June 2015 Meeting Minutes

SW Trails PDX
Monthly Meeting
June 25, 2015
The Watershed Building in Hillsdale
6388 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland OR 97239

DRAFT

Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Glenn Bridger, Sharon Fekety, Hans Steuch, Doug Rogers, Rick Kappler, Patty Barker, Dave Manville, Chris Mays, Dianne Mays, Barbara Stedman, Michael Kisor, Barbara Bowers, Keturah Pennington, Elizabeth Duncan, Eric Sorenson

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

After introductions the agenda Keturah moved to accept the agenda with the addition of a discussion of 45^th to 49^th and Red Electric report. Lee seconded the motion and the motion was approved

Walks: Sharon said Pete had 24 people on the June hike and it went very well. She said Lee will lead the July hike.

Memberships: Barbara said there were 3 new members last month.

Treasurer’s Report: Hans and Glenn will go over books and file taxes.

Barbur: Don said ODOT is doing a safety audit that may result in a road-diet.

Boones Ferry: Don said the funds to cover the incremental cost of a bridge rather than a culvert have been approved by Metro. Eric said there is still a lot to do to put in the trail through Marshall Park.

25^th – 26^th bike ped connections: Don said the connection from the east end of the BES property is still in the plan. However, BES still has not agreed to provide an easement. Don talked to Commissioner Fish about it.

Red Electric: Doug said they are trying to get information from PBOT on the progress of the bridge but they have not been able to get much. He said it should be in design. Doug said he has been trying to speaking to Alpenrose about extending the Red Electric to Oleson. However, Alpenrose has not been receptive. He was able to talk to the granddaughter of the founder. She said they are worried about security. There is City right-of-way to the north of Alpenrose. Doug said a group with a parks representatives looked at the alternative right-of-way. There may be some money to use for that part of the project. Doug said he hoped that City Commissioners could speak to Alpenrose about the trail. Don said there would have to be some expensive bridges on the alternate route.

25^th Route: Dave passed around drawings on the bridge. The bridge will have to be 30 feet long. He said they are ready to file with BES and plan to do that on the following Monday. Don suggested putting down plastic or wood steps

Maplewood Trail: Chris made a motion to prepare a letter to the city to support the trail from 45^th to 49^th in Maplewood Neighborhood. Glenn seconded the motion. Don said bridges could be built that would allow water to go over it in the case of a flood. The motion passed unanimously

Pens: Patty will look into ordering pens.

Fairs: Rick will have a booth at July 4^th Raleigh Hills 4^th of July fair. 10:00 – 1:00. He needs another volunteer. We will also have a booth at the July 5^th Hillsdale farmer’s market.

Work Parties: Dave said there will be a work party in George Himes Park on Thursday, July 2 from 9:00am. Meet at top along Terwilliger. Don said there were several small projects on that trail. Hans said this will be the third of the first twelve work parties with Portland Parks. Sharon asked if the Woods Street trail would be graveled. Dave said that would be a good independent work project for SW Trails.

Don said there was a report on the SW Urban trails for 2009. Don said they misidentified who did many of the trails. However, there are a couple that SW Trails built that need maintenance.

Trails Policy: Don said he met with Sarah Schooley and she encouraged SW Trails to work on defining what we would like to see in the Trails Policy. Don said trails should be looked at as a utility rather than the type of process that would be for say a bench. He said it is important to improve the connection at Upper Whitaker.

Don handed out a draft Trails Policy he prepared and read over it. He said it is important to point out that adjacent right-of-way property owners are responsible for trails next to their property. He said it is important to point out that right-of-way liability and maintenance responsibility would disappear if a non-profit such as SW Trails took on the trail. Patti said PBOT should still have some responsibility.

Don said we could come up with a list of projects that need to be done and then find out which ones are a priority. He said it would be important to have open houses to discuss trail segments. Don said the idea is to improve pedestrian connections as soon as possible. He said it is important to bring trails up to standard and then have it inspected by PBOT. Don said there should also be funding from PBOT and went over the items that could be funded.

Hans asked about the previous SW Trails input on the Community Initiated Trails Policy and Don suggested using this in it’s place. Hans said it looked like more of a maintenance project. Don said this would include anywhere where people are walking. Hans said it is important to put in something about unbuilt right-of-ways.

Glenn said he sees it coming forward as a grant that would be a three to five year grant. He said it is important that PBOT take control of their own right-of-way. He said it is important to move away from the existing policy.

Dave said we should call this a stewardship agreement adding the funding. He also suggested splitting it into two agreements. One about a non-binding stewardship agreement and the second half would be on the how-to. Don said PBOT wants SW Trails on-board. Dave suggested adding working with disadvantaged people.

Patti suggested having the policy just for maintenance and not for new trails. Dave said he agreed. Patti said people may not want trails because they are not being maintained.

Hans asked if PBOT had a trails person and Dave said no. Don asked if people were comfortable with the general thrust of the distributed document and no one objected.

Patti asked about winter storms and Don said neighbors have removed downed trees. Don said the City council hearing has been postponed from July 1. However, the new date has not been set.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:31pm

Respectfully submitted

Lee Buhler