Pamplin Media Group – Housing, tolling, safety key topics of Clackamas County town hall

People remark and inquire on foreseeable future way for commissioners through April 6 event

Clackamas County’s 1st digital town corridor function of 2022 requested community customers, “Where are we headed as a county, and why?” This elicited many queries and remarks for elected commissioners on the county’s response to ongoing traits in housing, transportation, community basic safety and overall health.

A distinguished subject matter of problem addressed by lots of attendees of the Wednesday, April 6, dialogue was the region’s growing inhabitants of unhoused and at-hazard inhabitants amid ongoing world-wide pandemic, climbing housing prices and rental support delays.

Paul Edgar from Oregon Town expressed issue in excess of a absence of transitional housing shelters and services for comprehensive treatment for contributing components to chronic homelessness, which includes mental health challenges and drug habit.

He proposed “cluster housing” units that allow housing insecure residents with secure shelter in a managed atmosphere when incorporating services supplied at present nearby shelters these as the Veteran’s Village, which includes “showers, food stuff company, clothes closets, but most importantly, psychological well being.”

Another county resident named Terry emailed the Board of County Commissioners to say that additional land-use exploration ought to be carried out to weigh possibilities for making transitional sheltering close to neighborhood hospitals, additionally suggesting a community kitchen and proposing that “using the services of the homeless to construct these households and cleanse their neighborhood could be an incentive.”

Several residents expressed a need for Clackamas County not to mirror Multnomah County and the town of Portland in conditions of the sum of unhoused men and women tenting in public areas, these types of as parks and places adjacent to roadways this kind of as off-ramps and beneath overpasses.

Transportation concerns amongst town-corridor attendees centered all-around tolling that the Oregon Department of Transportation is dedicated to implementing on stretches of I-205 like the Abernethy Bridge in the subsequent five yrs, despite continued pushback from elected officers and citizens countywide.

Hannah Berkowitz from West Linn mentioned she crosses the Abernethy Bridge 95% of the time she leaves her household to journey to Oregon Town, including that quite a few in her community depend on the bridge to get to operate, go grocery purchasing and obtain other standard needs.

“It would just be absurd if I had to pay out a toll, and I’m not the only a single,” she stated, introducing that there is no choice and the targeted traffic pattern is “terrible” now. “It truly is not a solution, and if that occurred, regrettably older now, I would not be likely anywhere.”

ODOT is in the method of acquiring regional approval from transportation subcommittees to perform even further study pertaining to the impacts of tolling on local arterial roads as perfectly as the weather, which quite a few residents said will be hugely vital ahead of implementations get started.

“This tolling proposal disproportionately hurts Clackamas County in a manner that will damage the economy, hurt house values, eliminate work, and it really is just incorrect,” Paul Edgar extra, suggesting the county look into solutions for getting lawful action.

Help for health, climate motion

Firmly opposed to tolling, county citizens for the duration of Wednesday’s town hall mostly expressed assist for challenges linked to escalating community well being and protection, such as environmental conservation and weather action.

Numerous opinions and thoughts regarded the county’s Local weather Motion Approach, to be adopted by 2023 with the target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, with a resident named Cassie emailing in to ask for “no additional delays” in the strategy remaining “finished, adopted and carried out.”

“It will never make any difference how wonderful any other accomplishments are if we never have a livable weather,” wrote an Oak Grove resident by electronic mail, with a different resident requesting that the county lower fossil-fuel emissions, which he mentioned are the root lead to of his bladder most cancers prognosis and damage regional communities and environments regardless of their industrial utilities.

One more reviewed element of public safety was policing, which various people expressed their guidance for funding, whilst some prompt means to boost the community’s relationship and rely on in legislation enforcement as effectively as strengthening the sources available to law enforcement marketing officer retention and morale.

“We as a group feel a bit in the dark and unaware of the staffing and support degrees of our community sheriff’s business,” mentioned a resident named Jodie, citing rising criminal offense in the area and expressing concern that Clackamas County will be looking at a drop in police staffing equally to stories from Multnomah County departments.

Kathy Selvaggio, a West Linn resident who operates a law enforcement-reform advocacy group, requested the county board to tackle methods of accountability and transparency in county law enforcement departments following stories of misconduct she has investigated in modern yrs.

A resident named Malcolm instructed rising education and learning all around citizen legal rights when interacting with law enforcement, expressing his assist for regulation enforcement as an establishment but pointing out that he has recognized an situation might be that people are not adequately mindful of the best measures to choose when they occur in make contact with with officers.

Other frequently elevated matters integrated citizens expressing help for Ridwell’s disposal solutions for difficult-to-dispose squander objects this kind of as house batteries, digital waste, gentle bulbs and more for a monthly membership charge, which officials considered out of compliance with existing county codes in January.

Several residents who expressed want for increased homeless products and services also reported they didn’t like how significantly housing is getting made in open green place in Clackamas County, which a lot of residents say accounts for 1 of the area’s defining traits.

Inhabitants also voiced help for extra services for Clackamas County seniors, these as transportation choices connecting urban and rural locations as effectively as funding neighborhood treatment facilities for elderly populations.

Check out the full virtual city hall in this article.