Member Update - July 8, 2005
Periodically during the year, we will be sending an update on our Association’s activities to our members. We want you to know how your Neighborhood Association is working to address issues within our geography. This update was mailed to members, however it is posted here for new members who have joined MVNA since July.
Cooley Road Interchange Meeting – 27th Street
The third public open house for the proposed Cooley Road US97/US20 interchange took place June 29 at Sky View Middle School . Three options were presented. If you read the front page of the Bulletin on June 30, you know that the residents in the audience did not like what they heard.
While the justification for this project is to fix a failed intersection (at Cooley), when questioned, the speakers acknowledged that the result of each proposal is that through traffic, especially that of freight trucks, could exit onto neighborhood streets; from US 97 to Cooley to 18th to Empire to 27th to connect with US 20 going east. This means that heavy trucks that currently travel on 3rd street would exit 97 at Cooley or Butler Market and use the above route past schools, playing fields, assisted living and senior housing, medical offices, apartments and private homes. Issues with traffic volume, speed, safety, noise and air pollution will impact all residents who live along our Butler Market/27th street corridor.
27th Street is designated by the City as a “major arterial” which means it is designed for truck traffic. Keep in mind that the Empire connection to 27th at Butler Market will be planned in 2006 and built in 2007. Linking Empire will create a truck route down 27th for freight carriers delivering in the city and going east to US 20.
Members of the Boyd Acres Neighborhood Association were present and voiced their strong objections to using neighborhood streets rather than create an east side bypass route outside residential neighborhoods.
The meeting’s objective was to look at a 20-year plan, however in our view, the 3 options presented only move the traffic problems from 97 to neighborhood streets without a comprehensive plan beyond fixing Cooley. We will continue to keep you updated and encourage you to invite your neighbors to join MVNA so that we can demonstrate that the residents in our geography do object to diminished livability in our neighborhood.
Neighborhood “Let’s Pull Together” Weed Pull
A dozen stalwart souls met at the NE corner of Conners and 27th street on Saturday morning, June 18 to battle the waist-high grass and weeds on the vacant lot in our neighborhood. Our objectives were to clear the north sidewalk on Conners of overgrown weeds so that pedestrians can use the walkway and to dig up the noxious knapweed plants that infest the center of the lot.
Two workers wielded weed whackers while others raked and bagged the debris. Digging up the knapweed was quite a chore as some individual plants were large enough to fill a 30-gallon bag. Among our helpers were residents of the adjacent Oak Tree subdivision, the Deschutes Democrats and others from outside our neighborhood. After three hours of work, we had filled over 70 bags with debris which was hauled to the landfill for disposal.
A lot of work remains to be done at this site both to prevent a fire hazard and eliminate the remaining knapweed. MVNA has sent a letter to the property owners requesting their attention to these concerns – and they did respond by clearing the site; we will continue to monitor areas within our geography for noxious weed infestation.
Membership Committee Recruits at the Bite of Bend and at Summerfest
Anyone who attended the Bite of Bend on June 18th had to brave lots of weather changes – sun, rain, hail, we had it all. Four MVNA members helped staff the City’s Neighborhood Association booth. A total of 80 Bend residents signed up to be members among the 10 Neighborhood Associations. MVNA gained 11 new members which brings our current membership to 226. Another general recruiting effort will take place during Summerfest July 9-10.
Traffic & Safety Committee
The six members of the MVNA Traffic & Safety committee met on June 20 with Sgt. Greg Owens of the Bend Police Department. Sgt. Owens provided us with an overview of the Department’s staff and explained that 3 motorcycle police assigned to traffic work 12 hour shifts Monday through Friday.
Overall, compared to cities of equal size, Bend Police is below average in staffing; 1.2 per 1000 residents vs. the norm of 1.5 – 2 per thousand.
As requested, he provided statistics on traffic citations:
2004: a total of 8405 traffic citations were issued
2506 for speeding (29.8%)
579 for traffic control devices (6.8%)
2005: 2925 citations have been issued as of 6/10/05
771 for speeding (26.4%)
213 for traffic control devices (7.3%).
Our committee provided Sgt. Owens with a list of traffic concerns in our geography. He indicated he would evaluate them and refer them to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) which meets monthly the third Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.
Based on Sgt. Owens’ suggestion, three of us attended the June 19 TSAC meeting. This committee is made up of representatives from City of Bend Police, Engineering Division, Public Works and Community Development departments; Deschutes County Traffic Engineering, Bend-LaPine School Transportation and ODOT Region 4 Traffic Engineering. We listened to resident groups who presented concerns in their neighborhoods and were encouraged to learn the TSAC committee members were concerned and responsive.
2004-2005 Neighborhood Association Funding
Neighborhood associations are funded based on tax lots within their boundaries.
Mountain View Neighborhood Association has 3538 tax parcels and was allotted $3608.76 for the fiscal year ending this June. We are obligated by charter to have two general membership meetings annually and the meeting notice must go out to all tax lot owners. This required mailing is our largest expense at $2781.
We were able to purchase some needed supplies with the balance;
· a banner with our logo for use at events
· an A-frame (sandwich board) sign for use at events
· a table and 2 chairs for recruiting efforts and meetings
· a commercial coffee pot and supplies for meetings
· a flipchart easel for use at meetings
· envelopes and stamps for member mailings
· miscellaneous office supplies.
Neighborhood associations are non-profit organizations and as such, are allowed to accept donations from businesses and individuals to provide increased funding for our activities. While we do not have formal 501(c)(3) status, that is something we are planning to pursue so that we can apply for grant funds.
Your help and suggestions are always welcome either by e-mail to MountainViewNeighborhood@att.net
or by mail to MVNA, PO Box 8596, Bend , OR 97701 .
