<\/p>\n
General notes:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Now that the holidays are over, we anticipate a little calm before the storm of the beginning of the budget process.\u00a0 The next few weeks should be a good time to tie up loose ends and start thinking about goals for 2015.\u00a0 With that in mind, it\u2019s probably a good time to inform you of the future of Main Street.<\/p>\n When Jennifer started with us in September, Sheri Stuart (Main Street Director, State of Oregon) came up to Sandy to sit in on a meeting with the 3 remaining Sandy Main Street executive committee members (George Hoyt, Julie Snell from CCB and Counselor Coleman) to try to determine the future of Main Street.\u00a0 All three board members had previously expressed a desire to formally step away from the organization due to general burnout caused by the contentiousness involved in the EID process.\u00a0 However, since an executive board is a necessity in the non-profit model, the staff of Sandy Main Street was tasked with finding 7-9 new executive board members to steer the organization for the intermediate future.<\/p>\n I developed a list of 25 different potential candidates based on their interest in community involvement and their passion for seeing Sandy grow.\u00a0 I have reached out to almost all of them now, and I am sad to say that only one has expressed a desire to serve.\u00a0 In discussing the organization with my fellow Sandyites, there did not seem to be any shortage of praise for Sandy Main Street and our efforts \u2013 quite the contrary.\u00a0 However, the most common reason given for declining to serve has been that these people, bless their hearts, simply don\u2019t have the time to serve due to their service with and for other Sandy non-profits.\u00a0 Almost everyone I spoke to was an active board\/committee member from AntFarm, Kiwanis, the Historical Museum, VFW, the Chamber of Commerce, the Action Center, the Ford Family Foundation, Guide Dogs for the Blind, loads of different sub-groups associated with either the OTSD or private schools in the district, and a million different churches in Sandy and in the surrounding area.\u00a0 Throw in family and work responsibilities, and\u2026.well, it\u2019s amazing to me how much this community gets done in its spare time.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for us, this means that staff will most likely recommend that the City of Sandy dissolve Sandy Main Street at the end of the biennium due to lack of a functioning executive committee.\u00a0 Ms. Stuart is in agreement with this, having stated last time I spoke to her that \u201cnow is probably not the right time to try to revive SMS\u201d.\u00a0 Titus Tomlinson, the person who manages the RARE program (AmeriCorps program that I got Aubrey and Jennifer from) reluctantly agrees as well.\u00a0 The plan is to keep the portions of the program that are popular by transferring First Fridays and the Trick or Treat Trail to the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce and the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony to direct control by the City.\u00a0 The rest of the work that SMS was responsible for (new business assistance, filling vacant properties, etc.) will continue through the office of Economic Development.\u00a0 Perhaps in a couple of years, with the bitterness of the EID process completely past us, we can try to re-launch the program.<\/p>\n This was not an easy decision to come by, as I am a big believer in the Main Street model.\u00a0 I have seen this program transform the downtown core of cities and revitalize struggling communities.\u00a0 But this model requires robust public involvement to work correctly, and we are nowhere near having the appropriate amount of volunteers to run SMS effectively.\u00a0 And quite frankly, the City of Sandy has gotten really good at downtown revitalization (Main Streets are starting to use fa\u00e7ade programs like ours very successfully, but ours has been around for so long time and has been so successful that we are running out of buildings to upgrade!), making a Main Street program somewhat moot.<\/p>\n This is, of course, just an \u201cexecutive summary\u201d of the story as I have glossed over some of the detail in the interest of time.\u00a0 If you would like a more detailed version of the story, just give me a call\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):<\/strong><\/p>\n One World Chinese Buffet:\u00a0 The Chinese buffet has been open for business for about a month now.\u00a0 I can report that the quality level of this restaurant has definitely increased.\u00a0 Better variety of dishes and noticeably higher quality — this is definitely an upgrade for Sandy\u2019s restaurant community.<\/p>\n O\u2019Reilly\u2019s Auto Parts:\u00a0 I delivered the certificate of occupancy to the store manager in person during the final days of December, and he tells me that the store will be open for business on Saturday, 3 January and that dealing with the City throughout this process has been quite painless.\u00a0 Terre tells me that the inspection process went very smoothly with this company, and no major problems were identified.\u00a0 It certainly helps that corporate chains like O\u2019Reilly\u2019s have the resources to dedicate teams to do nothing but open brand new stores.<\/p>\n Legends of Lore\/Artistic Impressions:\u00a0 I ran into Jonathan Soriakoff from Legends of Lore card shop last week, and can proudly report that he is already expanding.\u00a0\u00a0 Artistic Impressions (the photography studio next to Grant\u2019s shop) will be moving out of the building in January, presumably to become a home business.\u00a0 This has opened their ground floor space up, and Jonathan has already signed the lease to move in.\u00a0 The size of his shop will increase by a factor of 3, and he will now have a much more retail-friendly layout complete with storage and a back office.\u00a0 He is a bit nervous about the increase in rent, but fairly confident in the market capacity of his store and of his product (Magic the Gathering and Pokemon cards mostly).\u00a0 Gonna be fun to see how this plays out \u2013 I personally think this could be a potential gold mine if he does it right.<\/p>\n All Ways Towing:\u00a0 Last month – This company has submitted plans for its new facility over by Fred Meyer and has gone through design review.\u00a0 Our planning director gave them 6 action items that we are requiring to be completed prior to approval, and these are to be included in a new updated building permit.\u00a0 They need to submit a revised plan, apply for a building permit, and complete improvements. \u00a0We are now waiting for the submittal of the revised plan and the new building permit.<\/p>\n This month \u2013 There was one meeting between Tracy and the principals of this company in late December.\u00a0 We are still waiting for the submittal of the revised plan and the new building permit.\u00a0 Nothing else on this project has moved forward.<\/p>\n Jody Argue property:\u00a0 This project continues along at a normal pace.\u00a0 Roofing is complete; crews now focusing on on-site parking\/landscaping.\u00a0 Fa\u00e7ade grant phase has not started yet.\u00a0 Ms. Argue seems satisfied with project progress to this point, and doesn\u2019t seem to have any major grievances with current project requirements.\u00a0 Win-win.<\/p>\n Old La Milpa property (Maiden):\u00a0 Two of the three lots that made up the old La Milpa factory have been dedicated to Hans Wipper\u2019s \u201cJJ Jump\u201d-type business.\u00a0 Hans has signed a letter of intent to lease the property, and Mike is currently configuring it for him.\u00a0 Mike has also stated that there has been some level of interest in the other lot as well, although nothing has solidified yet.\u00a0 Watch this space\u2026<\/p>\n Beaverbrooke Dental:\u00a0 As a follow up to last month\u2019s entry on Beaverbrooke Dental, we had an opportunity to meet with them to discuss the parking situation in more detail.\u00a0 We had several options laid out for them, the first of which was to talk with Ernie at AEC about possibly purchasing some of the spaces in his parking lot that AEC employees (for some strange reason) are not using.\u00a0 Much to our surprise, Ernie beat us to the punch and offered them 8 parking spaces in his private lot for their exclusive use.\u00a0 I have thanked Ernie immensely for being a good neighbor and corporate citizen for taking it upon himself to help craft a solution, and Dr. Claggett and the BB staff are very happy with this solution.\u00a0 Problem solved.\u00a0 Thanks Ernie!<\/p>\n As for SandyNet Fiber, we are currently crafting a quote for them that Scott Brown is fairly confident he will have complete by January 2. \u00a0It\u2019s probably a 50-50 chance that we sign them considering that cable TV has to be part of the package (their ceiling TVs), but they have expressed a willingness to work with us because of our approachability and \u201cbusiness-friendliness\u201d regarding the parking matter and probably wouldn\u2019t have considered us at all earlier.\u00a0 It\u2019s funny what you can get started by chatting with your dentist about business while getting a cavity filled.\u00a0 J<\/p>\n Tamale Factory:\u00a0 This restaurant was actually closed down for a couple of business days in December by the Clackamas County health inspector.\u00a0 Upon inquiry into the matter, apparently the check Mr. Paez wrote for his health inspection bounced due to a bank error.\u00a0 He offered to pay cash to settle the issue, and this approach must have worked because we got a call shortly after this from Ms. Leben stating that the matter had been cleared up and Tamale Factory was approved to open for business again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sandy Main Street: \u00a0<\/strong>The Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will be the last Sandy Main Street event held until April of 2015.\u00a0 If you would like an update on what Sandy Main Street is planning for the next 6 months, give me a call at 503-489-2159.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Project work:\u00a0 <\/strong>We are currently scheduling the 3rd<\/sup> annual presentation to Professor Jim Hough\u2019s (former city manager of Banks and Warrenton, retired) Public Works Management class in the MPA program at PSU.\u00a0 Over the past two years, the PW management team has been very gracious to donate an evening to our future city managers and department heads in the MPA program to discuss topics like street and road management, GIS, water and sewer systems, and the like.\u00a0 Last year, after a Mike Walker presentation on the Bull Run Intertie and tank construction project, the evening was opened up to student questions.\u00a0 Every single question we got was about our fiber to the home project, which was interesting because a) we never mentioned fiber, and b) Jim never mentioned fiber.\u00a0 Ever.\u00a0 1 solid hour of questions about fiber.\u00a0 We were absolutely stunned.<\/p>\n So this year we have decided to go with the flow and present about FTTH, its impacts on Public Works and how PW and IT work together to make gigabit fiber happen.\u00a0 Joe Knapp has graciously agreed to go with us and give the IT perspective, and I anticipate a very fun evening hanging out with the next generation of local government leaders.\u00a0 Mayor King\/Councilor Pietzold \u2013 the class is at 6:40 on February 24th<\/sup> at the Urban Center on PSU campus.\u00a0 If you would like to join us, Mike, Thomas, Joe and I will be catching a MAX train down there about 5:00pm that afternoon.\u00a0 If you have the time, we would love for you to join us and give the kids the council perspective on this project.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conferences\/training:\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Next scheduled conference is the OCCMA NW Manager\u2019s Conference in late March at the Portland Red Lion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" General notes:\u00a0 \u00a0Now that the holidays are over, we anticipate a little calm before the storm of the beginning of the budget process.\u00a0 The next few weeks should be a good time to tie up loose ends and start … Continue reading