A new "Welcome to Canby" sign will greet northbound Highway 99E travelers entering Canby by late spring or early summer.

The steel sign will be painted a forest green with black capital lettering superimposed on a cream and gold background.

The sign, plus four Victorian-style poles with banners, will sit above the new rock wall on Canby Business Revitalization's Gateway Project land at the entrance to the Canby Square shopping center, just north of Berg Parkway.

"We've really yet to realize the gift of that project," said Kathy Henderson, interim CBR program manager. "With the change of seasons, that place will be beautiful."

The entrance is nearly unrecognizable from this time last year. The old tam junipers are gone - torn out by a crew from the Clackamas County Corrections Department late last year. New landscaping, including trees, barkdust, shrubs, flowers, and a rock wall and river rock swatch, were installed this past winter.

The north side of the highway, beneath the 4th Quarter Sports Grill, has a new look, too, complete with shrubs, flowers and barkdust. Henderson said three poles with banners will be erected on the slope.

The entire project is being funded by a $60,000 grant the city received from the Mount Hood Economic Alliance, an agency that funds projects of several types in Hood River and Clackamas counties.

"The CBR agreed to be the project director," Henderson said. "CIDA (a Portland architectural, landscaping and engineering firm) came up with the design based on public input."

The project got rolling in fall 1999, and workers from the landscaping firm of Gonzales Gardening of Portland trudged through mud and rain to complete the landscaping portion of the project late last year.

All that remains to be done is the sign, which will take three to five weeks to build and still needs approval from the Oregon Department of Transportation. The banner poles - which will look like the light poles in Wait Park and Pioneer Plaza, minus light fixtures - will arrive in about three months from a Midwest manufacturer.

Pittman Signs of Aurora will build, paint and install the 15 1/2-foot-by-6-foot, 1,270-pound sign for $6,200.

"Vic (Pittman) met with the CBR design team about the sign, and this is what he brought back," Henderson said. "We're very happy with the look."

The goal of the project all along has been to spruce up the southern entrance to the city. With the Canby Market Center and Fred Meyer changing the look of Canby's north end, Henderson said the project is more necessary now than ever. She also thanked the city, and nearby business owners, for their patience.

"We really appreciate the patience on the part of the merchants at Canby Square," Henderson said. "They have been so great to work with. We saved a lot of money using the (corrections crew) to do the removal work, but it slowed the project down."

The perennial county-city problem of deteriorating roads, and how, when and who should pay to fix them was aired at last week's Canby City Council.

Clackamas County's three commissioners attended the March 15 council meeting to discuss upgrading county-owned roads within Canby's city limits.

Important partly county-owned roads in Canby include Territorial Road, Pine Street, Township Road, Ivy Street and Southeast Thirteenth Street.

Knights Bridge Road is an example of a major city thoroughfare where Canby took over its maintenance duties from the county within the last five years.

Commissioner Bill Kennemer said the county can only afford to do maintenance work on arterials and collectors, and not on local roads.

All partly county-owned roads in Canby are considered local roads - except Ivy Street, which is known as Highway 170, or the Canby-Marquam Highway - so little repair work is likely.

Kennemer said he doesn't expect the proposed gas tax measure on the election ballot to pass, but is hopeful funding to replace dwindling U.S. Forest Service timber receipts will be provided in a bill pending in the U.S.

Senate. The receipts are used to repair county roads.

"This issue of county roads in cities has been going on forever," said Commissioner Mike Jordan. "There are not enough dollars to do what needs to be done. Of course, cities are in that position, too. We've got to figure out a way to coordinate and collaborate to get our heads around this issue."

To that end, Jordan said a Clackamas County Roads Summit would provide a good starting point.

The county is convening the 7 p.m. summit on April 10 for the county's eight largest cities to air their thoughts of how best to tackle the vexing infrastructure issue. The location has yet to be decided.

"We're not coming to the summit with answers because if we had answers, we would implement them," Kennemer said.

One idea discussed at last week's meeting was the possibility of the county buying and supplying road-repair materials, and city crews conducting the necessary work.

"We're certainly interested in working with the city of Canby and other cities in solving this problem," said Commissioner Larry Sowa. "We are open to any ideas."

Councilor Terry Prince suggested each city in the county specify one particular road for the county to improve each year, and that deteriorating streets be identified earlier.

Councilor Roger Harris said North Redwood Street is essentially closed until Union Pacific completes its track work, and many motorists are using the Pine Street highway access because the Territorial Road access is too dangerous.

"It (Pine Street) is just so beat up; it's in terrible condition," he said. "We can't afford to go out there to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars" to bring it up to city standards.

"We've had these discussions with your predecessors and, until the road is fixed, we'll keep having those discussions . . . The summit is a good idea, but let's get something done."

If the county pays to upgrade roads, the city would be willing to take over control of them, councilors suggested.

Kennemer said "there's full-hearted support" from commissioners for Canby to take over county-owned roads once improvements are made.

The county roads department's annual budget is about $17 million, but its maintenance deferral is reportedly growing by $4 million to $12 million every year.

Two ongoing county projects - Complete Communities and Concurrency - may eventually bear fruit that will help alleviate the decaying roads problem. A Concurrency task force is trying to make sure infrastructure in the county matches development plans, and is due to issue a report within seven weeks.

In other council news, plans and preparations are progressing for the Canby Youth Summit on Thursday, March 30, said summit coordinator Robin Adcock.

"We think this is a great opportunity to listen to our young people," she told councilors, adding that many area cities are closely watching how Canby's event is planned beforehand and acted upon after the fact.

Mayor Scott Taylor said the summit was not simply a one-time event, but instead would allow new information and ideas to be gathered to help mold new city policies and programs.

The council reached consensus to pass the new Transportation Master Plan, the contents of which had been discussed in prior council meetings. The Canby TSP specifies the process the city will use to deal with ODOT in the future regarding driveways and access to Highway 99E.

A final planning staff report will be brought back at the April 5 council meeting for the first reading of an ordinance to adopt the TSP.

Copies of the comprehensive, but bulky, TSP report are available for the public to view at the Canby Planning Department and the Canby Public Library.

Property and business owners along 99E are invited to attend a meeting on the TSP and its impacts on highway access at the North Holly Street library at 12 noon, Tuesday, March 28.

Councilors awarded the Canby Skate Park construction bid to Denny's Rock and Driveway, and also passed on first reading a resolution authorizing the purchase of a 4-wheel-drive pickup truck for the city's wastewater treatment plant.

On second reading ordinances, the council unanimously approved the purchases of an asphalt road paver and a new police car for the traffic safety officer.

Lastly, the Canby Community Transportation Task Force is seeking members, and will likely begin meeting in June. Citizens interested in addressing transit, bus and other travel and commuter issues - Canby may create its own city-run bus service - can call Canby Community Development Director Jerry Pineau at 266-4021 for more information on the task force.