General notes: The 2015 Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony turned out to be one of the better events in recent memory. In looking at the event afterwards, there are a few things we will do differently next year, but from a citizen’s point of view, we seemed to pull it off without incident. Here’s a quick recap…
Over the last two years, we have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000 on putting up and configuring lights on the living tree in the Cool Printing lot. This was in addition to fairly substantial labor donations by Konell Construction (they typically only charged us for the lift rentals, as they had to rent lifts to do the job). Unfortunately all it got us was grief on our official Facebook page, as our citizens told us in no uncertain terms that they did not particularly care for the display.
This year we decided to do something different. The Public Works department installed a 4’ sleeve of metal pipe directly into the ground of Centennial Plaza, and we had two new circuits wired into a vault right next to the sleeve. I got a 22’ tree donated to the City from Bill Knapp at Knapp Farms, and the PW boys dragged that sucker down to the sleeve and hoisted it upright. Tree decorations were done by the company that does them for the City of Gresham. I was also able to borrow the bucket truck from Public Works for an evening, and cut as many of the LED lights as I could reach out of the Cool Printing tree. These were repurposed by installing them on the transit shelter and the street trees surrounding Centennial Plaza, and we still have over 200 linear feet of lights remaining for Joe P. and I to install wherever we can find space to do so. And as I’m sure you noticed, we set the tent up in a slightly smaller configuration parallel to the bus terminal instead of parallel to Pioneer Blvd due to the location of the tree.
These turned out to be the right moves. I had scores of people approach me during and after this year’s event stating that they really liked the tree and the setup this year and were doubly happy when I told them that this would be the format of the event going forward. Next year we can go bigger on the tree as well, as the PW boys tell me that their trucks can handle a 30’ tree without issue. The citizenry was also happy that we sprung for a PA system this year rather than use the self-enclosed PA from the Community Ctr, although we plan to spend just a little bit more next year and have Shira mic up the choir too, as you could barely hear them if you were closer to Pioneer than to them.
As for the event itself, we made a few changes this year that really resonated with the community. I decided that due to the season and all, we would allow non-profits only to promote events and services this year. For profit businesses could help out (and our food and beverage donors came through again this year) by helping to set up and handing out goodies, but they could not peddle their wares. The exception to this was Sandy School of Dance, but they were promoting a benefit concert they will be putting on at SHS as a fundraiser for the Sandy Action Center. Our local taekwondo studio spent the night handing out candy canes to children (and Santa, as it turns out, who ran out!) We also had SHS grad, AntFarm Outdoor Manager and all-around good kid Travis Roundy get on the mic for 10 minutes and speak about turning his life around through AntFarm. I noticed that a lot of the high school aged kids in the crowd were listening to him very intently, and he got a nice round of applause when he concluded.
So all in all, a great evening. Special thanks to the PW Crew and Joe Preston, Library Director Sarah McIntyre who co-sponsored the event with the Museum (next year the Library needs more visibility at this event – I’ll work on that), and to Mayor King for counting us down again. And extra special thanks to Transit Manager Andi Howell for her infinite patience and for keeping her bus drivers from killing our vendors and myself for getting in their way — I’ll have a temporary loading zone set up next year, I promise!
Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):
Michael Maiden properties: Mr. Maiden has recently contacted me about a new project he is considering for next summer. Mike is in the beginning stages of planning for a new 12,000 SF building in the lot in between the foundry and the OTSD office property, and has already secured tenants (himself included) to fill about 7,000 SF of that building. He is currently seeking a business (or businesses) to fill the remaining 5,000 SF, and will begin building as soon as he finds them. He has stated that he has the capacity to build the building to suit the tenant, and can include things in the build like roll up doors, enhanced utilities, loading docks, and other items of this nature.
I have created an entry for this project (Maiden BTS Project) on both the Available Commercial Lands database and the Available Commercial Properties database for additional exposure (and because not everyone looking for a building to lease wants to lease it right this minute…) I have also requested that anyone seeking additional information about this project call the ED office first so I can answer basic questions and determine interest level before routing interested parties to either Mike or his commercial agent.
I have also spoken with Mike about the monument signs for his current building, and informed him of the conversation I’ve been having with Aaron Hansen at Bunsenbrewer. He said not only would he consider moving the sign to the corner of 362nd and US26, he might just go ahead and spring for all new monument signs, as he agrees that the current ones are ugly and outdated. More to come on this soon…
Red Shed Public House/Red Boot Branding: I have had opportunity to speak with management at both of these new-ish businesses recently, and I am delighted to inform you that both are very happy with their respective locations, the responsiveness they are receiving from both the Chamber and the City, and most importantly, are making money. Red Shed is going gangbusters, and is currently thinking about adding to their menu – Jeff Newberry says that he has a cook that makes one of the best Philly cheesesteaks he has ever eaten, and that will be a new menu item coming shortly. It will be interesting to see how their business develops in the face of added mountain traffic for ski season, which it appears we might actually have this year!
Red Boot says that virtually all of their Gresham-area customers have followed them out here, AND they have developed several new business relationships with Sandy folk that are turning fruitful. They couldn’t be happier, and it shows in their business. And may I say, it is so nice to see a formerly empty building turn into a money maker virtually overnight.
B of A building: So the merry-go-round is still spinning on this one, but it appears that we have some good news on this project. When we last checked in, the local area businessman who is interested in procuring this property from the current owning family had the financing for this project put on hold by his bank because of a soil-hydrocarbon issue from years ago. According to his office, he has researched this issue and found that there was, in fact, some mitigation of this issue many years ago as well. I won’t have all of the details until I speak with him directly, and the property has still not officially changed hands yet, but it sounds like the deal is back on. As soon as the deal is official and final I will identify all parties involved and let you know what he plans to do with the space.
Oja Lumber/Goodwill: According to the Planning Department, plans for Goodwill’s new facility at the Oja Lumber site have been submitted to the City and are currently going through the initial review process. There are a few minor issues with the application, but this is common and our planning director seems confident that these issues will find an acceptable resolution.
Once the plan review is complete and the regulatory requirements of the City are satisfied to the satisfaction of the Planning Department, Goodwill will contact Oja Lumber and give them 60 days to vacate the property per contractual obligation. After this, construction may begin, and there is a possibility that they might begin construction in the winter months for a summer/fall completion.
There is also a secondary building in the plans for a 4,000 SF pad retail building for lease. This will give our community something it badly needs….additional new retail space! Hopefully they will offer these new spaces for a reasonable price per SF, as they will no doubt generate interest in the business community.
Project work:
- City of Sandy Omnibus Bicycle Tourism Proposal: We received final approval of partial funding for this project in late November. The County will provide $6,000 of funding, but strangely did not approve the table & benches or the security camera, so we will have to either fund those items with other funding or find low cost alternatives to replace them (like a wooden picnic table instead of a weatherproof metal table). Seth assures me that, although it might take a couple of grant cycles, we’ll figure out a way to “get ‘r done”.
- Xmas Tree Lighting Ceremony: Complete and wildly successful (see “General Notes” above)
Conferences/training:
None in November. The CWWC Regional Workforce Strategic Planning Session will be held on Thursday, December 10th. I will be attending along with my counterpart and regional partner in Estacada, Terra Wilcoxson.