Woodburn Independent Online

Hubbard toying with turning down ODOT money

• By: Rachel Cavanaugh  
• Published: 10/23/2009 3:13:43 PM

HUBBARD — The Hubbard City Council will not approve a Highway 99E upgrade project until it gets answers to certain questions from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), councilors said last week.
 
At an Oct. 13 meeting, councilors continued the debate that began in September when an ODOT representative unveiled the design proposal.
 
There have been two key objections. First, there is concern that roughly one third of the project cost has been put aside to pay property owners for land needed to widen the right-of-way by 10 feet.
 
Councilors said the road doesn’t need to be widened and property owners shouldn’t have their land cut into like that. Furthermore, it is a waste of money, they said.
Secondly, councilors are upset the project will leave an open ditch, which had originally been slated to be filled.
 
Councilman Bruce Warner said the application was always targeted to fill in the ditch, put in sidewalks on top and do ground drainage.
 
“That was over three years ago and now, after all this, they’ve spent $300,000 (and) they come to us and they say, ‘Oh we can’t do it that way.’ I want to know what changed, why there’s a difference,” said Warner. “When did the rules change?”
 
Warner said the open ditch creates a major safety hazard for pedestrians, which was one of the key points in applying for the grant.
 
He pointed to the three manufactured homes parks along the highway, which have about 157 residential lots.
 
The only way residents can get to the main part of town for shopping, dining, or anything else, he said, is on the shoulder of the road.
 
“If you’ve ever watched ladies push their strollers through the gravel to keep from getting too close to the road and at the same time not fall into the ditch, you would have a concern about this,” Warner said.
 
The councilor pointed to an ODOT study several years ago in which they recommended filling it in and installing a sidewalk as the long-term solution to the safety problem.
 
Warner also pointed to the vegetation that will be lost under the current design proposal.
 
He said what is currently there provides a noise buffer.
 
“You’ve got a traffic flow that’s equal right now to what the I-5 was originally built for. … You take all of that out and you won’t have a noise buffer anymore,” he said.
 
However, Councilman Matt Kennedy said residential units that are close to the highway will always face certain issues. He added that the vegetation provides more of a visual buffer than anything for noise.
 
“The sound is probably still there,” said Kennedy. “The bottom line is you have one of the area’s busiest right-of-ways directly adjacent to residential properties.”
 
Kennedy said his biggest concern is making sure Hubbard officials still have a say in what is happening in their own city.
 
“I’m not maybe as riled as some of the councilors about some of the tactics or whatever, but I guess I would take the position that I don’t want to be strong-armed into something,” said Kennedy.
 
At a meeting last month, ODOT Project Leader Candice Stich held firm that the ditch could not be filled.
 
She also said the 10-foot roadway expansion was a necessary element.
 
She stressed that part of the issue is that designers have to work within the confines of the transportation expansion grant, which funded the project.
 
A lot of the council’s concerns require different types of funding to address, she said.
 
Before the upcoming meeting in November, councilors will turn in all questions they want answered and e-mail them to ODOT. A representative will then answer them at that meeting.
 
Warner said he has a number of questions.
 
“Is it customary to authorize grants to projects that do not fit the criteria for the grants?” the councilor said. “Because that’s basically what they are saying. At what time did the standards change for the use of grant money?”
 
Councilman Tyler Smith said he also had some things he’d like addressed.
 
“What I’d like to see is sort of a plan or explanation from them, specifically on whether we could design and build this project with the sidewalk away from the highway … and then if it’s feasible to put proper drainage system in that ditch and to fill it at a later date without wasting resources,” Smith said. “That’s what I’d really like to know.”
 
Councilors have not ruled out the idea of forgoing the project altogether. However, the concern is whether that would mean they owe a debt on the money already spent.
Moreover, they have spent years working on the project.
 
“It’s been a long process getting to where we’re at,” said Warner. “I really want to see this project go in, but I want to see it how we submitted for it. … We’re not an out-in-the-sticks, backwards area. We’re a town. We deserve to have filled-in streets. We shouldn’t have to cope with ditches inside the city limits.”

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