WELCHES – There’s a new bus coming to town if some money can be found.
At the Feb. 21 Villages at Mt. Hood Town Hall Meeting, Chair Bob Reeves
informed the community that a grant for a new Mountain Express bus had
been attained.

"There have been a lot of standing-room-only situations lately," Reeves said.
"And, we’re on our third engine on the old bus. The catch is we need $7,500
in matching funds."

The Villages plan on holding fundraisers to come up with the money. Jars will
be put out at local businesses and there will be an art, wine and music festival
this summer under the guidance of the Mountain Express steering committee,
according to Reeves.

Board member Judith Norval – also a member of the library board – was
pleased to note that 74 percent of the local community voted in favor of the
library measure that passed with flying colors in November.

She also urged citizens to assist in forming the Friends of the Library group.
Those interested can contact Norval, or Reeves and Shirley Dueber, who are
also library board members.

As the new library service district is being formed – to go in effect in 2010 –
to take over the Hoodland Library, among others, Norval indicated that the
new board will include three members from the Hoodland area.

Forest Ranger Bill Westbrook, of the Zigzag station, was the guest speaker
and he outlined the future plans of the forest service.

Included in his presentation was the multi-modal transportation plan that
would include the combined effort of the forest service, Clackamas County,
Oregon Department of Transportation and the Western Division of Federal
Highways.

The ambitious plan is a broad concept that includes park-and-ride facilities for
the Mountain, a gondola from Government Camp to Timberline Lodge and an
interchange at Hwy. 26 and Government Camp.

Westbrook pointed out there will be public meetings in advance of moving
forward with these and other plans.

Westbrook came under fire from the audience over fee increases for some
Mountain residents, the lack of road maintenance and the manner in which
some Forest Service cabin residents are not being included in census data.
Steve Graeper, chair of the Rhododendron Community Planning Organization,
and president of the local summer home association complained of the 1,000
percent increase in water fees for Rhody cabin residents.

"We got no notification," Graeper said. "Our water bill went up from $127 to
$1,399."

Westbrook indicated that Congress sets land-use fees and "we were caught by
surprise as well. But we did send out notices."

"We didn’t get one," countered Graeper.

Westbrook said he would pass the complaint on to the regional level.

Graeper continued with the problem of road maintenance on Forest Service
roads, and the "promise" of the paving of Road 20 this year that was
supposedly contracted out to Turin Construction.

"We are contracting locally to work on roads," Westbrook said. "We lost a lot
of funding, however."

Westbrook went on to say that the failure on Road 20 "was unfortunate" and
that Turin is under contract to pave the road this year or they will be in
default.

The future looks much brighter for the Forest Service due to the stimulus
package coming out of Washington D.C., Westbrook said.

"The Mount Hood National Forest has 19 projects totaling $51 million (in the
package)," Westbrook said. "Of that, $30 million is for road and bridge
repair."

In other business, county liaison Christine Roth reported that with the county
commissioners now up to five members, an emphasis on the rural areas will
be implemented.

"The commissioners will conduct a road show, with a stop in April at the
Villages," Roth said.

She also indicated that volunteers are needed for the county’s budget
committee.

In attendance were board members Reeves, Dueber, Norval, Patricia Sharp,
Pat Buckley, Robert Baker, Brigette Romeo and Rick Applegate. Nancy
Dougherty was absent.