Cornelius Pass Rd. Citizens Advisory Committee 1st Meeting
The Citizens Advisory Committee for Multnomah County's Cornelius Pass Road Safety Improvements Project held it’s first meeting Nov. 13 at Skyline School. The 15-member committee is tasked with advising the County as it considers alternative approaches to help mitigate traffic problems on Cornelius Pass Road from Hwy. 30 south to the county line. It also provides a conduit for input from the Skyline community.
Committee members all volunteered to serve, responding to an invitation from Multnomah County. Local Skyline area residents on the committee are Jason Ascher, Kirk Augustin, Jan Campbell, Carol Chesarek, Sarah Hanson, Dave Linden (representing Plainview Grocery), Bruce Penney, Steve Robertson, Michele Roy and George Sowder (representing SRN). Wayne Bauer commutes on Corn. Pass Road from Columbia Co. Drew Dubois is the representative for TVFR, and Tim Love and Bob Russell serve representing the Oregon Trucking Assn. State Senator Betsy Johnson also sits on the committee.
As it’s first order of business, the committee reviewed the charter that spells out its form and function. Including the first meeting, it will convene four times until June 2014. At the January meeting, the committee will review safety solutions proposed by project staff. The March meeting will focus on discussion and evaluation of the proposed improvements, and the last meeting in June will review the final draft of plans for safety improvements.
The public is welcome to attend meetings of the advisory committee, which will be held at the Skyline School gym. Time will be allocated at the end of each meeting for questions. Watch the Skyline Newsline for announcements. The county will also hold two public meetings for all Skyline residents in March and July (dates TBA).
During discussion of the committee charter, members asked about the decision-making process. Although the county will make the final decisions on which specific projects will move forward to construction, project staff said that the committee’s recommendations will have substantial and meaningful input on those decisions. If consensus on the final plan can be reached, it will carry more weight with both the county and the legislature.
Sen. Johnson noted that although most of the $8.5 million originally appropriated for Cornelius Pass Road improvements was shifted to other priorities in the last legislative session, there is strong support for restoring those funds in 2014. The money “will absolutely be restored,” she said. “It has not been pinched.” When funding is restored, the county anticipates starting construction by Fall 2015.
County staffer Chris Link gave a presentation to the committee that included an updated analysis of crash data from 2007-2012 based on reports from ODOT, TVFR and the Sheriff’s Office. He reported that a total of 143 reported crashes during this period were mainly clustered in six locations along Corn. Pass Road: Sheltered Nook, Kaiser Road, 8th Ave., “S” curves, curves south of Plainview and Skyline Blvd. A reduction in crashes at Sheltered Nook and Kaiser Rd. observed following construction of road improvements in 2010, he said, suggest those areas may no longer be as high priorities as other locations. A PDF of the presentation is posted on the county website at https://multco.us/sites/default/files/roads/documents/cornelius_pass_11-....
Following their approval at the January meeting, minutes of the Nov. 13 meeting will be posted on the project website at https://multco.us/roads/cornelius-pass-road-safety-improvements. This is the county’s main venue for all public documents related to the Corn. Pass Road project.
The county has also created a mailbox to receive input from the public: [email protected]. Emails sent to this address will be forwarded to all members of the committee.
Committee members all volunteered to serve, responding to an invitation from Multnomah County. Local Skyline area residents on the committee are Jason Ascher, Kirk Augustin, Jan Campbell, Carol Chesarek, Sarah Hanson, Dave Linden (representing Plainview Grocery), Bruce Penney, Steve Robertson, Michele Roy and George Sowder (representing SRN). Wayne Bauer commutes on Corn. Pass Road from Columbia Co. Drew Dubois is the representative for TVFR, and Tim Love and Bob Russell serve representing the Oregon Trucking Assn. State Senator Betsy Johnson also sits on the committee.
As it’s first order of business, the committee reviewed the charter that spells out its form and function. Including the first meeting, it will convene four times until June 2014. At the January meeting, the committee will review safety solutions proposed by project staff. The March meeting will focus on discussion and evaluation of the proposed improvements, and the last meeting in June will review the final draft of plans for safety improvements.
The public is welcome to attend meetings of the advisory committee, which will be held at the Skyline School gym. Time will be allocated at the end of each meeting for questions. Watch the Skyline Newsline for announcements. The county will also hold two public meetings for all Skyline residents in March and July (dates TBA).
During discussion of the committee charter, members asked about the decision-making process. Although the county will make the final decisions on which specific projects will move forward to construction, project staff said that the committee’s recommendations will have substantial and meaningful input on those decisions. If consensus on the final plan can be reached, it will carry more weight with both the county and the legislature.
Sen. Johnson noted that although most of the $8.5 million originally appropriated for Cornelius Pass Road improvements was shifted to other priorities in the last legislative session, there is strong support for restoring those funds in 2014. The money “will absolutely be restored,” she said. “It has not been pinched.” When funding is restored, the county anticipates starting construction by Fall 2015.
County staffer Chris Link gave a presentation to the committee that included an updated analysis of crash data from 2007-2012 based on reports from ODOT, TVFR and the Sheriff’s Office. He reported that a total of 143 reported crashes during this period were mainly clustered in six locations along Corn. Pass Road: Sheltered Nook, Kaiser Road, 8th Ave., “S” curves, curves south of Plainview and Skyline Blvd. A reduction in crashes at Sheltered Nook and Kaiser Rd. observed following construction of road improvements in 2010, he said, suggest those areas may no longer be as high priorities as other locations. A PDF of the presentation is posted on the county website at https://multco.us/sites/default/files/roads/documents/cornelius_pass_11-....
Following their approval at the January meeting, minutes of the Nov. 13 meeting will be posted on the project website at https://multco.us/roads/cornelius-pass-road-safety-improvements. This is the county’s main venue for all public documents related to the Corn. Pass Road project.
The county has also created a mailbox to receive input from the public: [email protected]. Emails sent to this address will be forwarded to all members of the committee.
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