Safety Meeting Notes 4-3-2019Forest Service: Introduction of new attendee, best wishes to current representative who will be moving to new position April 13, 2019.
Fire District 14: Call rates are starting to go back up after being down 15% last year. The decrease was attributed to the Eagle Creek fire and the road closures that followed. Corbett Fire responded to four calls at Multnomah Falls in a 6-7 day period, one being a heart attack at Switchback 5. Respondents gave four baby aspirin got the party to where Lifeflight could assist. Lifeflight was there within 88 minutes which is a very good response time, the person survived and is very well.
Our volunteers have spent the winter months indoors doing medical training and are ready to move outdoors for training in other areas.
The fire district just finished certification on their fire pumps which is done annually and helps keep insurance costs down.
There is a new water tender coming, this will replace the 33 year old one at Aims. The new tender will come into the Corbett station and the one there will move to Aims.
Mt Hood Community College Board Member: The board is currently working on the budget and having to work with the disappointing offerings from the State. To help offset the costs they have voted to raise tuition but will still have to do some cuts to balance the budget.
The marketing director is working on promoting the college and its course offerings.
On April 27, 2019 there will be a Sneaker Ball. This is a fund raiser event focused on providing scholarships with a reception and silent auction starting at 5 and dinner and program starting at 6. You can purchase tickets or get more information by going to:
https://www.mhcc.edu/foundation/On April 9, 2019 the Portland Business Alliance and the Portland City Club along with elected officials will be holding an economic forum at the MHCC Auditorium from 6-7:30. (26000 SE Stark Street, Gresham)
Oregon State Parks: Campgrounds are all open. There has been an increase in visitors over the last five years and they are no longer seeing peaks on weekends with lower numbers during the week. Because of this trend Parks had to switch from a "first come, first served" approach to a reservation system, you can make your reservation up to nine months in advance.
The Western region has 22 parks in it from the Port of Portland to Cascade Locks.
Oregon Parks has requested a letter of support for Deputy Graziano from Headquarters as they recognize the value of the Corbett Resource Officer. Oregon State Parks also contributes to MCSO for assistance in law enforcement at Dabney, Lewis and Clark and Rooster Rock State Parks.
There has been lots of conversation regarding the proposed changes at the Women's Forum. Five years ago the site had 200,000 visitors, this last year it was at 507,000. Parks is not trying to attract any more visitors, they are trying to take care of the number of people who are already arriving and help with congestion on the Old Scenic Highway.
The proposal is just that, a proposal and not set in stone, and will remove the existing 33 parking stalls that currently block the best viewing area and put 125 stalls in the lower area away from the view point. The Division 4 designation for this area could allow up to 200 parking spots, the Parks department is not asking for this number. The proposal would improve the viewing shed for locals and visitors to enjoy the best view of the Gorge (Vista House) and discussion continues around the BBQ and picnic area. The designers have been working to keep any of the development from being seen for any of the Key Viewing Areas (KVA), including the Women's Forum.
(Q&A from attendees at the meeting)
Q: At the pre-app meeting it was mentioned OSP had their own law enforcement. What does that mean?
A: Approximately 1/4 of the 38 employees are commissioned to be law enforcement officers with the State of Oregon. This means they can do voluntary compliance enforcement, evict, issue notice to leave, exclude individuals from parks and issue tickets. Arresting and detaining individuals remains with MCSO and Oregon State Police.
As an fyi- the lowest ticketed amount is $60 for a failure to display a day pass, so purchase the $5 pass.
Q: There is concern about people staying in the parks and hanging out, what are the plans to address this issue?
A: One of the reasons behind looking at only one entrance/exit is they are looking at gating the park. The summer hours would be from 6am to 10pm and scaling back those hours during the winter, most likely closing the gate around 5pm.
Q: When will the work start and long will it take to complete?
A: Originally this was going to be on the 2021 biennial budget for a start date. Because parks does not receive money from the general fund the complete build out could take two to three budget cycles. This is something that parks wants to make sure the community would like to see so depending on support, or non-support, the money could be sent to Champoeg State park to fix their failing septic system as there is a lot of support for that to be done.
If it is determined the money will be sent to a different area in the region then Parks may be shutting down Vista House until they can come up with a DEQ approved emergency repair plan, this could take two to four years. This is not the preferred approach.
Traffic congestion partnership with ODOT later brought up the supply and demand factor of parking spots. The thought of increasing the cost to park to reduce the demand was questioned because Multnomah County Land Use had mentioned that you can not charge a fee to park in unincorporated Multnomah County for recreational use. This was mentioned by both ODOT and OSP as a surprise and they will be looking in to the County's interpretation of that code. NEMCCA: Petition to send to Sheriff's Office and all County Commissioners is available to sign and to hand out to those who would like to gather signatures. Please only sign once.
Corbett Water District: Finished and approved the budget at the board meeting at last night's meeting (4/2/19). Residential water meter replacement is 99% complete and commercial meter replacement will start once that is done.
NEMCCA: The meeting with Sheriff Reese and Deputy Chief Reiser was well attended and we appreciated Commissioner Stegmann coming out to hear from the community as well. Addresses for all offices are available on NEMCCA's facebook page, on the County websites and by e-mail if you want to send an individual note. Kathryn Green has a petition you can sign if you would prefer.
Desserts with a Deputy is tentatively scheduled for April 28th at the fire hall from 2-4, sundaes will be served.
The Planning Commission discussed the new Geo-hazard requirements being proposed for Multnomah County. Depending on how discussion at future workshops goes the current leaning is towards requiring additional geotechnical reports and studies for both moderate and high risk landside areas as identified by DOGAMI. This is noted as impacting 84% of tax lots. The difference in costs associated with these requirements was mentioned at the PC meeting as running between $7,000 and $14,000 for the reports depending on your rating and what the commission decides going forward. Please come to work shops and let the board know your thoughts and concerns since workshops are when staff is asked to get additional information and receives the direction the board would like them to go.
Please do not wait until after the changes are made to say "I didn't know it was happening"! (Meetings are generally the first Monday of the month starting at 6:30 at 501 Hawthorne. Agenda and meeting materials are available on the County Land Use website.)
Request that County Roads and MCSO patrol develop a protocol regarding unsafe ice and snow conditions. If the MCSO is doing their required daily patrols and find snow and ice pack to be concerning, please reach out to the Roads department to get the situation resolved since no one is monitoring the cartograph or office line during weekends and off hours.
Citizen Patrol: They are working on Emergency Preparedness. There will be a Portland city wide preparedness practice on April 28th, there are local radios that should connect Corbett with EMS during a disaster and they will be testing the equipment while they are at the center.
Fire season has started early in Oregon and Washington, please be aware.
Thank you to Ed from the Forest Service for valuable training and lessons, also thank you for helping them with patrol by issuing tickets instead of warnings. CP issued 35 warning notices on Saturday (3/30), the traffic has exploded and people are parking wherever they can, even if its not legal.
MCSO: Thank you for the meeting and all of the support. It is important to keep a presence in our area and having someone that people can just stop and talk to has solved more than one incident.
ODOT: Congestion on the Old Scenic Highway is being caused by lack of parking, not by the road's inability to handle the numbers. People are circling waiting for a spot to open at Multnomah Falls and discussion is on-going on the best way to keep traffic moving. Flaggers have been discussed, also putting in an automated traffic control device.
ODOT is working with Google to try and get traffic directed away from the Old Highway due to the decreased number of parking spots because of fire mitigation. Forest Service mentioned they had someone they have talked too, the two agencies will coordinate.
The final congestion plan meeting will be held May 15, 2019.
District 4: The April 3rd forum meeting will focus on Earth month and increasing the tree canopy.
April 9th the Commissioner will be attending the Economic forum at MHCC.
On April 17th there will be a budget listening session at the Corbett fire hall. A flyer with that information will be sent out in the next couple of days. An invitation has been extended to the other Commissioners to attend.
All letters sent to the Commissioner's office are being read, we appreciate the input.
The budget will be out of the Chair's office on April 25, 2019.
Multnomah County Roads: Grinding and maintenance will start soon, along with hazardous tree removal and striping. There will be no asphalt or chip sealing this year but grinding and patching of areas no bigger than 2-3 feet long will be done.
Corbett Hill was suppose to be repaired last year but was postponed, there is no known timeline for getting this done.
If you have potholes and would like to get on the list, please go to
https://multco.us/roads/road-service-request-app Reminder that Roads maintenance comes from the Gas tax, not your Property taxes!
Question: Can Corbett form its own road maintenance district.
Answer: Will see what can be done.
Grange: Lots of events coming up starting with a concert and dance this Friday, April 5th, please go to our website for more information.
http://www.columbiagrange267.org/Crown Point Historical Society: General meeting on April 9th with a Board meeting before. No potluck.
Multnomah County Health: Their department handles all enforcement matters for the County so they are being kept busy throughout Multnomah County.
They are seeing the seasonal uptick in illegal dumping in East County, recently cleaning up dumps on Alex Barr and Thompson Mill. There are a couple of dumps on Palmer Mill and the Old Scenic Highway but they will have to wait to be cleaned up. The dumps are sheetrock and other construction debris, please keep an eye out for anyone dumping and report it to MCSO.
They are also helping to clean up the feces dumping being done in the Corbett area. This has been going on for a couple of months and appears to be malicious as the bags are not being left on the side of the road, but rather where cars will hit them, making a mess of the road and the cars.
