Senior Center (Nancy Ream Enabnit)
Staff time was spent preparing an application for the Clackamas County Small Grants program. The request was for money to pay mileage to those Meals-on-Wheels drivers who request reimbursement. Meals-on-Wheels can only exist with the help of the 16 permanent and many back-up volunteer drivers who deliver a hot lunch to the community’s most frail, elderly individuals. The four routes range from 20 to 30 miles and head off in all directions.
Fun excursions were planned to the Tualatin Crawfish Festival, Strawberry Island, Rainbow Trout Farm, Clackamas County Fair and Hood River. Rounding out the month was an overnight trip to Lincoln City.
Parks
Meinig Park is the place to be in August. Katie Murphy put together another fantastic line-up of musicians for the Dale Nichols Main Stage & Theater in the Woods acoustic series. Concerts culminated with the Volunteer Recognition Picnic including a performance by On the Rocks a Capella group.
Saturday night movies are always popular, however, this year’s presentation of Frozen (Sing-a-long version) was by far the biggest hit–perhaps of all time. Sound production for all offerings is provided by Shira Otchis of She-Rock Sound. After the showing of Frozen, Shira commented that the kids knew all the words to the songs AND all the words to the movie as well.
Recreation (Sarah Richardson)
The Fall Recreation & Leisure Guide was created in August. With the Fall Guide the transition to an electronic version completes a full year. The new board out front, along with more frequent flyers to schools etc. has helped the process. The electronic guide is very inexpensive to produce and meets the growing reliance on and comfort with digital information.
Adult Softball completed the season with a tournament on August 9th. The Mt. Hood Athletic Club team triumphed.
New field trips focusing on local parks and activities gained some momentum this summer, and the Recreation Department continues to create and source new programs that meet the needs of local families during the summer months. New ideas are always welcome.
The 2nd Annual Bark for the Park is scheduled to take place September 20th at Bluff Park from 9:00am-1:00pm.
Transit (Julie Stephens)
Total ridership this month, of 11,599, continues the same trend of declining ridership, 43% down from the same period last year. SAM-Gresham decreased 44.7%; again this month, SAM-Estacada had the greatest drop in use, 57%; STAR had a modest decrease of 8.8% this month; and ED ridership had a decrease of 47.6%.
The expanded Mt. Hood Express ridership was 3103 in August. Operators just placed a second new bus into service. The buses will tow bike trailers that accommodate up to 12 bicycles through September. Standard two-place bike racks will be regular equipment throughout the year and ski equipment boxes are in production for winter use.
Staff is looking into the option of providing WiFi on the SAM Gresham route. Ridership loss, subsequent to the introduction of fares, improved the quality of the bus ride. The intent is to appeal to the commuter as well as the silent generation who are interminably connected to technology.
This winter will see the introduction of a $5 interline day pass for use on SAM and Mt Hood Express. It will allow on/off boarding throughout the day between the systems. Travelers will be able to access multiple destinations on the same day.
Ad campaigns as well as on-board and off-line surveys will be conducted in September to further identify transit use and barriers to that use.