Safety Meeting Notes - May 3, 2023 OSP:Patrol staffing is back to 53%
They will be filling two Sergeant positions
Museum:Trinkets to Treasures Sale will be May 5 and May 6 from 9-4, and May 7 from 9-1.
There are still tickets available for the Tea fundraiser on June 11, contact Sandy Cartisser if you'd like to purchase.
There is a $50,000 matching grant going right now, so for every dollar you donate you can double it with this grant. They are currently about half-way through the grant. Please consider donating.
(Discussion: Does in-kind donations of labor or materials count?
Will contact Sandy and find out.)
Fire District:The new water tender from the State is estimated at saving the District and locals $450,000 based on current updates.
Last year the district received $35,000 for staffing during wildfire season for patrols, manning of the station and fire protection. We don't know if we'll be getting the funds this year, but last Friday we were notified the District has received a $30,000 grant for fire reduction. This grant will be administered by the Firewise Board. More information on how that will be used will be coming.
The Breakfast for scholarships is coming up on June 10, 2023 and we'd love to see everyone there. We are also looking for donations for the silent auction. If you have something to donate please contact the fire hall.
On May 18th the fire department will be getting together with the neighboring agencies to launch the water safety programs at Dabney.
Corbett School District:The Woodard campus is going forward. The metal building is expected to be delivered in mid-June, the framed walls on building one and building two are almost ready for attaching the metal building.
Currently it is expected that the campus will be ready by mid-November which will give everyone a month to get the buildings ready to move in, with classes starting there after Winter break.
Contact was made with the Roads department and they are working on signs for Woodard and also for Bell road. They don't see any problems with getting these done.
There was a recent discussion regarding the configuration of the buildings as the High school is overcrowded and having the eighth graders in the mix was too wide of a spread of ages. The chosen option is to add two sixth grade classrooms to the Grade school and have the Middle school be seventh and eighth. So, starting in August it will be Grade school K-6, CAPS will remain the same, Middle school 7-8 and High school 9-12.
Prom was held last week at Persimmons and a big thank you to Deputy Kaiser and Citizen's Patrol. The event was well attended and went smoothly.
School Board elections are coming up and thank you to the Grange for holding an Open house to meet the candidates. It was a very nice way to talk with the candidates without having a debate, definitely felt like everyone is working together for the Community instead of competing for a spot. Get out and Vote!
Finalizing the budget tonight (5/3) if the Board votes to accept the proposal. The ending fund balance was at a negative $250,000, which is not allowed, and the desire was to have a positive of $900,000 to one million, so the decision was made to cut $750,000 from the supplies budget (bringing the ending fund budget to $500,000) and then to not fill some of the vacant and open positions, saving another $400,000. The changing of the school layout also made some of these cuts possible. The goal was to increase the EFB without impacting the classrooms.
Discussion:
What will the Woodard campus be when it is done?
It will be the middle school.
It is understood the goal is to get the Woodard campus built, then to pass another bond in a few years to build a new Middle School and turn the Woodard campus into a CTE campus.
Let's get this campus done first, then look at the future plans.
Did the school get the walking path grant they applied for?
It did not, but they are looking for more grants and will try again.
How is it going with the mental health center?
Three of the four social workers have been hired and one has already started. It is expected that services will be available by the end of May.
Mt Hood Community College:The Board has passed next year's budget and they are in good shape. They don't like to raise the cost of attending and last year they didn't have to, but this year they are raising the cost $2 per credit hour.
They are continuing to meet with their Legislators to try and get help and support of continuing education. There have been several who have come to the campus, which helps in getting support, but more is needed.
The Foundation Board held an auction and made around $200,000. All monies will go towards scholarships once expenses have been paid.
The college has been redoing the dental hygiene clinic so they can continue to meet accreditation requirements- the students have been taking classes in another location but will be back in their classrooms next year.
There are some hybrid classes going on right now, but most of the students are back on campus.
Sheriff's Budget Advisory Committee:In the budget process the departments turn in their "in target" budget items, which means they will fund the positions. With the "out of target" items it means it would be nice to have it, but its not in the regular budget.
Community Resource Officers are in the "out of target" area of the budget. There was a lot of concern regarding not having the CRO's funded (both for Corbett and Sauvie Island ) but the Chair picked those two positions up and put them in her budget.
Oregon State Parks:The repair work on the wall at the Vista House is going well, John DiBona is doing the work.
Due to the large number of false calls to the Fire Department the faulty pull stations are off line. Work is being done to correct the problem.
Women's Forum is going forward, the design contract is expected to be ready for presentation in a public forum by late summer. There is a large group of community members that the State is in regular contact with regarding the progress.
Multnomah County Sheriff's Office will be able to fulfill their contract to have a dedicated Deputy available to patrol the parks. Its been a few years since this has been possible.
Hiring is on-going, they are looking to fill 19 seasonal positions. There is also a student worker program- the applicant needs to be enrolled in school (either high school or college) and be between 16-18 years of age. Information on this will be sent to the Schools.
The spring at Nielsen is being addressed by Parks and ODOT. It will take some time, but they are working on it. The spring was not put in by the CCC, it was placed there by the Portland Auto Club when they had their club at the current Yoshida center to fill radiators.
Job Corps:Springdale is on pause due to being short staffed in the health and wellness department. Once we have 3 full time RNs on staff, we can begin to bring in new students again.
A date hasn't been set yet for the next Community Relations Council meeting but it will be shared out once the date is released. If anyone is interested in being added to the guest list, I encourage them to send an email to Sandra at:
Closser.Sandra@jobcorps.org, she would be happy to get them an invitation. The meeting is an opportunity to come to center, meet a few of the students, take a tour, and learn about the community partnerships that they are wanting to develop.
Demolition on the water damaged dorms will start on May 8, Aho Construction will be doing that work.
Grange:There was a wonderful Meet and Greet of the School Board candidates, thank you to all who came to meet the candidates. If you would like to know more about the candidates you can find some information at the Columbia Grange home page.
The plant share will be held at the Grange on Saturday, May 6th from 10-1. Please come even if you don't have a plant to swap.
May 10 from 7-8:30 come to a Conversation About Forest Management for Carbon Capture & Storage.
On May 12th there will be a meeting with Representative Helfrich from 10 until noon, at the Grange. If you have a question you'd like asked please bring it written down so if you don't have an opportunity to ask it you can leave it for the Representative to take with him.
Mother's Day, May 14th there will be a dance from 4-6 featuring the music of Caroline Oakley.
And mark your calendars for May 20th for a kids clothing exchange from 3-5.
For all events please go to :
http://www.columbiagrange267.org/weekly-events Corbett Water District:There will be a public hearing regarding increases on fees with the budget hearing. These increases will affect after hour calls, etc.
The District has been going over the policy manual, meeting every other week with volunteers from the community. This has been educational for everyone and an education program will be coming to let users know their responsibilities.
Multnomah County Roads:Adopt a Road program is being revamped and simplified! NEMCCA is adopting Corbett Hill Road and the County will be providing bags, pickers, disposable vests and signs, the same thing they will do for anyone else who would like to adopt a road. Bags will be picked up within 24 hours as long as the pick up is between Monday and Thursday. A list will be coming out letting everyone know which roads are still available for adoption.
Various ways to fix Pounder Road have been discussed, the most recent was to have the City of Gresham come out with their machinery to take up one lane of road at a time and redo the road. The issue that has been run into is staff is not available from Gresham on Fridays and the MultCo crew is not familiar with the equipment to be able to run it. More conversation needs to happen.
The County is having some of the same hiring issues as other businesses, but they have recently filled the Supervisor position and are looking to fill another seven vacancies.
Discussion: Money to fix the roads comes from the gas tax, and with the switch to electric with personal and agency vehicles the revenue is falling. What can we do? NEMCCA did send a letter to the County Chair and Commissioners asking for six million for roads in Unincorporated Multnomah County . We understand that the Chair sets the budget and infrastructure needs to see some investment.
Citizens Patrol:They will be helping with the Plant swap at the Grange this weekend, also with the Tea on June 11th. If the school wants them at Graduation they'll be there (school said Yes!) and will be helping with the 4th of July parade and fire works.
Yes, there will be fireworks again in Corbett this year! There will be a couple changes on the parade route for safety, lead cars will be turned into the school parking lot so cars aren't heading back down the Highway against the flow of traffic. Come to the parking lot after the parade to see the displays.
Darcie Arnold is interested in putting up banners honoring our Veterans along the highway, name and pictures would be shown. These could go up with the flags. If you are a vet, or know a local vet, please get that information to Darcie.
BOEC: (Bureau of Emergency Communication)The Director puts out a monthly newsletter updating what is going on in the Center. Follow the link to get a full report to download and read
https://www.portland.gov/911/documents/boec-directors-report-april-2023/download The center is now adequately staffed and they are holding academies with an eye on keeping ahead of retirements and people transferring to other work. A recent academy had 400 applicants and they were able to fill all 16 slots that were being offered. There are a total of 41 of trainees right now, vacancies are currently at 26.
Call volume for 911 has gone up 39% since 2018 for a variety of reasons, including the number of people who have cell phones, so there can be several people who call in on one incident.
If you call 911 and are put on hold, please do not hang up. For every hang up a call back has to be made to insure the caller doesn't need assistance. This takes time away from answering incoming calls, so it is very important you stay on the line once you've called in.
The Directors report also does a comparison between years of call volume, performance trends, staffing and other categories that impact our 911 system. One comparison is 911 calls for March 2022 (42,375) and March of 2023 (44,791). You can also look to see how quickly each call was answered, a trend which has been improving for our local center.
Calls are prioritized when they come in: 911, 911 transfers from another County (like those in the Gorge that bounce over to Washington and then have to be sent back) and then non-emergency.
(Side note: I had to step out for a moment during this portion and missed some of the discussion. I apologize for the missed information.)
There is a goal to have two numbers for people to remember to call:
911- for emergencies
311- for non-emergencies and general information
When do you call which number?
If the crime is occurring or has just occurred call 911.
The Center is implementing technology to address non-emergency calls. This project is now in the testing stage and they are working to help it recognize heavy accents and is addressing language barriers. (It knows 100 languages)
ODOT:Adding to what BOEC was saying, one of the issues that has come up over the years is the fact I-84 does not have the same mile markers as the Historic Columbia River Highway. The mile markers for HCRH starts at Broadway and comes down Stark, then goes down HCRH, so when someone calls in and says there is an accident at they are at mile marker (fill in the blank) the calls can actually be off by several miles. This means a delay in response time. To address this issue ODOT is putting in metal markers alongside the Historic markers so people can report both numbers. It was also suggested in the discussion surrounding this topic that BOEC have their dispatchers ask if the marker they are referring to is concrete or metal. Apparently some of the more experienced dispatchers do know to question this, but it will be brought up as a reminder.
I-84 is making progress with getting the second pipe under the freeway by the landslide area. Placement under the railroad tracks was scheduled for May 3. The Old Quarry caught three mudslides this year that would have impacted the RR and the roads, so that is working well.
The tunnel paving project is still running into a few issues and while they were hoping to get the work done before Memorial Day it will most likely be around the 4th of July before work is complete.
The Old Highway had a lot of debris come down between Larch and the Vista House this year, its kept them busy removing it. The regular drop in the road is to the point they will be repaving on May 11th from 11-2, full road closure will be in place for that work.
On May 29th (Tuesday) there will be flaggers in place with a 15 minute hold time while ODOT removes 45 trees between the Vista House and Latourell, this is a project they are doing with State Parks.
Starting Friday, May 26th, there will be a flagger at the Crosswalk at Multnomah Falls to assist with traffic. This will be in place until September 4th.
ODOT is an agency funded by the gas tax, and with the current changes happening to the funding source, ODOT's expenditures will exceed income in one year. What does that mean to the public? In the past ODOT has been doing more with less, but within the year it will be noticed that they are doing less with less. I-84 is a priority one road and needs to remain at that level, but other roads may fall to a lower level and maintenance will reflect that change. Instead of see a couple passes with the mower, you may see one. Or instead of one, full pass, you may see the road is only cut back for line of sight and fire safety cuts will be dropped. ODOT has worked to keep grass and vegetation at Multnomah Falls green and healthy due to the visitation attraction of the site, but going forward they will not be watering and it will be going brown.
Gates to shut down the roads in case of emergencies have started going in. You'll be seeing them at Jordan Road , Larch, Cascade Locks and other areas where staffing has been used to shut the roads. There will be nine gates total, they will not block the entire road so emergency vehicles can get around to respond, but they will allow for more staff to be out on the roads responding to bad weather conditions.
Some of the issues that also need to be addressed is the bike trail maintenance. Money was put in the budget for the projects as Capital improvements, but there was around $500,000 spent on maintenance issues and this hits the operational budgets.
Forest Service:Permits have started for Dog Mountain . These will be for weekend hiking and will go through June 19th during the heavy flowering time. This year the permits will be by vehicle instead of by person.
Multnomah Falls permits will start May 26 and go until September 4th for the parking lot. No timed permits in the Waterfall Corridor this year.
Campgrounds began opening on May 1st. (Eagle Creek and Wyeth)
Herman Creek will be open next year.
Wahkeena picnic area is not yet open but should be soon. They are looking for a camp host.
Forest Service has a staffing shortage this year and are looking to do an emergency hire. They have no seasonal field rangers at this point.
There is also a shortage of volunteers, so if you or someone you know may be interested, please check out their site.
Under the Great American Outdoors Act there are projects underway including an upgrade to the Visitor's Center at Multnomah Falls . A design of how the new interpretive center will look should be available by the end of the year.
MCSO:There was a semi stuck on the Stark Street Bridge this morning, commuting traffic, including those for the school and the buses had to be detoured. While it is understandable that people get upset about these interruptions, there is usually no violation occurring for which the driver, or their company, can be fined. The company will receive a hefty tow bill (ranging from $3,000 to $20,000) and any damage done to the bridge has to be repaired.
(Discussion: at some point, even if the damage isn't visible, or if the "hit" doesn't seem that hard, the bridge will suffer enough damage that it will require major repairs or to be shut down. This is long term issue, not a short term one, but everyone is aware.)
The CRO position is looking solid right now with the Chair putting it in her budget. Thank you to the Chair and Sheriff's Budget Advisory Committee.
You can find a link to the Chair's budget at:
https://www.multco.us/budget/fy-2024-chairs-proposed-budget A fantastic job was done by the school and Citizen's Patrol at the Prom, it was a great community effort and it went very well. No problems to report.
The tree situation on Pounder is being looked at and MCSO is working with the owner to see what may be changed. (There is a desire by the County to leave some of the fall down trees in the creek for fish and stream health, so while some May come out, not all will be removed.) The owner of the property wants to be a good neighbor.
NEMMCA:Sent a letter to the Chair and all County Commissioners asking for funding for second full time deputy in the area. Also asked for six million in funds for road repair in Unincorporated Multnomah County . Let them know the leftovers at the end of the budget cycle is not enough to address infrastructure.
A request to attend a Community Meeting in Corbett has been sent to the Governor, Congressman Blumenaur, Senator Bonham and Representative Helfrich for June 15. We are waiting to hear back from the Governor and the Congressman.
Please attend the Body Cam listening session scheduled for May 18 at 6:30 at the fire hall with Chief Deputy Eriksen.
