By Robin Walden
I am rather new to the Linnton area. I live at the end of NW Marina Way in a floating home, in one of several floating home communities in this area. Marina Way is unique because the beginning of the road is in the city of Portland and halfway down it becomes an unincorporated road in Multnomah County.
The potholes on our little street got so bad it was difficult to drive safely. I was on a quest to get someone from the city or state to come repair it. I have never done this before and I found two sites, portland.gov and multco.us/roads, to be user friendly and quick to respond.
Unfortunately, I learned that the city of Portland was not going to care for our little road because the entire street is not under the city’s jurisdiction. Alright then, I said, surely the county will fix it! Again, this was not the case.
So…I brought it up at one of the Linnton Community meetings and one of the residents suggested I reach out to ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation). There is a site that is literally called, Ask ODOT. They got back to me the next day and a week later, all of the potholes were filled!
A couple of weeks later, during some bad weather a tree fell and blocked the street. Residents cut away enough of it for traffic to get by, but the stump was unstable and partially blocked the road. Volunteers were working in that area to help our red-footed frog friends cross the street and could have been in danger as well. I contacted ODOT again to ask for help and the stump was removed a couple of days later.
I think people aren’t aware that they can truly help keep their community safe and look good with a couple of clicks and a little networking.