Author: Ashley Adelman

Housing Challenges Front And Center At Pendleton Conference

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Less than two years ago, the city of Pendleton hosted a housing conference to connect potential home builders with available land in Pendleton.

On Monday, the city held another conference to target the other part of the equation: homebuyers.

The city brought together real estate agencies, housing assistance organizations, and 74 prospective homebuyers and renters at the Pendleton Convention Center.

In his opening remarks, Mayor John Turner said the most recent conference was spurred by a housing study that showed a significant number of Pendleton’s workforce commuted from out of town.

With the hope that more Pendleton workers will make the city their home if given the chance, the homebuyers and renters conference was born.

The conference started with speeches explaining how credit works and ways attendees can save money for new housing.

Denise Jerome, the housing director for the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon, suggested that audience members could take on a second job, sell personal items on eBay, or rent out a room to earn extra income.

Attendees were then separated into “buyers” and “renters” groups, and after half the room emptied out, the buyer group was given a presentation by Greg Galloway, a branch manager for Stearns Home Loans.

Galloway said Pendleton, along with the rest of the Northwest, is a seller’s market, meaning home sellers have an advantage in negotiations because housing stock is scarce.

Additionally, going through the multi-step home buying process can be intimidating for first-time buyers.

“Most people, the first time they do this, they go, ‘Holy crap, this sucks,’” he said.

But Galloway encouraged the audience to explore buying a home as an option, saying potential buyers don’t necessarily need perfect credit to secure a mortgage and a house’s value was more likely to rise than a rental unit’s rent was likely to fall.

Galloway’s latter point sunk in for Lowell and Carolyn Britt, who are in the process of finalizing the purchase of a house in town.

Lowell said the Pendleton couple had learned many of the lessons discussed at the conference the “hard way.”

Lowell had access to a home loan through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, but he was stymied from getting a mortgage until he could establish more work history.

He was able to do just that when he got a new job, but the couple still faced a competitive market when they looked at houses. When they bid on their future house in the McKay Creek area, it had been the second bid in the two days the house had been on the market.

Lowell and Carolyn said they were more interested in buying into the neighborhood than the house itself, which they plan to fix up (the Britts said their new house was unaffected by the April flooding).

Abel Lozano is earlier along in the home buying process, but he was glad that he could get some more information at the conference.

Lozano said he’s applying for a home loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of its low-money-down allowances.

A single parent, Lozano said he wants to move out of the trailer park he lives in so his daughter has room to grow.

The challenge for Lozano is finding a suitable house in a market where many homes were built in the 1930s and 1940s and are in a state of deterioration.

“The market is kinda slim,” he said.

While the conference got several positive reviews from the audience, it also got a thumbs up from a real estate agent in attendance.

Jef Farley, a broker/owner at Coldwell Banker Whitney & Associates, praised conference organizers for getting good turnout on a Monday evening.

In an interview after the conference, Farley agreed that Pendleton was a seller’s market.

He added that Pendleton has two months of available housing inventory, meaning all houses that are currently available for sale would be sold in two months if no new houses come onto the market. A neutral market would have five months of inventory.

Although the city has been active in selling lots for housing development, resulting in new housing at Sunridge Estates and on Westgate, Farley said the next challenge is building new lots for housing.

Kevin Hale, another real estate agent for Coldwell, echoed Farley’s statement at the conference.

“If you think housing is tight and you think rentals are tight, then just try to find a lot to build on in Pendleton, Oregon,” he said.

Farley said he’s been studying a recent boom in real estate interest in The Dalles and he thinks Pendleton is poised to become the next hot real estate market, but the city needs to be prepared to create the capacity.

Before attendees left for the evening, the city collected a housing survey they issued to the audience.

The survey asks respondents about their current housing situation, the challenges they face in finding new housing, and their interest in city-sponsored home loan programs.

Originally published in the East Oregonian

RARE Member, Kaitlyn Cook, organized the conference as part of her service with the City of Pendleton.

Out Our Back Door – Collaborative Effort Seeks To Save the Oregon Dunes

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

As you read this, the Oregon Dunes are disappearing. But at the same time, while this unfortunate situation unfolds, something is being done about it. And you can help.

For the last four years, a collaboration of user groups, individuals, resource agencies and Indian tribes have been working on solutions with the US Forest Service, which manages the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (ODNRA).

The problem, in two words, is invasive species: European beachgrass, Scotch Broom and gorse.

Before I continue the story, however, I must admit that people are correct when they point out that we’re all invasive species. It’s just that some are more robust than others. For example, if nothing is done about the Oregon Dunes, resource officials say they’ll be overgrown in less than 75 years.

This chilling prediction led to the formation of the aforementioned collaborative effort, known as Save the Oregon Dunes. Sharing details of their efforts is Florence-based Dina Plavis, USFS volunteer dunes interpreter, who’s made recent presentations at venues ranging from Southwestern Oregon Community College to “Pub Science Night” at 7 Devils Brewery in Coos Bay. She’ll speak at the June 4 First Tuesday Talk at Coos History Museum in Coos Bay, among other places.

At the talks, Dina said she and other volunteers will also be present at Dunes events such as the UTV Takeover and DuneFest, as well as at upcoming Earth Day events and at the various fairs and festivals coming up on the Central and South Coast. Volunteers are actively sought to help with the efforts, she said, ranging from staffing information booths for an hour or two to distributing Save The Dunes brochures, posters and other materials. More dates and details at the end of this article.

At the presentations, Dina explains European beachgrass was planted from the 1930s to 1950 to stabilize embankments at the mouths of coastal rivers so they wouldn’t silt in. Their roots consist of fibrous rhizomes that aggressively spread and overwhelm other species as well as open sand. Forest Service aerial photos show how the Dunes have been steadily getting overgrown through the decades. But why do we care? Dina said the answers take in everything from habitat preservation (there are more than 400 species out there, including the Siuslaw Hairy Necked tiger beetle, fastest insect on the planet) to recreation (ATVers, hikers, equestrians, anglers, boaters and paddlers) to economic stimulus (in 2017 the Dunes were estimated to have generated $271.1 million dollars in visitor spending).

In addition to clearing beachgrass and brush, giving presentations, and supporting Forest Service plans – about which more in a moment – Dina said a gratifying aspect is the participation by all user groups, from ATV riders to those who enjoy the Dunes’ vehicle-free areas. “We’re working together without other agendas, because division doesn’t do anything to solve problems,” she said.

Dina praised the ATV group Save the Riders Dunes for their work parties at the Bull Run and Signal Hill areas in the Dunes. At the 7 Devils presentation, riders group president Leo Cox and treasurer Jody Phillips discussed recent “smash the grass” events in which ATVers show up to do battle with invasives with everything from their ATVs to hand tools to bulldozers.

With Forest Service support, the collaborative developed goals of preserving the best of what’s left and restoring “landscape-scale” projects to get the sand moving again. The idea was to bulldoze a large swath of land from the foredune through the deflation plain to open sand, followed by spot application of herbicide to preserve the newly-opened area.

But the plan was derailed with the discovery of coastal martens – a small, furry mammal that lives in the relative shelter of the densely-forested deflation plain. “They didn’t want to divide the marten’s habitat in two, creating open sand, because martens don’t like to cross open sand as it exposes them to predators,” said Dina. It’s estimated there are less than 200 martens left, with endangered species designation expected by this summer.

So now they’ll try plan at Baker Beach at the north end of the dunes and evaluate its results. Dina noted the plan will not affect the 5600 acres of Dunes open to ATVers, except for lowering speed limits in some forested areas, a change actually supported by many ATV users.

Meantime, work parties are planned for further hand removal of the invasives. Individuals are also welcome to clear brush on their own. Gorse and European beachgrass must be completely dug out, but Scotch Broom can be trimmed to its crown to kill it. Stack cut brush and leave it to decay, but don’t put it on top of the native groundcover plant called kinnikinnick.

Brush and beachgrass removal sessions are planned for April 20 at Dellenback Dunes near Lakeside and April 27 at Honeyman State Park south of Florence. More volunteers are also needed in communities at the south end of the Dunes.

Space limitations here have necessitated a compressed overview of this subject; for more information, or to sign up for emails, or to make donations, check the website Saveoregondunes.org . The ATV rider group’s website is www.savetheridersdunes.com , with further details on their Facebook page.

Originally published in the South Coast Shopper

Council Gets Update On City’s Community Visioning Process

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

In anticipation of an August completion date, the city of Newberg received an update on their Community Visioning process Monday ahead of an April 16 town hall on the matter.

The vision is a plan to chart the next 20 years of Newberg’s future and was a goal of the City Council. The city went to the University of Oregon for help and were provided a participant from the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments Program to serve as a visioning coordinator. That coordinator, Bayo Ware, drafted a community profile for the city’s Community Visioning Citizens Advisory Committee.

Community Development Director Doug Rux said several topic categories have been identified through stakeholder interviews and from a first round of community survey work. These include: community engagement, community identity, community leadership, cultural assets, economic development and livability and development.

These vision topics were used to create the online survey residents participated in over the winter, and lead to the first community forum that was held in February. Rux said that more than 60 people participated in that forum.

In March, Rux said a volunteer group called the Community Corps began drafting a vision, goals and strategies based on the 900 survey results the city received.

Public events should last through June. The following step is an action plan, which is gathering all the data and putting it into a plan to finalize the vision. There will also be community events throughout the year to serve as opportunities for outreach, as well as committee meetings.

Newberg’s population is estimated to grow 56 percent by 2040, which would bring it to roughly 36,700 residents. At that number the city is projected to grow at a faster rate than both Yamhill County and the state.

The committee has previously stated a visioning project “is a way for the community to participate in planning Newberg’s future.” The community is rapidly growing, “and if we don’t plan for the future, then it will become something that no one wants.” It states the benefit of the plan is it creates a road map to a preferred future and at the end of the project there will be a completed document outlining specific goals providing that road map.

The Community Corps is working on the community vision statement. Rux said the group will appear before the council on April 16 at a town hall event to outline the visions for each topic area, and that there will be a second round of survey work to come.

“We’ll work with the community to get feedback to see if they are on topic,” he said.

The schedule to have the vision completed by August remains on track, Rux said, adding that Ware is making sure all goals and benchmarks are met.

According to the time line in place, following the April 16 town hall at the Newberg camps of Portland Community College at 135 Werth Blvd., where the vision draft will be presented, the next event will be a second community workshop on May 14. Following that, there will be a second public presentation town hall June 30, followed by a community vision workshop July 10. The vision is expected to be completed by August.

The project is being funded through the Planning Budget in the General Fund, and $23,500 has been budgeted for the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) participant through Professional Services. The program provides a small match toward the overall costs. Money has also been budgeted for office equipment and costs for community meetings, workshops and events.

Residents with questions or feedback, may email Ware at bayoan.ware@newbergoregon.org.

Originally published in The Newberg Graphic

Celebrate The Library’s Role In The Community

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

This week we celebrate National Library Week, a time to recognize the positive effect libraries and library staff have on the people we serve. This year’s theme is “Libraries = Strong Communities” and Roseburg is a great example of how a community and a library support each other.

In three months of operation, more than 31,000 people have visited the library for their information and recreational needs. Thirty-one hundred patrons have checked out 25,000 items and logged 3100 computer sessions. Sixteen hundred people have attended 32 children’s programs; a Teen Advisory Council has launched; and we have partnered with a number of local organizations and individuals for programs for all ages.

Tuesday is National Library Workers Day, a special time for me to honor the people who make the library such as a great place to visit.

Adrienne Groves joined the staff in September as the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps participant and she spent her first few months working behind the scenes to ensure we would have policies and programs when we opened. Adrienne managed storytimes for the first couple of months and now she is focused on adult programming, additional outreach opportunities and supporting youth services. She does it all with enthusiasm and a willingness to learn.

Volunteer Coordinator Elizabeth Hendershott also came on board in September and she has recruited and trained about 75 volunteers. Thank goodness Liz has great organizational skills! Liz recently received her Master’s in Library and Information Science and that background as well as her positive attitude and good humor make all of us thrilled to have her on the team.

Youth Services Librarian Aurora Oberg has been with us for six weeks and she already has put her stamp on youth programming and collection development. Her creativity, collaborative nature and experience have made our staff complete.

I can’t thank Adrienne, Liz and Aurora enough for recognizing the unique opportunity we have and making the most of it.

We rely on volunteers’ time and talent and we simply would not be able to provide the level of service we do without them. They work the front desk, process materials, help with programs, shelve materials and much more. They have logged 1200 hours of service since we opened and they always have a smile.

Our other group of volunteers is the Friends of the Roseburg Public Library, a 501c3 organization whose members advocate for library services and raise funds for programs and materials. We couldn’t ask for more dedicated Friends and library volunteers.

It’s appropriate that National Library Week and National Volunteer Month are celebrated in April because volunteers and libraries make our community strong. And together we’re just getting started.

Stop in and see all that is happening at your Roseburg Public Library.

Originally published in The News-Review

RARE expands capacity of rural towns

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Program matches young professionals with development efforts

In 2016, when Elizabeth Gronert graduated from the University of Iowa, she didn’t quite know what to do next. She knew she wanted to get out of the Midwest. She knew she wanted to build career connections. And she knew she wanted an adventure.

Elizabeth Gronert

Gronert found the answer with the University of Oregon’s RARE AmeriCorps program. RARE (Resource Assistance for Rural Environments) matches successful applicants, most of them recent college graduates, with rural communities and organizations that need skills in specific areas but may not have those resources.

RARE is building a cadre of committed young professionals — many of whom choose to stay in Oregon — who can gain valuable experience while expanding the capacity of rural communities. “In rural communities, the ability of one person to make an impact is immense,” says Titus Tomlinson, RARE’s acting program director. “As an AmeriCorps program, RARE adds the spirit of service to the table, and it’s a beautiful way to give back.”

A win-win proposition

For Gronert, RARE offered “just a big ball of benefits.” In return for working 11 months, participants receive a $1,600 monthly stipend, graduate credits, an education award that can be used to pay off loans or future educational expenses, and the chance to make connections, amass experience, and become part of the tight-knit RARE community.

“What they are really getting is real-world practice, real-world experience and the chance to make real-world decisions,” says Tomlinson, a RARE alumnus who came to Oregon 12 years ago to serve with the city of Winston’s planning department in updating its floodplain management plan. “It was a life-changing experience for me, on both a personal and professional level,” he says.

Titus Tomlinson

Since RARE’s inception in 1994, AmeriCorps has placed more than 500 RARE members throughout rural Oregon. In its first year, RARE AmeriCorps placed 13 members; this year, there are 31 members. Participants work for municipalities, nonprofits, regional groups or statewide organizations. Projects are as varied as the needs of communities, including economic development, planning, tourism, fire communication, art and library development.

For Tomlinson, like many participants, culture shock played a role in the learning experience. “I moved from very liberal Arcata, California, to conservative rural Oregon — full beard, dreadlocks to my waist,” he remembers. “They accepted me with open arms. Politics aside, what matters most is a sense of community. I befriended the police chief, the mayor … I was part of that family. It was an extremely special experience, part of my life that I will forever hold dear.”

Statewide partners

This is Gronert’s second year working with the Oregon Coast Visitors Association on projects relating to agritourism and recreation on the south coast, including the burgeoning Oregon Food Trail. Her position is co-funded through OCVA, the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance and Travel Oregon.

Statewide partners are an increasingly important component of RARE. Organizations such as Travel Oregon, the Oregon Food Bank, Oregon Main Street Program and The Ford Family Foundation provide funding, training, hosting, information sharing and expertise.

“We’re thankful to have such great local and regional partners that also want to make investments in capacity to support rural communities,” says Travel Oregon’s Alexa Carey. Carey was a RARE placement in 2012-2013, helping the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians in Roseburg develop its small-business incubator, the Umpqua Business Center. She worked in Oregon after her RARE term ended and is now Travel Oregon’s director for community-based services.

Tomlinson looks forward to increasing the program’s number of statewide partners, which has the effect of increasing the support available to rural communities. “When we come into a rural community, we are able to really wrap around their needs,” he says. “You don’t just get a RARE member, you get access to our partners.”

Projects benefit from RARE

This year’s 31 RARE participants are working in small communities throughout Oregon on a wide variety of projects. Many are collaborative efforts between regions and organizations. Here’s a glimpse of what RARE placements are working on:

Oregon Coast Visitors Association: Travel Oregon’s Oregon Food Trails program guides tourism communities in how to identify their strongest agritourism products and market them to Oregonians and visitors alike. Four food trails have been developed with the help of the RARE program: Wild Rivers Coast, Great Umpqua, East Gorge and North Coast.

City of Roseburg: The RARE participant is supporting the initial start-up of the Roseburg Public Library, helping develop library policies and procedures, including those related to the recruitment and retention of a large volunteer workforce.

Clackamas County: RARE is helping assess opportunities and barriers for community solar initiatives, coordinate public engagement and outreach, and identify partners and participants for a community solar installation.

Eastern Oregon Healthy Living Alliance: The RARE placement is helping conduct a social marketing campaign aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption with Latino moms in Malheur, Morrow, and Umatilla Counties.

City of Florence: The RARE participant is helping the city’s public art committee members select and install two large-scale public art pieces in Florence’s Urban Renewal District.

City of Veneta: The RARE participant is supporting entrepreneurs, including the formation of a pop-up retail district and the formation of a brewery incentive package.

Originally published in The Ford Family Foundation’s biannual newsletter, Community Vitality, Spring 2019

A Peek Into The Past

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

For a town that is only 122 years old, Cottage Grove sure has packed a lot of history into that time. Not only has a lot of water flowed under its covered bridges but the folks here take their history pretty seriously. Not less than five organizations work to record, research, and present the history of our city and its colorful inhabitants.

In addition to what is already in place, Main Street Cottage Grove, is making some history of its own by starting a new way to serve up the past: History Pub! The first one of these monthly events will be happening Tuesday, April 2 in the historic Burkholder Woods Building, better known as the Axe & Fiddle, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The inauguratory History Pub has wisely chosen a way to see just what was going on almost 100 years ago right where you will be sitting through the Morelock Films. Local businessman William Morelock who operated the Arcade Theatre, would occasionally turn the camera on downtown and capture everyday life in Cottage Grove in the ’30s and ’40s.

In addition to this tantalizing topic, the History Pub will feature a trivia contest for prizes, a 50/50 raffle, and good fellowship with friends met and unmet in a relaxed atmosphere with food and drink available. All funds raised (including 10 percent of your purchases at the Axe) go to the Main Street Organization’s efforts to revitalize our historic downtown. Local historical organizations will also be on hand to let you know more about what they do and have to offer.

Jared Matthew, Cottage Grove’s Downtown Coordinator, said “It is important to keep our downtown vibrant and improving, but to also remember and honor our past.”

He gave the current project of restoring the Bank Building to its original appearance as an example of how we can upgrade but still keep our history. Matthew, originally from Philadelphia, a city whose history runs very deep, is particularly impressed with how passionately Cottage Grovers take their history. He came up with the idea of having a History Pub to allow folks who haven’t connected with our local history a chance to meet some of the Main Street history partners who are working to keep our history alive.

So each first Tuesday you will have a chance to sip a brew and take in another aspect of Cottage Grove’s past. Some other opportunities to absorb some local history: Third Saturdays, Community Center, 10 a.m. CG Historical Society (April 20 topic is History Roundtable, come share your story!); fourth Tuesdays, Magnolia Gardens, 2 to 3 p.m., (March 26, Opal Whiteley) – public invited!

Next up on the History Pub, May 7 at 5 p.m. “Bohemia’s Most Colorful Characters and How They Changed Cottage Grove,” presented by Stephen Williamson.

Come full circle and meet the past in the present at History Pub! Learn more about what is happening in historic downtown at Main Street Cottage Grove on Facebook or @MainstreetCG.

Originally published in The Creswell Chronicle

Agritourism Appeal – Discover Klamath Program Promotes Local Producers

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

MERRILL — A tour of regional producers linked with a common goal of increasing agricultural tourism in the Klamath Basin were brought together for a day-long “Agritourism Meet and Greet” event on Saturday.

Coordinated by Discover Klamath and Rural Klamath Connects partners; a contingent of farmers, ranchers, small business owners and promoters of the ag industry gathered for a multi-stop trek to visit various local operations.

Beginning in Merrill, participants traveled via bus to locales in Malin, Bonanza and Midland to experience first-hand how other local producers cultivate their product, and how collaboration to promote its tourism appeal could pay dividends.

It was the second year that Discover Klamath had sponsored an Agritourism Meet and Greet, the first event offered as a lunch meeting. Those who participated last year wanted a more involved experience, seeing the facilities and growers to explore collaborative opportunities and how tourism could supplement operations and support farm sustainability amid a growing trend of consumers seeking a farm-to-table experience and deeper knowledge of where their food comes from.

“This is an opportunity for us to meet with local partners and introduce local people in the area who work in agriculture, while finding ways to use visitors, tourists and those looking to explore the area to help connect our local agriculture community,” said Patrick Lynch, rural tourism coordinator for Discover Klamath.

“It is a chance to bring other local farmers, ranchers, producers together — give them a chance to see some of their local agritourism partners in action, and talk with each other and experts about how they can get involved.”

The first stop was Lana’s Garden, a grant-funded greenhouse operation built by Larry and Becky Robinson near Malin in tribute to their daughter Lana — who loved to garden and tragically passed away in a car accident. Specializing in lavender products, the Robinson’s grow a variety of flowers and vegetables within two hoop houses built on their property.

The group next traveled to Gold Dust/Walker Farms, a large potato processing facility in Malin, which not only provides spuds for In-N-Out Burger and Frito Lay, but is the top exporter of potatoes to several Asian countries.

Trisha Hill, a fourth-generation Klamath farmer, offered a tour of the processing site, where potatoes are washed, bagged and shipped.

Walker Farms also hosted a luncheon, where Erika Polmar of Plate & Pitchfork and Travel Oregon offered sound advice about the regulations which must be adhered to for farms and ranches seeking to explore agritourism opportunities.

“When I started offering a farm dinner series I didn’t know I was breaking policies,” explained Polmar. “I almost went to jail for it, and that led me to work with Travel Oregon helping inform people of how to legally operate within regulations for farm-to-table programs and agritourism.”

Polmar detailed important aspects of Oregon land-use laws, permits and regulations, farm stands, and commercial events producers should know before embarking on public events.

Afternoon tour stops included a trip to Holland’s Dairy in Bonanza and Skyline Brewing Company in Midland.

Around 30 people joined the tour, from brewers to ranchers to government staffers eager to share programs, grants, and collaborative opportunities.

“In the State of Oregon agritourism is huge,” said Lynch. “Think about the reputation that wineries and craft beers have, the various food trails — it’s a huge thing statewide but in its infancy here. We are using this event as a catalyst to get the conversation going locally, and to let producers know that Discover Klamath is a resource here to help them getting involved.”

Promoting tourism through Klamath’s many agricultural producers benefits go beyond a financial boon — though supplemental income and community economic boosts are a definite plus.

Offering tours and allowing the general public into operations can break the monotony of the job, promote the importance of agriculture, establish connections with potential vendors, and build bridges between farmers and consumers.

“We hope this event is the opportunity to connect with each other and get a better idea of what we can do to take the next step,” added Lynch. “Plus, it’s an opportunity to spend a day enjoying what these producers contribute to our area. We know it’s not easy for farmers and ranchers to take a day off, and we appreciate all of our local partners being a part of this.”

Originally published in The Herald and News

Newberg will kick off plan for the future with community visioning event

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

City officials says the Feb. 5 event is a way for the public to engage in planning the city for next 20 years

To begin envisioning what the city will look like two decades from now, Newberg will host a community event Feb. 5 to kick off the process.

The event, titled “A NewBERG,” will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Chehalem Cultural Center. Community members, businesses and local organizations are invited to participate in the visioning process for the city’s next 20 years.

Charting the next two decades was a goal of the Newberg City Council and the city went to the University of Oregon for help and were provided a participant from the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments Program to serve as a visioning coordinator. That coordinator, Bayo Ware, drafted a community profile for the Community Visioning Citizens Advisory Committee.

The city has already conducted earlier stakeholder interviews and now is transitioning into a more involved stage for the public to be part of. Public events should last through June. The following step is an action plan, which is gathering all the data and putting it into a plan to finalize the vision.

An outreach timeline suggests that public surveys, in the forms of forums and workshops, be held through June, with recurring advertising also slated to start this month. There will also be community events throughout the year to serve as opportunities for outreach, as well as committee meetings, and residents are invited to share their thoughts with Ware at bayoan.ware@newbergoregon.gov. The goal in the packet is to have final documents due to the council by July 31; the project ends Aug. 19.

According to the city’s website, “Oregon in general, and the Portland Metro Area specifically, has seen huge growth over the past 10 years. Newberg has seen and felt this growth first-hand. In this rapidly changing time, Newberg has the great opportunity to decide what it wants to be. A Community Vision is a tool that will provide goals for the next 20 years and a roadmap to get us there.”

According to committee documents, Newberg’s population is estimated to grow 56 percent by 2040, which would bring it to roughly 36,700 residents, and states the city is growing at a faster rate than both Yamhill County and the state as a whole.

According to the committee, a visioning project “is a way for the community to participate in planning Newberg’s future.” The community is rapidly growing, “and if we don’t plan for the future, then it will become something that no one wants.” It states the benefit of the plan is it creates a roadmap to a preferred future, and at the end of the project there will be a completed document outlining specific goals providing that roadmap.

The plan would also provide a “clear picture of the city’s resources so we can identify priorities” and unify different city sectors to accomplish the vision.

Originally published in The Newberg Graphic

City explores helping fix blighted homes

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

PENDLETON, Oregon – Staff for the Pendleton Development Commission is working on a census of blighted homes in the downtown area. Associate Director Charles Denight says intern Kaitlyn Cook is compiling a database of the properties and information about their owners as the PDC explores making funds available to fix the eyesores.

“A lot of them are rentals, but there are a number of them that are owned by people who live in them, but who have very low or almost no income, and they’re not able to fix them up because they just don’t have the money,” Denight said.

The census by Cook is essential to giving the PDC a comprehensive overview of downtown blight.

“Amongst the owners, you can identify people who own homes and rent them and maybe don’t do a good job of keeping them up; or there are people that own the homes and live in them; or there are people that own them, inherited them, and they live somewhere else.”

The PDC has been providing grants and low-interest loans to businesses in the downtown area for years for façade improvement, expansion, and second-story development. It has not yet tackled the issue of helping the owners of blighted homes.

Originally published in My Columbia Basin

Building a bike & bed

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

DALLAS — Marlene Cox, the owner of Latitude One in Dallas, will apply for a Main Street Revitalization grant to transform the second story of the restaurant building into a hostel catering to bicyclists.

The upstairs of the building, located at 904 Main St., is vacant. If successful, the project would build a hostel with men’s and women’s bunk rooms, bathroom and shower facilities, a kitchen, and two private rooms. Guests would have a place to secure their bikes next to their beds.

Cox also wants to purchase the vacant former gas station at the corner of Main and Washington streets to create a bike park with a wash and repair station, restrooms and a pocket park. The park would be one block from the hostel.

Cox said the Dallas Downtown Association will help write the grant, which is due in March. The grant is offered through the Oregon Parks & Recreation State Historic Preservation Office.

“Our Downtown Dallas Association is really trying to push bike friendly,” Cox said. “We want to be able to support bikes and cyclists.”

She said there aren’t amenities in Dallas specifically for bicyclists, which means the town is potentially missing out on a tourism niche. Cox said the idea began to take form when Polk County was selected to participate in Travel Oregon’s Rural Tourism Studio.

“Cycling, that was the big main pitch. I realized that Dallas has much to offer for cyclists to come,” Cox said. “I just think some lodging is what we definitely need to have. If this … works well, it’s going to encourage other owners with the old buildings with the second level empty just like this.”

Marshall Guthrie, a bicycle enthusiast from Monmouth, said there are a lot of towns in Oregon, including Dallas, that he would rarely visit, if at all, except for on two wheels.

“I go to the farmers market, coffee shops, I meet my bike club here. If it wasn’t for my bike, I would spend zero dollars anywhere but the courthouse in Dallas,” Guthrie said. “I could say the same thing about Jefferson. I could say the same thing about Perrydale. I could name a lot of towns in Oregon that have gotten my money that wouldn’t get it if there wasn’t a reason to ride my bike there.”

He said the hostel and the bike park would not only invite bicycle tourists, but cater to what he believes is a growing movement of people moving away from cars as their primary mode of transportation.

“I think we are entering an era where individual car use is going to taper off. I’m not going to say a decline, but per capita, you will see a decline,” Guthrie said. “As the population increases, cars will increase, but I think we are starting to see a resurgence of a community that is focused on people getting around some way other than in a car.”

Gabriel Leon, the DDA manager, said he’s invested in the project as someone who has commuted by bike, but it’s also in line with the organization’s goals.

“It has a personal place in my heart. I’m doing what I can so the town can have a bike-centered space,” Leon said. “The downtown association in general is always really excited about historic preservation and making sure that the bones of our towns and cities carry on into the future.”

Cox added that downtowns must evolve to say vital.

“Let’s make some reasons to come over to Dallas,” she said. “The old days of retail is gone. If we are going to do something, it’s going to have to be what people’s lifestyles now reflect and what they want.”

Originally published in Polk County Itemizer-Observer