Senior Center (Nancy Ream Enabnit)
July saw the end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter. After 30+ years of operating the Pie booth at Sandy Mountain Festival, the Senior Center chose to conduct direct pie sales. For a first-year venture, sales were brisk with 110 pies sold and nearly $2,000 net profit. Nearly all the fruit was donated and many volunteers pitched in to mix, roll, fill, bake and bag. Proceeds benefit the local Meals-on-wheels program.
Parks
Signs have been ordered for all parks. So far the Dog Park and Community Garden are sporting the new signage and the rest will be installed as the Parks crew has time.
Recreation (Sarah Richardson)
Mountain Festival Kids’ events were well attended, even with a little rain during the Kids’ Parade. Thank you to the OTSD for allowing us to use the Play Shed very last minute for the entertainment portion of the parade.
Both sessions of Camp Namanu sold out. The Recreation Department is already working with Camp Namanu to expand the program next summer. Very rewarding to see a partnership succeed in providing new opportunities and experiences for local children and support for their families.
Thanks to Carol Cohen’s promotional talents field trips have also been full this summer. Oaks Park is the final Field Trip on August 18th.
Adult Coed Softball was in high gear in July. Lots of games and a fun, family-friendly, recreational atmosphere. The final tournament is Saturday, August 13th. Due to the High School maintenance schedule, the tournament will be held at the Clackamas Hoodview Softball Complex.
Planning is underway for the Fall Recreation Guide, Mountain Storm Youth Basketball, and Dogs Day Out which will be held in conjunction with the September Corn Cross Cyclocross event.
Transit (Andi Howell)
Total ridership this month was 9927. Overall ridership decreased by 9%; the SAM-Gresham route decreased by 7.5%. SAM-Estacada ridership decreased by 10%. STAR rides decreased by 20%. Overall ridership decreased by 8% from 136,271 in FY 2015 to 125,403 in FY 2016. STAR rides decreased by 9.3% from 17,048 in FY 2015 to 15,463 in FY 2016. ED rides increased by 43.6% to 1,024 rides in FY 2016 from 713 in FY 2015.
The Elderly and Disabled program saw another large increase in ridership of 59.2% from last July. The percentage of elderly and/or disabled riders on STAR was 71%. In FY 2015, the E&D population were 62% of the STAR dial-a-ride program, by FY 2016 this rose to 67%. SAM is responding to the changing needs of its ridership by adding a shopping shuttle to assist the dial-a-ride program and technological improvements to both fixed route and dial-a-ride vehicles. The technological improvements will benefit the rider through real time bus arrivals, updated web capabilities and automated stop announcements. Staff will benefit from the expedited data collection and entry and the collection of information regarding ridership patterns and trip generators.
Two replacement vehicles have been added to the City of Sandy fleet. A 16 passenger cutaway and a 5 passenger MV1. Both vehicles are STF funded and replace vehicles that passed their useful life in miles and/or years. Both are equipped with ramps for ease of access to meet the growing demand of elderly and disabled passengers.
SAM provided free rides during the Sandy Mountain Festival and decorated a bus for the parade. The theme was “Blazing the Trail”; SAM is blazing a new trail with the shuttle so the new route was highlighted with our parade entry. SAM won the first place ribbon for civic entries.
SAM staff met with other Clackamas County transportation providers and social service workers to address the unmet transportation needs of domestic violence survivors in Clackamas County. Staff also continue to attend the Metro Regional Transportation Plan meetings and participate on the transit technical work group for the new regional plan.