Spending bill includes work at Crater Lake – November 20, 1999

Spending bill includes work at Crater Lake

Mail Tribune
Medford, Oregon
November 20, 1999

The spending bill approved Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives includes more than $45 million for Oregon projects, including restoration work at Crater Lake.

The biggest chunk is $11 million for the final installment of federal financing for Portland’s westside light rail. Oregon also gets $9 million of $58 million passed for the administration’s West Coast salmon initiative.

Other items include $1.73 million for restoring buildings at Rim Village in Crater Lake
National Park and nearly $1.17 million for completing The Dalles Riverfront trail, a nine-mile path connecting the Columbia River Discovery Center to The Dalles Dam.

The bill also provides $5 million to pay the Port of Tillamook for damage suffered in the 1996 flood and $1.3 million to compensate farmers and ranchers in Harney County for damage from flooding of Harney and Malheur lakes.

Other allocations include:

$500,000 to buy about 100 acres as a part of the South Eugene Wetlands project, for which the government has already bought about 1.200 acres

$500,000 to buy land for use in the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex

$6.5 million for safety improvements to U.S. 26 including passing lanes on both sides of the Blue Mountain summit

$3 million for work on a new National Guard armory in Lane County

$1.7 million for temperature control structures at McKenzie River dams

$2.5 million for the Oregon Medical Laser Center at St. Vincent Hospital & Medical Center in Portland

$1 million to Lewis & Clark College for a building to house a collection of artifacts in commemoration of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition

$500,000 for high-speed rail crossing improvements in Linn and Multnomah counties

$500,000 to rebuild the Historic Columbia River Highway from Starvation Creek to Viento State Park

$1 million for Oregon Health Sciences University’s Health Aging Demonstration Project

$500,000 for Portland State University to expand Millar Library

$700,000 for replacing toilets and septic tanks at Waldo Lake