North Fire Station Conference Room, 63377 Jamison, 97701
North Fire Station Conference Room, 63377 Jamison, 97701
In attendance: Chair Don Leonard, Secretary Larry Kierulff, Vice Chair Joette Storm, Land Use Chair Jim Beauchemin, Ginger Burley, Lynn Hedesch, David and Ginny Csensics, Robin Lewis
Don Leonard called the meeting to order and introduced guest speaker, Robin Lewis, City of Bend Transportation Engineer of the Growth Management Dept. She defined her main role as directing the Safety and Multi-modal programs and responded to questions.
Stop sign requests for Purcell and Empire:
Stop signs can be complicated from safety viewpoint because of non-compliance and that the Streets Division has been without a transportation engineer or assistant for quite some time.
Pedestrian walkway on Purcell at canal crossing:
This project has an unusually high priority for an isolated project and engineering studies show that the bridge over the canal will need to be widened at a cost of $654,000 for lanes, bikeway and sidewalks. She encouraged BANA to provide a priority list to city council before a November 14th transportation meeting and pursue our issues with the new council as well.
Do schools and parks pay system development charges? Yes they do, but shortcomings of this and other funding sources lies with the State of Oregon or ODOT specifically.
How do we expedite the Empire extension to 27th street?
Right of ways are ready but the project is waiting funding that competes with many other projects with safety issues and higher congestion.
Thoughts on speed control at roundabouts:
She acknowledge the need for more information and is conducting behavioral studies of several multi-lane roundabouts including 15th and Reed Market and that speed signage will soon be uniformly dropped.
How often does city take traffic counts?
The city has not conducted traffic counts since 2009 when the Traffic Operations staff was laid off. The city's count program has resumed with a roadway tube count program (that counts the number of vehicles that go over the tubes). The roadway tube count program is not at permanent stations - but will be performed for 3 days per year - the same spot will be counted every 3 to 4 years to obtain growth rates. Additionally, the city is working to install 5 permanent count stations (Construction installation bids are due October 28 and hopefully installation takes place this summer if bids are reasonably priced). These 5 permanent count stations should grow to more as funding allows - right now we are putting them on 4 bridges across the Deschutes River, and 1 Rail crossing at Franklin Avenue. These permanent counts will continually count motor vehicles, as well as people walking and biking. The hourly variations, seasonal trends, and mode splits will help inform many city projects and efforts.
Does city have plans to connect bike lanes to trails along canals?
The Transportation Dept. would like to provide such connectivity, but that project has not been prioritized in the budget.
Other muli-modal connectivity projects:
A path with safety and signage improvements connecting areas east of US 20 with Cascade Village Center has a high priority but that ODOT was in control of that project. David Amiton (david.amiton@odot.state.or.us) is the ODOT active transportation manager and would know about a future trail along HWY 20 between Cooley (and further north too) and Trader Joe's/Hwy 97 (on the east side of the Hwy 20 road/Mall side). Also on the list is a plan for a bridge across US97 near Fred Meyers Road.
Budget Report
Larry Kierulff offered that $35 of $4749 was spent on 6 months P.0. Rent and offered the following budget proposal for the current year. Jim Beauchemin made a strong argument for reserving money for two general mailings to allow for important issues.
PO rent 70
Space rent 200
General Mailing 1800 or 3600
Website/email service 300
General Meeting supplies 400
Printing 150
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2920 or 4720
Bylaws
The chair provided Bylaw copies to attendees but suggested no changes. Larry said the only change he would suggest is staggering board terms.
BANA Logo
The chair offered the idea of a BANA logo like a few other NAs. Larry said the idea of a contest has been proposed before and awards could be offered but the subject should be introduced with a general mailing. Joette Storm said involving schools in the contest would be exciting. Consensus was that this was a worthy project.
Rollover Proposal
Joette introduced the subject of rollover fund projects with a proposal for printing a welcome package to people in the neighborhood. She has contacts and offered to coordinate it. Consensus was that it was an appropriate project to pursue. Jim Beauchemin had additional ideas but needed to leave.
Visitors to the meeting suggested the title of our meeting should be changed from “board meeting†to something more inclusive like “ Neighborhood meetingâ€. After discussion, it was agreed to do this, especially when guest speakers are invited.
Future Speakers and meeting dates
On the subject of future guest speakers, the next meeting date is in conflict with a visit a city council special meeting so Victor Chudowsky will be invited to a December 12 meeting. Larry said Steve Bradley of Les Schwab has been invited to November 14 meeting and another possibility is the new Bend Community Relations Manager whom the Neighborhood Association Round Table meeting October 20th 4 pm at city hall will introduce. Lacking time to discuss rollover projects and future speakers, the chair called for a follow up board meeting Tuesday 10/18/2016 10 am at Starbucks and adjourned the meeting at 650 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Larry Kierulff, BANA Secretary