Mid-county Memo Blog

Volunteers of America is holding its annual Al Forthan Scholarship essay contest for high school seniors, with the six winners each receiving a $1,000 scholarship.

Five of the scholarships are reserved for students of the Portland School District but the sixth, awarded this year, is available to any senior in a Multnomah County public school — east Portland –  whose family has suffered directly from alcohol or drug addiction.

New resource for improving the design of infill development now available

Portlanders have a new tool to help improve the design of infill development in their neighborhoods.

Published by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, “The Infill Design Toolkit: A guide to integrating infill development into Portland’s neighborhoods” serves as a resource for community members; builders, designers, neighbors and others - all who are involved in designing, building or participating in dialogue about the new development that continues to shape the form of Portland’s neighborhoods.

We received an e-mail from Karen Bohart, Reynolds High School choir director about a pair of fundraisers this weekend in support of their efforts to travel to New York City to perform at Lincoln Center. It follows:

The Reynolds High School Choir is scheduled to perform at Lincoln Center in New York, New York on Sunday March 29, 2009.
The public is invited to help students’ reach this destination by attending a performance and dinner hosted by Ristorante Di Pompello in Historic Downtown Troutdale, 117 East Historic Columbia River Highway, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, February 12 and Friday, February 13, 2009.

As its part of the budget reduction process, the Portland Police Bureau is proposing to consolidate its existing five police precincts into three.
Under this plan Northeast and North precincts would be combined, while Southeast would be divided between Central and East.

The boundary for East Precinct, which for the most part stops at East 82nd Avenue today, would extend to about 60th Avenue between East Burnside and Southeast Holgate streets, and as far west as Southeast 39th Avenue south of Holgate.

Some observers think utilizing the efficiencies gained is preferable to service cuts. Others think the new order will seriously interfere with Community Policing efforts.