‘Not enough money': Local leaders ask for urgent state funds in road maintenance

Yahoo

13-05-2025

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Local leaders are asking for serious state help in the form of the Oregon Transportation Reinvestment Package this legislative session.
The mayors of Troutdale, Wood Village, Fairview, and Gresham joined Multnomah County Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon Monday to urge state lawmakers to pass this transportation package.
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They want to improve conditions they believe are dangerous for drivers and pedestrians alike, and the mayors said they need state funding to get it done. On top of that, they argued road maintenance will improve the local economy as well.
'State investments in transportation infrastructure directly support our local businesses, attract new employers, and create good paying construction and infrastructure jobs right here in east Multnomah County,' Troutdale Mayor David Ripma said.
Fairview's mayor Keith Kudrna said they have plans for new developments that serve the community's needs, but without good roads they cannot get done.
'Like Sandy Boulevard, where residents at the senior manufactured home park must walk along roadside ditches to catch the bus or to cross the street at an unmarked crosswalk,' he said. 'The problem is that we do not have enough money to finish these visions.'
The county's road fund pays for road maintenance, but the upcoming budget proposes cutting close to $2 million from it. Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall called that proposal unacceptable.
'There has to be an overinvestment, an oversized investment, in East County starting now,' he said. 'There has been tremendous years of underinvestment that includes transportation and these that– it's challenging for us to be able to bring our folks from poverty to prosperity. We have to make these investments. We have to.'
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If they are not able to get financial help from the state in this package Stovall said they will carry on, but it will not be easy. He said roads across the county will be underprepared.
'They won't be maintained,' Stovall said. 'Will new roads and new infrastructure not be delivered? Yes, that will be the case. Will we be able to move forward as communities? Absolutely. Is it going to be more challenging? Of course. That's the critical response to the question is it will be more challenging to deliver the things that we need to deliver.'
Jones-Dixon said he is definitely looking to make sure those cuts to the county's road fund are not made in the upcoming budget. And later this month the Joint Committee on Transportation is holding a public hearing for the transportation package.
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