Parks board makes Creekside recommendations

Sisters' Parks Advisory Board (PAB) has become an active and important body in their advisory capacity to the City Council on park-related issues. That was evident at their May 6 meeting.

The board became more active with the controversy over plans for the Creekside Overnight Campground back in January 2014. Since then they have reviewed data gathered during last summer's camping season and made site visits to the campground and talked to the camp host. They have listened to public testimony from the neighbors around the park multiple times, and worked with neighborhood representatives to be sure their concerns were heard and considered.

At their May meeting, the PAB voted unanimously to pass on to Sisters City Council their recommendations for six different capital improvements with a projected price tag of $460,000, to be completed in phases.

Project 1, Phase 1, which is already underway, involves improved signage and stripping on Locust Street to hopefully eliminate RVs missing the entrance to the campground. The entrance/exit would be widened, with the creation of a staging area inside the campground for campers to park when they first arrive, rather than creating congestion on the sides of Locust and Tyee, and close to the restroom.

Project 2, Phase 1, would involve converting four existing campsites to ADA-compliant sites by paving the spaces and installing ADA-compliant picnic tables and fire pits. A cost of $7,000 per site is estimated. Site #62 has definitely been identified for conversion because of its location near the path close to the restrooms.

Project 3, Phase 1, with a price tag of $93,000 - a definite priority of the neighbors - involves the construction of sizeable landscaped earthen berms on both the Locust and Tyee sides of the campground to help screen visual and auditory activity in the campground from the neighborhoods. The berms will be constructed with the least amount of impact possible to existing trees. The City doesn't have the heavy equipment necessary for the job so it will be put out to bid. The berms will be tall and wide with a 3:1 and 4:1 slope, making them a projected eight feet high and 50 feet wide.

Project 4, Phase 2, would replace the existing restrooms with ADA-compliant split men's and women's restrooms with four stalls, and four showers and sinks on each side, doubling the current capacity. Use of the showers is currently included in the camp fee but a suggestion was made that perhaps they could be pay showers to help defray expenses. Estimated cost of the new facility is $265,000, for which the City would likely make a grant application.

Project 5 would relocate the dump station from near the front of the park to north of the access road with a turnaround providing easy ingress and egress. Estimated cost: $35,000.

Project 6 involves access, circulation and traffic analysis. The traffic study, if done now rather than waiting for the city-wide Transportation Safety Plan (TSP) update would look at the Locust/Highway 20 intersection in terms of traffic counts and trip volumes during the summer when the campground is fully operational. The data collected could later be folded into the overall City TSP update. The data would be used to help determine the feasibility and impact of several different scenarios for the campground traffic, including total closure of the Locust Street entrance/exit and having all access shifted to Buckaroo Drive.

Phase 2 would also include the relocation of five full-hookup sites away from Locust and Tyee. One other modification would involve moving the camp host to a larger site that would allow for two camp hosts with two RVs in order to provide for everyday coverage on the same lot while providing appropriate time off for both hosts.

Phase 3 has no cost estimate and is much further down the road. It would involve having the campground entrance and exit on Highway 20 near the current truck weigh station if the State relocates the weigh station. That option would be considered as part of the overall TSP.

Steve Bryan, a resident on Tyee, gave a presentation to the PAB regarding entrance/exit options for the campground, looking at information provided the City by Kittleson traffic engineers as well as Google photos of the Locust/Highway 20 and Buckaroo/Highway 20 intersections.

The option Bryan recommended, which could be implemented immediately, would be to have camp visitors enter the campground from Buckaroo and exit onto Locust, with a right turn only out to Highway 20. The traffic issues in Buck Run and Coyote Springs could be ameliorated; traffic for both FivePine and 4th Sister condominiums would be improved with RV traffic only entering and not exiting the campground on Buckaroo; and the traffic flow and safety for campground visitors would be improved.

It is up to City Council to make decisions regarding traffic flow on city surface streets, not requiring the involvement of the Oregon Department of Transportation. A traffic study is not required but would add weight to Council's decision. Without a traffic study, the changes could be implemented at any time.

Tate Metcalf, owner of Sisters Athletic Club, located in the FivePine campus, encouraged the PAB to continue the professionalism they have exhibited thus far regarding the campground. He urged them to recommend to Council that they hire professionals to do a traffic study before making any changes.