 |
Group
gets $300K for mobile home protection
Agencies will ramp up enforcement efforts as
the holiday driving season continues
|
Bypass land purchased |
ODOT buys a vacant lot on 11th Street that's within
the proposed bypass route |
By Gary Allen, Newberg Graphic
reporter
E-mail Gary at gallen@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Newberg Mayor Bob Stewart was excited. Yamhill County Commissioner
Leslie Lewis was effusive. And state Rep. Kim Thatcher appeared
cautiously optimistic.
What’s got these three elected officials so worked up?
There’s progress on the Newberg-Dundee bypass.
“We’re very excited,” Stewart said. “That’s why I had you all here
today.”
The trio sat
before a throng of media Thursday afternoon to announce that the
Oregon Department of Transportation has begun buying right-of-way
for the bypass.
“After years and years of many people working very hard ... we have
purchased the first piece of land for the bypass,” Stewart said.
The vacant lot, located at 1412 11th St. across from SP Newsprint,
is approximately 11,800 square feet in size and zoned for
residential development. Neither the officials nor ODOT would
disclose the sale price, saying it was progressing through the
purchase process, but they did say the owner recognized the land was
in the path of the bypass and approached ODOT instead of building a
residence on the lot.
Stewart, Lewis and Thatcher, as well as other elected officials and
city of Newberg employees, met with the media in a small conference
room in city hall. The glare of production lights and the whir of
television cameras failed to dampen the trio’s spirit.
The land purchase is a sign “that this project will, in fact, be
built,” Lewis said.
Tim Potter, Mid-Willamette Area Manager for ODOT, said the state
estimates there are about 300 right-of-way “files” within the
11-mile circuitous route around Newberg and Dundee. ODOT estimates
it will take about $117 million to purchase the property needed to
construct the bypass. About $23 million of that money was funneled
to the state from the federal government and placed in a state fund
for the bypass.
ODOT is currently negotiating with 12 other land owners to purchase
their property, Potter added.
The trio dismissed the argument that it was premature to purchase
right-of-way property before ODOT, the Oregon Transportation
Commission and Oregon Transportation Improvement Group, the U.S.
subsidiary of the Australian group commissioned to explore funding
options for the bypass, have produced a mechanism to fund
construction of the estimated $375 million project.
“Well, I don’t think so,” Stewart said when a reporter asked if the
purchase was premature.
Lewis insisted that the costs to construct the bypass, including
that of purchasing right-of-way, continue to rise and used the 11th
Street lot as an example, saying the purchase price of the land
would have increased had the owner constructed a home on it.
Stewart said the next step toward constructing the bypass is
establishing a funding strategy. OTIG in December presented a report
to the Oregon Transportation Commission that said that tolling the
bypass, the bypass and Highway 99W, or some combination of the the
two would raise approximately $220 million of the $375 million
needed to construct the bypass. The remainder must come from the
state legislature, ODOT or the federal government, the report said.
The elected officials present Thursday insisted that tolling was
only an option and that nothing had been decided yet. However, OTIG
representatives said in December that without tolling it was
unlikely the bypass would be built. The report delivered to the
transportation commission, titled Milestone One, didn’t offer any
alternatives to tolling to fund construction of the bypass.
Lewis reminded the press conference’s attendees Thursday that a
feasibility study done in the mid-1990s said that tolling would only
pay a portion of the cost of constructing the bypass. She said
bypass proponents would be looking to the legislature and Congress
to fund the balance.
“We need to come up with a strategy, but we cannot place it on the
backs of (people driving in Newberg and Dundee),” she said. |
|
From
Dec. 30,
2006, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
