Featured Work - Community - Infrastructure - Vibrancy

Downtown Sisters, US20/Cascade Avenue, 2020           

Over 2010-2019, Gary Farnsworth, as the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Region 4’s Central Oregon Area Manager for Project Delivery oversight, led and facilitated continuous Community Engagement (CE) for coinciding US20 Projects in Sisters, Cascade Ave Improvements and Barclay Dr Roundabout.

For all project phases of Planning, Project Development (Design), and Construction of both Projects, CE team representatives were from:

  • The City of Sisters

  • The Sisters Art Committee

  • The Nugget News

  • Architect/Engineer/Construction services

  • The US Forest Service

  • ODOT Region 4

  • ODOT Headquarters

Sisters Art Committee at Barclay Dr Roundabout, 2019

Their work was a robust combination of CE planning, for news media, web-services, open houses, focus groups, one-on-one’s, and multi-way input-feedback tools; for a wide diversity of ‘communities,’ such as City community members, commercial business and property owners, community members from the broader ‘Sisters Country’ beyond City limits in Deschutes County, the trucking freight industry including delivery services, and other industries.

CE Innovation and ‘1st’s-of-a-kind’ resulted in strong decision-making support among all affected covered:

  • State Transportation Growth Management (TGM) funds for Streetscape Planning

  • Region 4’s right-of-way team worked 1-on-1 with property owners fronting Cascades Avenue for temporary construction easements with each – creating strong partnerships

  • Nugget News/City/ODOT depth of partnering and collaboration

  • Oregon’s 1st Roundabout Rodeo

  • A new statewide ODOT artwork permit process

  • 1st use of Western Federal Lands funding for artwork

  • 1st Sisters Art Selection Committee

  • 1st Oregon State Highway roundabout artwork

  • Full-time Region 4 Sisters Community Liaison for Construction

CE was critical in ultimately meeting delivery Goals across both Projects, with outcome highlights including:

  • Budgets went from~$100-$300k each to, final $7M+ with 6 partners for Cascade, $6M+ with 5 partners for Barclay

  • Many business storefront renovations, a real highlight of project and CE success

  • 1 regional and 2 national awards

  • A well-formed and well-functioning corridor for safety, mobility, and access benefiting all modes of transportation, as shown in this Sisters US20 drive-through video: