September 15, 2022
Lake Grove Neighborhood Association
Board Meeting
Chairman Dan Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:02
Attendees:
Board members: Dan Anderson, Mike Buck, Audrey Block, Yoko Kinoshita, Jerry Nierengarten, Trudy Corrigan
Guests: Candidates for City Council, Katherine Lupton, Jeff Gudman, Trudy Corrigan (also our Board Member), Ali Afghan. They were in attendance for our City Council Candidate Forum
Minutes approved for the July meeting.
The Board unanimously voted amend our by-laws to eliminate the Treasurer position as a follow-up to changes agreed upon in prior meetings and followthrough of the elimination of our status as a non-profit charity and the donation of the balance in our Treasury to the Lake Oswego Watershed Council.
The new Board was voted on and unanimously approved with Dan Anderson as our Chair, Trudy Corrigan as vice chair, Audrey Block, and Yoko Kinoshita as board members.
City Council Candidates Forum
Dan explained how the forum would work to the candidates and began the forum with each candidate giving a three minute presentation on why they felt they should receive our votes.
Jeff Gudman was up first and cited his prior experience on Council and and his reputation as a budget hawk. He added to this with his ideas for a bike walking path along the old railroad track from Lake Oswego to Portland along the river. He also described his concept for preservation and redevelopment within the Stafford area.
Ali Afghan was up next and indicated he wanted to bring to our City government a better sense of “by the people and for the people.” He noted that he firmly sustainability and feels our actions should not have a negative effect on the future.
Katherine Lupton noted that establishing more pathways was very important as she and her young family are walkers and need to be able to do so safely.
Trudy Corrigan cited her years of volunteer contribution to our City as a Lake Grove Board member, Boones Ferry Committee member and elsewhere. She also cited the importance of safe pathways for our citizens.
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For the next portion Dan asked the candidates to briefly address some questions.
1] First question for the candidates was “are tree removal applications ever denied?”
Trudy was first up and noted how the City’s desire to maintain our urban forest was a natural conflict with the the City’s desire for increased density and expressed to relook at our tree code.
Katherine big mature trees are a big deal here and need to be around to keep Lake Oswego Lake Oswego.
Ali cited the conflict between saving trees, increasing density and keeping jobs. And believes we need to bring all parties to the table to work out a plan together for our future.
Jeff noted that the City has twice formed tree code task forces but the remains incomplete. He see LIDAR technology for tracking our tree canopy.
2] The second question addressed a parking shortage in the Lake Grove business sector. Ali and Katherine were not familiar with the parking discussions within the the Boones Ferry project and stated they needed to learn more. Jeff indicated that he wanted to see parking issues discussed in the plan to be addressed further. Trudy expressed how the lack of adequate parking is a big constraint the hurts business and needs to be addressed.
3] The third question was on the sorry state of the Lake Grove Swim Park and what might be done about it. Trudy said the issue requires negotiations between the City and LO School District. Katherine talked on the importance of the park that it was falling apart and needed more funding. She would like to see it opened year around. Ali agreed with the others comments and saw the need to gather the collective wisdom of all parties. He feels the property needs to be more fully used. Jeff felt it would be helpful if the School District was no longer involved with the park and turned their interest over to the City.
4] Dan asked candidates to address traffic concerns, in particular speeding and cut through traffic. Katherine thought the speed could be reduced below 25 mph in residential areas, more speed bumps added and more enforcement. Ali also favored more speed bumps but also though speed indicator monitors were also useful. Jeff noted the danger to our City traffic from the implementation of tolling on I-205 and I-5 and felt the Council need to more strongly address the potential increase from tolling on our traffic. Trudy agreed with the others comments and added that better timing of lights on our main streets could be helpful.
5] Dan’s final question for the candidates was how to protect our recreational properties with property values soaring. Ali wanted to see more support for Parks and Rec and perhaps up their budget a bit. Katherine emphasized the Importance of parks and not selling off any of our park land. Trudy agreed with the other comments but added that Parks and Rec needs also to adjust to changing recreation over times and cited the surge in pickle ball popularity. Jeff cited that the City needs to more plan communities better and cited Mountain Park as an example of how the Stafford are might be developed.
This concluded our Candidate forum. Dan thanked the participants and adjourned the meeting at 8:15.
Our next meeting will be Thursday October 20.
Lake Grove Neighborhood Association 