30
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
ROunDABOuT: ODOT
is ready to start
“Design Acceptance”
Continued from page 1
of Transportation (ODOT)
will meet within the next two
weeks with freight industry
representatives to seek formal
concurrence with the design.
That’s a critical step in getting
to what ODOT calls “Design
Acceptance.”
At a workshop on
Thursday, ODOT represen-
tatives asked for the Sisters
City Council’s concurrence
as well.
In a letter to the council,
project leader Mike Darling
said, “As we move toward
Design Acceptance and ask
you for concurrence/support
of the proposed roundabout
design, we want to make
sure that the community and
public in general is informed
about the process which got
us to this point, including
direction previously set in a
public context.”
An extensive public pro-
cess brought community con-
sensus on the desirability of a
roundabout — but that hap-
pened several years ago, and
for some people in Sisters the
idea of a roundabout may be
new, alien, and not necessar-
ily welcome.
Councilor David Asson
expressed concern at
Thursday’s workshop regard-
ing public outreach.
“I’m 99-percent sure you
have the confidence of the
Council,” Asson said. “It’s
the community I’m con-
cerned about … it’s as if
they’ve never heard of this
before. There are people who
are very dubious — ‘why the
hell are you doing this? Is it a
done deal again?’”
If a roundabout is a “done
deal,” it was a deal done in
2011, with public input.
The City of Sisters iden-
tified a roundabout at the
intersection of Highway 20
and Barclay Drive as a traf-
fic-control option (a traffic
signal being another) in its
Transportation System Plan
(TSP) adopted in January
2010. The TSP adoption had
its own public-input process.
The next year, the engi-
neering firm Kittleson &
Associates conducted a
feasibility assessment of a
roundabout.
Community members par-
ticipated in a workshop in
November 2011 and deter-
mined that a roundabout was
the preferred alternative.
Getting the roundabout
identified in the Statewide
Transportation Improvement
Plan and getting the freight
industry on board took several
years. The freight industry
wanted to test a design before
Invasive garlic
mustard found
in eastern
oregon
photo by Jim Cornelius
Barclay drive/Highway 20 will eventually be controlled by a roundabout.
signing off on a roundabout.
The tests were con-
cluded on February 27 at
the Deschutes County Fair-
grounds and again at Portland
Meadows on March 5.
The roundabout is pro-
jected to cost around $1.4
million, depending on right-
of-way acquisition costs.
“At this time, without
clearly understanding what
ODOT right-of-way costs
are (they are using esti-
mates), the City of Sisters
will be required to contrib-
ute $360,000, which is very
much subject to change,” City
Manager Andrew Gorayeb
told The Nugget. “A por-
tion of that contribution will
be paid from transportation
SDCs that have been paid
related to the North Sisters
Business Park. The balance
will be paid by regular trans-
portation SDCs.”
North Sisters Business
Park was assessed for future
intersection improvements to
mitigate the development’s
traffic impacts when that
development was approved
by the City.
ODOT is asking the
Council to set an informa-
tional public open house in
early April, where they can
present the design of the
roundabout to the public,
answer questions, and accept
feedback.
PENDLETON (AP) —
Weed-control experts in
Umatilla County are saying:
“Hold the mustard!”
County weed-control
supervisor Dan Durfey tells
the East Oregonian newspa-
per that garlic mustard first
appeared in Eastern Oregon
several years ago atop
Cabbage Hill. Now the inva-
sive plant has spread to the
Umatilla River all the way to
the Oxbow site in Hermiston.
Durfey says garlic mus-
tard will eliminate small
native plants.
The plant has white flow-
ers in April or May, but does
not bloom for very long
before going into seed pro-
duction. He says it can be
difficult to spot because it
blends with other plants in
wetter areas near trees.
Durfey says the Oregon
Weed Board aggressively
targets garlic mustard, and
he has received two grants to
address the only known out-
break in Eastern Oregon.
SPAY & NEUTER
Sponsorships Available
Immunization Assistance
Also Available at Bend Spay & Neuter’s
Saturday Wellness Clinics
Contact Kiki at 541-549-9941
Tax-deductible donations
accepted year-round.
FURRY FRIEND S
FOUNDATION
www.FurryFriendsFoundation.org
501 ( c )( 3 )
Furry Friends Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization