Bend council agrees to $495K Galveston Avenue design contract

If you think a city of Bend project should be up and running after a decade, you haven’t followed the tortuous, zig-zag path of upgrades to the Northwest Galveston Avenue corridor, where efforts to improve safety, drainage and other issues led to Wednesday night’s 5-1 city council vote to approve a $495,000 contract for final engineering plans.

Several city councilors have come and gone in the years since a task force was formed to create a “streetscape” concept that later councils scaled back, removing a small roundabout, for example.

But the fact that the city has not identified the nearly $4 million in funding to do the actual project left a bad taste in the mouths of even some councilors who voted yes.

During the visitors’ section of the agenda, task force member and Westside Tavern manager Nicole Weathers questioned why the city was going to put another nearly half-million dollars into plans, rather than actual improvements. She said the money spent already (close to $200,000) could have been used to paint crosswalks, fix sidewalks, improve lighting — or take care of other city needs elsewhere.

“Galveston is a thriving, vibrant street,” she said. “Why not use the money for pressing needs?”

Before councilors could get to the topic, Councilor Sally Russell did as she has in the past. As a property owner along Galveston, she recused herself from the debate or vote, “to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” saying she sees it as a potential, not actual conflict of interest.

The area has raised ongoing safety concerns. Just last March, a 72-year-old was hit by a car trying to cross the street.

People in the area notice all the traffic can make things tough for pedestrians.

“I’ve kind of ran across the street and played Frogger for a few times already since I’ve been here. So, yes, better crosswalks would be nice,” Dan’l Martinez said Wednesday.

In 2007, the area was identified by a traffic safety committee as the fourth-highest safety priority project for existing arterials and collectors. The Galveston Corridor Improvement Project addresses those concerns without drastically changing the look of the area, in part due to councilors scaling down earlier design proposals.

“With our design, you’re still looking at a three-lane section. However, you’re also looking at the addition of the buffered bike lanes, a landscaped strip and a larger sidewalk that meets ADA requirements for the length of the corridor,” project engineer Garrett Sabourin said.

So far, the project is 30 percent designed, which Sabourin said is more conceptual than concrete.

Sabourin laid out for councilors the complexity of the project, infrastructure needs in the area and aging street conditions, despite a 2013 paving, as well as a failing stormwater system.

City Manager Eric King said a citizen group brought the issue to the council, but “there have been conflicting visions” in the area on how to best improve the corridor.

“Why is Galveston so special?” asked Councilor Justin Livingston. “I don’t understand why we are spending so much time on these five blocks.”

Partly the answer is: Previous councils thought it was worth the attention. Colleague Nathan Boddie called it “one of the early wood-chippers we walked into” as new councilors a few years ago.

Though not involved since the inception, he said his perception was that “some businesses want a certain type of design, others want another. Two neighborhood groups wanted different versions. It’s kind of been a swirl, leading to a hybridized version. One design was almost a pedestrian corridor. We pared that back.”

And Boddie praised city staff for doing “a good job keeping it basically the same” as the street appears now, with safety improvements and other needed work.

One key point that helped get most councilors on board was that a full design, even if on the shelf in terms of actual work, means redevelopment projects on Galveston can be held to a higher level of requirements for what will be seen on the rest of the corridor, such as a swale to absorb runoff, rather than see it continue to flow directly into the river.

“You need a 100 percent design to be sure things are doing right,” said Mayor Casey Roats, otherwise, some private-sector work could have to be redone on the city’s (and taxpayers’) dime later, when the whole corridor is done. Roats called it “a very stripped-down version” of some of the things originally proposed — a “Galveston Light,” as it were.

Colleague Bruce Abernethy, acknowledging he’s not an engineer, also wondered aloud if there were some “low-hanging fruit” of smaller projects that could be done, though he acknowledged, “I don’t know what those are.”

Roats said that same conversation could be had about any of the other corridors in down, from Eighth and 14th streets to Wilson Avenue.

“We’re really coming close to what previous councils did — dive into these molecular issues,” he said.

Councilor Barb Campbell put it bluntly: “None of us are thrilled about this. … If we don’t proceed with this thing soon, at some point (the plans) become stale and old and we have to start over again.”

“There’s no future where we don’t have to rebuild Galveston — that is coming,” she said. “I don’t love it, but I just think this is where we are, and this is how we get the thing done.”

Councilor Bill Moseley voted no, saying he did so in large part because the construction funds haven’t been found and allocated. He said the rest of the design could be done when those dollars are found.

Boddie said, “I’ll reluctantly support it. I agree with most of what Bill said, but because of the economic prosperity (along the corridor), I think we can leverage a lot of private funds” during redevelopment projects to see improvements happen.

“I think in the long run, we’ll get more out of this than we’re spending,” Boddie added, calling it “terrible how this thing has developed over the years.

“I’m awfully torn either way,” Livingston said, but moments later saying he’d support it to “honor promises made during the budget process” earlier this year.

And Roats said the city can assure that developers do what’s needed to match up with future completion of the corridor: “I don’t think there’s going to be any stranded assets.”