Letters to the Editor for Nov. 16, 2017

Camas needs to ban fireworks immediately

Now that Washougal’s city council has banned above-ground, explosive fireworks, Camas is the lone hold-out, stuck between Vancouver and Washougal, where now all the people in Vancouver, Washougal — and Camas, too — who want to shoot off rockets, will come to do just that, unless city leaders take action to protect our beautiful community. I hope this reality jars the mayor and city councilors into voting to bring our municipal firework law into alignment with our neighbors. Because if they don’t, and a fire starts, and someone loses their home, or is injured, or killed, and firefighters lives are put at risk — that is going to be on them.

After this summer’s fireworks-started, tragic Columbia River Gorge fire, and after the fires in Northern California that devastated so many, how they can even hesitate is beyond me. Please, (Mayor Higgins and Camas City Council), do the right thing, and do it now, so our new law can go into effect next December, along with Washougal’s, before January 1, 2019.

And while they are considering this issue, I urge them to watch this video (NPR, “A Fire Story”: https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/tag/a-fire-story) that the neighbor of Charles Shultz’s family made after his home was lost in the Calistoga fire last month. Don’t think for a minute that our beautiful community wouldn’t be just as vulnerable to a catastrophic fire like this, particularly if the winds in the Gorge are blowing in perfect-storm fashion. And remember, a lot of Camas is up on a hill, and fire likes to travel up.

It is city leaders’ responsibility to craft legislation that will help protect our community. They should not drag your feet on this any longer. I urge them to ban above-ground fireworks now.

Aunna Elm, Camas

We need a new corridor, not tolls ‘at the border’

Recently, the Vancouver City Council was briefed on Oregon’s “value pricing” and the Policy Advisory Committee. The stated purpose of “value Ppricing” (tolls to us), was to reduce congestion.

They were told that 72 percent of Oregon citizens say congestion is a very serious problem. Southest Washington citizens agree. The I-5 corridor is now congested over 12 hours a day. There are 35 “bottlenecks” in the region.

The ODOT rep said the Oregon legislature took a “comprehensive approach to congestion relief.” Their version of comprehensive included four areas. No. 1 — Bottleneck relief. No. 2 — Transportation Options — specifically mass transit, bike and pedestrian travel. No. 3 — Freight rail — getting trucks off the road by putting more freight on trains. And No. 4 — Value Pricing, also known as tolling.

If the real goal is not “revenue generation,” but reducing congestion, then I would suggest their “comprehensive” approach was not very comprehensive.

An easy, no-cost “help” in reducing some congestion would be to eliminate the only HOV lane in Oregon. Try it for one year and see if traffic flows faster on I-5 northbound.

Next, “comprehensive” would also include two extremely important areas:

First, add new through lanes on I-5 in the congested area. Adding more capacity to respond to the increased “demand” is common sense.

Next, create a bypass. All car and truck traffic bound for Washington County and the coast shouldn’t have to go through downtown Portland and the three-lane Vista Ridge Tunnel. This option would help in three areas: It would reduce the number of vehicles on I-5; reduce vehicles on I-405, and reduce vehicles on Highway 26. That’s a triple win.

Our region had a planned “ring road” to bypass the crowded inner Portland core back in the 1970s. We built the eastern half of the ring, I-205, which opened in 1982. Sadly, we failed to build the western half of the ring road. It’s been 35 years since a new transportation corridor was built.

For real congestion relief, look at what I-205 did for I-5. We built a new transportation corridor. There was an immediate 18.5 percent reduction of traffic on I-5. It took a decade before vehicle levels using the Interstate Bridge reached pre-I-205 opening levels.

With the Portland area now congested over 12 hours a day, there is no realistic way drivers can “shift” their travel to the “other” 12 hours. There are no alternate transportation corridors. Let’s get some real congestion relief going by building new highway lanes.

Finally, let’s not punish Southwest Washington citizens, who already are paying over $200 million per year in Oregon income taxes. Don’t allow for tolls “at the border,” especially when there’s no benefit for Southwest Washington drivers. Oregon should fix the congestion problem by adding new, legitimate vehicle capacity.

John Ley, Camas