Business View Magazine | April 2019

199 twelve schools we have in the urban area, and identifies the sidewalk deficiencies, where there aren’t ramps or bike lanes, and it builds a proj- ect list that helps us choose investments over the next ten years to complete those sidewalk and bike lane networks in order for parents to be more comfortable with allowing their kids to walk or bike to school, safely. “This year, we received a grant from ODOT (Or- egon Department of Transportation) to update our master Transportation System Plan. That helps us look at the existing system, see where those deficiencies are for vehicles and bicyclists. It projects out where future growth is going to occur and how we build modern facilities to anticipate that future growth so we don’t have increased congestion. We mitigate it by being ahead of the curve. It will guide us for the next ten to twenty years on capital projects and how to commission those in response to growth. “Lastly, we invest quite a bit in our roads and bridge network. Our public works are a $10-15 million annual budget. We look at maintenance activities, preservation, all the way up to capital projects like the Foothills Bike Path and multi- million dollar road and bike/ped projects. In ad- dition, we proactively replace our bridges. We have 850 miles of paved and gravel roads in the county under our jurisdiction and we have 200-plus bridges. That’s about a $2 billion asset and we’re trying to make sure that our invest- ments are targeted to get the biggest bang for the buck.” “We also have a multi-purpose community sports complex, which contains a state-of-the-