The city has been deliberating about Cherry Trail under the pretense that they cannot make a decision unless the Master Trail Plan (MTP) is approved. They have spent a significant amount of tax dollars for a MTP to be enacted yet here we are, over a year later, waiting for them to vote up or down. In an effort to expedite this process, we have sent a letter to the Mayor. We have yet to hear a response…
The following letter was sent to the Mayor by Stan Myers who gave us permission to share it on the blog.
Hi Mr. Mayor - I never heard back from you after I spoke during Public Comments at the February City Council meeting and you said you would get back to me.
The Cherry Trail Proposal is now two years old and we have been very patient and cooperative toward finding a solution for the severed beach access in Classic Ridge. Adjacent property owner, Randy Jertberg, committed to offering an easement to make this trail less steep and require only one section of steps.
We are asking for the City to take some action and continue to address this proposed use of the City right-of-way, by voting for the Master Trail Plan (MTP) and scheduling a new Trail Committee process at the April City Council Meeting.
Linda Kozlowski communicated with me in the past 3 months and said she would look into whether the Master Trail Plan had been formally adopted yet and, if not, said it should come back to Council which is what we are asking.
The main website for the City still has the Master Trail Plan prominently displayed as a draft saying the consultant will present it to the Council in a special May 2021 meeting, which has already happened. Mr. Spegman subsequently presented it in the June 2021 Council Meeting and the final MTP was discussed as something that could be approved at any time. Approval would assume adoption of recommendations to form a Trail Committee to approve individual trails within the MTP.
We are asking that the MTP be voted on for approval at the April 2022 City Council Meeting to ground this action plan in place so that expended consultant dollars and volunteers' time is not wasted and the next steps can be planned and scheduled.
Also, in presenting and discussing the Cherry Trail Proposal last year, I mentioned to you, James Walker, and Council (and Chris Bernhardt agreed with this suggestion), that the City of Manzanita could take advantage of the State of Oregon law to remove liability of any injury from City-owned rights of way and trails by adopting an ordinance, just like the City of Bend did, to allow for smaller-sized Cities to be included in this protection. I said that regardless of the Cherry Trail, I believe that the City of Manzanita should seriously consider adopting this right away. Your response to me was that this could not happen quickly and there would need to be considerations and legal funds spent, etc. I provided the 1.5 page ordinance from the City of Bend to James Walker and he seemed to think this idea had merit and that given the template, expenses should not be too high.
It has been over a year and the City has not progressed with this ordinance to my knowledge. It would be a shame if there were an injury on one of the City trails or rights of way without this protection. As a related concern, there has been a new steep trail with steps constructed into the Ocean Way road City right-of-way near the proposed Cherry Trail and if there is an injury on these unapproved steep steps, the City would be liable with unlimited exposure. Laurie Murphy has emailed you all on this issue asking about the approval process for these steps compared to the Cherry Trail and has not heard back from the City on this.
Best,
Stan Myers
P.S. I never heard back from Mr. Spegman about the $25,000 line item inthe current budget for trails in the attached email. Also, we stand ready toself fund required reports and materials to build this proposed trail if fundsare not available from the City.
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