There are some existing trails but they want to improve it.  The have also acquired new property near Woods Park. Don pointed out that this was purchased by BES in the Grey to Green program. Diane pointed out that the trails in that area needed a lot of work. James said he is also working with people on the Willamette Greenway near Cottonwood Bay to improve the walking  surface which is quite buckled. Don asked about the area just south of the Spaghetti Factory.  James said the property owners are not willing to do trails until the property is re-developed. He said they will be working on Trail 1 when BES puts in drainage. Don pointed out that there are stairs in the area that are pitching forward and there are many people going up and down that trail. There is a property owner in the area that is very concerned with erosion.

James said there are about 150 wooden bridges in parks and much of their work is unplanned as they do a lot of damage repair. He asked people to email him when they see problems. Don pointed out that SW Trails volunteers can re-deck bridges.  James said they are also working hard on invasive removal. Soon, they will have treated every tree in Forrest Park for ivy. There are still parks withll substantial ivy problems.

James said they are monitoring the Sellwood Bridge project as it will have a big impact on Powers Marine Park and the Willamette Greenway. They would like mitigation on all tree removal.

Don talked about property acquisition for the Red Electric Trail. Don said SW Trails could help get volunteers to remove ivy. James said many private property owners and the city have done invasive species mitigation and he hopes that ODOT will do more invasive removal.  Don pointed out that there might be a place in the area for a BMX track in Himes Park. Don asked about the Marquam Trails.  James displayed a map of the project. Don suggested handrails on the steep section of trail just below Terwilliger. Don pointed out that the major cost of the trails in the Marquam project are the bridges.  James agreed and said they are half the total project cost. James said they are considering doing a trail building workshop. James said he would like to see annual trail building trainings as they do not have enough resources in Parks to do all the trail building and maintenance necessary. Don said it was important to consider grades on trails as the steep trails can be dangerous. Don asked about trail construction at Stephen’s Creek and James said he thought they planned to do that in June. Don said if Parks runs out of money SW Trails could build a section of stairs in Stephen’s Creek. .

Arnie said there was neglect on Terwilliger Parkway for the view corridors. James said they will be working on that before the centennial celebration. Don asked about the specific viewpoints and James said he would send a map. Arnie said there was a downed tree on Capital and he called Parks about it and Lew from Parks came out and solved the problem right away. Arnie said he hoped Lew would not loose his job in the budget cuts. Arnie asked about the Fulton Community Center.  Don said it is in the 6% budget cut but not in the 4%. Don asked about the Tryon Boones Ferry crossing. James said he thought that connection was a great idea. He said hopefully Parks, BES and Oregon Parks could fund it.

Don talked about the brochure for the Red Electric Trail.  The Hillsdale NA received a grant to do the brochure. Cole passed out a draft copy of the brochure. Cole talked about the draft. He asked for suggestions. Arnie asked the length of the trail and Don said it was about five miles. Cole displayed a map he had been working on. Don pointed out that the map should show Garden Home. Diane suggested that the map could be in two stacked sections as it is such a linear trail. Sue said it would be good to make the text bullets and focus on what people would want on the street. Cole pointed out that it could be printed on larger paper.

Don talked about the Barbur Concept Plan and SW Corridor Plan. Metro is focusing on Hillsdale and OHSU.  However, the city has already done planning processes on those areas.  Don is on the committee and has been making the committee aware of bike and pedestrian issues. He said there is a good chance there would be a tunnel for a light rail train.

Don said that PBOT is working on street vegetation.

Don said he and Mark Lear did a walk around with a blind resident to talk about trail access. He found it difficult on extended shoulders with large aggregate. Don will also invite people in motorized wheel chairs to get their opinion. Don said probably the best solution is to pave the shoulders.

Don pointed out that the new SW Trails email went out.  Diane said she send 958 emails and had 150 opens. She said they only got three un-subscribes and one spam complaint. Chris said it would be good to get the agenda out two weeks in advance even if we do not know the complete agenda so people can plan. Diane said she would like to eventually send a monthly newsletter with all items. Chris pointed out we could also link to things such as the Fulton Park issue so we do not repeat what someone else has done.

Don said on March 22 we will have Carl Fink to talk to us about what we can and cannot do in terms of fund raising.

Phyllis talked about the walking schedule.  Don did a very good job on the February hike.  Virginia Hendrickson will lead March. Lee will probably lead April and Sharon will do May.

Don said they testified at city hall about the St. Luke street vacation. They asked for a east-west connection and the church agreed with it, but it will be done when they get a building permit.  It is important to stay on top of this as people change positions and do not remember earlier agreements. They approved the vacation with a 16 foot section for a walkway.

Don said there will be a high crash corridor meeting on the 29th of February from 6:30 to 8:00 at Robert Gray.

Don said the Barbur and Natio crosswalks

Lee made a motion to send a letter to ODOT thanking them for the crossing on 4800 SW Barbur.

Don said that PBOT will put green paint for the Capital/Barbur intersection.  Arnie said there is not enough lighting at that location. He said he notified PBOT that some lights were out and it took three months to get them fixed.

Don said that he and Brian went out to check signs on trail 1 and trail 7 to find signs that need to be replaced.

Don said that two of the mayoral candidates mentioned extended shoulders in campaign appearances.

Don said the 501c3 application is progressing.

Don said that TriMet should consider taking dogs with muzzles and charging a fare. He pointed out that it creates a problem on some of our hikes that people cannot return on the bus with their dogs.

Don said he proposed that we have Ed Fisher come in April to talk about his experiences in Europe. He will also invite Allison Rosch to talk about planning in Marquam Park.

We talked about future meetings and who we could invite. Some suggestions were Sue D’Anese, Jean Senegal-Biggs and candidates for public office. Chris said it was important to pave streets in SW.  It is no good to have a expensive modern light rail when people have to walk through third world conditions to get there.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:12

Respectfully submitted,

Lee Buhler

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