COUNTY NEWS
Consequences and Vision by Commissioner Casey Kulla Ten + forty years ago, the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration to build a bridge spanning the Willamette River, just south of Dayton. The vision was to create a direct link between I-5 and the Coast, crossing farmland but bypassing the metropolitan areas. Lumber, wheat, seafood, and industrial goods could flow to the corridors of trade from the rich and verdant Valley and Coast; tourists and retirees would flow the other way. But, it was a contentious decision, and one commissioner opposed it. And so, when it came time to elect a new commissioner, neighborhood farmers organized and elected one of their own to kill the project. Since the feds had already committed $3 million and wanted it back, the local community was granted permission to use that money to build the City of McMinnville’s parking garage, renovate the old Armory, and build a local live theater hall. Choosing not to build the bridge meant that all industry had to go through all of suburban Portland and Yamhill County’s cities to get to the Coast. It also means that now, we sit in between Phase I and Phase II of the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, struggling to find the next tranche of money to build the next portion of the expressway. All told, a complete expressway from Rex Hill to the intersection of Hwy 18 and 99W is estimated to cost well over $1 Billion. All because of a $3 million bridge that was not built. A parallel story is the plan and then demise of the proposed Yamhelas Westsider Trail; a long-planned trail was killed over opposition from neighbor farmers who elected a commissioner
to end it, resulting in money paid back to the Oregon Department of Transportation. The vision was not enough. As it turns out, the bridge story is not that simple: in the intervening years, the proposed location has eroded dramatically, the federal government purchased a large chunk to restore, and Willamette Riverkeepers developed a boat-in campsite. A significant amount of farmland would have been lost in the French Prairie, and development patterns would have changed across the whole Valley. What we choose to do or not do has far-reaching and complicated consequences. And so we look 40-50 years ahead: Yamhill County is at the beginning stage of changing our presence in downtown McMinnville, where we expect to reaffirm our investment in the city, consolidate offices, vacate whole blocks, and build new buildings. With that affirmation of our presence in downtown McMinnville, we need to bring in the business community as we make decisions. We need developers, property owners, entrepreneurs, and children to share their visions of the land that we build upon and the land we vacate, so that every move is made in harmony with our residents and businesses. (And with climate change in mind.) The world is complicated and we’ve seen that hasty and considered decisions both have far-reaching consequences. To make the best ones, we’ve simply got to include everyone as early as possible.
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