Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association president Diane Redd recently contacted Mayor Tom Potter urging amongst other things, that the Portland Water Bureau open all decisions regarding the reservoirs to public input and involvement.. A copy of the letter is available for download:
MTNA Letter (44 KB) PDF

The Mayor's Office acknowledgement was as follows:

Dear Diane,

Thank you for your letter to the Mayor regarding improving and opening communications between the Water Bureau and the community it serves.  We totally agree.  Specifically, you raised the issue of the City's response to the upcoming EPA ruling and the Mayor's position on the requested waiver. This is a priority issue for the Mayor and we are working diligently to get as much information as possible to assess the situation and make decisions about moving forward.  The information you sent is extremely helpful in that effort.  We will be in touch with you next week to discuss this andPortland's future actions in greater detail.  In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with other thoughts or updates.  Many thanks,Austin

Austin Raglione

Director, Bureau Innovation Project
Office of Mayor Tom Potter
1220 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 340
Portland,Oregon97204

503.823.4799


A more detailed response is to follow. The Mayor's Office also provided MTNA with a draft of the resolution supporting the LT2 waiver requested by the MTNA in the above letter. In addition, the Mayor's Office invited MTNA to the upcoming LT2 Stakeholders Meeting. These documents are also available for download:
Draft of LT2 Waiver Resolution (100 KB) PDF
Stakeholders Meeting Invitation (144 KB) PDF

The proposed new bylaws for MTNA will be voted on at the March meeting of the neighborhood association. In the document available for download, you will find the proposed changes appearing in bold italics. Active members will be allowed to vote on these proposed changes to the bylaws.

Membership in the MTNA is open to any person who resides, owns property, maintains a business or is the single designated representative of a nonprofit organization located with the geographical boundaries of the MTNA. “Active members” are defined as those individuals eligible for membership in the MTNA who have attended at least two (2) of the last four (4) general, special, or emergency meetings of the membership.
Download file (92 KB)

Last spring Mount Tabor residents completed a green survey for the neighborhood association. On it many indicated that they might be interested in serving on a park off-leash committee. The Mt. Tabor Neighborhood is hosting a series of meetings to craft a Good Neighbor Agreement between the neighborhood and the Portland Park Bureau around the use of the Mt. Tabor Park Off Leash Area. We are seeking three Mt. Tabor Park off-leash users to volunteer to serve on this committee. Read more...

Members of the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association have been receiving numerous calls from neighbors who are upset about the extended hours and excessive noise along with the poor conduct of some off-leash users at the Mt. Tabor Park off-leash dog area.

Although the city approved new rules before Christmas, the extended hours are only in effect at this time at the Mt. Tabor Off-Leash area. The Park Bureau has staked the proposed new boundaries of the area, so that it can be examined and discussed. Both the county and the Parks Department know that there are problems at the Mt. Tabor Park off-leash area and are sending their enforcement people over regularly. In addition, the Park Bureau has put an unannounced gravel road into the off-leash area from the nursery yards along the south end of the park. The MTNA will be investigating how it fits with the park's historic designation.

MTNA will attempt to meet the needs of neighbors by hosting a series of meetings to craft a good neighbor agreement with the Park Bureau regarding the off-leash area. Elaine Cogan has volunteered to facilitate this process. The plan right now is to bring together representatives of the neighbors, the off-leash users, the Park Bureau, MTNA, and Warner Pacific College. The intent is to have a good neighbor agreement crafted and presented to the public before Spring Break. Paul Leistner and Diane Redd will be representing MTNA.

An update will be presented at the MTNA meeting on Wednesday evening, January 19th.

Neighborhood pursuit of the former deli site making news. A detailed article appeared recently in The Oregonian newspaper regarding the community's efforts to acquire the site of the former Drive Thru Wake Up deli, along with their hopes and dreams for the site's future. Read more...

The Mt. Tabor Family Network currently putting together playgroups for those of you who have children born in 2002, 2003 and 2004. This is a great way to meet other parents and kids in the neighborhood. If you are interested please call Heidi at 503-267-7507 or email heidishats@hotmail.com for children born in 2002 and 2003 and Andrea Robison at mttaborfamily@comcast.net for children born in 2004. Are you interested in volunteering to host a different year? Please email mttaborfamily@comcast.net.

We are also starting to collect names for the Mt. Tabor Baby Sitting Registry. If interested please contact Tary at 503-775-7235 or email tarykaylor@yahoo.com. We are looking for both baby sitters and baby helpers in the neighborhood who are interested.

Do you have ideas or comments for the Mt Tabor Family Network?  Email us at mttaborfamily@comcast.net.  Thanks!

The newly formed Environment Committee (EC) met and Don & Sharlane's home on December 7th. Nine neighbors attended and three others expressed interest but could not attend. The EC will function as an umbrella group for specific projects of the committee. Don and Sharlane will be the liaisons to the board from the EC.

There were four projects that the EC agreed to take on:

1. Work with Friends of Trees to plant trees in our neighborhood. More info coming soon.

2. Yard Wildlife Certification. This program started by the National Wildlife Federation helps people make their yards more friendly to wildlife. If your yard qualifies, you can receive a plaque proclaiming it.
For more information contact Don at 503 235 6234 or don.jacobson@mttaborpdx.org.

3. Hosting Naturescape. The Naturscape program, run by Metro, is designed to keep contaminates from our waterways by improving gardening techniques. The MTNA has hosted this workshop in the past and the EC is looking for other groups to participate. Contact Sharlane 503 235 6234 or sharlane.blaise@mttaborpdx.org for more information.

4. Reduce pesticide use in our parks and schools. There are alternatives. Contact Don at 503 235 6234 or don.jacobson@mttaborpdx.org.

If you are interested in any of the above projects, please call or e-mail the contact the person.

The Mayor's office has chosen Friends of the Reservoirs to receive a Spirit of Portland award (in the volunteer group category). The MTNA nominated the group for this award back in October (as did some community members).
 
This is welcome recognition of a tremendous and successful community organizing and strategizing effort by the Friends to save our open reservoirs and force more open and accountable process by our city council.

The awards ceremony will be on December 16 at 2 PM in City Council Chambers where the mayor will present the Friends of the Reservoirs with their award. There are 17 awards being presented in various categories.

The Fall 2004 edition of the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association newsletter is now available:

• download the newsletter (830Kb)
• view the newsletter content online
• distribution of the printed newsletter should occur within a few weeks
  
  

Oct. 28, 2004 - As many of you might remember, nearly a year ago (Nov 5, 2003) the Friends of the Reservoir challenged the City in court for issuing Revenue Bonds without proper public notification. At the heart of the case was the claim by the Friends that the City of Portland's notification of the sale of bonds was not sufficiently specific for citizens to determine what the bonds were to be used for. The City provided only a vague description stating that the bonds were for "public purposes."
Read more.

Please note that the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association general meeting which takes place at Western Baptist Seminary, 55th & Hawthorne Blvd, Bueermann Hall, Rm 205, will still be held the third Wednesday of the month but will now begin at 7:00 PM and end at 8:30 PM. (No meeting in December)

The focus of the newly created Environment Committee is to respond to the concerns of the neighborhood. Environmental issues were high priorities in the recent Neighborhood Association survey. Among them were pesticide use in the park and schools and improvement of wildlife habitat in the park. Other projects might include tree planting in coordination with Friends of the Trees, combating Elm disease, and any other concerns you would care to bring to the group.

The emphasis will be on activities and not meetings. All interested people are invited to a get-together to share ideas and launch projects on Tuesday, December 7th, at 7 p.m. Please contact co-coordinators Don Jacobson or Sharlane Blaise, 503-235-6234, donj@dslnorthwest.net.

Gayle Marechal is the new story editor of the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association. He is soliciting stories for the fall newsletter.  Please send submissions to him at gayle.marechal@mttaborpdx.org. or via our online form.  Please limit submissions to stories of interest to Mt. Tabor residents with a length of 300 words or less.

The park is listed on September 22, 2004 - Follows Reservoirs' Listings in January, 2004.
More details

A new project list-serve has been established for the Off-Leash Pilot Program with Portland Parks and Recreation. If you are interested in receiving updates on the Off-Leash Program, please sign up to be on the project list-serve at http://www.portlandparks.org/DogsinParks/doghome.htm.

While you are online, be sure to complete the Off-Leash Survey to let them know what you think. Click on the link from the homepage at www.portlandparks.org.

The Mount Tabor Neighorhood Association has voiced it's opposition to the installation of a new wireless communications facility on the roof of the Institute of International Christian Communication building located at 6012 SE Yamhill St..

You can download the letter submitted by the MTNA for complete details.

Starting Sunday, August 29, all Multnomah County libraries will be open 7 days a week. The Belmont Library will be open Sunday noon to 5 p.m.; Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday noon to 8 p.m.; Thursday to Sat 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Other branches will be open different hours varying with location. A complete list of open hours is available at the Library’s website or in a brochure at all branches.

The Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association held its annual clean-up on May 15. Twenty-two volunteers from the neighborhood helped in various ways to make this year’s clean-up a successful event. As in previous years, the clean-up was held in the parking lot of Mt. Tabor Middle School from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. During those hours the volunteers helped unload all sorts of debris from 167 vehicles, many pulling small trailers. The collected debris filled nine large dumpsters. The recycle/swap area got lots of business, and many who came to the clean-up went away with some unexpected treasures.

For its efforts, the neighborhood association made a net profit of $1,868.85, which it will use in a variety of ways. MTNA would like to thank SEUL for supporting the clean-up, both financially and otherwise, as well as Flannery Drop Box for providing the dumpsters. Thanks also to Figaro’s Pizza on Burnside for the free pizzas to feed the hungry volunteers. Thanks to everyone involved for making this year’s clean-up a successful neighborhood project.

-- Gayle Marechal

Congratulations go to Chris Bonner of 53rd Ave. who won the $50 gift certificate to the Sapphire Hotel. Chris's name was drawn from the almost 400 green surveys that have been turned in to MTNA to date. The survey data is being entered into a database and results will be posted on this web site in July.

After the Oregonian article came out, I talked with Richard Piacentini, the owner of the lot at 60th and SE Belmont, who lives and conducts business from the Seattle area, and let him know of our neighborhood's interest in the property.  Richard told me that there are no immediate plans for development and that he would contact me if this should change.  I informed him that the neighborhood was very interested in this site for future development and we would be happy to work with him.

60th and Belmont (NE Corner) is zoned CO1 which is Office Commercial used on small sites in or near residential areas and is intended to be a low intensity office zone that allows for small scale offices and is intended to serve nearby neighborhoods with few detrimental impacts. Development is intended to be of a scale and character similar to the surrounding area and is oriented to pedestrians along transit streets and in pedestrian districts.

The C01 zone allows household living, limited group living, Office use, community service, schools etc. however does not allow retail use as does the CN1 and CN2 zones. The old Seaton's Pharmacy site has a CN1 zone.

Richard Piacentini does not seem too motivated to apply for a zone change and told me that they would not develop the site unless they had a signed lease for the development.

Dave Hilts
MTNA Land Use Coordinator

Commissioner Dan Saltzman cites the work of a panel that studied the controversial post-9/11 proposal for Mount Tabor.
Learn more on oregonlive.com.

Subscribe to the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association e-mail list to keep up with the latest news concerning the neighborhood. Find our more here.

In Salem on May 21, 2004, the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation voted unanimously to forward the nomination for Mount Tabor Park to be put on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a long winding road and even on the 21st, the forces of further stalling were at work. Thanks to the neighbors who showed up at the meeting for their moral support and testimony and to all of those who helped with photography and other tasks. Thanks to the Mount Tabor Neighborhood Association for the monetary support.