Smoke Signals 9
JULY 15, 2009
Bypass .work affiecfts Forti IKIdDQ baasimiesses
New highway design cited as reason for decrease in customers patronizing longtime local businesses
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Salmon River Highway, also
known as Oregon Highway 18, be
came a safer roadway on May 18
with the elimination of a dangerous
intersection at Fort Hill and South
Yamhill River roads.
But in doing so, it also bypassed
three longtime Fort Hill businesses
that are now reporting declines in
business from travelers going to and
from the Oregon Coast.
The Fort Hill Family Dining res
taurant and the Fort Hill Lounge,
housed in one building, and Fort Hill
Gas, the gas station and convenience
store, are at the side of the highway's
westbound lane. However, to get to
them now is almost a two-mile detour
instead of a sometimes dangerous
turn off the highway.
Traveling east toward Portland
and Salem, the detour starts a mile
after passing businesses; traveling
west toward the Oregon Coast, the
detour starts a mile before.
New blue signs along the highway
alert travelers of the businesses'
existence.
Tribal members and leaders have
supported the businesses for count
less years, and the business owners
have come to count on Tribal member
business during traditionally slower
winter months.
But last winter, snow and ice
storms made a bad season worse, and
now, with the Fort Hill businesses
lacking direct highway access, the
summer rush that all count on to
fill in for the slow times has disap
peared. Business is down at the restaurant
by a third and at the gas station and
convenience store by 80 percent.
The lounge is doing the best, owner
Mike Souza of Silverton said. He
is landlord for the other two busi
nesses, owning about eight acres at
the site.
The lounge's relative success, Sou
za said, comes because 70 percent of
lounge customers are from the com
munity while 30 percent represent
passing highway traffic; the reverse,
more or less, of the customer base is
true for the two other businesses.
Business has declined so much at
the restaurant, eight of 1 1 employees
have been laid off. This is the first
time that Ben and Terry Goforth,
who have owned the restaurant since
1981, have laid anyone off.
"We bring them back in maybe once
a week," Ben said. "We're doing the
best we can to bring them back."
Mostly, he said, family is left pitch
ing in.
"It's been a shock to us," Ben said,
"but we're adjusting."
Next door at Fort Hill Gas, four
year owner Rick Ven said he has laid
off "four to five people. I used to have
two a shift, now I'm down to one. I
hated to do it, but I don't know how
much longer I can hold up. Some
times, I'm exhausted after sleepless
nights trying to come up with ideas
to keep the business afloat."
I lis orders to suppliers have shrunk
from $1,000 a week in normal sum
mers to maybe $300 this summer,
he said. "On a day like this, the cars
used to be coming and going con
stantly," he said.
Traffic behind the barrier has
slowed to a trickle.
"I don't know how they keep going
as it is," said Fort Hill Gas
clerk Donavan Jones.
Interchange constructed
The $14 million, two-year
Oregon Department of Trans
portation project addressed
the dangerous intersection
of Fort Hill Road and South
Yamhill Road, where vehicles
would make turns and some
times surprise other drivers
going 45 mph.
The project widened the
existing three-lane highway to
include four travel lanes with
a concrete barrier in the me
dian; constructed an overpass
and frontage road behind the
Fort Hill restaurant and ser
vice station that connects to
the interchange; constructed
a new interchange almost a
mile east of Fort Hill Road to replace
the Fort Hill RoadSouth Yamhill Riv
er Road intersection, which no longer
exists; closed or relocated driveways to
reduce the number of direct accesses
to the highway and improve safety;
and added acceleration lanes.
"You can count on one hand the
number of cars that go over that
bridge," Ven said. "It's $20 million
for a bridge to a ghost town."
The project will be completed this
fall.
Meanwhile, Souza, Ven and the
Goforths have attended meetings
and presented petitions signed by
hundreds of customers asking the
Oregon Department of Transporta
tion to open westbound access off
Highway 18 to the businesses.
"We didn't anticipate it," Terry
said, "because we thought they were
going to give us 'right in' (access from
the highway)."
Though the "right in" concept was
part of an early draft of the project
that has been ongoing for more than
10 years, Transportation spokesman
Adam Torgerson said the "right-in"
idea was taken out of the project
before 2004.
And, Torgerson said, "It would
be very unusual to change project
design on something like access at
this point."
"What I don't understand," Ven said,
"is if you can build a 'right in' where the
weigh station is (heading eastbound),
why you can't do that here?"
The public process has long since
passed, Torgerson said.
"(The request) circumvents the
public process that occurred five
years ago," Torgerson said. "It would
be immensely difficult to do any proj
ect if after all the public decisions
are made, people came back to make
more changes."
And, in fact, he said. "Lots of busi
nesses survive with a frontage road."
In this case, a business several
miles west of the new bypass is do
ing most of the surviving. Just off
the eastbound lane and west of Spirit
Mountain Casino, Seaway gas station
and convenience store is experienc
ing an increase in sales of deli food,
owner Yong Ahn said.
"A little bit in the deli," she said.
"Better in gas."
Even workers from Fort Hill seem
to know which way the winds are
blowing.
"Someone came down from Fort
Hill," said Seaway clerk Teighlor
dolman. "He was laid off there and
"TEC 3?
looking for a job."
At the time, Tribal member Jer
emiah Mercier was shopping at
Seaway.
"It's way too inconvenient," Mercier
said about the detour to Fort Hill
Gas. "It would have been OK if they
would have left one barrier out so you
could go in going west. That would
have been the best."
Safety controls important
"You can't have frontage where
people can pull in or out without
safety controls," Torgerson said. "It's
just not safe. The real issue is that
that's a pretty high crash area. One ...
of the ways you make the road safer
is by making sure people don't pull in
and out before an intersection."
"We share the ODOT mission state
ment," Terry Goforth said. "We're all
about safety."
She has a lot more time on her
hands these days to look out the
windows. Though it is still too early
for statistical traffic comparisons, she
knows what she sees in the wake of
the bypass.
"What we're witnessing is the
big FSA (Food Services of America)
trucks and the big tankers missing
the exit and having to turn around
between the Fort Hill and Valley
Junction bridges," Terry says.
She told the story of an elderly
couple traveling east. They stopped
their car at the black and yellow
warning sign where the road divides
in front of Fort Hill restaurant.
"The cars were whizzing by, east
and west," Terry said, "and she puts
it in reverse and backs up into the
eastbound lane. Then, she puts it in
drive, and makes a U-turn to go west
and come in here.
"About 10 minutes later they
showed up," Terry said. "I said, 'What
in the world is going on?'
"She said, 'Oh, it's OK. There
wasn't any traffic.' "
Terry told about bicyclists lifting
their bikes over the concrete divider.
"One hit a bump and fell in the road."
She added. "Even the Yamhill
County bus pulled over to the barrier
(in front of the Fort Hill businesses)
and dropped two people out. They
crossed the median and the road. The
bus used to pull into our parking lot
to let them out."
In fact, the Yamhill County bus
service has been making 16 stops a
day at the side of the rond in front of
the Fort Hill businesses, eight going
west and eight going east.
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Direct access to the Fort Hill
Family Dining restaurant, Fort
Hill Lounge and Fort Hill Gas from
State Highway 1 8 was cut off in
May due to completion of the new
interchange, overpass and frontage
road. A concrete barrier is now
where direct access to and from the
highway used to be located.
"I'm looking for a better way," said
Pieter Schoonveld, Transit coordina
tor for Yamhill Community Action
Partnership, which contracts with the
county to run the busses. "It's not all
that safe, but we can't add another 10
minutes to the route (by taking the new
exit to the Fort Hill businesses) each
time it passes by. That would screw up
the schedule for the whole day. And we
can't skip the stop because it's kind of
a central point in the area."
Neither Souza, Ven nor the Go
forths are going down without a
fight.
Souza is upgrading the site, even
turning it into a small "destination"
to lure customers back.
He has poured $50,000 into the
work. A few acres were graded re
cently to make way for a "Park and
Sell" car lot. The restaurant and
lounge parking lot has been expand
ed and covered with gravel to allow
truckers easy access.
"I'm trying to show the public that
I'm investing in the community.
We're one of the last small businesses
in the area," Souza said.
Thirty employees with families
count on the businesses for their
livelihood, he added.
"We've been through a lot over the
years," Ben Goforth said.
"It's kind of like a landmark," Ven
said. "I have people in their 70s
who stop here, and they say they've
been stopping here since they were
babies."
"They've got to get the signage
right," Ben said. "When we get the
right signage on the overpass, things
will be different in here."
Meanwhile, the restaurant's win
dows now are filled with huge signs
saying, "Pie Special$2.95; Deluxe
Burger$5.9r; Breakfast Special2
eggs, biscuit2 baton, and hash
browns$3.95." "If someone comes in and says, 'I
want this but I don't have enough
money,' " Terry snid. "I say, 'Sold!' "