Senior Center (Nancy Ream Enabnit)
Sandy Golden Age Club, formed many years ago to help establish the Sandy Senior Center, held a bake sale in November. Money raised will go directly into the Center’s Dollars for Dilemmas program. The fund offers one-time financial assistance to those in need for items such as furnace and other home repair, co-pay for medication or dental care, or pet expenses.
The Center hosted an AARP Defensive Driving Class. 15 people took advantage of the 6-hour training to brush up on their vehicle operation skills.
Preparation was underway for the 26th annual Breakfast With Santa. Local merchants were especially generous this year with hundreds of raffle prize donations. The drawing alone brought in $750.
Parks
Progress on Bornstedt Park includes the fencing around the Community Garden area and the completion of landscaping.
Two grants were awarded from Clackamas County Tourism for financial support for the 2014 Sandy/Boring Corn Cross and improvements to Meinig Park to enhance the Summer Sounds and Starlight Cinema. County money will be used to improve stage lighting, install park lighting in the seating area along the hillside north of the main stage, and erect entrance and way-finding signs throughout Meinig Park.
Recreation (Sarah Richardson)
Mountain Storm Basketball for grades 3-6 kicked off in November. A total of 22 teams will enjoy league play beginning in January. In the meantime they are practicing in schools throughout the Sandy and Welches area. Thank you to OTSD for the use of facilities and to all the volunteers who make the league possible. Great to see kids active and learning important life skills through team sports. Mountain Storm also provides a number of youth with referee jobs. For many this is their first paid job.
The Healthy Start playgroup continues to grow. The program provides indoor playtime for children birth-5 years and creates a support group for parents. The program is free and runs most Wednesdays 10:00-11:30am at the Community Center.
Other classes with good turn-out this fall include basketball fundamentals for grades 1 & 2, Pee Wee Soccer, Tae Kwon Do, Transit Trips, Zumba, Tai Chi, and Kinderdance/gym.
Transit (Julie Stephens)
Total ridership this month was 11,458, a decrease of 43% from the same period last year. SAM-Gresham decreased 45.5%; SAM-Estacada had the greatest drop in use, 52.7%; STAR had the most modest drop, 3.8% this month; and ED ridership was exactly the same and finally flat.
A number of factors have contributed to the approximately 20% ridership decline trend since the first of the year. They are: the SAM route change to the Transit Center at the Plaza; the new location of the high school, which is no longer on the route; and decreased fuel prices. The further decline in ridership is due to the fare initiation and significant changes to the Mountain Express schedule that had impacts for transfers between systems. Ridership loss from fares is expected to recover over time. Route adjustments between systems will be reviewed after several months. The use of the new Saturday morning service and 5 Sunday runs between Sandy and Gresham was similar to October use. Saturday mornings averaged 3.6 rides per hour and Sunday use is at about 10 rides per hour.
Additional marketing is on the horizon with a Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce E-Blast in conjunction with the Mt. Hood Express and a Sandy Cinema ad during the holidays and January.
The Mt. Hood Express picked up ridership in November with 1853 rides and exceeded the same month last year. They will be operating seven express runs daily, seven days a week through March along with the two Villages shuttle runs.
A grand opening event led by Clackamas County will be held at Timberline Lodge on December 16th to kick off the expanded service provided by the public/private partnership of Clackamas County, City of Sandy, US Forest Service, Timberline Lodge, Ski Bowl, the Resort at the Mountain and the RV Village.
Bernice Powell led a popular Transit Adventure to OMSI with eight participants.
Fare collections appear to be on target for projected revenue.