2/20/18 Minutes

Residents: Deb Comini, Alice Morton, Hank Stebbins,
Organizations: Raleigh Kirschman and Daniel Clem, UGM; Rick Yurk, BAM Agency; Betsy Belshaw, Salem Parks Foundation

City and County Representatives: Kevin Hottman, Public Works Department; Darren Rice, Willamette Valley Communication Center; the Honorable Jane Aiken; Cara Kaser, City Council
Guests: James Garaventa

The regular meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2018, at the First Christian Church at 685 Marion Street NE, Salem.

The minutes of the January meeting were approved by unanimous consent.

Councilor Kaser reported on the first meeting of the Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force and said she would be looking for specific strategies that could be budgeted and implemented quickly, and that the next meetings were March 6 and 20 at 7:30 in the Anderson Room of the Regional Public Library.  She said the City was engaging other area communities to discuss the Army Corps of Engineers proposal to keep the reservoir in Detroit drained for two years to allow construction of a cooling tower behind the dam, with the ultimate goal of  expressing their concerns about the project to the Corps as a unified group.  She also invited everyone to attend the meetings of the Congestion Relief Task Force.

In public comment, Betsy Belshaw, Salem Parks Foundation, shared information about SPF’s grant program.

In unfinished business, City of Salem’s 911 Project Manager, Darren Rice, spoke to the board about the need to convert seven on-street parking spaces on the west side of Cottage in front of the Willamette Valley Communication Center (595 Cottage St) into employee-only parking spaces, reiterating what SPD Communications Director Mark Bucholtz had explained at the January meeting -- that the Center has sufficient employee parking, that generally the spaces under discussion were empty, and that it was for security reasons only that SPD was making the request.  He also stated the lost parking revenue to the City would be about $2,000 per year, that WVCC was in the second year of their last three-year lease, that one car had already hit the building on the north side, and that WVCC was making the request as an interim, stop-gap measure, based on advice from FEMA to improve security, pending their final audit report, which was being delayed on account of the hurricanes last fall.  In answer to questions from the board, Kevin Hottman said the change would require new signage and moving the pay station at an estimated cost of $700 to $800.

In new business, Bob’s motion to oppose the request to convert the spaces to employee-only parking, and Bruce’s motion to oppose the Union Gospel Mission’s application for a Conditional Use Permit to allow the relocation of the Men’s Mission with expanded capacity to serve 300 persons to the 700 to 800 block of Commercial Street NE, failed to pass.

The meeting adjourned at 7:12 P.M.