elaine Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Man how things can change from one week to the next! If you've ever written a letter, or attended any of the public meetings in support of this site. Clackamas County Parks has just about slapped us all across the face. About 2 weeks ago, Keith Daellenbach and Katie Dunham ( County planner) had a conversation about how much funding was in place before grants were applied for. Katie confrimed that there was $200K as the base from County revenues. Grant monies awarded would be in addition to the $200K. Keith had a follow up call with Katie and Dan Zinzer ( head of parks), and the County has changed their plans to decrease funding. Why? Get this.... The County created a new park in just a few months. The area is known as Knightsbridge in the Canby area. They spent Metro Bond money, used up other revenues/taxpayer dollars, and quickly established an access road, parking area, and vault toilet with NO public input, NO letters of support from citizens, and NO master plan or concept plan drafted for public viewing! Those of you who came to the public meetings this Fall? The County did nothing of the sorts for Knightsbridge. What can you do? E-mail the following folks and mention the above scenario about how the "process" was ignored for Knightsbridge...which we've been following for so many years now. Board of County Commissioners bcc@co.clackamas.or.us Lynn Peterson, Commissioner, lynnpet@co.clackamas.or.us Dan Zinzer, County Parks, danz@co.clackamas.or.us Katie Dunham, Planner, kdunham@co.clackamas.or.us What else? Attend the study session with the Commissioners at 1:30 on Feb 3rd on Kaen Rd in Oregon City. Attend the next PAB meeting on 2/17 at their Oregon city location on 150 S Beavercreek Rd which is adjacent to the Commissioners office. It is at this PAB meeting that their board will vote on funding for the Madrone. If you also know of anyone in Clackamas County that supports this site, then have them attend the meetings! Kellie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hemp22 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Damn, that sucks. I can't make the Feb 3rd meeting, but will send emails. for what it's worth, I'm pretty familiar with the Knights bridge area in question, and over the last 20 years, it has gone through a lot of the same turmoil as Madrone - first totally open & unregulated, then posted with No-trespassing signs, then the signs just got ignored, then, they finally caved in and put gravel & a portapotty in the parking lot. But yeah, it seems odd & inappropriate that it was done more under the radar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mtguide Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 So let me get this straight, your wording is a little confusing; when you said "the County has changed their plans to decrease funding.", does this mean that they DO intend to to decrease funding for Madrone? And if so, by how much? Does this mean that money earmarked for Madrone has already been spent on Knightsbridge? Just what in the hell is going on? Wasn't funding for Madrone somehow legally committed or locked in? These commissioners sound like a very slimy bunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el jefe Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 emails sent to the above addresses. it looks, however, like these people are indifferent to input they receive from the public. calling this a "slap in the face" is putting it mildly to say the least! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaine Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 Mtguide- The Commissioners have not voted on the Madrone and the plan yet. That happens on Feb 3rd. The Parks staff have expedited a project "Knightsbridge" without any public input, letters of support, or similar process that the Madrone, and other parks ( Springwater Corridor) have had to go through. No hoops to jump for the Knightsbridge! According to the County Planner ( Katie Dunham) in a chat with Keith Daellenbach less than 2 weeks ago, we had $200K as a base to start from before applying for grants. Now we have $170K (that is what the County hopes for) including one grant from Oregon State Parks- local options grant. If we had the $200K like Katie Dunham said we did, then that could mean at least $300K in matching grants through Oregon State Parks. You have to front $100K to be eligible for an additional $50K in grant money. Last April, the PAB ( Parks Board- citizen led) voted on & agreed to $200K as a base before grants. The heads of the parks has gone ahead and moved some of the funding around to expedite this "Knightsbridge " project. The Parks Board and the PAB moved around money without considering what was approved and agreed upon last April, and without considering and adjusting their budget for future projects the following year...ie, the Madrone... So yup, there was a commitment on the part of the Parks Dept and Parks Board- citizen volunteers- to set aside some for the Madrone for this up and coming year.........and they pretty much screwed us! Why the County Planner ( Katie) said one thing, and then sat alongside Dan Zinzer and said a completely different thing within 2 weeks time is absurd! If you've never seen Keith or I pissed and fuming with steam coming out of our ears............that's what we look like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el jefe Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 got a response from katie dunham that was blah blah boilerplate -- the email equivalent of hiding under your desk and pretending to be out of the office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaine Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 It doesn't surprise me that she'd give a blanket response. Dan Zinzer has been interviewed numerous times for various newspapers (Oregonian, Damascus Review, etc), and each time he states that there is a process and how it can take years for a place to become a park....You can understand why Keith, myself, and certainly others are a little outraged.....The Knightsbridge property never went through any process, master plan, or public input, no letters, no e-mails, nothing in comparison to the Madrone.....And it was almost if "POOF" there's another park. And the County actually had to buy some of the Knightsbridge property in order for it to become a park. The County does not have to pay a dime to acquire the Madrone. They own the whole 44 acre plot! We really hope some of you folks can come to the 2 up and coming meetings on Feb 3rd and Feb 17th Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaine Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 Below is Keith's letter regarding this issue to the County Kellie Madrone Wall Preservation Committee 5815 N.E. 31st Avenue Portland, Oregon 97211 www.savemadrone.org 28 January 2009 Dan Zinzer, Director Katie Dunham, Planner Department of Business and Community Services 150 Beavercreek Road Oregon City, Oregon 97045 Re: Madrone Wall Capital Improvement Estimate and Timely Park Creation Requested Dear Dan and Katie: Thank you for discussing various funding approaches for the Madrone Wall with me yesterday as County Parks prepares DRAFT recommendations for Parks Advisory Board (PAB) for review starting at the February meeting on the 17th of next month. I was encouraged to hear from you that the Madrone Wall is considered a priority by County Parks perhaps only second behind the efforts underway to finish sections of the Springwater Trail which was recently selected for funding by ODOT’s Transportation Enhancement Grant (congratulations!). Given the substantial public involvement in the County’s Public Involvement Meetings last August, September, and October where ~40 people attended each meeting, the 250 letters and emails County Parks received in the last six months alone, the 225 hours of volunteer work hours at our remarkably successful volunteer restoration event where 75 people of all ages came out to the site to remove invasive plants and two flatbed trucks of illegally dumped rubbish, we request that the County match your priority and the public’s enthusiasm with a funding strategy for creating this primitive park in a timely fashion. The County’s initial estimate to establish this park was described to be $880,000 at the January PAB meeting held last week; this estimate was created by the County’s consultant, Alta Planning & Design, which led the parks master planning effort now completed. Comparing this amount with the estimate I prepared, with input from an ODOT Road Construction Specialist and a Paving and Cost Estimating Specialist of a central Oregon firm that provides contact paving for Oregon Parks and Recreation Department projects, shows the County estimate to be unexplainably high. My estimate attached, which while I received input from people who do estimating work for a living represents my estimate alone, shows the Phase I park implementation cost, i.e., that required to get the park open, at $323,658. My estimate has substantial yet industry-accepted contingencies (~25%) and generous excavation and aggregate costs (based on ODOT’s Region 1/Portland Metro area). Given the current economy, biding for available work will be highly competitive and I was told the final price could be even lower. As a basis, my estimate used the same Madrone Wall Final Draft Concept Design (dated 10/29/08, attached) as the County’s consultant which calls for permeable (not asphalt) access road of an 8% grade that is 0.24 miles long, dispersed parking for 20 vehicles (permeable not asphalt surface), vault toilet, signs, and trails. Accomplishing this improvement should not take nearly nine-tenths of a million dollars. Once the park is opened, I estimate another $36,000 for bike rack, trails, and educational kiosk, much of the cost of which will very likely be offset by grants our organization will win from such potential allied organizations such as The Access Fund, Mazamas, and REI. The MWPC has already shown it can get 75 people on the site for a work day – the majority of people who had never even seen the site; think of the enthusiasm to care for this amazing civic treasure once it becomes a park! In preparing for this winter’s PAB review and, subsequently, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) review of park capital improvement priorities, please consider identifying a plan to fund a Phase I implementation in its entirety in the FY2009/2010 budget. In April 2008, the PAB completed its 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (attached) with a $100,000 provisional FY2009/2010 allocation from the County’s Trust Fund to be matched with a prospective (and provisional) allocation of $100,000 from a State of Oregon grant. Yesterday, you spoke provisionally reducing the County’s FY2009/2010 participation from what it determined last year to $30,000 for project management, permits, and planning, coupled with a $70,000 allocation if the $1,937,000 originally allocated to Clackamas County by the 2006 passage of the Metro greenspace ballot measure 26-80 (amounting to a mere 3.6% of the entire allocation), coupled with a $100,000 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Local Government Grant (contingent, of course, on winning this highly competitive grant). This total is $200,000 and I fail to see how this amount would complete the park for opening. Given the tight Trust Fund money supply this year, please consider allocating a greater portion of the Metro greenspace money to give the FY2009/2010 budget allocation parity with my ~$325,000 Phase I estimate. Perhaps a small augmenting contribution can be made to this project from the $16.1 million federal timber money that was reauthorized by Congress late last year. In so far as trying to find “shovel ready†Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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