Senior Services
Typically in the month of October, staff kick off Energy Assistance appointments with the seniors. Over 200 phone calls were made to previous year’s applicants to set up appointments. Due to COVID19 we put into place safety precautions and implemented drive up appointments at the center. Community members stayed in their vehicle at their appointment time, staff assisted them with their applications, and copied necessary documentation. 39 applications were successfully submitted to Clackamas County for energy assistance for the month of October. Appointments will continue thru the month of November.
Meals on wheels continues to be delivered 4 days per week using staff and few volunteers. 80 meals per day are delivered on 4 different routes throughout Sandy, Boring, and just past Cherryville. 25 food boxes were also delivered. A weekly shopping shuttle continues with the ability to serve 4-6 clients each week.
We continue to see many seniors who are struggling with depression with the continued isolation brought about with COVID19. Staff are interacting with seniors via virtual coffee chats, exercise program, and BINGO. Additionally, staff has taken up to 4 seniors out on mystery drives around the local area. This has helped to get them out of their homes with social distancing and mask protocols in place.
We continued our successful drive thru events by having a box lunch that was donated by Tollgate. Over 40 seniors came thru in their vehicles to pick up their lunch and visit with staff. On October 30, staff dressed up for Halloween and handed out a treat bag and newsletter as seniors drive thru the parking lot. The seniors even dressed up and participated in a costume contest.
The seniors met up for a socially distanced hike along the Tickle Creek trail. The following week they met at Liepold Farms. Seniors drove themselves there and enjoyed a walk through the corn maze, a distant hayride, and picked up some goodies for themselves.
Recreation
The first Pop-Up Recreation event was held on October 7th at Bluff Park. The kids enjoyed various activities and stations. All equipment was sanitized between the stations. Although these activities are on hold for now, it was a great opportunity to offer a safe and distanced outdoor activity, and to have a good template going forward. Helping to support both the physical and mental well being of community members is the cornerstone of Community Recreation. The program received lots of wonderful feedback and the department looks forward to offering more opportunities like the Pop-Up event in the future.
Parks & Trails
The Parks and Trails Advisory Board met in October and discussed among other items The Views development proposal, Code of Conduct for Boards and Commissions, and a possible location for the next Dog Park.
Susan Drew, Kathleen Walker and Michael Weinberg will be stepping down from the board when their terms expire December 31st. Residents of Sandy and the surrounding area have been the beneficiaries of the hard work of these three members. We thank them for their many, many volunteer hours in support of parks and trails development.
There are currently 6 active applications for the 4 open board seats. It is great to see the interest in serving on the board.
The Parks & Trails Master Plan held a virtual open house until Oct 25th.
There were 1,573 unique visitors with 72 people who completed the online questionnaire. There was one survey returned in Spanish. A summary report will be presented to the Technical Advisory Committee in November.