May 24 meeting minutes

SW Trails PDX
General Meeting Minutes
May 24, 2012

Attendance: Don Baack, Sharon Fekety, Phyllis Towne, Michael Kisor, Doug Rogers Craig Cristy, Katureh Pennington, Cole Trusty, Virginia Hendrickson ,Lee Buhler, Michael Harrison, Robert Spurlock, Dave Manville

Don called the meeting to order at 7:00

There were introductions and the agenda was approved. Don moved to approve the March 2012 and April 2012 minutes. Katurah seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously

Hikes: Phyllis announced she was retiring as hike coordinator. Sharon and Virginia will take her place. Sharon will do the June hike. Don will do July and Chris and Diane will do August. Don suggested a party for Phyllis on the July hike. Sharon and Virginia will lead a Terwilliger Centennial hike at 9:30am July 21st starting at Wilson high.

Robert Spurlock of Metro talked about the Intertwine trail system. He said it is an alliance of several groups to advocate for parks, trails and natural areas. His job responsibility at Metro is on regional trails. Robert said SW Portland has a lot of trails. Robert said he has been working on signage for the Intertwine trail system. He displayed examples of signs they are developing. Metro has a quarterly meeting on trails and everyone always asks for uniform signage. Metro has taken on this responsibility. There are strict standards for signs. He pointed out the state standard for bike routes that they had to work with. They developed a sign that is a more exciting and easier to read. Sharon asked if mileage would be on it and Robert said it would. They got a $300,000 grant from ODOT to put up the signs. Fanno creek trail will have the signs as well as the Springwater trail and Rock Creek trail. Don asked if the Intertwine logo would be in black and white and Robert said yes. He said if SW Trails raised the money for a sign, SW Trails logo could go on the sign. Don asked what trails would qualify and if SW Urban Trails could be on the sign. Don said we would also like the SW Trails on the Intertwine website. Don asked if we could get about 1000 Intertwine stickers to put on SW Trails signs. Robert said the website is www.oregonmetro.gov/intertwine.

Robert handed out information on the Intertwine and information on the Westside Trail Open Houses.

Don talked about the Red Electric bridge located at the SW Nebraska ans SW 21st going north to SW Bertha. . Design will start the first of July and be completed by the end of the year. He said he hoped there would be public outreach on the design. There is $2 million appropriated for the bridge. Parks applied for the money. However, PBOT will manage the funds. Sharon asked were the bridge will be. Don said south of the bridge at thewest end of the Hillsdale commercial center and it will go across the gully to the north of Capitol. Don said there was an accident on Beaverton-Hillsdale highway this week that the improvements for the bridge will help avoid in the future. Doug asked if the ownership of the adjacent apartments are cooperating. Don said there have not been any problems. Don said several studies show house values increase where there is good pedestrian walkways.

Don said PBOT decided to put the sidewalk on Sunset on the library side. There will be things done to try to preserve trees on that side.

Cole said they have been meeting about the brochure and map. They met with Parks and PBOT and they were uncomfortable that the trail was defined without the options. Cole said we will put the options on the map and they were comfortable with that. He displayed a map showing the alternative routes. Michael H. said they would like to make the map as simple as possible so it is not too cluttered. Don pointed out that the alternative at Iowa was problematic. There is a great drop at Iowa. The other alternative down Taylors Ferry Road also has problems. The neighborhood preferred route or alternative along Slavin Road makes the most sense. Don said he hoped that the brochure would help people understand what the best route would be. Doug asked about a section on Oleson and said the proposal to put the trail wst of Oleson had difficulties. Don agreed and said it is hard to get adopted because it is in Washington County. Michael K. said there was talk of a trail on a PGE right-of-way. Diane pointed out that there is also a creek in the area that would need a bridge. Don said they have lined up Congressman Blumenaur for the Red Electric video.

Don talked about state law changes for pedestrian and bicycle rules. There are several proposals. Mark Lear has arraigned meetings about the proposals. One of the proposals involves changing the rule that people always walk opposing traffic. Don said another was how to label climbing lanes for both bikes and pedestrians. Another problem is that if an intersection is striped then pedestrians cannot use the other crossings. Don suggested when a trail intersects a street pedestrians should have the same rights as a street. Diane asked what would happen next and Don said the city lobbyists would probably take it to the state. Don said we now have 44 paid members and 4 sponsorships.

Don said the 501c3 was a little more expensive than we thought, $400 not $300. Don said there will be a board meeting on Tuesday. One issue will be how to process the memberships. Don said we have taken in about $800 and have spent around $400. We will get a report out in the next few weeks. Don said the weed trimmer we use for SW Trails will need to be repaired.

Dave Manville said he was the representative from Ashcreek and is trails chair for that Neighborhood Association. He said there will be an expansion of trails in Woods Park. There was a recent acquisition of land. This will hopefully lead to improved trails. There is a steep trail that he would like to see improvements on.

Don said city regulations require homeowners to maintain the street right-of-way next to their house. He said with the new law the liability is reduced. Don said he would like to see the city deal with the issue on Seymour. Don said there should be a process were people could maintain gravel streets. Don said the problem is who will pay for improvements. It can get expensive and homeowners may not be able to afford it.

Don talked about projects underway. He said there will be a buffered bike lanes on the Beaverton-Hillsdale highway. This means there will be a second strip added about a foot further into the first auto lane so there will be two stripes. They will take out 2′ of the travel lane. Doug asked if it was on both side. Yes. There will be a rapid flashing beacon installed at SW 62nd. There will some work on the bike lane between Reike and Wilson. They will also do some work in the Sunset/Capitol intersection. They will do some work on bike lanes on Vermont. There will be a new crossing near Chestnut and Terwilliger. There will be an improvements on 7th and Terwilliger. The intersection will be teed up.

Don said there will be two monuments for Terwilliger Blvd. There is a proposal to do a green street in Far Southwest. They may change Capitol near PCC from four lanes to two. There is a sidewalk project in Homestead fon SW 11th. They will remove the new sidewalk on Multnomah and put in a different new one, a waste, seems like BES went ahead with the replacement even though they knew that PBOT was going to install a new sidewalk and bike lane! . There will be a rapid flashing beacon at SW Multnomah and SW 25th. Dave said there would be pedestrian improvements on Maplewood. Don said he took Joe Vanderveer in a wheel chair to look at extended shoulders and he did not like gravel or a berm. Joe said he would use the street rather than the gravel extended shoulder. Two problems, rough uneven gravel and extreme side slopes. Don said a study showed an 88% reduction in accidents for sidewalks and 82% reductions for extended shoulders.

The meeting was adjourned at:8:30pm
Respectfully submitted
Lee Buhler