Sean C. Morgan
The City Council declined on Dec. 11 to remove a school zone designation on Seventh Avenue and directed staff to gather information about whether the city is required to remove the zone.
The request originated with Public Works, which maintains signs, said city Senior Engineering Technician Joe Graybill. It no longer meets legal minimum required distances for a school zone.
The city continually replaces signs as standards change, Graybill said. Signs also lose their reflectivity.
The council was considering whether to remove the school zones on Seventh Avenue where they approach Elm Street from the south and north. Seventh Avenue runs along the east side of the school, with a row of housing between the street and the school. A gate in the fence on the east side of the school once allowed access to Seventh Avenue but it has been locked.
The Oak Heights School playgrounds are no longer accessible from Seventh Avenue and Dogwood Street, Graybill said. As a result, the existing school zone should be reduced.
Seventh Avenue would instead have only a pentagonal “School Ahead” sign, Graybill said.
The existing school zone includes and would retain a portion of Sixth Avenue south of Elm Street. It also includes a section of Highway 228 near Fourth Avenue where students cross the highway.
“Even with that gate (at Dogwood and Seventh) closed, you still have children,” said Councilor Greg Mahler. “That’s still a school zone.”
It no longer meets the requirements of a school zone, though, Councilor Scott McKee Jr. noted.
Ron Rodgers asked what the harm would be in leaving it a school zone.
City Manager Craig Martin said there could be an issue if someone is cited in the zone if it’s not legally a school zone.
“I’m of the opinion, if it doesn’t violate some state law or code, we leave it as it is or expand it,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers noted the Highway 228 school zone and asked what the difference is.
Different roads have different standards, Martin said, and children cross the highway for school, like other highway school zones throughout Sweet Home.
Mayor Craig Fentiman asked City Attorney Robert Snyder and staff to research the requirements for school zones and return to the council with a report.
The council next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 in the City Council Chamber inside the City Hall Annex.
Present at the meeting were councilors Marybeth Angulo, who teaches at Oak Heights, Mahler, Jim Gourley, Fentiman, McKee, Rodgers and Mike Hall.
In other business:
n Fentiman presented certificates to outgoing councilors Rodgers and Hall. Hall did not run for re-election this year. Rodgers lost the election. Dec. 11 was their last meeting.
The council also canvassed the election results during the meeting. Angulo and Gourley retained their seats, winning four-year terms. Dave Trask and Bruce Hobbes both won seats in the November election, Trask a four-year term and Hobbes a two-year term.
n Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist told the council he would be visiting monthly regardless of whether he had anything new to report and then gave an overview of what’s going on with the former Western States Land Reliance Trust property, which is now owned by the county. The county foreclosed for nonpayment of property taxes.
The northern part of the property, an old Knife River quarry, is proposed as a park and permanent site for the Oregon Jamboree.
“Brian (Carroll, Linn County Parks and Recreation director) and Erin (Regrutto, Jamboree festival director) continue to talk,” Nyquist said. “Neither wants to lose any money.”
Regrutto is looking at what other event organizers have done in similar circumstances, Nyquist said.
The property has a site with trace levels of arsenic, Nyquist said. The county is attempting to obtain a grant to clean it up.
The county remains in a conversation with Weyerhaeuser about who’s responsible for the remainder of the property, which was owned by Weyerhaeuser prior to its purchase by Western States Land Reliance Trust.
Nyquist also told the council that the Veterans Home budget has been adjusted upward. County officials are talking to state officials, and he expects it to be resolved without any additional cost to Linn County citizens.