Internal projects: 

• Permanent Outdoor Covered Structures grant program:  The status of the first round of this program is reviewed semi-monthly at the City of Sandy Ec Dev Advisory Board meeting – here is the status of the program as of July 2022:
  
  • Tollgate Inn – Now that the City Building Official, the Fire Marshal, the applicant and the architect are all on the same page, Keystone Architecture is currently moving forward with a final design for the covered structure.  We expect to see this final design before the end of 2022.
  • All other projects are now structurally complete and under contract.
  • Three applicants from the first round of this program have already satisfied their financial responsibilities for their portion of the covered structure project.
    
• Covered Structures Round 2:  Designs for the second round of the City of Sandy Covered Structures grant program were reviewed at the SURA and City Council meetings on January 3^rd, 2022.  Here is the status for this round of the program as of September 2022:
  
  • La Bamba Mexican Restaurant – Completed July 21^st
  • Thai Home – Project on hold due to applicant medical situation.
  • Wippersnappers Kid’s Play Place –2^nd round of bids due on October 12^th at 3:00 PM and should include a contractor recommended by the business owner and one recommended by the building owner.
  • The Smoky Hearth – Completed August 2^nd
    

Economic Development items:

Econ Devl – Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):

• Façade project – Alan Fleischman church entry:  Railings and handrails have now been installed.  This project is completed, and final reimbursement has been issued to the applicant.  Many thanks to Mr. Fleischman for his efforts to rehab this historical old building – the improvements to the façade and the building entry were badly needed, and the City was able to replace 35 linear feet of damaged sidewalk and remove an ADA trip hazard from the pedestrian right-of-way in the process. 

• Public Infrastructure project – Heritage Square driveway apron replacement:  This driveway apron was not only disintegrating but was also out of compliance with current ADA regulations and had issues with vehicles bottoming out.  Rebuilt by Seifert Concrete of Colton; concrete has fully cured and entrance is now open.
  
  

• Public Infrastructure project – City Hall ADA door electrification:  This project to make all entrances and public restroom entrances at Sandy City Hall ADA compliant by adding electric push-button openers is now complete pending final inspection and payment.  The vast majority (6/7^ths) of this project was paid for with federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.
  
• Façade project – Clackamas County’s Sandy Health Clinic:  Although the work on this project is not yet complete, the Planning Desk is expecting Clackamas County Health, Housing & Human Services to be ready for a temporary certificate of occupancy before the end of October.  The clinic has scheduled a soft grand opening for the building on October 13^th and have invited several City of Sandy staff members and elected officials to attend.
  
  

• Contractor change – street tree holiday lighting:  Recently the City of Sandy received a notice from our flower basket contractor (Cedarglen Floral) stating that they are having trouble finding a crew that is willing to do this work in 2022 – and even if they do find enough workers, the cost of this service is about to see a 65% increase in cost.  The reasons for this significant cost increase are (a) labor is difficult to find right now, (b) our street trees are overgrown and difficult to work on, and (c) this work is physically difficult to do and quite dangerous (working on ladders around moving traffic). 

               Fortunately, we have a Sandy-centric solution to this problem.  Neal Hatley from AntFarm is currently in the process of developing a quote for us to take over this task for us for future holiday seasons.  We are also looking at the possibility of purchasing timers for each of these tree wells and potentially leaving the tree lighting up all year long.  More to come…

Econ Devl – Internal Projects:

Downtown maintenance:

• AF Downtown Maintenance:  AntFarm Outdoor Programs Manager Neal Hatley and his downtown maintenance crew have completed the second tranche of summer maintenance work, which was mostly spot weeding and planter strip overhauls at the following locations: the Smith Building, Sandy Smoke Shop/Sandy Auto Body, the Coin-op Car Wash, the old La Bamba site, the Heritage Square public parking lot, the Sandy Public Library, Brady’s Brats & Burgers, the old Sandy Clinic next to the cleaners and the Edward Jones Building (removal of an old 1970’s metal railing).

The crew is now working on thinning street trees on Proctor and Pioneer in preparation for the installation of our annual holiday lighting for 2022.  See above for additional information on holiday street tree lighting.

Econ Devl – Economic Development Advisory Board:

The EDAB meeting on September 27^th was the final continuation of the discussion started at our regular meeting on May 18^th, in which Elliot Weiss of CAI asked the board about their community vision and how they would like to see Sandy develop in the future.  Mr. Weiss also started a discussion about some of the decisions about which direction the community should go with regard to business recruitment and the differences between downtown commercial development and development in West Sandy.

The board also heard a 30 minute presentation from Clackamas Workforce Partnership executive director Bridget Dazey about the County’s Child Care for All Initiative and what we can do in Sandy (including what we’ve done already) to help.  Clackamas County has already formed a task force for addressing this issue and is currently putting together some organizational structure to surround it.  We will likely see a lot more activity coming from Clackamas County on this issue in the near future…

Econ Devl – Conferences/training:

There were no training opportunities for Economic Development in the month of September, but I will be attending the Oregon Economic Development Association conference in Coos Bay from October 9^th through the 11^th.  This is the in-person OEDA conference to take place since before the pandemic.