Senior Center (Nancy Ream Enabnit)
The Center received grant funding to purchase a “right-sized” vehicle for daily pick-ups, weekly shopping trips, etc. Staff is working with non-profit Ride Connection to develop the RFP. A transit van with features similar to the MV-1 is a more appropriate vehicle than the larger cut-away for much of the long-distance driving on rural roads, up narrow driveways that is required by Dena Isbell, the center’s driver.
Parks
The nice weather motivated gardeners to get busy in March. Raised beds at the Bornstedt Community Garden opened for rent, and 66 out of 67 beds have been claimed for the 2016 growing season. The shed houses a nice selection of tools and construction of a compost bin is on the horizon.
Recreation (Sarah Richardson)
Mountain Storm wrapped up the youth basketball season with two Jamborees. The tournament for 3rd & 4th graders was held on March 5th, and the 5th & 6th grade league took to the Sandy High School gym on March 12th. Feedback on the season was solicited via survey.
Summer planning is in full swing. Camp Namanu will be back with a new format and two weeks of theme-based Day Camps to choose from for grades 1-5.
Challenger Sports will be offering both soccer and a multi-sports British themed camp. Several other new camps are in the development stages included a theater camp led by the Sandy High School Drama coach.
Adult Softball is in the planning stages and the phone calls have started to roll in. Lots of enthusiasm for summer 2016.
Transit (Andi Howell)
Total ridership this month was 10,883. This is a slight decrease in ridership (2.7%) from March 2015. The SAM-Gresham ridership decreased by 2.8% with a total of 8671 rides in 2015 compared to 8918 in 2016; SAM-Estacada ridership increased by 5.3%; STAR dial-a-ride decreased by 10.6%; and ED ridership increased by 114%.
Sandy staff conducted a Transit Advisory Committee meeting in March. This meeting provided an overview of Sandy Transit today and asked for nominations for the Chair and Co-chair positions of the committee. Two people stepped forward for these positions.
Two RFQ’s were released for replacement vehicles. Both vehicles are 5310 funded. A minivan and a cut-away in the Sandy fleet have reached the end of their useful life. The minivan is used for the E&D program, providing out-of-town medical rides to frail elderly and disabled individuals. The cut-away will be used to provide rides through the STAR dial-a-ride program. This program is open to the general public, however the E&D population makes up approximately 65% of dial-a-ride passengers. Sandy Transit is excited to replace these vehicles and will seek council approval of the bids at the first April meeting.
Staff submitted two grant applications at the end of March. One was submitted to the 5339 Vehicle Replacement Grant program. If funded, this grant will replace one large transit vehicle that operates Sandy’s main fixed/commuter route, SAM – Gresham. The vehicle to be replaced will reach the end of its useful life in less than 1 year. The lead production time for a large transit bus is approximately 2 years. The other application was submitted to the Transit Network Discretionary Grant program. This application is a partnership between Sandy and Clackamas County Social Services to install Intelligent Transit Systems (ITS) on Sandy and Clackamas County vehicles. These systems would improve 3 commuter routes in the Eastern region of Clackamas County; SAM – Gresham, SAM – Estacada and Mount Hood Express (MHX). ITS equipment provides many useful features such as real time bus arrival prediction, 24/7 website maintenance, electronic data collection, automated bus stop announcements for ADA compliance and much more. This would be a wonderful step toward the future for both systems and provide vast improvements for riders and providers.