Looking north across the nearly finished Cox Creek Bridge on Goldfish Farm Road on Sunday, Sept 28, 2025.
Goldfish Farm Road in northeast Albany, closed since April for replacement of the bridge across Cox Creek, should be open again this Friday, Linn County said today.
As I reported yesterday, on a bike ride Sunday I found the road still closed to through traffic. This surprised me because last month the county Road Department told me the construction contract called for the bridge to be completed by Sept. 22.
“The contractor planned to be done on September 22, but had 180 days from the starting day, which is actually September 30, to complete the project,” county spokesman Alex Paul said today. “The contractor’s current construction schedule indicates the road should be open on Friday, Oct. 3.”
Goldfish Farm Road links the growing residential neighborhoods in the Knox Butte area to Highway 20. Unlike the designated detour routes of Price and Scravel Hill roads, the Goldfish Farm intersection with the high-speed highway has signals.
A commenter on my Sunday story about this noted that I had evidently crossed the new bridge and ignored a no-trespassing sign. Well, I was on the bike and once I had reached that inviting and readily accessible bridge with open sidewalks, I wasn’t about to pedal back all the way to Knox Butte.
I was curious about the sign’s reference to a “no trespassing” order by the county board of commissioners. Turns out the board passed that order on Nov. 15, 1972. It was signed by two commissioners, including the late Floyd C. Mullen, then the board chairman, and “approved as to form” by the late Jackson Frost, then the district attorney and later circuit court judge.
“The entry of unauthorized persons onto county owned property creates risks both to the property and to the unauthorized persons,” the order said, but this was not the case here. It also said permission to enter “for good and valid reasons” could be obtained from the office of the board of commissioners.
I didn’t get permission, but I claim a good and valid reason.
As for the bridge itself and reopening the road, I also heard from the county today that the contractor was waiting on dry weather to apply thermoplastic pavement striping, and the pedestrian railings should be installed soon. Remaining parts of the project, such as plantings and drainage structures, can be done with the road in use. (hh)
I think Linn County does a good job for the most part on projects and doesn’t do something as stupid as spending however many millions of dollars the City spent on the Monteith Stage, the splash pad and playground and the “pink” brick road…Water Street paving, that is.
This all freshly boots up in my mind again today, as I went to the first day of an LBCC class that is held at The Old Sr. Center, which is owned by the City. Well, I found out some “stuff.” One of the folding partitions that makes 3 classrooms out of one big room will no longer work at all. It costs $36,000 for a new one, and, of course, the City doesn’t have any money. They spent it all on the pink-hued, “gold” brick road. (Yes, I know it was Urban Renewal money, but it is taxpayer’s money, nonetheless.)
So, a sheet or lightweight canvas is hung up to partition off part of a classroom. The noise from the Meals On Wheels workers preparing lunch and visiting in the adjoining classroom…that is, loud talk and banging of cooking pan lids…makes it impossible to hear our class instructor.
But, there is no money for the maintenance of the Community (SENIOR) Center because the City and Council do not value the Sr. Center.
Hopefully, LBCC will wise up and rent space for their classes from somewhere else or find room to hold them at LBCC Albany Campus.
Albany Parks and Recreation Director Kim Lyddane sent me additional information about the partition mentioned in the comment above:
“While it is true that the accordion wall has failed, it is not true that we don’t plan to fix it. Because any project over $25,000 requires three quotes, we are currently in the process of securing them. The first quote came in at $36,000 and increased to nearly $48,000 for a model comparable to what we have now. Alongside procurement, we’re also exploring short-term options to reduce sound bleed so programs can continue in both spaces as smoothly as possible. Although we did not budget specifically for this unexpected repair, we will make the necessary adjustments and move forward to resolve the issue.”
To quote the Albany Parks and Rec Director: “Although we did not budget specifically for this unexpected repair, we will make the necessary adjustments and move forward to resolve the issue.” Forgive me, but that sounds like typical “boiler plate” from a management training manual. We will wait and see if the accordion room divider at the Senior Center gets replaced. In the meantime, Albany Parks & Rec has reassigned the specific LBCC class space to the gym at the Swanson Pool in Albany, so they are not expecting to quickly fix the broken room divider. But, this has a perk…there is “suitable,” close-in parking space at the Swanson Gym!! No longer so at the Sr. Center, which must have been the Council’s first step in getting rid of the Sr. Center. I wonder if they thought no one would notice. (Correction: The removing of parking spaces was not the first step; the first steps were taking out the pool table, the old gift shop, the long table for sitting down for communal coffee, the free coffee (with a jar for donations) the bulletin board, etc.)