City Council selects couplet consultant

Facing Sisters' growing population and tourist-packed summers, City of Sisters staff began negotiations this week with Cogan Owens Cogan, a consulting team that will refine plans to change Hood and Main Avenues to one-way highways.

Creating a one-way east-bound Hood Avenue and a west-bound Main Avenue should ease out-of-town traffic off of Cascade and onto Hood and Main, said City Administrator Eileen Stein.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has expressed concern over heavy traffic back-ups on Cascade Avenue during busy weekends, Stein said.

On Thursday, September 25, the city council approved the hiring of Cogan Owens Cogan of Portland to administer the "Couplet Refinement Plan" -- if the firm continues to keep their costs under $35,000.

The city has budgeted a total $50,000 for the plan, including a $30,000 grant from the Forest Service.

Stein said the city selected the firm among three others because it appears to be best prepared to mitigate controversy among business owners who anticipate customer counts to fluctuate with traffic counts.

"As I was doing reference checks, people were commenting that their quality of work on public involvement and facilitating public meetings was really high," Stein said. "That's what is going to be the most critical piece to the plan because there is fragile consensus among the public."

The city is receiving applications for a Couplet Advisory Committee, which will be composed of about 12 business owners, interested residents and school district and Forest Service representatives, Stein said. The committee will work with city staff and the firm to mitigate impacts on nearby businesses, residents and forest land.

Key areas of impact will be the Sisters Ranger District offices and the former middle school site, which are located in the path of the proposed couplet.

There may be a new city hall and library at the old middle school site. The one-way Main Avenue arm could cross the property in the area of these new buildings to connect to Highway 20 and Highway 126, Stein said.

Businesses on Main Avenue could thrive with additional traffic, while businesses on Cascade Avenue fear a direct cut.

"I think it's a big mistake," said Pam Creason, manager of Sisters Mercantile, a women's apparel store off Cascade Avenue. "I'm worried about the impact on business. I've had people come downtown for years and not even know I'm here and I've been here for 25 years."

Joe Nauer, on the other hand, eagerly awaits a one-way Main Avenue, which will send through more traffic. Nauer is a salesman at Mountain Supply, an outdoor backpack and camping store on Main Avenue. He said the owner of the store anticipates an increase in business and is even considering relocating to a bigger building on the street.

"I'm definitely excited," Nauer said. "It's going to ease the traffic but then it is also going to redirect traffic to a bunch more commercial properties."

Couplet plans were favored by ODOT, but public concern has grown with time, Stein said.

"There (were) three options," Stein said. "One is to do nothing and have traffic backed up on weekends, which is just fine for some businesses. Two is to keep the couplet and some people are fine with that because they say it (Cascade) is a dominant street and people will still come anyway. Some consider Hood as a locals' commercial street and they are not happy with more traffic. (Or three), some say Sisters is commercially viable on its own and doesn't need a couplet, but a (bypass around) Sisters completely."

The cost of the couplet plan is unknown, but could run as much as $2 million. The project might not be implemented till 2008 to 2010, Stein said.

The city is seeking funding support from the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).