Schools offer land for intersection

At their Wednesday meeting, the Sisters School Board gave tacit approval to grant ODOT an easement at the southwest corner of the Sisters Elementary School property to allow for a full west-bound right-turn lane from Highway 20 onto Locust Street.

The easement will bring the ODOT-repaired fence just to the edge of the elementary school tennis courts. The current property is all "trees and weeds" according to District Director of Operations Leland Bliss.

There was discussion of "stopping" the sidewalk from the elementary school on the east side of Locust at the crosswalk to the district office.

ODOT will return to the city with a final agreement and a check for $14,000 if the board approves the easement.

This project is part of the required improvements to be made to the Barclay/Locust intersection to allow freight trucks to more easily enter the bypass as part of the Cascade Avenue improvement project. Underground work on the Cascade Avenue project is due to start in August of this year.

At the beginning of the Cascade Avenue shutdown in March of 2014, all eastbound trucks will be routed off Highway 20 onto Barclay. At that time westbound trucks will be routed onto Locust and then Barclay.

During the shutdown, eastbound passenger car traffic will be routed onto Hood Avenue, and westbound passenger traffic will be routed onto Main Avenue.