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The Pavilion, the newest addition to Portland Adventist Medical Center, is ahead of schedule for completion in May 2009, Chief Executive Officer. Tom Russell told the Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee last month. Having it will make the hospital’s mission of providing compassionate care more of a reality.
Founded by Dr. Henry Belknap in 1903, the hospital first made its home in the Mount Tabor area. It began moving to its current location at 10123 S.E. Market St. in 1960 and opened in 1973. It was primarily designed for inpatient services and is not set up for giving the most efficient care. “We have outpatient services being delivered in inpatient facilities,” Russell said. In addition, the aging of the baby boom population threatens to put increased demands on all area medical facilities. Hence the new pavilion.
The 180,000-square-foot building will have a Cardiovascular Care Center to pull together all services related to heart issues. There will also be radiation and oncology services, physicians’ offices and a new emergency facility with double the number of beds – 32 – as the existing one. The emergency area is dealing with almost 50 percent more activity than it was designed for,” Russell said. It is sometimes forced to go on “divert,” sending people needing immediate treatment to other hospitals. A new parking garage is already up and running, with 440 spaces and the capability of adding two more levels in the future.
Portland Development Commission’s Justin Douglas called the modernization now going on at Adventist an amazing accomplishment. He asked whether Adventist would be willing to anchor a medical cluster in Gateway in cooperation with the Oregon and Providence clinics at the Gateway Transit Center.
“That’s one of the things I’ll be looking at more closely in four days,” Russell said, referring to the date he takes over from Dr. Darrell Jones. “The medical community is not as coordinated as we can be. The question is good, but I have no good answer yet.” He added that medical facilities need “to view ourselves as stewards of the community’s health care resources.”
Park property near purchase
Pending approval of City Council and the Portland Development Commission and some last-minute negotiations with the property owners, PDC may get its hands on some long-sought property on Northeast Halsey Street at 106th Avenue, PDC’s Justin Douglas told the Gateway Program Advisory Committee last month. The four-acre parcel consists of the recently closed J.J. North’s Restaurant and a long-vacant former bingo parlor, among other things. One of the property’s apparent former uses was a dry cleaners where staff was accustomed to “emptying toxic chemicals out the back door,” Douglas said, creating a residue buried two-to-seven feet deep that must be cleaned up. Fortunately, tests have shown it is contained in a relatively concentrated area, and PDC is confident of securing a $200,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to perform the necessary cleanup. Over the next five years PDC is borrowing from funds for the creation and maintenance of affordable housing.
The parcel has the potential to contribute to two key urban renewal goals: creation of new parkland and economic development that could generate tax increment funds to accomplish other goals. PAC member and developer Ted Gilbert noted that with the property’s commercial zoning, “You could do anything there.”
Innovative Housing completes Broadway Project
The nonprofit Innovative Housing has begun accepting tenants in 82nd Place, a 58-unit development in two buildings – the larger one three stories high – at 8340 N.E. Broadway. Most of the units are one to three bedrooms, but there are some studios and four-bedroom units, spokesperson Julie Garver told the Memo. Some are targeted to people making 50 percent of median area household income and some for those earning 30 percent or less, including some formerly homeless people. Rents range from $550 for a studio to $950 for a four-bedroom in the higher income category. Each unit comes with a washer and dryer, and there are monitors and controls to help tenants manage their consumption of water, heat and electricity. The larger building’s basement includes a day-care center run by Creative Minds that is available to the public at large, and offices for Portland Impact, which provides case management for some of the tenants. There is also a community room available to the public for small meetings. A grand opening ceremony attracted City Commissioner Nick Fish, Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogan and Metro Councilor Robert Liberty.
Chiropractic College seeks new building anatomy lab
While not on the scale of Adventist Medical Center mentioned above, Western States Chiropractic College is proceeding with a new capital project. It has applied for an amendment to its conditional permit to build a new 8,500-square-foot Gross Anatomy Laboratory Building on the northwest corner of its campus at 2900 N.E. 132nd Ave. The college hopes to have the project finished by fall 2009, Chief Financial Officer Nancy Mitzen told the Russell Neighborhood Association last month. In a related matter, she noted that a review of the college’s 1998 Master Plan called for a Good Neighbor Monitoring Group to deal with any issues between the college and its neighbors. “There’s no record that this group ever formed,” she said. The college has attempted to foster good relations by providing Russell with free meeting space and, in recent months, attending community meetings regularly.
PDC partners with nonprofit
Under the Gateway Glisan Project, Portland Development Commission would partner with the nonprofit Human Solutions in a major development on Northeast Glisan Street at 99th Avenue. The plan calls for the creation of 135 units of affordable housing, 31 owner-occupied units and 30,000 square feet of commercial use. So far the partners control 60,000 square feet, PDC’s Karl Dinkelspiel told the Gateway PAC, and they are seeking to acquire more. In pursuit of the project, PDC has allocated $960,000 from the district’s set-aside fund dedicated to affordable housing creation and maintenance.
Russell Safe Routes to School calls for five new crossings
As part of its Safe Routes to School program, Russell Academy Principal Debbie Ebert and parent volunteers are asking the city to install five new pedestrian crossings at key intersections, volunteer Verne Sundin told the Russell Neighborhood Association last month. The proposed crossings would be at Northeast 127th Avenue at Brazee Street, 128th Avenue at San Rafael Street, 132nd Avenue at Brazee and Sacramento streets and an improvement of the existing cross walk between the school and Luby Park on Northeast San Rafael Street. The Safe Routes program is designed to encourage children to walk or bike to school by, among other things, removing barriers to their convenience and safety on obvious routes. Unfortunately, budget cuts have eliminated any funds to implement capital improvements. However, Ebert is eager to identify priorities so that the school would be in a position to take advantage of grants or any other funds it could secure.
Anne Pico, 1919 to 2008
Anne Pico, one of the founders of the Wilkes Community Group and a longtime Mid-county advocate, died last month. She was known as one of the area’s experts on land use law. “The politicians and bureaucrats couldn’t shut her up because she knew the rules as well as they did,” Russell Neighborhood Association Chair Bonny McKnight said. “She was very effective – and I loved her.”
Another early Wilkes leader, Alice Blatt, says that Pico was a mentor to her. “She was very generous with her time.”
Yet another leader, Hazelwood’s Arlene Kimura, recalled, “She was always really polite when saying, ‘No, you can’t do this.’”
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