By Edward Jones, LNA Chair
Linnton is part of the City of Portland, but our biggest streets aren’t city streets. Our main street, St. Helens Rd – aka Highway 30, belongs to the state. That means making our streets safer is not a matter of talking to PBOT (Portland Bureau of Transportation); we must talk to ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation). Over the years the LNA has found talking to ODOT to be frustrating. They have statewide issues like tolling and bridge building that make our local problems
look small.
Ellen Waters, with ODOT, will join us at the Wednesday, January 3 Linnton meeting to discuss five active projects the agency is working on in Linnton. The meeting will be at 7 pm at the Linnton Community Center.
At the last general membership meeting Senator Steiner took questions and was asked about getting ODOT’s attention. She told us she is very familiar with ODOT and their budget and would be pleased to open some doors for us.
She asked us to provide some specifics about projects the neighborhood would like to see ODOT undertake. We’ll discuss and identify our collective priorities to share with Senator Steiner at the January 3rd meeting.
Some of the ODOT related issues that have come up in the past include:
1. Red light control problem at Bridge Ave. and Saint Helens Rd.
2. Need for a hedge on Saint Helens Rd at Kingsley Park
3. Weed control spraying
4. Sidewalk maintenance