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Nominations open for PHS Hall of Fame
It is time again to nominate your favorite Parkrose High School alum or community member to the Parkrose High School Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is the Parkrose School Districts’ way of showing Parkrose graduates and community members how much they are appreciated. Selections are made annually.
PHS teachers and staff work hard to give Parkrose students the best education possible. That shows in the success of alumni and the community members who support them.
Nominees can be anyone who attended, worked at, taught at or volunteered at the high school or has actively supported students, staff and teachers at the school. Up to three nominees will be inducted to the Hall of Fame during the Parkrose Educational Foundation Dinner and Auction on Saturday, April 28 at the Holiday Inn Airport, 8439 N.E. Columbia Blvd. Inductees will receive a plaque, a $25 gift certificate to the student store, an annual pass to PHS events including athletics and theater and a designated parking place. In addition, inductee names will be added to the PHS Wall of Fame.
Celebrate PHS history and honor those who have made Parkrose a great school. Pick up a nomination form at the high school, 12003 N.E. Shaver St., or contact Roy Reynolds, PHS principal, at 503-408-2600 or roy_Reynolds@parkrose.k12.or.us. All nominations are due by March 1.
City accepting stewardship project grant applications
Each year, the Community Watershed Stewardship Program makes grant money available to help finance community projects that promote clean rivers and streams and healthy watersheds in Portland. Groups and individuals can apply for grants of up to $5,000. The application deadline is April 6.
The program has $55,000 in grant money available this year. Now in its 12th year, the program has provided $440,000 in grants to 121 projects. These funds were matched by over $2 million in community support through donations of services, materials and volunteer time. Nearly 30,000 people have donated more than 274,000 volunteer hours, planted 82,000 native plants and trees, restored 43 acres of riparian and upland habitat, and enhanced over 12,000 feet of streams.
CWSP grants encourage community groups and citizens to get involved in watershed improvement projects and leverage community resources to expand stewardship efforts. Past projects include bioswales, ecoroofs, naturescaping, natural areas cleanup and restoration, streamside revegetation, and sustainable stormwater facilities. Grant funds can be used for native plants, supplies, equipment, room rentals, transportation, and technical assistance toward any community-based watershed project in the city of Portland.
A grant information workshop will be held on Monday, Feb. 19, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the East Portland Community Center, 740 S.E.106th Ave.
The Community Watershed Stewardship Program is a partnership between the city of Portland’s Environmental Services, Portland State University, and AmeriCorps Northwest Service Academy. For more information and to download grant applications, visit www.portlandonline.com/bes/stewardship or call the grants coordinator at 503-823-7917.
City examines tree regulations
The City is taking a comprehensive look at its regulations on the planting and cutting of trees, and the way that they are enforced, planner Roberta Jortner told the Portland Planning Commission in December.
Jortner said that the laws currently in place are “complex and contradictory.” The proposed approach will include extensive public education, including information on how to report violations, she said.
Currently, she said, Portland’s tree canopy - the land occupied by and shaded by trees - comprises 26 percent of the city’s total land area, a figure that has remained more or less steady for the past 30 years. In contrast, Seattle’s canopy has dropped from 40 percent in the 1960s to 18 percent today. Canopies of other cities range from 34 percent for Austin, Texas, to 13 percent for Milwaukie, Wisconsin, she said.
The City’s goals call for increasing the canopy in commercial and industrial areas from the current seven percent to 13 percent, in public right of ways from 17 percent to 35 percent, in developed parks from 28 to 30 percent, and in residential areas from the current 30 percent to 35 or 40 percent. Depending on the neighborhood, Jortner added, the canopy ranges from 13 percent to 61 percent. “There is concern about the loss of trees, especially in southwest and outer east Portland,” she said.
Commission members indicated that this issue had impressed them during their October bus tour of east Portland. In some areas, large sequoia trees that give streets the feel of forest communities are in immediate danger of being cut. Commission member Chris Caruso told Jortner, “I’m glad to see tree preservation as a high priority. This is a big, big concern for (east Portland). With every month that goes by, we face the loss of special trees that really can’t be replaced.”
Airport planning proceeds
The Port of Portland and the Portland Planning Commission are about to begin a long-overdue planning update for Portland International Airport.
The Port has completed all of the projects called for in its Year 2000 master plan. However, other potential improvements are in the offing, including a proposed third runway whose flight paths would send planes across large swaths of east Portland residential neighborhoods.
The airport and its facilities are currently conditional uses. Both the Port and the City have found this to be an unsatisfactory regulatory tool. City Planner Jay Sugnet says that as part of the new planning process the City may develop a special zone, a land use overlay, or “some other instrument” to regulate the facility.
The Port and City will have two simultaneous processes, both paid for by the Port, Sugnet says.
The City is in the process of creating a new citizen advisory committee to guide the process, and already there has been some controversy. Planners initially identified interested parties that might want to participate. The Port objected that to give each of these groups a seat would an oversized and unwieldy committee. An alternative approach was to assign seats to identified interest groups. According to Hazelwood community activist Linda Robinson, this approach left the committee “skewed toward the Port and airport users, instead of those impacted by the airport.” The City is looking at revisions.
“We realize we have a lot of work to do,” Sugnet says of the initial reaction. “It definitely tells us there’s strong interest in this.”
Planners have made a presentation to the land use chairs of the neighborhood groups served by the East Portland Neighborhood Office, and Sugnet says they are “willing to make presentations to anyone who wants us to come out.” They hope to begin the process by May.
Chuck Harrison gets Spirit award
Although most of this year’s Spirit of Portland awards went to inner northeast Portland, one was awarded to business and environmental advocate Chuck Harrison.
The awards have been given annually since 1985 to individuals and groups that contribute to civic betterment in Portland. A committee consisting of representatives of district coalitions, the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, and the mayor’s office selects most honorees from nominations submitted by the public at large. In addition, the mayor gets to select some winners.
Harrison has been an employee of the Holton Company for 23 years, and currently serves as its Environmental and Facilities Manager. In this capacity he has served as chair of the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, and as a board member of the Columbia Corridor Association, the Portland Fire Bureau’s Prevention Advisory Council, the Multnomah County Drainage District, and the Portland Stormwater Advisory Committee.
As he accepted the award in City Council Chambers on December 13, Harrison thanked the Colton Company for allowing him to engage in these activities on company time.
This year the 20 winners were selected from 61 nominees (in past years there have been more than 100), and only a single nominee in some categories. Carol Justice of ONI, who helped manage the selection process, says that next year the city plans to better publicize the program, and to allow more time for nominations to be received.
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