Newsbits and Revised Opening Date

In the Statesman today, Dennis Thompson, Jr., writes

Mayor Janet Taylor raised the possibility of condemning the property during her State of the City address last week....

"After two years, negotiations have broken down between the owners of Minto Island [Boise Cascade] and Oregon State Parks on the purchase of the 300 acres," Taylor said in her speech. "The city could consider exercising our right to eminent domain to bring this property into public ownership."

Officials from Oregon State Parks haven't met with Boise officials concerning the proposed deal since September 2008, state parks spokesman Chris Havel said.

"We do have an invitation out to Boise Cascade to continue those negotiations, but we don't have anything scheduled with them," Havel said. "There isn't any progress being made. There aren't any future meetings scheduled."

At the February 12 Community Meeting, city staff reported that it was "well attended."

The room was set up in an open house format with stations situated around the room covering topics like scope of the study, the tied arch design, concrete girder design, and schedule. The Friends [of Two Bridges] group also had a table.

[We were] impressed by the dialogue and the thoughtful questions.

Finally, in order to avoid Easter Week, and to make sure the bridge work is complete, the City and F2B decided to move the opening to Saturday, April 18. Construction remains behind, and regrettably it's possible there will be further changes.