The Portland Tribune Thursday, June 7, 2012 news A7

Initiative volunteers realize that the problems with the region’s infrastructure affect everyone one way or another,” says coun-cil Co-Chairwoman Karen Wil-liams, a Portland attorney with years of public-private partner-ship experience who works for Carroll Community Investments. “It’s a big issue all of us face, and it can’t be solved by cities and counties, Metro or the state act-ing alone. We can only find ways to solve it by working together.”

Williams is scheduled to ap-pear before the Metro Council on Thursday with four other mem-bers of the group to present its Strategic Plan. Among other things, the plan calls for the es-tablishment of a yet-to-be-fully defined regional entity to help identify, prioritize and fund re-gional infrastructure projects during the next 20 or so years.

One example is Partnership British Columbia, a private com-pany owned by the Province of British Columbia that plans and oversees the construction of large infrastructure projects there. Partnership BC, as it is more commonly called, works with both the private and public sectors on the projects.

Perhaps the best example of such a project is TriMet’s MAX Red Line to the Portland Interna-tional Airport. The $125 million extension was financed largely by the Bechtel Corp. in exchange for development rights to Cas-cade Station, a 120-acre parcel

owned by the Port of Portland near Interstate 205.

Construction on the extension started in spring 1999, and the line opened on Sept. 10, 2001. To-day, the 5.5-mile extension pro-vides service to the airport from the entire regional MAX system.

The group believes that addi-tional private funds for public in-frastructure proj-ects are available. For example, the California Public Employment Re-tirement System is reportedly willing to invest $3.8 bil-lion in such proj-ects — $800 million in California and $3 billion in the rest of the country. Tapping such sources can help build needed re-gional projects without increasing taxes, according to the group.

Three other members of the group also will appear before the Metro Council. They are: Co-Chairman Burton Weast, execu-tive director of the Clackamas County Business Alliance; Randy Miller, president of Produce Row Management Co.; Joe Rodriguez, retired Hillsboro school superin-tendent; and Carl Talton, presi-dent, chief executive officer and executive chairman of the Port-land Family of Funds.

Schools in the mixThe strategic plan is as notable

for what it does not recommend as for what it does. The plan does not call for a new regional tax or fee to close the projected infra-structure funding gap. Nor does it call for changes in Oregon’s prop-erty tax limitation system. In-stead, it essentially calls for a more thorough assessment of the region’s needs and collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors to meet them.

Another idea supported by the

group is a new funding source for the maintenance and construc-tion of city streets and state high-ways. The group believes the ex-isting gas tax is outdated because motor vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient — including electric cars, which use the roads but don’t generate any gas tax

revenue. So the group has endorsed efforts by the Ore-gon Department of Motor Vehicles to design a voluntary regional alternative Vehicle Miles Trav-el pilot program that could ultimate-ly replace the gas tax with a fee based on actual mileage.

Perhaps the most radical idea sup-ported by the group is to expand the definition of infra-structure to include public schools. The group originally formed after Metro issued a report pre-dicting a $15 million

to $20 million funding gap for such traditional infrastructure projects as roads, parks, water systems and sewer facilities. Shortly after it first began meet-ing, however, the group agreed that a properly educated work-force also was part of the public infrastructure.

Funds drying upThe Community Investment

Initiative was created after Met-ro released its Regional Infra-structure Report in July 2008. At the time, Metro was predicting that an one million people would move to the greater Portland-Vancouver region by 2035, with the majority settling in the Ore-gon counties south of the Colum-bia River. The report predicted it would cost between $27 million and $41 million for the infra-structure needed to accommo-date the expected population.

The report also looked at the money expected to be available

for infrastructure projects. It noted that local governments were facing financial restrictions because of Oregon’s property tax limitation system. The report al-so noted that the buying power of the state gas tax was falling because motor vehicles were be-come more fuel-efficient. And it accurately predicted that federal funds for infrastructure project were drying up.

The report was something of a reach for Metro. The regional government must authorize all major transportation projects in

the urbanized parts of Clacka-mas, Multnomah and Washing-ton counties. Voters have also authorized it to buy natural ar-eas, some of which been opened to the public. Metro does not have any direct authority on other infrastructure projects, such as water systems and sew-er facilities, however. But it has approved a 2040 Concept Plan that calls for new development to be concentrated along major transportation corridors and in urban centers, which need a wide range of infrastructure

projects to succeed.After the report was released,

a group of regional business and community leaders began talk-ing among themselves about the need to find new ways to fund such projects. They soon con-vinced Metro to provide staff support to help prepare a formal set of recommendations, begin-ning with the strategic plan.

Metro is not expected to take action after the plan is present-ed. It has already pledged an-other year of support to the group, however.

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Invest: Metro lends a hand■ From page 1

By LAURA FRAZIERThe Tribune

Two years ago, Roosevelt High School senior Alexan-dria Carter had no plans to at-tend college.

“I didn’t think school was for me,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I could do it ‘cause no one told me I could.”

As graduation approaches and seven of 10 Roosevelt graduates head to colleges, Carter is happy to be among them.

Carter isn’t alone. The number of Roosevelt students enrolling in college has increased 26 per-cent in the past two years, thanks to a federal grant that allowed the school to hire a full-time liai-son between the high school and colleges.

Angela Nusom was hired as the college and career transi-tions manager after Roosevelt was deemed one of Oregon’s worst-performing schools in a federal government report card. The grant pays half Nusom’s sal-ary, with Portland Public Schools picking up the rest.

Though Roosevelt had coun-selors who helped students pre-pare for college, Nusom’s role is more focused on making connec-tions between the high school and higher education.

“I really think of myself as more of a bridge builder,” Nusom says. “What didn’t exist was the linkage between all the different things.”

Principal Charlene Williams says the grant gave the school resources to hire Nusom, who could help build a college-ready culture at Roosevelt.

“This campus has embraced the fact that if we’re really going to do justice by our kids we need to give them real preparation so they are ready,” Williams says.

Once hired, Nusom started looking for universities willing to partner with the high school.

Western Oregon University in Monmouth has been the most responsive to Nusom’s outreach efforts. Last year, students from Roosevelt who were going to WOU met frequently to discuss the transition to college. This year, the students returned from WOU once a month to meet with the Roosevelt seniors who will follow them next year.

Also, Will Saguil, a volunteer AmeriCorps member from WOU, has been coming to the

school once a week to mentor the 2012 Roosevelt grads headed to the college. That type of person-alized attention matters, he says, at a diverse school like Roosevelt.

“It’s a big challenge to over-come being first-generation or low-income,” he says. “A lot of these kids don’t have friends or family support. Trying to sup-port them and help them find re-sources to afford college is really important.”

Celebrating successCarter, who will attend WOU

in the fall, says the mentoring was instrumental in helping her prepare for the next step.

“Other people keep me en-gaged and motivated to actually do it,” she says. “They’re in the same position, and I’m not alone. It helps me a lot.”

Karen Marrongelle, assistant vice chancellor for academic standards and collaborations at the Oregon University System, says the WOU/ Roosevelt men-toring program is unique in Ore-gon, as well as critical.

“When a peer group goes off to college and comes back and talks about the positive experi-ences they are having in college, that all feeds into a college-going culture,” she says. “It’s a great model that could be replicated in

many other places.”Nusom hopes the mentoring

program also will help keep stu-dents from dropping out of col-lege.

So far, all 12 members of the Roosevelt class of 2011 who chose WOU have stayed.

Rob Findtner, WOU’s director of admissions, says the program is a good fit, though it is hard in the first year to tell how it will af-fect retention in the long run.

Nusom also has helped the high school reach out to Portland Community College through a

program called Future Connect. Students in the program meet frequently, and are advised and tracked as a Roosevelt group once they enroll, as well as helped with scholarships.

“We can chase down the ones who are falling off and celebrate the ones who are doing great,” she says.

Roosevelt students at PCC show about a 20 percent higher retention rate than the commu-nity college’s overall retention rate, Nusom says.

In addition to PCC and WOU,

Nusom says she has connected with the University of Portland, Concordia, Lewis and Clark and Marylhurst and is working on building relationships with Port-land State and Morehouse Col-lege in Atlanta.

Shifting communityWilliams says the programs

encourage students to go to col-lege, but also help kids who don’t choose college.

Roosevelt graduate Darian Lu-cas considered WOU, but decid-ed to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He says meeting with counselors helped him make his choice.

“I just told them what my aspi-rations were,” Lucas says. “They showed me all the things I need-ed to know about.”

With the federal grant set to expire at the end of the 2013 school year, Williams says the school is applying for other grants to keep Nusom’s position.

Williams hopes Roosevelt’s program will encourage students to return to North Portland after graduating college. Nusom says she hopes that the North Port-land neighborhood will rally to save the program. She says the program is about more than Roosevelt.

“We are trying to shift a com-munity,” Nusom says.

Roosevelt grads make a college connectionFederal grant pays for liaison who guides students on choices

TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE

Angela Nusom (left), the college and career transition manager at Roosevelt High, chats with Laura Goble, director of the Moreau Center at the University of Portland, as they go over finalists for an AmeriCorps position at the high school.

“It’s a big issue all of us face, and it can’t be solved by cities and counties, Metro or the state acting alone. We can only find ways to solve it by working together.”

— Karen Williams, Community Investment

Initiative