At Monday night’s Salem City Council meeting, councilors zeroed in on a familiar complaint from residents and nearby business owners: state-owned highway corridors and rights-of-way that collect trash, debris and the aftermath of unauthorized camping — and a sense that the city is left answering for messes it doesn’t control.
In response, the council voted unanimously to direct city staff to coordinate a formal maintenance and cleaning plan with the Oregon Department of Transportation. Mayor Julie Hoy introduced the push as a way to create clearer expectations and a more reliable schedule for state cleanups on ODOT property inside Salem.
City Manager Krishna Namburi told councilors staff had met recently with ODOT leadership and that the talks, while initially constrained by state budget pressures, produced a new near-term cleanup schedule just hours before the meeting…