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MED Week
October 09, 2002
Mary Fetsch, Tri-Met’s Leading Lady
W ynde D yer
T iii P orti . and O bserver
It is said that behind every great tnan there is an
equally great woman.
Mary Fetsch, director of communications for Tri-
Met, plays right hand woman for Tri-Met General
Manager Fred Hansen. They are something of a
dynamic duo, a Batman and Robin-esque team in the
tight for public transportation. The bus is their
Batmobile.
But Fetsch would rather talk about Tri-Met than
herself. 'T in nobody,” she said, "but my bowling is
improving.”
Fetsch has her involvement with Tri-M et’s ‘Inter
state Avenue is Open for Business' campaign to
thank for those bowling skills. She has organized four
bow ling chai lenges at I nterstate Lanes to help reduce
the impact of construction on business for the north
Portland Bowling alley.
“At first everybody thought I really loved to bowl,”
Fetsch said. “ I was basically going everywhere say
ing, ‘Hi, do you like to bow l?’ 1 was constantly
recruiting bowlers.”
T he first ch a lle n g e w as b etw een T ri-M et
maintenence staff and the administration. Next came
by
a bowl-off against the Portland Development Com
mission, and another against Port of Portland. Tri-
Met has yet to take home a trophy, but the events
have been hugely successful, Fetsch said. One time
the bowling bus brought in a crowd o f 45 people who
spent $550 in an hour at Interstate Lanes.
Once construction began on Interstate Ave., Tri-
met began hosting weekly Lunch Bus tours. Staff at
Tri-Met partner agencies, like PDC, City of Portland,
Metro and DEQ could reserve a spot on the bus for
$7. At the end o f the tour, they have lunch at a
different restaurant along the Interstate alignment.
Festch estimates over 1,000 individuals have enjoyed
Lunch Bus tours and the total revenue generated is
somewhere around $ 10,000.
‘T h a t’s tremendous,” she said. "M any o f those
people will be return customers.”
Since the bowling alley wasn’t on the Lunch Bus
route, Fetsch devised a plan to help out. The bowling
challenges have been just as good for the bowlers,
she said. Members from different departments of
large public agencies don’t always come intocontact
in the workplace. Fetsch thinks bowling has been a
good exercise in team building.
As for the completion of the light rail, Fetsch is
Within NECA7IBEW Local 48,craftsmanship still exists.
As partners, our electricians and contractors perform
their work every day with skill, pride and attention to
Mary Fetsch is
intimately
involved in
helping
businesses
thrive along the
Interstate Max
line while
construction is
taking place.
PHOTO BY
D avid P lechi /
T he P ortland
O bserver
proud to say that Tri-Met is ahead of schedule and
under budget. The construction impacts on busi
nesses will be gone by the end of the year. New
handicapped sidewalks along with on-street parking
and freshly paved roadways, should make businesses
more accessible to pedestrian traffic. Once completed,
there will be three times the current number o f trees
and art exhibits at each Max stop.
“The new look is one that we find very inviting,”
Fetsch said. “The area was really in need of revitaliza
tion.”
Since Fetsch lives less than a mile away from the
new Max line, she knows this first hand. She rides her
bike every morning to work from herhome in the Arbor
Lodge neighborhood along the bluff. Fetsch said she
remembers Interstate Ave. before the construction
began. The road was infamous for potholes, speed
ing vehicles and large trucks.
“Interstate was so tom up,” she said. “It was not
at all friendly for a cyclist.”
She also thinks the long strip of road was un
friendly for shoppers,
“It was a place you just sort of drive through,”
Fetsch said.
So Tri-Met launched a business support program
to help the marginalized stores and restaurants along
the line. They financed temporary 'Open for Busi
ness’ signs, paid for advertising, signs to redirect
traffic if parking lot entries were blocked and made a
commitment to work on 4-block segments to disrupt
business as little as possible. During the second
phase came the ‘Interstate is Open for Business'
campaign. Tri-met paid for the design and distribu
tion of adirect mail piece that was sent to 16,000homes
in the Portland area. When the business directory
was created, the campaign slogan appeared in bus
shelters and along the side of the Max for months. Tri-
Met involved the University of Portland entreprenuial
program to host free workshops to provide technical
assistance and write business plans for Interstate
businesses. Over $300,000 in low-interest loans were
awarded to business owners along the line.
“W e’ve tried to be a good neighbor and I think
w e’ve succeeded,” Fetsch said. “Some of these busi
nesses didn’t even have logos and one didn’t even
have a checking account. W e’ve helped with all that.”
Once the light rail is running, Fetsch said the
businesses will be in good shape.
As for her, well, like any other superhero, she’ 11 be
on to something else.
“Every day it’s something different around here,”
she said.
detail. State-of-the-art training and an award-winning
apprenticeship program assure you that the electricians
of Local 48 are the best in the industry.
For skilled work — contact us.
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e »
P ic tu r e Y o u rs e l f as a
P o r t la n d F ir e f ig h t e r
«
503-233-5787 • www.necaibew48.com
BROUGHT TO YO U BY THE SKILLED ELECTRICIANS OF IBEW LOCAL 4 8 A N D THE PROFESSIONAL CONTRACTORS OF NECA
Hoffman Builds
homes, businesses, schools...
Portland Fire & Rescue is accepting
applications from October 7th through
October 21st, 2002 for Firefighter
Trainee, and Firefighter.
Please call our 24-hour job information
hotline at (503) 823- 4573 or go online at
www5.ci.portland.or.us/jobs.
PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Come Bid With Us
Portland Public School District welcomes interest and participation by MBEs
and WBEs in our contracts for goods and services. Throughout the year, we
purchase a variety o f items including office equipm ent, schools supplies, pa
per products, maintenance services, construction projects and more.
and community
Please contact our office for additional inform ation on bidding opportunities.
i p EZ
a , i t
HOFFMAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
www.hoffmancorp.com
S03.221.8811
Darin Matthews, CPPO, C.P.M.
Director of Procurement
Portland Public Schools
P.O. Box 3107
Portland, O R 97208
(503) 916-3113
(503) 916-3109 fax
“We encourage and appreciate your interest in doing
business with Portland Public Schools.”
Jim Scherzinger
In te rim S u p e r in te n d e n t