HOOD RIVER — Public Works Director Cori Wiessner and Board of Commissioners Chair Jennifer Euwer will provide legislative testimony on behalf of Hood River County when the 2025 Transportation Reinvestment Package (TRIP) comes before the Oregon State Legislature.
Cori Wiessner, Public works director
Jennifer Euwer, Chair, board of county commissioners
According to the Association of Oregon Counties, the bill is expected to be released in early May, with public hearings to follow (oregoncounties.org).
Wiessner and Euwer both sent letters containing their intended testimony to State Rep. Jeff Helfrich and State Sen. Daniel Bonham May 1, asking for their support. TRIP framework dedicates 90% per biennium in revenue to safety, operations and maintenance, with 50% dedicated to cities and counties.
Both noted that its passage would mean more than $1.8 million coming into Hood River County annually.
Wiessner said the county owns and maintains 210 miles of road, along with 27 bridges and more than 3,500 culverts.
“This network consists of access to homes, businesses, local agriculture, farm to market, heavy tourism, access to federal lands, emergency access, and mostly rural network,” she said. “… We have significant trucking to support our local farming community driving our local economy. In contrast, we have a robust bike population using our roadways with few bike lanes and a robust Safe Routes to School program with minimal infrastructure.”
Euwer said TRIP would provide sustainable transportation revenue to support a safe, functional and efficient transportation system.
“As a reminder, Hood River County showed up in large numbers at the Sept. 13, 2024, Transportation Road Show in the Dalles,” she wrote. “Then and now, the need has only exacerbated as we have faced difficult budgets due to increasing costs and federal claw backs. As a rule, the county has had to defer needed safety improvements and routine maintenance work. Roadway construction cost inflation has more than doubled costs, while revenue has grown by less than half since the last statewide transportation package was passed in 2017.”
Wiessner said the county is already considering a variety of cuts if TRIP or a similar transportation package is not passed. The county has already reduced its workforce and has limited snowplow operations to one crew, who work the maximum of 12-hour shifts; still, it often takes days for lower priority roads to be plowed.
Additional cuts could include “retirement attritions, limiting overtime, and less service during snow and ice … limiting the use of white edge stripe and extending the time between replacing regulatory signs, limiting ditch work, vegetation removal, and being less responsive to our constitutes,” she said.
Both Wiessner and Euwer noted the county’s transportation priorities that would move forward with the passage of the bill, including replacing the Lost Lake Bridge on the Hood River in Dee, adequate maintenance and safety to roadways, and improvements to increase student safety at local schools.
“As a reminder, Hood River County is also a federal timber county and federal funds through the Secure Rural Schools program have not been reauthorized, nor do they rise to the level of what is needed for our county to carry out a comprehensive transportation program,” Euwer added. “The TRIP framework prioritizes investments in essential operations, maintenance and safety, while also modernizing and diversifying the funding mechanisms to stabilize and grow the State Highway Fund, while preserving the county 30% share.”
Commented