Monthly General Meeting Minutes and Annual Meeting

Monthly General Meeting Minutes and Annual Meeting

January 23,  2014

The Watershed Building in Hillsdale
6388 SW Capitol Hwy 
Portland OR 97239

DRAFT

Attendance: Don Baack, Barbara Bowers, Sharon Fekety,  Virginia Hendrickson, Lee Buhler, Dave Manville, Tim Hamilton, Joan Hamilton, Glenn Bridger, Doug Rogers, Barbara Stedman, Dianne Mays,  Chris Mays, Marypat Hansel, Jerry Reece

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm

After introductions the agenda was approved with the addition of a discussion of changes to the SW Map by Dave..

Minutes: Glenn made a motion to approve the December 2013 minutes. Dave seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

St. Luke’s Church project:

Marypat from the St. Luke’s Lutheran Church said they sent a letter to update neighborhoods and SW Trails on the project at St. Luke’s that will be starting soon. She said that connectivity is important. She said people can call if they have questions. The handed out printed material on the project.  Dave asked the location and Marypat said 46th and Vermont. Jerry said it will be a three stage project.  He said a large portion of the project were the two street vacations(SW 46th California to Vermont and parts of SW Florida. He said there will also be sidewalk work on Vermont as part of the project. Marypat said there have many meetings  talking about maps and meetings walking the topography. She said it is a big project and will take a while. She said they will have more information in June. Doug asked about the creek that goes under 45th and 46th. Marypat said they will maintain the creek and improve landscaping. Barbara asked if the creek goes through the park and Don said it is a different branch. Marypat said it is underground for most of the route in the area. Don said it is important to have an east-west connection all the way to St. John Fisher Catholic Church as called for in the master street plan and as agreed to with the Maplewood Neighborhood Assn. Jerry said there is an existing parking lot and Don said there has to be pedestrian markings for a dedicated pedestrian route.

SW Trails Annual Meeting:

Don called the SW Trails Annual Membership meeting to order.

Don went over board member terms. Don said the board agreed by separate email vote  to add up to three additional members and he nominated Dave Manville and Barbara Bowers.
Lee motion we elect Dave and Barbara to the board and re-elect Chris Glenn and Don who’s terms were expiring. Sharon seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Treasurer’s Annual Report:

Chris reported that we had $2001 revenue in 2013 and $1163.149 in expenses expenses.
Chris and Glenn will work on a budget for 2014 and present it next month. Don said we need to track Red Electric revenues as we have a Facebook page as well as a web page.

Don said we need between $3000 and $4000 in donations per year to meet our expenses.  He said Barbara Stedman. has volunteered to be a grant writer.

Lee made a motion set the annual SW Trails PDX dues at $10.00 for 2014 and sponsorships at $100. The motion passed unanimously.

Don moved that we had an office of Vice-President and Lee seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Lee made a  motion to elect the following officers:
President: Don Baack
Vice President: Glenn Bridger
Secretary:Lee Buhler
Treasurer: Chris Mays

Barbara B. seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Lee made a motion to suspend the annual meeting until next month so the annual budget could be finalized and Glenn seconded the motion.
The motion passed unanimously and the annual Membership Meeting was adjourned.

SW Corridor Projects:

Glenn explained that the projects are a part of the high-capacity transit line. He said it could be light-rail or bus. He said it could follow Barbur or it could be a tunnel close to town. Doug said tunnel would be much more expensive. Glenn said light rail is much more capitol outlay but the operating costs are much less than bus rapid transit, more operators per rider on the bus option, hence more on going costs

Glenn said it is important to get people to the transit stations and therefore they have developed a list of projects that would help do that. He said there are good projects such as the ones that would make Barbur much safer. He said the Red Electric Trail is listed as a project. He said the projects are still in the early planning stage. He said the projects will be included in the overall funding of the project. He said there is a SW working group which meets the first Monday of the month, not March though, that is working on the projects. He said there were 50 people at the last meeting. He encouraged people to come to the meeting. Don said he will send out a list of the projects. He said some of the items on the list are a little outdated. He said the Red Electric is on the list in two places.  He said they need to redefine the cost estimates of the projects.

Don said the Mayor and Commissioner Novick are working on a separate process to figure out funding to accomplich transportation projects over the entire city. He said we could bring up some other projects at that time. He suggested people walk areas that might be good candidates for these projects. Barbara B. suggested a group walk to look at some of the ideas. Don said we should not be constrained by Urban Trails as projects. Doug said it is important to not focus just on the Barbur corridor. Joan said they are not organizing the projects well for people to make good judgments and they have asked the planners to work on that. Marypat said they may send out an Excel spreadsheet on the SW Corridor projects. Don  emphasized that there are two sets of projects that we will need to comment on with two different pots of money, one list will be the projects just for the SW Corridor, and the second list will be for projects we want to see accomplished if there is new funding. He said it is an daunting task with all the varied projects and funding alternatives.

Walks:

Sharon said she will lead the hike in February and we will go to the river.  Dave will leak in  March and  Lee will lead April

Memberships:

Barbara B. said we have 106 members and  three sponsorships.

Don said the work party at the Portland Bible Church will have to be rescheduled due to a lack of gravel.

Don said there will be a training by Parks on water bars or grade dips on Monday at 10:00am. Dave said the information on the web on water bars is very interesting.

We discussed seeking an agreement with PBOT relating to trail maintenance.  Don said the goal is to get a permit to work on trails anywhere in southwest, along with other provisions.  

Lee described the insurance policies. Glenn said the insurance agent and companies specialize in non-profits.  We have insurance in place.

Don said we are in process of getting 4T SWTrails patches.

Lee said the letter to Commissioner Amanda Fritz that the group worked on has been sent. He will meet with her briefly next month to go over the letter.

Barbara S. said BES has a grant for watershed projects and suggested submitting an application. She said the pre-proposal is due February 14. Don said we got one of those grants for the Raz-Baack crossing and it worked well.  Don will try to get some information to Barbara.  Don said Al Iverson might be willing to do some engineering.

MaryPat said at the last Arnold Creek NA meeting they formed a committee to work on pedestrian issues. Don talked about the culvert under Boones Ferry for trail 6, the Hillsdale to Lake Oswego Pedestrian Trail and said it is important to the Arnold Creek neighborhood.  Don said we could put grant applications for several projects.  Dave said there may be some projects in Ashcreek that might work well for those grants.

SW Portland Pedestrian Map updates:

Dave talked about the SW Portland Pedestrian map. He explained how to tell which map is the newest. Dave said he found fourteen items that may need improvement on the maps. Barbara S. pointed out an area that needs signage and is not correct on the map. Dave said Miles Court off the new extended shoulder in Maplewood is not signed. Don said the route will go through the Presbyterian Church easement which is in process and it will be signed at that time. However, he said it would not hurt to ask for it now.  Dave said there are multiple places were the trails go though or terminate at private property that are not shown on the maps.  Dave gave an example near 45th and he said it is important to get people off 45th.  Don said there is another example on Fairmont.  Dave said they made several improvements on the map from the prior year but there are still some missing connections.  Dave will make a list and we will talk to Timo of PBOT about them.  Don and Glenn had suggestions where there has been recent construction or planned construction.  Glenn said there is now a Spanish version of the map.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm

Respectfully submitted

Lee Buhler