Benton County officials want to build a new jail because the old one is potentially dangerous and hopelessly outdated. Now they’re trying to gauge what voters will accept. To that end the county invited the public to an informal “outreach” session Thursday, and about three dozen people showed up.
You don’t have to know anything about growing plants for seed to realize that Benton County Ballot Measure 2-89 is nothing but trouble. All you have to do is read the summary in the Benton County Voters’ Pamphlet.
On the mid-valley bike-trail front, there are developments and one of them — a bill introduced by Rep. Andy Olson of Albany — could complicate things a bit.
It’s wishful thinking, I know, but a bike bridge across the Willamette River might actually avoid all kinds of other complications as the search continues for a more or less direct Albany-Corvallis Trail.
These watery places are not in danger — except perhaps of drying up too much late in the summer of very dry years. They are also obviously useful to all kinds of plants and wildlife of the kind we have at the E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area in northern Benton County.
Now that the latest plan for an Albany-Corvallis Bike Trail — or “multi-use path” — has been shot down, Benton County says it will try to find another route. A long look at the map suggests at least two alternatives that would be almost as good.
Benton jail plan faces doubters
Not everybody is convinced that Benton County needs a new jail, even though it does. That’s the way it looks to me after a sparsely attended public “conversation” in North Albany Tuesday.
Tags: Albany Golf and Event Center, Benton County, Benton County Jail