On Sunday the bike and I made a detour through Sunrise Park off Southeast Thurston Street. The visit reminded me of the flap over “wetlands” that delayed the reconstruction of this park several years ago.
A land owner’s plan for a road through a southwest Albany nature area to access his landlocked property along the Calapooia River is dead, for now anyway.
If you’re wondering what happened to the long-gestating plans to renovate Albany’s Sunrise Park, wonder no more. The city parks department hopes to call for bids on the project by the first week of February.
The renovation of Sunrise Park, first considered in 2013, is finally scheduled to take place this year now that the city of Albany has obtained the required permits and spent $38,000 in federal antipoverty grant money to make up for the loss of a patch of so-called “wetlands.”
Here’s an example of how Oregon’s effort to protect so-called wetlands goes too far and requires the spending of public money without accomplishing any actual wetland protection. I came across it on a bike ride on Riverside Drive just outside of Albany.
Wetlands again? Yes, once again the designation of normally dry ground as wetlands is likely to cost the city of Albany some money.
Pumping to keep Talking Water Gardens alive
Albany’s Talking Water Gardens is out of water, but construction is under way on a temporary and partial fix for the rest of the summer.
Tags: Cox Creek, DEQ, leaks, Talking Water Gardens, wetlands