The Keizer Volunteer Coordinating Committee voted Wednesday to forward Michael Welsh and Hurst Sangster to the Keizer City Council as candidates to fill two openings on the Traffic Safety, Bikeways and Pedestrian Committee, with terms ending Dec. 31, 2028.

The committee's decision followed candidate interviews in which applicants described local safety priorities and the resources required to address them. Michael Welsh, an environmental health and safety manager and applicant, said he wanted to apply “a professional safety mindset” to the panel and urged engineering solutions over education alone: “We should be looking at, either engineering or elimination controls for those risks out there,” Welsh said.

Why it matters: River Road and other corridors have repeatedly come up in committee discussions as locations with recurring crashes or near-misses. Committee members and both candidates emphasized that Keizer’s limited municipal budget constrains the kinds of capital projects — such as sidewalk construction and corridor widening — that would most reduce risk.

During his interview, Sangster, a long‑time local volunteer who said he helped found the bikeways committee in 1996, described River Road north of Fred Meyer as “the Great barrier site for cyclists, pedestrians in Keizer” and said comprehensive work there would cost “millions and millions of dollars.” He recommended starting with targeted sidewalk repairs near schools and smaller investments such as painted bike lanes and signage where full reconstruction is unaffordable.

Several committee members pressed both candidates on practical approaches that could be implemented with limited funding; Welsh described using a risk matrix to rank projects by severity and likelihood, and Sangster noted past efforts to use alternate routes and signage in coordination with neighboring jurisdictions.

Formal action and next steps: After a ballot, the committee voted to transmit both candidates’ names to Keizer City Council for final appointment. The committee chair said council will review the recommendations at a future council meeting. No capital projects or policy changes were approved at Wednesday’s meeting.

Committee context: Council liaison Councilor Koehler and multiple committee members participated in the interviews. Members discussed potential follow-up steps including requesting incident data and cost estimates from staff before the Traffic Safety Committee or council takes action on infrastructure projects.

The committee also noted ongoing constraints: several speakers observed that some corridors were originally built or improved by ODOT and that major reconstruction depends on county or state budgets and approvals.