Welcome to Palisades!
Purpose:
Our primary goal is stewardship of the entire Rimrock/Palisades/Indian Canyon area, including all public lands within the approximate boundaries of Sunset Hwy on the South, Riverside State Park on the North and East, and Airway Heights on the West.
This will include trail planning and maintenance, park advocacy with regard to City Parks issues, involvement with the various agencies assisting in fire management, periodic cleanup activities, and a helpful, watchdog approach to all park users -- i.e. friendly toward non-trashers, non-poachers, non-dealers.
In addition, to assist other user groups in working toward accomplishment of their goals within other areas to enhance muscle-powered use, whether by help with marketing/grant writing/funding or physical help with trail work and building projects.
Finally, to spread the teachings of the "Leave No Trace" Outdoor Ethics program, both within our own area and by reaching out to other user groups to help work toward having clean, sustainable public lands everywhere.
We hope you'll join us. |
To subscribe our email list, send a message to: neighborhoodnews-subscribe@palisadesnw.com
To remove your address from the list,just send a message to: neighborhoodnews-unsubscribe@palisadesnw.com
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2009-03-03
Stimulus Money For Trails
From Outdoor Monthly – Thank you Jon Snyder!
Stimulus Money Update–You Can Help
Trying to follow the stimulus package transportation dollars and whether or not they will result in new bike/ped construction in Spokane this year is complicated! Here the latest news (this information comes straight from SRTC’s very helpful Jeff Selle):
- Spokane Regional Transportation Council received $10.1 million in direct funds from the transportation stimulus money. Of that $308K had to go directly to bike/ped enhancement projects
- The SRTC Technical Committee met yesterday and decided to recommend allocation of that $308 to the Fish Lake Trail so that the project can begin immediately and won’t risk losing the $1 million already allocated towards it. Fish Lake Trails has $1.3 million in funding now but still needs $700K for final paving. Work will proceed, but paving won’t happen unless they find more funds.
- 5-Mile Prairie Road Improvements were allocated $1.25 million which means the entire 5-mile project can be completed, including new bike lanes.
- Other projects that the Technical Committee recommended to the SRTC board: $450k for Rutter Parkway Bridge, $2.8 million for Spokane Valley Sprague repaving (which includes pedestrian enhancements and traffic calming), $1.4 to Havana St. overpass, and $1.75 million to the Deer Park Crawford Rd. project. This leaves $1 million left over that hasn’t been recommended for allocation yet. Might be great to lobby the SRTC board on how this should be spent.
A totally unrelated Federal safety grant for $619K was announced by the City of Spokane two days ago that will pay just for downtown Spokane Biking improvements, included lane striping. This means 3 or the 5 Smart Routes bike project are getting full or partial funding for 2009. But there still more to do! Right now the legislature is debating what to do with another $11 million dollars of transportation enhancement money (that the pile of money that bike/ped projects get funded out of.) Westside politicians want to take ALL of this money for some west side beautification project! They must be stopped! If we got even $500K we could pay for the entire Iron Bridge project. Another $700k would complete the Fish Lake Trail paving.
Barb Chamberlain has put together this handy cheat sheet for contacting the legislators involved with making that decision. Contact them today and tell them we need our projects funded:
This is a negotiation that does not yet have a bill number.
Given that, go ahead and use either the email form links I sent previously, or the direct email addresses and office numbers listed below.
It’s great if you customize your message to talk specifically about which project is most important to you, or general bike/ped information, while keeping it short. The email form allows 4000 characters, and my draft language is well within that limit.
House:
Rep. John Driscoll:
driscoll.john@leg.wa.gov
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/MailForm.aspx?Chamber=H&District=6&Position=2
Office: (360) 786-7962
Rep. Don Cox:
cox.don@leg.wa.gov
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/MailForm.aspx?Chamber=H&District=9&Position=1
Office: (360) 786-7942
Rep. Alex Wood:
wood.alex@leg.wa.gov
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/MailForm.aspx?Chamber=H&District=3&Position=1
Office: (360) 786-7888
Rep. Matt Shea:
shea.matt@leg.wa.gov
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/MailForm.aspx?Chamber=H&District=4&Position=2
Office: (360) 786-7984
Senate:
Sen. Chris Marr:
marr.chris@leg.wa.gov
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/memberemail/MailForm.aspx?Chamber=S&District=6
Office: (360) 786-7610
Karen Jurasin
kjoutdoors@comcast.net.
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