SW Trails PDX
Monthly Meeting and Annual Membership Meeting Minutes

February 26, 2015

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

DRAFT

Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Glenn Bridger, Virginia Hendrickson, Sharon Fekety, Hans Steuch, Chris Mays, Dianne Mays, Dave Manville, -Barbara Stedman, Dale Sherbourne, Doug Rogers, Rick Kappler, Barbara Bowers, Patty Barker, Al Iverson, Cole Trusty, Richard Marantz, Liz Marantz, Bob Williams. Brandon Wilson, Jennifer Devlin

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.

The agenda was approved.

Doug moved that the January minutes be approved and the motion passed unanimously.

BES Update:

Jennifer talked about SW Stephenson and Hamilton Streets improvements. They have been working on the project for several years. They have also talked to neighborhood associations. They put in a perf pipe and put gravel on top of that. They had trouble with people parking on them. They plan to put in a 4′ paved shoulder. Stephenson is more complex than Hamilton. Patty asked about the gaps and Jennifer said those are a Department of Transportation responsibility. They will go into construction this spring.

Brandon went over details of the project. He said it is a water quality driven project. However, they will try to address pedestrian needs when they overlap. Drawings were handed out and Brandon described the design drawings. Brandon described where the pedestrian walkway would be. He said there will be a paved 4′ walkable shoulder between the fog line and road edge. The previous width was 6” to 3 1/2′. Don asked about he fabric and Jennifer explained it is an erosion control feature made from woven coconut fiber. It can be planted. Don said paved shoulders are key for people who use wheelchairs.

Brandon said construction will start in late spring or early summer. It should take four to six months. They will try to finish the section around the school before school starts in the fall. Glenn asked if it will be on both sides and Brandon said yes but it will switch sides. Richard asked where they would be on each side and Jennifer pointed those out on the map. Dale asked if the purpose is to protect Tryon Creek and if the City would maintain them. He asked if the pollutants would be hauled off. Jennifer said Tryon Creek has endangered species such as salmon. The water coming off the road will be slowed down which will allow sunlight and plants will break down the pollutants. She said swales do it much better than ditches as there are more diverse plants. She said the maintenance crews will clean them out. She said they have been working on this design and improving it for many years. She said she could have the stormwater team that does sampling around town come to a SW Trails meeting. Don asked about weirs and Brandon said most would have them. Brandon said with this design it will be easier to remove the pollutants. Brandon said they have gotten pretty good with their maintenance schedule. Don said they should be careful to keep the soil against the road paving to make sure the paving does not brek off because it is unsupportedBrandon said they are aware of that and have been working with PBOT on that. Patty said she was very excited about the project. She said she is very worried about pedestrian safety especially around the schools. She asked if they could identify that the shoulders are for walking on so people would not park there. Jennifer said PBOT would handle that and gave some contacts. Don said it should be posted “No Parking”. Patty also suggested that the speed limit of 35 be reduced. Don said PBOT has to do a study and then send it to the state. Patti said one student was hit. Dale said they have a project for safety and asked if they are coordinating and Jennifer said yes.

Hans talked about a meeting on the culvert across Boones Ferry. He said they would like to convene a Metro committee on the project. He said there has been a citizen’s advisory committee on the project. He said it is currently a barrier for fish. They planned to build a culvert. However, a bridge would be better for pedestrians and wildlife. A culvert would cost around $4 Million and a bridge would cost about $4.8 million. They have applied to Metro for a $750,000 grant to build a bridge instead of a culvert. Rick asked if Boones Ferry would be closed for a time and Jennifer said yes. Richard asked if Metro said when they would make a decision and Jennifer said in May.

The Professional Trail Builders Association will build a trail in Marshall Park in May. Dave said they same group is looking at improving a section of the Wildwood Trail by building a bridge across Burnside Street. He said this will be a big improvement as you have to run for your life across Burnside.

Walks: Sharon said there were 42+ people on the February hike. Pete will lead March to Riverview and Virgina will lead April.

Don said he received a strong letter in support of the SW Trails Trail Policy recommendations. He suggested people look at a website on trails in Berkeley CA. He said Laura Foster also wrote a strong letter of support. Don said we will post the letters on our website. Don said he has been in contact with people in other parts of the City about our trails policy. Patty said the deadline for submission is tomorrow.

Don talked about the TSP and Red Electric Trail. He said trails should be moved to PBOT so that one agency has responsibility. He said there has been strong support for the Red Electric Trail. He said there has been frustration and confusion on some aspects of the Red Electric Trail.

Doug said they will start construction of the Red Electric bridge in the fall. Hans said there are two contacts one for the bridge and one for landscaping.

Don talked about possible Barbur Bridge changes. No one complained about the diversion of traffic during the time it was just one lane each way. He said ODOT is looking at putting in a bike path from Miles to Capitol. This will make the Red Electric more doable as it would eliminate the need for a bridge.

Don said there has not been much progress on the Safe Route to School project on 25th. Dave said Permits have been been submitted. However, we are waiting for PBOT to schedule a meeting on it.

Don said neighbors are interested in having the gravel road south of Bertha on 21st be paved. The rain is making the road very rough.

Don said 19th and Taylor’s Ferry water has diverted to the trail. He said there has been some BES money allocated to fix these problem.

Don said there will be no Sunday Parkways in southwest this year as the Tilikum Bridge is opening and they will have a celebration. We will try to get a booth.

Bruce Murray, Don and Aimee are working on a brochure for the 4T Trail

Bob asked about the trails on Woods Park. He pointed out an area where Portland Parks has purchased land and it would be good to have a trail there. Dave said Parks has told him that this is to be a native area with no trails. He suggested some alternative routes and some possible routes that could be improved. Don said there maybe some things that can be done but it may take time. He said the 20 minute neighborhood in the comprehensive plan would help. Dave said the Marigold trail costed out at about $26,000. Don pointed out that the Raz-Baack crossing was nine years in planning.

Don said there will be a May 2nd Wilson work party. Don said they have ground some stumps were we planted natives.

Doug said the closure of Oleson Road has caused problems on Shadduck . They will open Oleson Road around April 1st and this should improve the traffic on Shadduck. Rick pointed out that the additional traffic has caused problems such as ruts in the road. Don said the Bridlemile neighborhood has been pushing for sidewalks on Shaddock and Hamilton.

Don said it is possible for some small projects from existing City funding. He said the small projects may have more bang for the buck but they tend to get lost.

Don said a Federal study says extended shoulders give 80% of the safety of a sidewalk and cost a lot less. Richard said the expense of dealing with the stormwater is much higher than the type of surface above. He said it we should not tie pedestrian improvements with stormwater. Al said that on the Huber project the stormwater cost was much higher. Doug pointed out that most streets in southwest have poor stormwater management. Don asked if we still support extended shoulders and sidewalks on one sides and people agreed. Patti said it is important to push for sidewalks around schools. Glenn said one side does not fit all and there are places for sidewalks and places for extended shoulders. He estimated that extended shoulders and sidewalks on one side would meet 80 percent of the need. Dale said extended shoulders and sidewalks cause pollutants to be introduced into the stormwater that needs to be cleaned and this will trigger stormwater clean-up. He also said that sidewalks can increase speed as people drive faster when there are sidewalks.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 pm
Respectfully submitted
Lee Buhler

SW Trails PDX
Monthly Meeting and Annual Membership Meeting Minutes

March 26, 2015

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

DRAFT

Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Glenn Bridger, Virginia Hendrickson, Sharon Fekety, Hans Steuch, Keturah Pennington, Doug Rogers, Rick Kappler, Barbara Bowers, Patty Barker, Bob Williams.

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm.

Don said the draft trails policy for the Comprehensive Plan was released today. He went over the history of development of the policy. He said SW Trails will meet with PBOT and Parks to discuss the policy.

Don said he went to a meeting of the Disability Trails Group. They have filmed Stephens Creek and it turned out very will.

Hikes: Sharon said the March hike went well despite the rain. There were 13 people. Virginia will lead in April Rick, Dave will lead May and Pete will lead June.
Don talked about fairs we should have a booth for including Hillsdale Health Fair, Community Partners for Affordable Housing, Hillsdale Farmers Market and the South Portland Health Fair. Don will look into the Tilikum Crossing opening celebration.

Membership: Barbara said last month there were 3 renewals, 1 sponsorship

Don said he went to several SWNI neighborhoods association meetings. He said said South Portland and Homestead wrote a letter in support of connections between Barbur and Terwilliger. OHSU is also supportive. He said several neighborhoods and Friends of Terwilliger wrote letters in support of extended shoulders.

Rick asked about extended shoulders on Shaddock and Don said that may come in the future.

Doug said Dave Manville went to the Hayhurst Neighborhood Association meeting and did a good presentation that was well received. Dave pointed out a section of the Red Electric Trail that could be completed in the near future. Keturah asked about the nursery that is next to Shaddock and Doug said they are using a public right-of-way. Dave also suggested some Safe Route to Schools trails that could use some work.

Don said the long tunnel for the Southwest Corridor is unlikely. He said it may be decided by July. Glenn said the route or routes chosen will go the Environmental Impact Study.

Don talked about the trail construction on SW 25th. He said we will need to come up with the cost estimate for the bridge. We need to know what the 100 year flood mark would be. The bridge will have to be two feet above that point. PBOT will get back to SW Trails on the steps and permit cost. Doug pointed out that it is a very short watershed. Don said there are also pipes to drain water in the event of a flood. Glenn said we should avoid having to get permits from the Core of Engineers. Rick asked who owned the right-of-way and Don said PBOT.

Don said he talked to Chris Smith who is on the Planning & Sustainability Commission about the encroachment issue.

We took time to read the draft trails policy for the Comprehensive Plan.

Don said the policy was done by Parks, PBOT and the Planning Bureau. Don suggested changing Portlander to Portlanders and visitors. Patty suggested saying adding “may be” to the “component of larger networks” and add a “key local connection”. Glenn said he did not think that this will be read in a narrow sense. Don suggested add “retain” to plan and improve the citywide trail system. Don suggested adding and “any other trails similarly designated” to section 8.50.

Don said Denver Igarta of PBOT will be working on the next step of the plan.

Don suggested adding the following sentence to section 8.51: develop a method to incorporate pedestrians into the city neighborhood greenway network.

Glenn said section 8.52 should incorporate the endangered species act. Patty suggested defining trails as urban trails and traditional trails as people do not understand the concept of urban trails. Don suggested defining trails as regional trails, multi-modal and pedestrian trails, urban trails and local trails. Glenn said this level of detail will not be in the Comprehensive Plan. He said it is a high level plan. He said the details will be handled in other plans. Glenn said the policy is a big step forward.

Don said there will be a May 2nd work party at plantings at Wilson High. Unfortunately, it is the same day as the SWNI clean-up. Don said Dave may have some work parties coming up as well.

Astrid Dragoy sent a response to the meeting at the trail on Wood St. and it seemed to be positive. They want to work on a stewardship agreement with SW Trails. They hope to finish Wood St. trail this summer.

Barbara said there has been some activity on the Red Electric bridge. She saw workers with chainsaws and other equipment in the area. Hans said geotechnical work is being done for the footings of the bridge. Hans got a copy of the contract with the bridge builder. He said it is very specific and there will be public meetings for comments on the design. Roger said they are working on the design for the bridge and they need to do preliminary work. We talked about making a flyer to pass out on the progress. Hans has been working on the Red Electric website. Don suggested talking to Barbara Stedman about posting to social media.

Don said he will send the name of a city auditor who is doing a performance review of bureaus in southwest.

Lee said neighbors are gathering signatures of adjacent neighbors in support of a trail from Seymour Ct. to Corbett Ave. in the South Portland neighborhood. He said the South Portland Neighborhood Association voted unanimously to support the trails as well.

Hans asked about the new parks property just south of Riverview cemetery and the ban on mountain bikers. Don said the mountain bikers have filed a lawsuit against the City and ban.

Glenn said Barbara has been doing well with the Facebook page and it is important to get our name out.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:39 pm

Respectfully submitted
Lee Buhler

SW Trails PDX
Monthly Meeting

April 23, 2015

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

DRAFT

Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Glenn Bridger, Virginia Hendrickson, Sharon Fekety, Hans Steuch, Doug Rogers, Rick Kappler, Patty Barker, Dave Manville, Chris Mays, Dianne Mays, Keith Wymer, Jeff Hough, John Mullen, Barbara Stedman, Michael Kisor

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm.

After introductions the agenda was approved.

John Mullen talked about trails in Tryon Creek State Natural Area. He has been Director of Tryon State Natural Area for several years. He talked about the trail connection linking Tryon with Marshall Park. He said there is some private property, state property and Portland Parks property. He said it is important to make the watershed whole. He said it is important to complete the culverts to do that. He said it is important to bring the treasure of the watershed back. He said the culvert underneath Boones Ferry is very important. He said it is important that people can walk under Boones Ferry as it is very dangerous to cross. John displayed a map of the area. He said the City (BES) has applied for a grant with Metro for a bridge over Tryon Creek on Boones Ferry. He said they should know if that grant was approved some time in May. He said a private resident is willing to donate a foot bridge in memory of her daughter. John passed out maps of the trail route. He said there has been trouble with permitting with City of Portland on the trail that the Professional Trail Builder’s Association was planning to build. Jeff said they are held to the same standards as a road. John said they have not been able to meet with anyone from the City to talk about the permit. Due to the delay they had to move the workshop construction to another State Park as they had to do it by June 30. He said he would still continue to work on trail and hopefully it will be built at a future date.

John said the Iron Mountain bridge in Tryon Creek will need to be replaced this summer as a sewer line that runs under the bridge need to be replaced. The South Creek Trail will be replaced as it was washed out. It will also restore a drainage to the Willamette. Dave asked if they would use commercial trail builders and volunteers for the trail to Arnold Creek. John said they would use both. Keith said he has some trained volunteers available to help. Don asked if they will need to do a geo-tech study and John said yes as well as a flood plain study. They will also have to do some tree mitigation. Keith asked if Fish and Wildlife would be involved and John said no as they are not in a stream. Don asked if the trail could be resurrected if it was in the next few weeks. John said it would have to be in the next few weeks. Jeff ask if the offer to donate items was still valid. Keith said they are interested in the project and getting it done and get their name out. John said even if it is too late for the symposium it would be good to get meetings with the City. Patty asked if there was access to the trail from Arnold and John said yes. He pointed out how the trail would go to make that connection. He said that section would also allow them to get ATVs in there for rescues. Patty asked about a piece of property recently donated to Tryon (South of the new Bridge) where there is a cabin. John said the cabin was built in 1912 and he could arrange a tour for SW Trails. He said they have a plan to put in trails and preserve the buildings. They will do some rehab this summer. He said the rehab will come first and they will have someone living in the house and then build the trails. Rick asked if there would be a detour route for pedestrian and bicyclists when they do the bridge construction. John said he was not sure but there should only be short times of complete closure. Don pointed out there is route around the area.

Don said he met with a Lake Oswego councilman to talk about using the Lake Oswego Trolley rail line as a bike/ped connection.

Jeff Hough from Portland Parks talked about the trail stewardship program. He said Parks was very disappointed about the trail in Marshall Park as well. Jeff handed out the draft trail stewardship agreement. He thanked SW Trails for all the work that has been done. He said the agreement will help hold them accountable. He said they wanted to incorporate the 4T trail. Jeff went through the projects. He talked about the Woods Street trail. He said they would like to start some sections in Marquam just below Sherwood. They hope to work on them in May. There are some wet sections and there is a lot of pruning and brushing. They would work on the first Thursday of the month probably from 9 – Noon. Jeff said he has additional help on Fridays so it would be good to have them complete work that we cannot get done on Thursday. The first work party would be May 7. Jeff said they would put an announcement on the web. Don suggested putting on the coordinates for GPS. The next one would be June 4th on Woods Street trail. Jeff said this trail is used a lot. Many people use the trail as a commuting trail and it is busy around 9am and 5pm. In July the work will be done in Himes park. Jeff there are many sections of trail that have too steep of a slope. On August 6 they will work on the Buhler cut-off. He said there are homeless camps and they would like to make better sight lines. The Sept 3 work party will be in Dickinson Park. Don suggest a bucket brigade to get the gravel in to trails. Don suggested moving that one later to do it when the trail is wet. Don said Dave has come up with a good design for wet areas using fabric and grindings. October work would be on SW Trail #5. There is a bridge that is failing. They want to reroute some of the trail. On November 5 it would be in Maracara Park and would include leaf removal and putting down gravel. The December work party would be on the 4T. Jeff said the trails hold up a lot better when leaves are removed. Dave pointed out that volunteers could remove leaves on their own. Keith said it was important to get the leaves all the way off the trail. January and February work parties will be in George Himes Park. He said there are stairs that need work. Patty said crews that planted had messed up some sections of trail. Jeff said they were repairing those spots. March will be in Gabriel Park. April would be in Woods Memorial Natural Area. Jeff asked people to identify trail intersections that need better signage. Dave suggested a trail and sign through Albert Kelly Park. Don said BES is talking about day-lighting the stream and leaving a short section of culvert where the trail would go. Don said it is important for insurance to sign-in when going to the work parties. Don said we also have the opportunity to attend Park’s CPR and first aid classes as part of the agreement. Dave reminded that there will be a work in Woods Park party. Meet at 48th and Marigold.

Jeff passed out maps of Marquam. Dave said the Open Streets maps have decent maps of trails. He suggested putting all the trails on Google. Hans asked if there are other stewardship agreement and Jeff said there are around twenty. Keith said there are many trail groups with many people involved. He said they try to do trails at the National Trail Standard. He suggested a weekend trail symposium. He said trails are built differently. He said it is important to build the trails so they are maintainable. Jeff said there was recently a trail building park at Cascade Lock. Patty suggested Youtube videos.

Walks: Virgina said there were 17 people with a little bit of rain and hail on the walk in April. Dave will lead May. Pete will lead in June. Don said AARP would like to work with us on easier walks. He said there are 65,000 AARP members in the Portland area.
Memberships: Don said that Barbara Bowers said there were two new members.
Social Media: Barbara said we have many likes on our Facebook page and they keep coming in.
Patty said the pictures on the website for community based trails are inappropriate such as a dog off-leash.

Don said there were letters from SW Trails, South Portland, Homestead, Friends of Terwilliger and OHSU on the Whitaker Trail. He said the City has agreed to fund the crossing of Natio and Whitaker. They still working on funding for the trail improvements from Barbur to Terwilliger.
Don suggested a letter from Arnold Creek NA, SW Trails to fill gaps on Arnold Creek and Stephenson. Patty said we should not have to ask for this and it is crazy to leave gaps.
Hans said things are moving abet slowly on the Red Electric Trail. There have been geo-tech studies on the bridge and an engineering firm is working on the design. Barbara asked about the section of Bertha leading to the bridge. Don said there will be sharos. Don said it is important to get funding for the connection from Himes Park to Slavin. Doug said a key link for the Red Electric is across Alpenrose Dairy. He has tried to contact people there but no one responded. He finally went and sat in their office and finally someone contacted him. They said they were concerned about security. Doug said there is a public right-of-way just north of the property that might be possible. Sharon said Alpenrose supports bicycling.
Don said there have been permitting problems with the SW 25th Safe Route to School. The City allocated money for the trail.. We will also have to study the soil where the footings will be.
Don said the Tunnelwood Drainage trail relocation problem has been in the hopper for over a year.
Don said PBOT is suggesting Sunday Strolls instead of Sunday Parkways. Hans asked if vehicles would be prohibited. Don said no, it would be on low volume streets.

Dave said he and Barbara have met with a couple of neighborhood association. Dave said he started a list of projects for PBOT rights of way. Patty asked if they were demand trails and Dave said yes. He said these trails have been identified by neighborhoods. Dave said there could be hundreds of these trails. Don said he would be meeting with Erica Nobel from Commissioner Novick’s office and he could talk to her about that. Patty said the draft trail policy is not workable as is.
Keith said REI and Patagonia will give away clothes to people who do trail work.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00pm

Respectfully submitted
Lee Buhler

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