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Sean Clark elected chair as St. Helens launches Transportation System Plan update
Summary
At the first Project Advisory Committee meeting for St. Helens’ Transportation System Plan update, the group elected Sean Clark chair and Jacob Grama vice chair, reviewed proposed TSP goals and timeline toward a 20‑year plan, and flagged maintenance, safety and a railroad crossing as priorities.
Sean Clark was confirmed unanimously as chair of the City of St. Helens’ Transportation System Plan (TSP) Project Advisory Committee, and Jacob Grama was elected vice chair, at the committee’s first meeting, which began at 03:03PM (date not specified in the transcript).
The committee spent the rest of the meeting on a consultant-led overview of the TSP process and proposed goals. Maria Flozakowski, the consultant project manager with DKS Associates, described a TSP as “a long term policy and planning document that helps the city guide their future transportation improvements,” saying it addresses all travel modes, identifies needs and recommends prioritized projects and a financing strategy. The update will look 20 years ahead to 2046 and will not itself fund individual projects, Flozakowski said: the plan sets a project list and a funding strategy that must be followed by later actions to secure construction funding.
The consultant laid out six draft goals the PAC will use to derive evaluation criteria and prioritize projects: (1) capital investment, maintenance and preservation; (2) economy; (3) accessibility, mobility and equity; (4) safety; (5) regional coordination; and an earlier duplicate goal that was removed. The presentation explained how the team will translate goals into numerical evaluation criteria to rank projects and produce a funding‑sensitive prioritized project list.
ODOT staff reiterated partner roles and funding details. Michael Duncan, an ODOT grant manager and senior region planner for the Transportation and Growth Management (TGM) program, noted ODOT funded this update through the TGM grant. He and other ODOT presenters said modest reimbursements (EECP/ECP) may be available for committee members not paid by their employers, but such reimbursements use statewide (not federal) funds and approvals can be limited by tight state budgets.
Committee members raised several substantive concerns. Erin Salisbury, executive director of Saint Helens Main Street Alliance, urged attention to Uptown/Holton and Main Street user experience for small businesses and older pedestrians. She also flagged long trains and constrained railroad crossings as an emergency‑access and safety issue, saying trains “occasionally come through” and can block access; consultants confirmed that the railroad crossing deficiency is already identified in the existing and future conditions memo and will be carried into solution discussions. ODOT staff described data‑driven safety screening using a Safety Priority Index System (SPIS) and emphasized the PAC’s role in adding local context to the data.
The project team said next steps include posting a project website (within about a week), circulating materials to the PAC, a second PAC meeting tentatively planned for August or September, a technical agency meeting in September, and a first public open house in early–mid fall (September–October). The team also noted the adoption process and subsequent council and planning commission hearings that are expected to carry into 2027–2028.
The meeting adjourned after a brief closing and a reminder that materials and scheduling notices would follow by email.
