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Aug. 20- Council approves reservoir compromise
work
(from Porltand Tribune):
The City Council took what could be
the final vote to decommission the three
open reservoirs in Mt. Tabor on
Wednesday Aug. 19.
The council approved legal findings
drafted by the City Attorney's Office to
support the Water Bureau's request for a
land use change to do the work necessary
to disconnect the reservoirs from the
water distribution system.
The bureau will now seek the permits
to do the work, which will take place at
11 location around the reservoirs. Among
other things, a dozen trees will be
removed, trenches will be dug to reach
underground pipes, pipes will be cut and
plugged, valves will be installed, and
new above ground utility vaults will be
built. The bureau will also plant 30
trees in Mount Tabor Park to help
replace those that are removed.
Positive features of the plan were
worked out in negotiations with the MTNA
The council has agreed to spend $4 million to restore the
reservoirs over the next four fiscal
years, and to consider spending an
additional $1.5 million to restore the
historic lights at two of them.
Four years in the works, 50s Bikeway
project is complete
The 4.3-mile pruject connects
eight east side neighborhoods from
Rose City Park, through Mt. Tabor
and down to Woodstock. Within a
quarter mile are 19,600 residents
and within a half mile are 12
schools and seven parks.
Try it! New or improved
bike lanes provide safety
and peace of mind for
cyclists on busy SE 52nd
Ave. City Transportation
Bureau is examining how much
traffuc is being shunted to
51st and 53rd aves. by a
"diverter" intended ro keep
northbound cars from
continuing on 52nd
past Division.
Rare
tree saved by community action
A large
and beautiful tree in our city has been
saved by a concerted community
action culminating in a public
meeting with the developer who owns
the property on which the tree is
located. The Portland Paradox Walnut
located at 5024 SE Mill St is over
100 years old and remarkable because
it spreads out more than 120 feet
and has a trunk more than 16 feet
around,. The builder who owns the
property, Steve Melkerson of Caliber
Homes, responded to the neighbors’
concerns with a
commitment to preserve the tree.
He showed neighbors plans to build
12 multi-family units, down from the
original 14, at the April 23
meeting.
Brian Mitchell,
MTNA Land Use Co-Chair, was a leader
in the campaign to save the tree.
Modernization of Franklin High
School is underway
Planning and design continues
through 2013 and into 2015. During
construction, from summer 2015 until
summer 2017, the Franklin community
will be temporarily relocated in
newly renovated Marshall High
School. Students will return to a
fully modernized Franklin High in
the fall of 2017. The work is
proceeding under the $482 million
Portland Public Schools bond fund
approved by the voters in November
2012.
Click
here for the latest information
about this project and to see how
you can particpate.
More on the reservoirs
Neighbors rally for reservoirss
turned out by the hundreds July 12 to protest the City’s plan
to replace the three open reservoirs
at Mt. Tabor Park with underground
storage tanks. The demonstrators
lined SE 60th Ave. below Reservoir
#6. Many passing motorists honked
their horns in support of the
movement to save the reservoirs
despite a City Council vote in early
June to comply with a much disputed
federal regulation calling for their
closure by the end of 2015.
The protests continued on
Saturday and Sunday with a somewhat smaller but
still enthusiastic groups of
reservoir supporters. There were
virtually no signs of disorder for
which the City had prepared.
The protest
concluded Monday night with the
arrest of four people who showed up
for the first time late that night.
The protest organizers had
negotiated with the park rangers
that they could peacefully stay past
midnight and then would fold the
protest at 12:30 am. Everyone
who had been out there for days was
happy to hear the news of the
agreement. But the four
people who arrived last minute made
some declarations about how they
were going to save the reservoirs by
getting arrested and then they
refused to leave. All four
were arreste
Mt Tabor and
North Tabor neighborhood
associations raise nearly $4,000
in
Spring Cleanup
The April 27 Neighborhood Cleanup drew hundreds of folks bringing
disposables to the Mt. Tabor
Middle School. It was jointly
sponsored by the MTNA and the
North Tabor NA. We took bulky
waste and some debris; we
recycled lots of stuff, and had
a reuse area for treasures that
someone might want to rescue
from the landfill.
The same team of people who
planned the NTNA/MTNA
Neighborhood Cleanup last year
were in charge again this time:
Paul Leistner and Amy Chomowicz
from the MTNA and Candice Jordan
and Moonrose Doherty from the
NTNA.
In addition to being a very
convenient way to get rid of
your junk, this event also is a
major fundraiser for the two
neighborhood associations. Each
NA received $1,993.50 from the
proceeds. And
it all happened on a beautiful
sunny day.
Tribute to Mt.
Tabor Park champion Cascade Anderson Geller
A gathering in the celebrated Cascade’s life
on a beautiful late spring evening above Reservoir #5 near the Soap Box
Derby track.
Cascade was a much admired champion of Mt.
Tabor Park who died May 4 a the age of 59.
Some 200 people turned out for the
June 4 memorial celebration. Click
here to read a tribute to this very
remarlable woman by MTNA Board member Nadine
Fiedler.
Attention is finally focused on
DivisionStreet safety
concern
Proposed lane reorganization may
solve long-standing problems
Division Street Safety Project,
as it is known,
is built around a proposal
to reconfigure the lanes on Division
from 60th to 80th from two lanes in
each direction to one traffic lane
in each direction with a dedicated
turn lane down the center and bike
lanes on the sides. Goal is
to improve traffic safety for all
types of transportation along the
corridor.
Key project objectives, as
outlined by the Portland
Transportation Bureau, include
reducing the number of pedestrians,
bicyclists and motorists killed or
injured in crashes along SE Division
Street, and to make it safer to
walk, bike or take transit along SE
Division, now considered one of the
10 most dangerous streets in the
city.
For a thorough examination of
Division Street safety issues,
and what our nerighborhood
associations are doing to help,
read this article by Paul
Lesitner of the Mt. Tabor
Neighborhood Association, and
MaryLouise Ott, of the South
TaborNeighborhood Association.
Both the STNA and MTNA set
aside time at their February and
March meetings to give community
members a chance to ask questions
and share their opinions and
suggestions.
200 neighbors rally in rain to save
open reserviors
The rain was coming down steadily
Oct. 28 but that did not deter a
crowd of about 200 from attending a
demonnstration around Reservoir
6 in Mt. Tabor Park.With a new
City
Council taking office after the
November elections, there is still
hope the five open reservoirs in Mt.
Tabor and Washingon Parks can be
preserved despite a much disputed
federal order that they be closed. The
exisiting City Council voted 4 to
1 against a compromise plan for
saving the open reservoirs, despite
overwhelming popular support for the
proposal. Wih a new council coming
in, there is hope Portland can
follow the example of the city of
Rochester, NY, which has won a 10-year
reprieve from a similar federal
regulation.
Photos show some
of the eager resrviors backers
attending the Oct. 28 rally. See more
photos are our
Facebook
page.
R 'n' R half-marathon fun skips our
neighborhood this time
: The Rock 'n'
Roll Half Marathon, which caused
some consternation last year when
streets were blocked to let the
runners pass, this year is bypassing
our neighborhood. The course for the
May 19 event this time will go no
further east than 37th
Ave. See
www.runrocknroll.competitor.com/Portland.
MTNA tidies up
50th Avenue entryway
From left, Greg Snider, Dawn Smallman and John Rutherford were
among about a dozen neighbors who
spent about 90 minutes Aug. 29
pulling weeds and otherwise cleaning
up the neighborhood entryway, at SE
50th Avenue and Hawthorne Blvd.
As of late November, it appeared
a professional landscaper would be
retained by the MTNA to maintain the
site for about $650 per year.
The site, developed by the MTNA
on a curb extension, features a
two-sided monument welcoming
visitors to the neighborhood.
MTNA members key in fight to save
open reservoirs
From the Southeast Examiner
Open reservoir backers are
regrouping for a vigorous campaign
to keep the reservoirs as they are,
safe and scenic repositories for
much of Portland’s drinking water.
Two advocacy groups, the
longstanding Friends of the
Reservoirs (FOR) and the recently
formed Citizens for Portland's Water
(CPW) have joined to work on behalf
of the reservoirs.
Besides influencing state and
local lawmakers and rallying the
public, advocates also hope to gain
the attention of the news media,
which they feel have been more
inclined to listen to fatuous claims
that the open reservoirs pose a
health hazard. Rate payers are
sufficiently burdened, they say,
without having to pick up an
expected near billion-dollar tab for
shifting drinking water storage from
the reservoirs to underground tanks
and building an unneeded treatment
plant, as required by the federal
LT2 rule.
(Click
here
to read more)
(And click
here to see an MTNA message
urging the City Council to "press
on" in the fight to keep the
reservoirs as they are and
here
for a lucid historical look at the
controversy by MTNA board member Paul
Leistner.)
100th Birthday Party for Mt. Tabor
Park
The
celebrated Get A Life Marching Band
brought a rousing conclusion to the
Mount Tabor Park Centennial
Celebration August 1-2. Dave
Hillman, longtime MTNA stalwart and
a founder of the Friends of Mt.
Tabor Park, was a primary
organizer of the festivities, which
drew thousands of spectators,
participants and volunteers to the
park.
Click
here to read an account from the
Oregonian. And click
here for a photo page.
TriMet overrides MTNA objection to 2-way bus
service on Lincoln Street
TriMet will resume both-way Line
71 bus service on Lincoln Street
over the opposition of the MTNA. A
neighborhood consensus on the issue
is lacking, TriMet said, even though
the association voted 26-10 at its
April meeting in favor of a
"couplet" rerouting of the bus line
when the buses return to Lincoln and
proponents had collected 250
signatures in favor of the move.
(Check out the MTNA's letter to
TriMet
here)
Line 71 buses were rerouted from
Lincoln about two years ago to
accommodate city Water Bureau work
at the east end of Lincoln. Under a
"couplet" proposal backed by the
MTNA, eastbound buses would have
been shifted off Lincoln to Division
Street, a move that proponents said
would make Lincoln safer for
bicyclists and pedestrians.
Despite the MTNA vote, TriMet
said, there is still no neighborhood
consensus on the bus routing issue..
"Given this lack of consensus and
TriMet’s strong concerns about the
significant difficulties of
communicating with riders when
inbound and outbound bus stops are
on different streets, TriMet has
decided against pursuing the couplet
idea and does not intend to further
review this matter," Jon L. Joseph,
TriMet Marketing Programs
Coordinator, said in a letter to
MTNA President Bruce Treat.
Treat said the TriMet response
was "disheartening," adding, "I'm
glad that other organizations don't
so easily disregard positions taken
by MTNA like TriMet does or we would
be in trouble."
Joseph said the resumption of
full Line 71 service on Lincoln was
tentatively scheduled to start June
21.
City
Council Passes Resolution Regarding
Tabor Maintenance Yard
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,
that the Portland City Council
supports the updating of
the Mt. Tabor Park Master Plan
to include the parcel commonly
referred to as the Mt. Tabor Park
Central Maintenance Yard, and
including the Nursery and Long
Block, in a process that follows
the Public Involvement proposal
brought forth by the Mt Tabor Joint
Committee; and re...
Citizens
Hold Meeting About Sale of Mt.
Tabor Park Land
At the Same Time City Says
Park for Lease, Not for Sale
Citizens gathered for an
informational meeting at the Mt.
Tabor
Presbyterian Church last
night, November 13, to share
what they had learned about
the City's plan to sell a part
of Mt. Tabor Park to
Warner Pacific College.
The room overflowed with
over 50 people in attendance
even though the
meeting was quickly
organized and announced with
only a few days
notice. Some citizens found
out only a few hours before the
meeting..
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