Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association

December-January 2001 Newsletter

Jan 17, 2001

Dear Neighbors,

Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to everyone!

The Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association donated about 20 pounds of food at the November meeting. The food was given to the Oregon Food Bank in care of the U.S. Bank in Foster-Powell's name. Thank you very much to everyone who donated. If you missed that chance to donate food, I believe U.S. Bank will continue to have barrels for the food bank.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman came to our December meeting, and we talked about several aspects of Portland city government that are under his purview.

Commissioner Saltzman talked about the Residential Siting Program -- a program that involves all aspects of fitting group homes and other residential social services into our communities. The program involves education, mediation, an inventory of services available, and voluntary notification to the community. The program does not, at this time, address safety issues, or whether a social service is appropriate for a given. The Mayor is addressing zoning issues and mandatory notification for potentially dangerous residential social services, and I asked Commissioner Saltzman for his support when this came before the City Council.

A great deal of time was spent talking environmental and water issues. Sewage in the Willamette continues to be a huge problem in Portland. One of the main solutions at this time is for citizens to disconnect their rainwater downspouts so that the water goes into drywells rather than a directly into the storm sewers. You may qualify for as much as a 35% reduction in your current stormwater management charge. The actual amount of your discount will be based on the actions you take to safely control and dispose of stormwater runoff from your property. You can call 503-823-7010 for more information.

We talked about the problems with the water bills. A lot of people haven?’t received a water bill for months. The City?’s computer program that generates the water bills has not been working. When you finally get a water bill, it may be very large. Commission Saltzman said that there would be no late charges. The computer problem will probably be solved sometime this spring.

I am wondering if people would like to stencil stormwater drains as a community project. The stenciling program is to educate people that the runoff goes directly into our streams and asks them not to dump waste into the street drains. The dumping of hazardous wastes into the storm drains can affect fish and wildlife. For example, only one pint of motor oil can cause a slick the size of two football fields on calm water. The stencil says ?“Dump No Waste [picture of fish] Drains to Stream.?” If enough people are interested, I think we could do several streets. Please let me know at the January meeting.

Our January meeting falls on January 2. Southeast Uplift will be coming to our meeting to talk about the Lents Urban Renewal project and to talk about traffic safety issues on Powell. I look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting.

Meetings are always on the FIRST Tuesday of each month (except as noted above) from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the St. Anthony Parish Hall, 3618 SE 79th (green and white building at south end of the complex-please use the south door). Call Cindy Peek at 775-3006 for more information, or e-mail me at clpeek@aol.com; more information is available at www.neighborhoodlink.com/portland/foster.