City officials grapple with East Idaho road proposal
Cost issues dominate discussion at City Council work session
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Saturday, March 15, 2008 10:24 PM PDT
Ontario - East Idaho Avenue proved to be a bumpy issue for city officials during Thursday’s Ontario City Council workshop.
The well-known section of roadway — from Northeast Fourth Street to the west end of the Snake River bridge — is the focus of negotiations between Ontario and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The goal of the talks is to work out an arrangement where the city takes control of the roadway from ODOT. The potential plan also includes parts of North Washington Avenue.
The city has discussed the transfer with ODOT since October 2007.
A key stumbling block, though, revolves around the cost of maintenance in the future for the city to maintain the section of road.
Now, talks between the city and ODOT are at a crossroads.
“ODOT will fund the design and construction on the grinding and rehabilitation of East Idaho Avenue,” Ontario Interim Public Works Director Chuck Mickelson said in his report to the council.
“Total design and construction cost is the responsibility of ODOT, no risk to the city,” he said.
If the plans go through, the rehabilitation construction would take place in 2010, according to city council workshop documents.
The proposal, though, did not sit well with Ontario City Councilman Dan Cummings.
Because the upgrade plan includes extra lanes to East Idaho, Cummings said he did not feel the roads leading into the avenue would be able accommodate the additional traffic suggested in the ODOT upgrade plan.
“Goodfellow won’t be wide enough to have two left turn lanes in it,” Cummings said.
Right now, under the upgrade plan, the city would be responsible for funding the improvements, including revamping the traffic signals, to Goodfellow and East Lane. Cummings expressed concern about what would happen if there wasn’t enough city funding to widen Goodfellow and East Lane.
Planning for the East Lane, Goodfellow changes would be the city’s responsibility, with ODOT designing and looking for bids for the project. However, the money for the project itself would come from the city.
“The city has impact fees available for this project in the amount of $846,000-plus interest earnings,” Mickelson said in his report.
However, this money would not be the only funds available.
If a piece of property near East Idaho is transferred to the city, the city could sell property surrounding the area in order to fund the Goodfellow and East Lane project. One issue that was discussed would be selling property near East Lane. However, this money would not go into maintenance for the road, which is one of the city’s big concerns. It would have to go to the building fund.
Another idea proposed is to work on North Oregon Street from West Idaho Avenue to Northwest Eighth Avenue.
“This will allow the low bidder on the ODOT project to potentially have additional work for his grinding equipment while it is in the area, and potentially the city will benefit from a lower bid due to mobilization costs being included under the ODOT contract,” Mickelson said in his report.
However, Cummings and Mayor Joe Dominick still expressed concern over the city’s stake in the project.
“If ODOT gets all control, what’s our benefit?” Cummings asked. “If they don’t want to relinquish control and access, we’ll turn them down.”
Interim City Manager Mike Kee was in favor of the deal, citing the length of time that East Idaho would be usable.
“With good maintenance, it will last for 15 years,” Kee said. “Then in 15 years we can put another grind on it and get another fifteen years out of it.”
The proposal goes before City Council at its next session at 7 p.m. Monday. night.
