City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to the, regular city commission agenda. Today is Wednesday, 03/18/2026, and I'd like to call this meeting to order. And have the roll call, please. Commissioner Rocky Smith? Here. Commissioner Mike Mitchell? Here. Commissioner Adam Marrow is excused tonight. Commissioner Scott Wilson? Here. And mayor Denise McGriff? Present. For those who are able, please

I

pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Some days you wonder if that's happening. Right. So on our agenda tonight, we have proclamation for Women's History Month. And I will say that, I believe it was last was it this Tuesday or last anyway, last Tuesday was, former chief former justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's birthday.

So that was pointed out to me the other day by our county clerk. So I would like to read that resolution and the proclamation as soon as I get the pages unstuck. So proclamation, women's history month twenty twenty six, whereas women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways, and whereas women have played and continue to play a critical economic, cultural, and social role in every sphere of life in this nation by constituting a significant portion of the labor force working inside and outside the home, and whereas women have played a unique role throughout history of the nation by providing majority of volunteer labor force of the nation, and whereas women are particularly important in the establishment of early charitable philanthropic and cultural institutions of our nation, and whereas women of every race, class and ethnic background served as early leaders in the forefront of every major progressive social change movement, and whereas women have served our country courageously in the military, and whereas women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage, equal opportunity, but in the abolish abolitionist emancipation movement, the industrial labor movement, the civil rights movement, and especially the peace movement, which creates a more fair and just society for all.

And whereas despite the contributions despite these contributions, the role of women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature, teaching, and study of American history. Now therefore be it resolved, the city commission of the city of Oregon City does proclaim March 2026 as Women's History Month and as part of the observance encourages all people and persons in Oregon City to join in celebrating the important contributions women have made in Oregon City, Clackamas County, Oregon, and across America. And I will sign this. And so our our contribution to this is, I believe, with the help of mister Wiley, we have had, just four women who have been mayors of this city. And I thought even when we did it on the rotating basis, I thought at least Carol Powell or Suzanne Van Orman or Elaine Woolsey had served as mayor during their tenure, but obviously they did not.

So they just decided they didn't wanna do it. Anyway, so I believe it was, Joan Cortalis, who was a mayor, Alice Norris, Lyle Smith, and myself. So alright. So let's move on to our regular agenda. And everybody go home and tell your mom how much you appreciate them because we all wouldn't be here without them.

Alright. So we have a couple of items, on our agenda that, are not, excuse me, are not on our agenda. So I would like to first make this statement. So if you have submitted a letter to us already, it is in the record. Please do not read it because we have gotten it. It's in the record. I have read it. I know my colleagues have read it. So if you have some summary remarks to make, that would be very lovely. But we appreciate everybody who submits things in advance because we do then have a chance to read them.

So I'd like to call up, Damon Mabee, and then to the other side, Zach Knutson. It's the same thing of people coming up and reading their PowerPoints.

Commissioners, I'm here on behalf of the Oregon City Parks Foundation. We, support activities throughout the, parks in the city. And one of the activities we have coming up is on the April 4, so four four, which is a Saturday, we're doing a cleanup along Promenade Park down at at the VFW side. Guess that's the South Side. And we have a pollinator garden there, so we're gonna be prepping it for for the the spring blooming and also clearing out some more of the grassy area and and planting in that.

So we're slowly expanding the garden, and we need lots of people there because boy, that grass is persistent. So as many people as could come, that makes the work go faster. It's from 10AM till 1PM. We'll have almost all the tools anybody would want there. We've even got a a scotch broom puller.

So we can we took out over 45 scotch broom plants last year when we did it, and we're hoping that we they're not coming back. But anyway, I just wanna let everybody know and invite you all. So I expect to see all the commission there and Tony and the and the chief and everybody because, you know, I know how much you love playing with plants. And with that, thank you.

Thank you. Well, I would say the only thing that scotch broom has any value of is after a fire, it puts nitrogen back in the soil. But other than that, they are considered to be a noxious weed. But I participated in the last one where we pulled grass, and there were a few little grass fights where we took clumps of somebody kinda hit somebody else, and we had little fun doing that. So if

I come, I can throw clumps

of grass at you? If you can catch me. Okay. I'm a moving target. So but feel free. You only you. Only you get to do it. Alright. Thank you, Zach.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. My name is Zach Knudson. I'm with the Oregon City Police Employee Association, one of the e board members. I did submit a letter. I don't plan on reading it. I fully trust that you guys have a chance to read it and review it. But I did wanna highlight just on a couple of things. Three months ago is when I last came before you guys, and we were about the records team was about 1,600 cases or reports down. As of Friday when I checked in with Jessica Mott, our record specialist, are over 2,300 down.

So we're we're going in the wrong direction. I we fully understand and support and appreciate the chief and all of the resourcefulness that he has done in trying to figure out how to manipulate the budget that he's been given so that he could get a couple of part timers, to to help a little bit. But we need this city commission, and we're asking the city commission to really look into a work session or whatever you need to do to pull up the budget books because I I don't think we're gonna make it to the next biennium. We we need that third record special is back. Our record specialist need relief.

And the thing that I will end on, although it's it's not as cool as doing a ride along with the police because they have red and blue lights and it's lots of fun and sirens and a PA. But if anybody wants to come to a sit along with our record specialist, she has told me that she is more than willing to answer any questions anyone has. Or if you wanna see what that job looks like, let her know, and she'll save you a seat. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Next on our agenda, we have two items on the consent agenda. Do we have any concerns, or do we have a motion?

Move to, approve the consent agenda. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Commissioner Rocky Smith. Aye. Commissioner Mike Mitchell.

Aye.

Commissioner Scott Wilson. Aye. And mayor Denise McGriff. Aye. Motion passes. Alright. We don't have any public hearings tonight, but we do have two items under general business. First is the second reading of ordinance twenty six one zero zero seven, arts commission and mural code update. I think we know all we need to know. Are there any questions about that, or do we have a motion?

I would approve the second reading of ordinance number 26 dash one zero zero seven.

All second. Ordinance number 26 dash one zero zero seven, an ordinance of the city Oregon City, amending Oregon City Municipal Code section 2.26, Arts Commission, and section 15.28 o nine o, public art murals.

Commissioner Rocky Smith? Aye. Commissioner Mike Mitchell? Aye. Commissioner Scott Wilson? Aye. And mayor Denise McGriff? Aye. Motion passes. Alright. So the second item under general business is Abernathy Bridge wide widening and seismic retrofit project temporary work area extension request. Come on up, our friends from ODOT.

And, madam mayor, if I could real quick.

Yes. We're just getting unsettled. Okay. Please get the report, mister City Manager.

Sorry. Good. So as you're well aware, Oregon Department of Transportation I 205 I 5 to Oregon 213 phase one a project will widen I 205

What happened?

213 to Highway 43 and complete a phase two seismic retrofit of the Abernethy Bridge. Purpose of the project is to improve traffic safety, relieve traffic congestion with the corridor, and provide an earthquake resilient route capable of being operational after a Cascadia seismic event. In the staff report, I laid out the history dating back to the the vote, measure three dash five three nine back in 2018, which authorized use of portions of public parks to improve roadway safety and authorize the city to allow it out from some permanent temporary use of John Storm Park And Sportcraft Landing. In looking at the request, so that is requesting a five year extension to the temporary work areas located in John Storm Park, which is a charter park and Sportcraft Landing, which is not a charter park. There'll be no changes to the work area boundaries, the proposed activities within the areas or the mitigation and replacement requirements for the impacted city properties.

Rather than an easement as we've recorded against the property, ODA is requesting a license for use. All activities will be temporary and upon completion, the property will be planted and returned to park use. I did lay out and included in the staff report the the the ballot measure itself, and included in the explanatory statement was an initial estimate for the construction timeline that indicated the four years. The commission clarified when approving the resolution to send the item to voters that the expected impact of the parks would be four years which based on the best available information on the estimated construction timeline and as such appears to be more as an estimate rather than a firm limit. The commission should determine if the timeline in the explanatory statement is binding to the vote or was an informational estimate of time based on a preliminary construction schedule.

The proposed five year extension request if approved does not appear to conflict with the criteria a through d of section 41 of the charter which was included in the staff report. Be happy to answer any questions or we can have the presentation from the Oregon Department of Transportation representatives.

I do have a question, if I may. Mhmm. So one of the things that I would like clarified is when did the construction actually start? And I don't mean notice to proceed because sometimes there's a lag between a notice to proceed and when the contractor Mobilizes. Starting to do the work.

And I think to me that's a pivotal time frame. Having done construction projects myself, I know that when I've issued notices proceed, there's a lag. And that would be something that would be critical for me to know in dealing with our deliberation. I think the other thing is that, I think you aptly stated, mister Conkel, that any construction project that has ever been happening in the world, it always you give your best guesstimate about what that time frame might be because you really don't know. There are circumstances that happen that you find unforeseen things or, you know, I can think of my own home where, gee, we didn't know we had an oil tank in the basement.

We had a construction project going, so we had to extend the timeline because we had to get that out first. Construction is not an exact science. We do know in all projects that you get some idea of what you think it's going to be, and it's it's never that. I mean, that's just been my professional and personal experience. Always takes longer than you think. Mhmm. So gentlemen And

I can just say, I think they can probably answer that question because I know different sides were mobilized at different times. And I guess I just want you to know that when Carrie and I were working with ODOT as well as kinda trying to put together the staff report, right, we really focused on the charter itself, right, which is the driver for John Storm Park. Right? Remember Sportcraft Landing, when we were when we've been going through the process, we we excluded John Storm Park because we have an existing lease for the marina on that property. Right? So

I thought it was a license.

License. Sorry.

Yes. It's not a lease.

But when we look at the charter, what what requires it going to the voters sell lease or other transfer park property. The transfer of the private components is, know, has been voted on already. Right? Not asking to change any of the existing boundaries that were approved. Vacate or otherwise change the legal status. Not proposing to do that. Construct permanent buildings, not proposing to do that. So what's interesting in this is the time component. Right? How long, right, even though you know it's gonna be returned to a park.

And what what does that explanatory statement serve that that went to the voters? I think that's where where we came out is why we're bringing this to you is because of the you know, it did go to the vote. This was a commission decision to send it to the vote partially because the charter we are asking for permanent easements, which we interpreted sell lease or otherwise transfer the park property, but they're not changing anything that would have been put before the voters. The the time was in the explanatory statement even though there's no requirement that we've identified that

dictates that

in the charter itself. So I really do think it's up to the commission to really kind of talk through that and how it's how it's applied here.

Anything, gentlemen? On with the show? Curious to hear. Okay. You okay for starting a presentation? Okay. You. So you guys know the drill name

We do. Mayor and commission, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to talk to you tonight. We'll give you an update on the Abernathy Bridge Project. I'm Matt Freitag. I'm ODOT's region one project delivery manager, responsible for the, Region 1, which is the Portland area. And with me is?

Mayor, commissioners, my name is Patel Francis. I am the area manager for the Abernathy project.

Alright. So we'll give you a quick update here on what we know is a big project in your backyard. So first off, a quick reminder of the project elements. So this is bridge strengthening work. That's the central part of this project. We're we're retrofitting every Nifty bridge to make it, seismically resilient to withstand a major earthquake.

But while we're here,

we're also reconfiguring on off ramps at both 99 E in Oregon City and Oregon 43 in West Linn. The new roundabout in West Linn, which was finished in 2023, we're already seeing benefits to that. We also have quite a few bike pet improvements in both Oregon City and West Linn. As part of the the retrofit work on the bridge, we're widening it to accommodate a future third through lane. Full benefit of this be realized in future phases of our project.

And upon completion of this phase, southbound will have three through lanes and one auxiliary lane across the bridge. And northbound will have two through lanes and one auxiliary lane across the bridge, which will be ready to widen for the next phase of the projects. While we're doing this, we're also building a new sound wall in Oregon City near Exit 9 just north and east of the bridge. This was something that the commission wanted us to look into, and ultimately, the adjacent neighbors did vote for it. And also, while we're here, we're doing stormwater treatment, retaining walls, signing, striping, sign structures, and illumination.

Alright. So now I'll get a quick update on what we've completed thus far. So on-site, good news, we are out of the water. So that is, all new construction work that needs to be done in the Willamette River has been complete, is an important milestone. You may notice there are still temporary work structures that need to be removed, and then also the existing bridge supports will be removed. But everything new that's going in there has been done. We are also working on the the cross beam retrofits. The concrete to strengthen those pieces is nearly completed as well. Probably a very visible piece that you can see here in the picture. Structural steel is being installed to facilitate the bridge widening.

You've you've seen the the green steel, these girders that are being have been installed over 99 e along the and then also we have stringers and other minor steel elements along the main span of the bridge. We've also successfully completed overnight closures of I 205 to install two new sign bridges and remove the old ones. I mentioned the roundabout before over there at Oregon 43. We're already seeing the benefit of it. Rush hour speeds have increased and local congestion has decreased.

We're also looking at certain crashes to decrease by 48%. On the administrative side of things, we did give an update to the Oregon Transportation Commission last week. Part of that is we're working with the contractor on clarifying the revised schedule to complete the bridge work. Our contract completion date is currently October 2026. However, our contractors last accepted schedule indicates a completion in May '27.

We're So working diligently with the contractor on opportunities to accelerate the work. A part of that is revising some of the work that to save time and effort. We're removing extra items from the project to to have them streamlined to focus on what needs to get done, and then we're also allowing some alternate methods that will save the contractor time while while still delivering the same results. And we're also looking at doing separate phases. So a future phase of the work will be the improved soil matrix.

That is subsurface work at the ends of the bridge to again improve the seismic resiliency by improving the soil and this holds up the bridge and then also planting work. Both of these need to be done after the bridge work is complete, but also having a focused contractor to do these pieces will result, in much better end result. And a quick focus on the work that is happening in the Oregon City parks. So, we know that you have a front seat to this project or this part of the project. We expect intermittent noise during the day and night, that some neighbors in in Oregon City will hear.

Ongoing traffic impacts on 205 and on 99 E Main Street, Clackman Drive, and the Arch Bridge. Ongoing sound wall construction. And then specific in the park area, we've got the soil stabilization work that I mentioned, which will, again, help with the earthquake resiliency. And this is very specialized work. It's bringing in a specific contractor after the bridge, and we expect that work to take about one and a half to two years.

And then after that work is done, then we will work on our final contract, which is landscaping and also improving the outfall of Abernathy Creek and returning the park areas to their original condition. So I do wanna say our request today, which is supported by the staff report, is for a time only extension. No changes to the footprint, and the public will continue to have the same access to both parks as they do today. So thank you for your consideration of our request.

Questions, gentlemen. So my my first question, if you can, maybe just clarify for one. So how exactly are you using the land today, and were you not to be granted access to its continued use? What's your plan?

Commissioner, thank you for the question there. Appreciate that. Number one, I'm gonna say thank you for the partnership that we've had with the city of, Oregon City with the work that we've been able to continue on the bridge right now. As far as changes to the footprint of what we put what's been already allocated or given to us or temporary easement, there's no changes to it. Currently, right now, again, there's construction activity going on in those locations and we expect for those to continue.

The situation that we're confronted with at least right now is that the contractor is behind schedule in in different ways because of the challenge of being able to complete a project like this. Know, when you're doing a project where you're retrofitting an existing structure to bring it up to standard as well as replacing numerous parts of it, there's lots of issues with trying to get the work completed in on time. And we do know that the current easement that we have right now or that the current temporary work location that we have right now does expire, I believe September. September. And we already recognized that the contractor will not be able to get out on time.

Consequently, if we are not granted, that would mean that that would obviously, the work would have to halt until we can figure out another path to be able to use those easements as set forth.

And so continuing on, five years is a long time. That's that's more than twice what the initial timeline, you know, when when we went to the voters was. I'm I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that.

What I will say is that, the contractor key with our plan is to actually get have him out completely out. Right now, the current contract says that they need to be out by October. But we do recognize through analyzing their schedule, looking at the work and so forth is likely this is gonna be much later. But the approach is to have them completely out gone. Consequently, what you'll see next going on is is the soil matrix contract contract that has to happen to that's the last effort to make the bridge completely seismic resilient where we stabilize the ground right there with some soil mixing and consequent and that would be the contract that would be coming afterwards to complete that final phase.

So our current contractor would actually be out of there. It's just that we need the additional time to get him out there, but bring in this Yep. Con this soil matrix phase into it to complete it and then afterwards to beautify the location with landscaping and so forth, which has to happen last. And and Oh, go ahead.

Yeah. I was gonna say, just some of the timelines. So bridge work, yes, as we mentioned anticipated potentially going into 2027. The ISM work is does have some in water components. So we're limited in the amount of time we can do that each year. So we are assuming two years for that. So '28 and '29 and then the landscape will work in '30. So so that gets us pretty far in there. And yes, recognizing that we are not done with the bridge yet and there is uncertainty with the bridge completion and ongoing negotiations with our contractor that that could potentially put that that revised completion data risk. That's what we're working to mitigate.

So with with the the estimates that you just said of the you said the ISM were taking potentially two years and then a year for replanning beautification of the area. Right? Was that part of your initial four year plans? You're estimating one year for the actual work with the contractor, two years for the ISM, and then one year for fixing the area. But, again, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this timeline and why we've gone from four years to requesting nine.

Sure. So, Commissioner Wilson, where the original project had all these elements into a single construction contract. So Kiwit was was gonna be doing all of that work and we recognized very quickly that they were not gonna be the right ones to complete this other part of it. So that's where we work to separate out that work and do it under a separate contract requiring the the bridge work to be done so they couldn't, you know, dovetail that together. And then also just the the bridge project itself, as you've probably noticed, it has taken the project has taken longer than we were expecting. These retrofit projects, the remodeling of a bridge is is definitely taken more than we were originally expecting.

I appreciate that. And I and I apologize. I I hope I'm not coming across as hostile or anything like that. It's not my intention.

I'm just trying

to understand. Sure. So, again, following up with understanding that we're we're behind on on schedule, Why are we coming only six months before the the easements contract ends? Well, we've

been working with our contractor on on recovery schedule and working through that. So looking through those details, that's a big part of what we've been trying to square away what that schedule is gonna be so that we can come to you with some more confidence in what our timelines are gonna be.

As as Matt mentioned earlier too, we we've made a very huge conscious effort to try to see if we could speed up the work in various ways. Finding new specifications that we could get the contractor to be able to do the work much more smoothly, finding ways to eliminate or remove certain works that didn't have functionality functionality to the existing structure that we have right now as far as it being seismically resilient. We looked at various ways to try to get the contractor to move faster by, you know, releasing limiting how do I say, limiting some of the specs so that he can have more options on how he's constructing and so forth. And again, but ultimately, realizing as Matt just mentioned here, this contract is likely not the right one to to to to continue with this phase of work. Consequently, all our efforts to try to come with a recovery schedule to get us back on track, get us back on time is still posing some challenges.

Consequently, we're here now with the commission here to have that discussion and and and have that conversation.

Okay. I appreciate it. That's all I have for the moment.

So are you, able to answer my question about timing of construction starting?

Mayor, construction started in 2022.

So was that the notice to proceed or is that when Keywood actually got on-site started doing stuff?

I was not involved in the project that time that has the notes I have. I I believe that was is when we had first note, which is the start of construction. So I I I'll I'll get that information and

So you're saying that was noticed to proceed?

I believe. We we would have to get back to you, mayor, with the exact date on that and and you are right. Generally, when a contract is led, there's a few months that kind of lapse before they actually get on the ground and actually start moving the work. But both him and I, I'm kind of new to this project to some extent. Obviously, in the on the agency, there's lots of us wearing multiple hats trying to make coverage on a lot of other projects and so forth. I'm actually coming from down the Eugene area to come and support this project as an area manager. But if you just give us

Sure. That's that's fine. Time that

we can respond to you quickly with the Sure. The exact first note on this project.

Questions, Mike?

No. Not questions. I've I've got comments, but Okay.

Go for it.

Not not quite no. Got are we gonna hear public comment before comment from commissioners, or we're gonna wait?

We're gonna hear comments, but from the community. But if you have questions I don't have any questions for them. No. This is we will we have the opportunity to ask them questions at any time, but I figured we could if we had some substantive ones, we could we could do that right now and take care of that. Go ahead.

So in the original agreement and the time scope that was the original time scope, the there wasn't any reimbursement to the city other than putting the park back the way it is in the end. Correct?

Actually, you mean Or was there more better than it was.

Well I believe, yes, there was compensation to the city for use of the space.

What that doesn't do is give us the loss of a park for up to ten up to ten years. And what it does so so I guess the question is simply this. You're extending the project by almost double. You're not extending the compensation to businesses by almost double or the city for the loss of a park for a double the time. That's concerning.

I I don't disagree with you. We have a we have a balancing act here. So we have a facility that that, serves more than our city. It's of statewide significance. We all know that the seismic upgrade is absolutely needed because it's one of the main ways that if something happens, people have people have to use that.

If I could could answer commissioner Smith's question. So so the the time involved with this, there there is compensation that's being proposed to the city for the additional time. I I don't have that number right in front of me. We're still

working with our right away staff to And business is affected.

There are there are three businesses directly affected. We've heard from two of them that are suffering 50% losses in income and have since the start

of the

project. And now you're doubling that length of time. So I'll be I'll be right up front up now. I'm I'm not in favor of this commission extending it. I'm not in favor of putting it before the people until you have a financial compensation agreement with those three businesses to compensate them for their loss of revenue. That that's where I'm at.

Are you talking about one of the businesses being sport craft?

I'm talking about the hotel. Talking about sport craft, and I'm talking about energy kayaking. Yeah. And energy and Sportcraft are the two that we heard from. Right.

Well, Sportcraft And at some point Got money from the state.

No. Sportcraft got money. The money they got was for permanent loss. Yes. Permanent loss. It was not for business Loss. Impacts. Yeah. Two different things.

Yes. Thank you.

So if I could I had a follow-up because I I wanna make sure I understand this as best I can. So were time not to be extended, the project stops or what again, what is what is the impact to the seismic upgrade on the bridge if we say, hey. We're we're not renewing the access to our parks.

The the work area currently is being used for access to the bridge to allow our contractor access to make the improvements needed. Once the bridge work is done, that that same area will be used for the subsurface improvements. So so when it comes to access, we can access would be more challenging. Could we revise things and and not use the space to get access? Potentially. We we haven't looked at that yet. But as far as doing the subsurface soil work, no. That cannot happen anywhere else. It must happen where that access point is.

Okay. So so you're saying you would not be able to complete the project without access to the the park area that you currently have access to?

At this point, I I I can't I can't say that we could. I I we would need to look at it and see

if there's Okay.

Alternate options. So we we cannot complete without significantly changing our approach.

So there are potentially alternates that you have not explored? Potentially, I'm I'm not sure.

We have not looked at those yet.

Okay. How would they get to those partners there? That's There's no there's no place else to go. Right.

And so that's that's what I'm trying to get to the crux of is is does it stop or are there are are there alternatives?

I don't think there's any other way to get there. That's my assumption. That's my assumption as well. We're basically saying that there's no other way to get to that Right. Yeah. Section of the bridge of where it crosses there. There's I mean, you

know And and I appreciate, you know are flying. I that's happening. Kind of how you're you're sharing and explaining things, but I I like just being super direct. Like, if it if the project can't continue without access, period, I think that's helpful to know because I I also do understand the important nature of the upgrades. But, again, balancing that with access to our parks and the impact on our businesses.

I think for me, the impact is more so for the the adjacent businesses. So

Or, I mean, we're a we're a riverfront town that has, putting it bluntly, not great access to the river, and this is making it worse.

I know. But It's tough. The bridge yeah. It's either we get the work done or the bridge falls down, which I don't think I like that alter alternate because then they'll be coming down Main Street, and we do not want that.

I guess I did have one question. I'm sorry. I should have asked sooner. Originally, this was seismic upgrade and widening, and now it's seismic upgrade and preparing for widening. Did I understand that right?

It's widened. Okay. This project?

It actually is seismic upgrade upgrades as well as the bridge actually will be widened. The bridge be widened.

Will be wide.

Yeah. Correct. That was the plan all along. It was gonna be I knew

it was the plan all along, but I bought I had also read several stories that said it was going to be prepared for the additional widening, but that was not a part of this phase.

So this this phase is widening the bridge. Okay. What has been removed from the whole corridor is widening on other parts of 205. Right. Understand that. Structure itself will be widened. Yes.

So the work you're doing now will include widening the bridge. Correct.

Okay. That is correct. If if if to make it a little bit more clearer to you, excuse me, the center main spans of the structure right now. There's about three spans that goes across the the river right now. We plan to do a translation of the structure where we actually move both of those spans, separate them by, like, 12 feet on both sides, and then add additional roadway between the center of of of those two structures.

And again, that work is we're looking at pro likelihood towards the end of the this year to try to get that work completed. But again, for us to be able to get there, again, we have to come through this commission to to have that conversation about this going on. But, yes, it it's it's a bridge widening. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

I call up public members, I do have one tangentially related project. So, yes, I like the roundabout. It works well. I do see people doing strange things on them as I'm sure your crew does. I I don't understand why, you know, going in a circle is hard, but you know, that's okay.

So at one time when you came down Willamette Falls Drive, there was a stop sign, there still is. And then when you're coming from, under the bridge and then coming to our bridge or your bridge or our cities two cities bridges, there was also a stop sign there. Now people just go through and then this traffic all backs up, Willamette Falls Drive because they have to wait to alternate in if somebody is inclined as a driver. And so I've done it both ways. Coming, I'll just say, I'm at market of choice, so I'm coming that way.

It's easier for me. Is there any plan to put a yield sign or a stop sign, and you don't have to answer it now, you can get back to me later, coming, towards Oregon City so that people who are coming down the Lammoth Falls Drive have an opportunity to make the turn and get wherever they're they need to go. Because I've just I said I use it daily.

Yeah. Sure.

Mayor McGriff, anytime we do a major upgrade project that does change lanes like this, we we see there are changes adjacent and hence we are looking at that and looking at what else might need to be adjusted, changed, improved to to deal with new traffic patterns. So in the middle construction, it's a little tough to do that. But once we're done and we're seeing where the numbers are and where the maybe the challenges or bottlenecks are, then we do look at what we could change there. So we we will be looking at that as we are further along. Okay.

Well, I hope it's I mean, I'm I try to lift and I'm coming towards the the bridge and somebody's coming down the Lambert Falls Drive. I try to let somebody in because I've been in that situation where, you know, I've waited and waited and waited and waited and nobody, you know, and then it's backed up past the school and up, you know, further on 4 on 43 up there. I mean, Willamette Falls Drive is just you see that line and it's just like, okay. People are just zooming. Okay.

I'd like to call up people couple at a time since we only have three people. I'd like to call up Damon and Raymond. Don't forget about the green light, and move it closer to you so that you don't have to lean over. There you go.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Damon. My name

is Raymond, and I'm a member of TAC, but speaking only for myself. Raymond what? Raymond Raymond. And I'm a resident of Oregon City, not speaking for the Transportation Advisory Committee, but I do happen to be a member. I also reread the explanatory statement, and nowhere in that explanatory statement does it say approximately four years.

It it says up to four years. So it's very clear voters approved up to four years, and they deserve to have weigh in on potentially five more years. So that that part is very clear, and there's just no ambiguity to it that it would be wrong to do otherwise. So in addition to that argument, we also have a charter park, and it would set a terrible precedent for the commission to arbitrarily, without additional voter approval, provide an additional five years. You can imagine a situation where for good cause, citizens decide we need a temporary hospital in a charter park for just a few years to deal with the next pandemic, whatever it is.

We can't have a future commission say, oh, we did this for ODOT. Now we're just gonna have this temporary hospital and a charter park for another ten years, twenty years in perpetuity. So, please don't set that precedent right now. The other item is just the bargaining chip that we have with ODOT right now. They're coming to us.

They need something from us. And if we just give it to them without negotiating, thank you for talking about the businesses, but what about our streets? You know, we have a lot of needs on our streets right now and ODOT has a billion dollars at this project. They could be providing us with the $6,500,000 we need for Highway 213, which is a, ODOT property. Right now, they're arguing that that project should be done with our SDCs, and we're having to put aside all of our discretionary funding towards an ODOT property when we have this wonderful bargaining chip.

They could be coming to the voters saying, we've got money for sport craft. We've got money for, the $6,500,000, which is a drop in the bucket compared to all that they're putting on the Abernathy Bridge. And voters would probably approve that. They would say, great. We're getting all this, and all we have to do is let them stay in the charter park for another five years. Voters would probably flock to that, but instead, they're considering getting all this for nothing. So that's all I got.

Thank you.

Damon Mabee, Oregon City resident. I'm not talking from Parks Foundation in this case. I wanna just say I've got lots of issues with this. First off, I have a bit of an issue with mayor McGriff saying, well, things happen on construction projects.

They

do. Not if they're well planned, not if you take the time. There's a reason why there's the the six p's. And, you know, you wouldn't accept somebody building an addition to your house saying, it's gonna take five extra years. Sorry.

And so there's that. And and part of that is ODOT's really, really late response coming to the city. They already knew it was gonna be three more years just for the soil and the rep reparation or the repairing of the park. Even if Kewitt left in October, they were still gonna have three more years. They could have come to us anytime in the last year, and we could have put this on the ballot, and we could have had it resolved.

So because their piss poor planning does not necessarily mean that it's our emergency. I mean, how many times have you had to deal with somebody else's problem becoming your emergency, especially up there? I've been there. So, you know, hey. I support the project. I it needs to be done. I wanna say that absolutely upfront. But, you know, if it you know, I and I would support the commission saying something like, well, we'll give you an extra sixty days until we wait till the November election. Because if they would have come to us even a month ago, it could have been on the May ballot. So this delay is a is a crisis of their own making.

And, you know, there's a lot of ways where, like, like Raymond said, that they could make us very appealing to the city or to the voters. One I like is a promise to not toll 205 in Clackamas County. You know, go ahead and push it up there. We'll love all you want. Sorry. I know

that's It's off it's off the table. It's not not coming back.

But, you know, it's just yeah. The other thing that worries me is this permanent easement. Because if it's there, it can be used without requirement. So, oh, we're doing something on McLaughlin, so let's park all of our dump trucks on the easement. You know?

And and it just easements always make me nervous unless there's a boundary on them as far as what what they are an easement for and if you know? So a permanent easement is a potential permanent loss of access to a charter park. Again, another reason to take it to the voters. So I think what the commission should be doing besides finishing these negotiations is, you know, saying, look, we'll give you sixty days, but it's going to the voters in November. Thank you. Sam?

Okay. Hello. Thank you. My name is Sam Dribo, small business owner in Oregon City. Appreciate your time, commissioners.

And, yeah, in a similar vein, I just want to say, well, I did get to have a great meeting with Vidal last week and that was very insightful and I'm thankful for that. What's been kind of unfortunate is that as a small business owner right underneath the bridge, we really haven't been contacted from ODOT at all ever. And, you know, we in the very beginning, we called. And again, just to for the record, I'm a small business owner, energy kayaking based inside. We're a anchor tenant at Sportcraft Landing and we've been in business for fifteen years, eleven years prior to the to the project.

It's now the fourth summer. And, yeah, it's not 50% down. And in fact, as after my meeting with Vidal, I was like, I need to really crunch these numbers a little bit more. We're like, it's like a 61% decline in revenue and like a 64% decline in visitation, which is like almost 12,000 people. And this is based on historical data that we've got. So this is a pie in the sky. It's over half $1,000,000 loss in for my small business if you cumulatively, you know, add it up. And it's really just the the business interruption that I'm here to talk about. And I'm not gonna go through it. You guys have read the letter, so I'm not gonna not going to, to belabor all the different aspects.

But, what I will say is that, you know, we we did we were more or less forced to sign a really restrictive lease when when this project started. And for the for the record, the staging started in the '21 and the first full season, summer season was '22. But it was it was definitely starting in '21. You know, and they closed down Clackamas Drive, which is a a main thoroughfare for for fishermen, for parking. John Storm Park is a park that we used, you know, in the past.

And then it really had to do with parking down, you know, on the park's property in the parking lot there. And, you know, we're basically said, you know, we can't have vehicles there for more than fifteen minutes. You know, was was the the lease that we signed. We were forced to sign, you know, as our rent doubled. Right?

At the very beginning of this project, right after, you know, we had a 37% decline and a 20% decline. I mean, it's in it's in the letter. But I guess my point is I can't not address this issue in this moment. And I and I feel like like like this is a good time for some negotiation, some renegotiation because I feel like what we were what we were kinda forced into at the very beginning and then now we're four years down the line, we can look at what's happened. And it's like, hey, you know, we need to have a voice in in this.

It's just it's been too big of an impact not to. And, and I will just say for the record, you know, we've gotten a little bit of rent relief from our from our landlord, you know, last this winter. But I mean, it's been three years of, you know, COVID loan helping finance our losses. Hey, your time Just reevaluation, would be great.

So thanks.

Questions? Nope. So

gentlemen, one of the biggest concerns business that are down there, which I you know, again, you're both new not been with the project from the beginning, but, obviously, that is a major concern. We'll be coming up on another, summer season. Let's hope we have summer, this year. And I think that's one of the things that would probably be helpful to hear what your thoughts are about that. I know some of this is above your pay grade, but it's obviously an issue.

I'll go first. Mayor McGrath, thank you for, first of all, giving us the opportunity to be able to speak and also to be able to listen to some of the listen to some of the voices in the room that that have, you know, experiences with the bridge. And I think that overall, what I'm hearing here in the room that the project is actually needed in the project. I think most folks, if not all, wanna see the project get completed. And that's because it serves a greater purpose for for not just this community, but many of the communities nearby, adjacent, and even folks that pass through.

I will say that the experiences that everyone is feeling here is more than likely real. Again, they you have your businesses that need to do their serve their clients and so forth. And and and I will say that I know that the agency has made a conscious effort to not hinder anyone from being able to access those businesses and and visit their GoDear appropriately. As the the the last comment that came through in our conversation that I had with mister Deborah, I believe the last name is. We will we will continue to make sure that people have accesses to their business, which includes also looking at putting up some signs to help people to be able to see or notice that their business is still open.

But again, we have never hindered or stopped anyone from coming to the business. I will also say too that as we wind down with Kiwi trying to get them to move on, complete this project, as we move to the other smaller contracts, the the the big scene that you see out there will actually all kind of vanish or go away simply because we're doing a much smaller nature of improvement in that general area in terms of doing the SOAR matrix as well as the lands landscaping work. So again and and I I I do recognize that Keywood's out there. There's lots of moving parts. There's lots of boats, barges, if you will, girders coming in, trucks moving back and forth.

And and I think that everyone understands that that's the kind of the nature of that particular project simply because of the magnitude that it that it has there. But we all recognize, I think everyone here in the room recognize that it's an important project. One that, again, as you work through these projects and myself, I've been a construction manager for several years for ODOT. And one of the things I know, there's no such thing as a perfect set of plans. You know, even if a designer sit there and write down all their stuff, they lay it down nice and neat and so forth.

Their contractor who's trying to get it done for the best price, get it done the most expedient way, he's gonna try to rub against the grain to complete their project. Consequently, if you don't have a good or if you're working with a a a a an administration team that's trying to stay at on top of the schedule, stay on top of all the different activities, it can be challenging. In particular, with a project of this nature, not only this size, but this type of complexity. Rehabbing existing structures are very, very difficult. But nevertheless, we we we recognize some of the pain that everyone feels.

Oddot ourselves, we're feeling the pains too because we have to traverse those roads. We have to do our business, if you will, on those roads. But again, we will continue to do our best, continue to try to improve not only this community, but every other community that's out there. And I'm gonna turn it over to Matt to see if he have a few comments too as well. Thank you.

No. Nothing. I have anything else to add, but, yeah, I think that, you know, hearing the concerns and, looking at, you know, again at at our contractors operations and making sure that, business access is maintained.

Well, I'm not sure who is putting the fifteen minute time limit on that, but I'm assuming it's not you all. Correct?

I'm not I'm not aware of a fifteen minute limit. No. We'll we'll go back and double check on things, but, that wouldn't be something that we

would do. Sam, you can't speak from the audience, but you could either nod your head yes or no. Is this your your your, the person that holds your lease? Nope. Just nod your head. Yes. Is yes. It is your lessee, your lessor. So who's putting so they're saying it's not them. So Okay. Come back up. Yep. No. Okay. So I don't know who's doing that.

What I didn't hear was how you plan to work with the adjacent businesses to, besides access, there are other things that, you know, I I don't know if anybody has business disruption insurance. Such a thing does exist. But it seems to me that at the beginning of the project, there had to be some knowledge that there might be problems of getting people to and from, you know, these businesses. I haven't been down well, it's been a while since I've been down. It's probably been about about two since before the fall that I was down at Sportcraft.

None of us have been down there. Well, I mean, I I

couldn't go down there because I was in a I was in a cast, so I couldn't Right. I was down there, like, in July Mayor? Just to see if but you could actually get there, and you could. It wasn't easy, but you can get there.

I agree. It's an it is an important project. We want we all wanna see it done. We all wanna see it done as quick as possible. I'll just point out, when you talk about business access, you're really understating the problem for those businesses because the two of them especially You don't know how activities of their customers are all on that water.

And who wants to take their kayak out in the middle of a massive construction project like that? Whether they can get to the business on the road isn't the problem. It's for those their unique businesses and both of them rely on people being able to feel comfortable and safe moving their watercraft to their facilities. And it's not that way. And that's why that's why some compensation for that to me is is critical in

this. Rocky?

The topic we had before this was about what we what would happen if someone lost a tree. And we're losing a part for almost nine years and saying, okay. That's just okay. It's not okay. And and and so, you know, I I think this project's important, but then come back and tell us what you're gonna do to mitigate the fact that we're losing the park for another four four years or three, four years, and what are we gonna do to help those businesses that lose business for the next three or four years?

If you have an answer for that and it has a dollar figure, then maybe we can figure this out because the project should happen, but but that's the answers we need.

I I think that's where we have to go.

I I think the concern that I have though in even just talking about what efforts have been made to the businesses saying we'll put signs up. Where's the signs been since 2022? And it's now 2026. There's no signage to tell people that those businesses are open. Yes. Do we know that we can access those buildings? Every time I drive down, I'm thinking, gosh, I'd really like to drive down there and see what the park looks like. Have I done it? No. Because no one wants to drive anywhere near that. Right? And so there has to be a response other than we're trying our best. And if we're trying your best is just saying it, then that's not enough.

So I I think you've heard three of us making sort of the same request, and I I think that's I think that's where we have to go. I our businesses are are very important to us. I I will say that from the standpoint of, you know, I don't wanna hear from Salem that, oh, Oregon City is shutting down this product because I mean, they, you know, they will I'm sure that they there'll there'll be some blame assigned. I don't want that to happen either. So there's gotta be a balance somewhere between making sure that the signage is adequate that, again, we all know how people are.

If they can't figure something out, they're just going to leave. If you really want to go there, you'll figure it out. But that's that's not the point. That's not really the point. The point is we've had business disruption, substantial business disruption.

We need to go above and beyond. So I think you're going to need to come back with some answers to those questions that we have before we can make any decision about this.

I can't speak for the other commissioners, but I I feel like I'm being put in a very tough position here, right, of recognizing the importance of this project and that it it's need to be completed, the, access to our parks, and how critical that is to the completion of this project, and also recognizing the impact to our community and our businesses. And and kind of where I'm I'm struggling to reconcile all of this is if if all of this information was known right in the beginning, right, that we needed this project and that we needed access to the parks to complete it, why did we go to a vote in the first place? And I don't I'm not saying that as in we shouldn't have gone to a vote. What I'm saying is, in my perspective, it's it's bad precedent to say, well, we went to a vote initially, but now we're just gonna say we're doing it. Right?

I I don't feel good about that. So I I don't know. I mean, my thoughts are almost, you know, in line with maybe this does go back to the ballot, and understanding that how important this project is. How are we gonna make this attractive to the voters enough to say yes? Feel good about that.

Mister city manager, I think we have some direction here about what it is we need in order to make an informed decision, and we don't have all the information.

So do you need a motion? Like, do we need No. No? Okay.

Yep. I think we've given direction that we need this information. Can we put it back on the agenda in two weeks?

I think we'll move as quickly as we can to try to address the questions that have been heard and we'll bring it back as soon as it's ready. Okay. Alright.

Thank you. We're running a little bit behind schedule. So communications, should we just skip that? I'd

prefer to. Yes.

I

don't Let's have just skip that. Okay. So we are going to, adjourn this meeting and take a five minute break, and then we will reconvene as the City of Oregon City Urban Renewal Commission.