10/26/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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. Roxanne Spaulding, Junction City, representing the Committee for the Improvement of Highway 99, said in talking to the Department of Trans- portation about priority, the group was assured that with the proper amount of pressures, the priorities could be changed. In that vein, the Committee had been requesting from various cities around the area endorsement by resolution for improvement of Highway 99 from Airport Road to Junction City. She requested the Eugene City Council send a letter to Governor Straub endorsing this plan and send a resolution to the Department of Transportation for immediate improvement. Mr. Delay understood the pressures that existed for this request, but felt the City should not be playing the role of the State by requesting priorities of ones which are more important, noting there are needs allover the area. He also felt Council should more fully explore the issue, and it simply did not have time. There should be a reasonable stand based on information which Council does not have time to obtain; he noted sympathy to the request and pressures. Mr. Haws expressed sympathy for the request, also, but noted he would like to know what effect passing such a resolution would have. He said there were other highways such as 126 and 58 that also need im- provement. Don Allen felt only the higher officials of the State Department of Transportation will evaluate how effective such pressure might be. Staff could not evaluate how fruitful such a resolution might be. Mr. Haws said, assuming it were effective, should the City support it over Highway 126 or 58? Mr. Allen replied that becomes a e personal opinion. He said no one could gauge how effective a reso- lution would be. He suggested there was no harm in passing such a resolution of supporting the program. He clarified for the audience and Council that the Highway 99 improvement City staff was requesting was from Prairie Road to Roosevelt Boulevard. Manager said staff was symphathetic and would like to see that portion of Highway 99 improved; however, from the City's point of view, the City has far more traffic on Highway 99 between Prairie Road and Roosevelt Boulevard. He said it would be far more difficult to take any position other than City Council should support City requests and be sympathetic to others. He noted the low resources for which all were competing. Mr. Williams agreed with Mr. Delay1s comments, saying the Council was not qualified to make decisions between competing uses, and further- more, those were not decisions for City Council to make. Mr. Williams moved, seconded by Ms. Smith, to endorse Mayor1s letter to the Department of Transportation. e 10/26/77--5 8/0