Current Events

City Council votes 4-0 in favor of water treatment expansion

Elise Brown
February 18, 2013

After months of deliberation and debate, the West Linn City Council has unanimously decided to allow the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership to expand its facility in the Robinwood neighborhood.

The new facility will be renovated to better withstand earthquakes and have a daily capacity of 38 million gallons, more than double what it currently produces. To sustain this, it will require wider transmission pipes to be built underneath Highway 43. A two-year, $250 million construction project will need to begin, which will be paid for by Lake Oswego and Tigard residents.

Once construction begins, according to Joel Komarek, project director, some homes in the Robinwood neighborhood may expect a one to three day period of restricted access as construction winds from the site of the facility on Mapleton Drive up to the highway and toward Lake Oswego. This means portions of the highway will be excavated, but construction will only occur at night, according to Chris Jordan, city manager, and will be timed so as to minimize setbacks to the businesses in the area.

“Will Mapleton and Kenthorpe carry a burden? Yes,” Mike Jones, council president, said. “But the burden is not disproportionate when considering the benefit to our community.”

In exchange for the expanded water treatment system, the LOT partnership will give West Linn $5 million as a one-time franchising fee, $10,000 to serve the Robinwood neighborhood’s local community center and four million gallons per day of emergency water.

Some neighborhood members, such as Kevin Bryck, member of the Friends of Robinwood Station and Robinwood Neighborhood Association, are opposed to this project because they feel it is unnecessary. The Bull Run reservoir is closer to Tigard than the Clackamas River, where water will be drawn for the LOT facility. The livability of the homes surrounding the construction also remains a concern.

The Council met the following Monday, Feb. 18 at 9 a.m. to come to a final order and report to the Lake Oswego and Tigard city councils what conditions they must follow through on to proceed with this project. That day, citizens who are opposed to the project were given an opportunity to propose an appeal of the Council’s decision. They will have 21 days to fill out all the necessary paperwork so that Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals can study the decision and find whether or not the planned expansion violates any existing land use code.

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About the Contributor

Elise Brown, Co Editor-in-Chief

Elise Brown, senior, has always felt comfortable standing up and giving her opinion in front of everyone and for the most part, she enjoys it very much. That is one of the many reasons why she heads the debate team, and also why in June she earned a place in the National Speech and Debate Competition in Indianapolis.

Out of the 250 people entered in the competition, she finished 151st in the country. Before she earned her rightful place in Nationals, however, she needed to prove herself in Districts and State.

Her 10 minute long speech about socialism and its benefits took first and second in Districts and State, respectively.

“In the National competition the judges didn’t appreciate politics or controversy as much as they did in Districts and State,” Brown said. This was confirmed from one of the judges she conversed with in order to find out what she could do better.

Brown’s interest in current events started in the eighth grade. She then did the Amplifier, the high school newspaper to help communicate her ideas about the world with her fellow peers, she also did the debate team to better understand the problems throughout the world and learn how to solve them somewhat.

“Debate involves knowing what is going on in the world,” Brown said.

This year for upcoming competitions, she has a speech in the works that she feels will top her last one. This year’s speech is about interdependence inspired by the “you didn’t build that debate,” caused when President Barack Obama told business people that they did not create their businesses on their own.

Brown’s passion for debate has influenced what college she will go to, what she will study in college, and what she wants to do in her life. Brown’s goal is to graduate high school and then travel to Massachusetts and attend Wellesley College, a very well known and prestigious college, where Brown hopes to study political science.

To achieve this goal she has taken part in a number of rigorous courses and activities such as Speech and Debate, AP Government, AP Economics, Honors Law, AP English and journalism. Once Brown achieves her education goals, her next goal is to become a political commentator.

“I want to change people’s minds,” Brown said. Brown has chosen the path to become a political commentator because she believes political power lies with the media.

Brown has worked very hard throughout high school and continues to work hard through her senior year. She has taken many challenging courses to achieve her goal of going to Wellesley, and will need to continue down the very rigorous path to success to accomplish her goals.