MERRIEWOOD STAIRS
MEETING REPORT
(by Kirk van Druten) 5/1/2001

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Hello Stairs Fans,

I was invited to join the folks at Oakland Public Works for a meeting about the Merriewood stairs today. The meeting was more or less a status report on what the City and Public Works have been doing the past few months.

Some of you may remember the meeting on January 11th, 2001, where Councilmember Dick Spees, Claudette Ford (Oakland Public Works, Director) and Berry Weiland (Assistant Director, Maintenance Services) met with the public to officially announce their plans to rebuild and repair the upper and lower Merriewood stairs. These repairs were tentatively scheduled to be completed by "late summer 2001".

Based on the information provided in today's meeting, I am extremely pleased to report that these folks and the people who work for them have been hard at work getting the Merriewood stairs repaired and rebuilt!

Good News and Notes from Today's Meeting:
1. The lower Merriewood stairs (those starting across from Thornhill Elementary School) have had recent visits from several maintenance crews as well as a completely new top section. A number of additional details are currently being addressed, including securing the hand railings and the asphalt landing at the bottom of the new wooden stairs.

2. All 4 sections of the upper Merriewood stairs (the one's starting at the Thornhill/Merriewood intersection), were thoroughly cleaned in preparation for the field survey and engineering crews about a month ago. The Field Survey team has recently completed their work to provide engineering and architectural teams with the necessary rise/run, topographical and survey data.

3. Oakland Public Works has hired Don Dommer Associates as the consulting architect on the project. Today's meeting was attended by a representative from the firm.

4. Public Works plans to build the upper Merriewood stairs with the help of additional staff, who are in the process of being interviewed/hired this week.

5. In 2-4 weeks there should be initial design drawings and a materials list available for the upper Merriewood stairs. We briefly discussed use of recycled, composite and/or renewable resource lumber for the project. Public Works will review the costs involved with use of these materials.

6. The Merriewood Stairs are the only stairs currently being rebuilt. The money is coming from "Measure B Funds".

I am very impressed with the team at Public Works. They're working hard to get the upper Merriewood stairs rebuilt. Their interest in keeping us all informed is also worthy of note. The ball is definitely rolling and with any luck, we should have the stairs back and functional soon!

Kirk van Druten
Stairs Webmaster
stairs@lansharks.net

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