Senior Center (Nancy Ream Enabnit)
Another successful pie sale has come and gone. A dedicated crew of Senior Center volunteers baked 240 pies and 500 cookies to sell at the Mountain Festival. Proceeds grossed over $4,000 to benefit the Sandy/Boring meals-on-wheels program.
Popular trips included a tour of the Bull Run Watershed on the 28th. The Portland Water Bureau bus picked folks up at the Center and guided them through the protected area where drinking water for Sandy and Portland originates. Over 20 people gathered at Trillium Lake for a picnic on the 30th. Delicious food, fun games, hiking and water activities kept people cool on the hot summer day.
Parks
Work was substantially completed on the new trail section in Sandy River Park. Final tread work will be finished up once a little rain has fallen. Still to come are trail signs on the nearly 1-mile extension. Many thanks to Kathleen Walker for her volunteer work as crew leader on the project. Deepest appreciation to Jim Slagle, the AntFarm and Gene Tilgner as well.
Recreation (Sarah Richardson)
This year’s Coed Adult Softball league was in full swing. Teams play at the SHS varsity and JV fields on weeknights and will conclude the season with a tournament on August 15th. Fun and fitness, what could be better?
Sandy Mountain Festival Kids’ events were popular as ever. The Pet Show, Bike Derby and Kids’ Parade were enjoyed by hundreds of boys and girls. Each event offered refreshments, prizes and visits from the 5-Generation Court.
Activities in Meinig Park began with Shakespeare’s Macbeth on July 6th. Wine in the Woods kicked off Sandy Summer Sounds Acoustic Series on the 19th, and the Main Stage sounds got underway on the 29th with Hops & Blues.
A new partnership with Camp Namanu proved successful as many local families took advantage of the Day Camp option. Kids were picked up at the Community Center and enjoyed a day of activities at the camp just 6 miles away along the Sandy River.
Transit (Andi Howell)
Total ridership this month was 10,904. This is a decrease in ridership by 10% from July 2014. SAM-Gresham ridership decreased by 11%; SAM-Estacada ridership decreased by 9%; STAR decreased this month by nearly 5%; and ED ridership increased by 5%.
Sandy Transit procured one large Gillig bus in July to replace a bus approaching the end of its “useful life”. These large buses have a very long production schedule. Sandy Transit should take delivery of the new bus within the next 17-24 months.
July began with two transit managers, Julie Stephens and Andi Howell, in an effort to make the transition as smooth as possible upon Julie’s retirement at the end of August. The City also began a search for a new transit assistant with expectations of at least one week of training with all three transit employees working and training together.
Mt Hood Express and Sandy Transit represented public transit well in the Sandy Mountain Parade in July. Mt Hood Express won a first place ribbon with a reenactment scene from the Back to the Future movie. Sandy Transit won the trophy for best overall civic/community vehicles by transforming a large SAM bus into a time machine.
The Transit Center bus stop changes location for one week each year for the festival activities. This year the temporary bus stop seemed to work well. Notes were taken for further improvements for 2016.