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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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