News

Gresham Is... A Great Place to Live

A Shining Example While walking to downtown Gresham we experienced an incident that really exemplifies what "Gresham is".

Celebrating a 'mile'stone
As my wife and I walked along the busy street chatting to each other she told me she had traveled nearly 500 miles on her twice daily neighborhood walks over the past 2- 1/2 months. In addition, she proudly stated the weight loss from all that walking has made it easier for her to run and jump. As I congratulated her we came upon a low retaining wall with a wide ledge. I grabbed her arm and held it upward and encouraged her to jump up and walk along the top to demonstrate her new agility. She declined. Again, I encouraged her to jump atop the small wall as I held her arm upward to assist her.

We've got company
At that very moment a Gresham Police car was passing by. The patrol car suddenly braked, made a u-turn, and with lights flashing intercepted us at the street corner. (Oh, this is not good.)

Neighbors celebrate the Nelson addition to Nadaka Nature Park. Click to enlarge

Rain didn't dampen the spirits of community festival guests Celebrating the Nelson addition On June 18th, 2011, the Wilkes East Neighborhood held a community festival at Nadaka Nature Park to celebrate the Nelson property addition which was purchased with local grants.

The new addition which added 2 acres to this wonderful nature park has allowed the opening of the south gate -- improving accessibility to all of our neighbors and visitors as well as making room for the master plan that will include community gardens and more.

Rain is our sunshine
June 18th was a very wet cloudy day, typical of Oregon spring weather. Despite the rain, 58 volunteers with SOLV arrived at 9AM at Nadaka Nature Park for a park clean-up event. Participants removed invasive plant species as well as trash and debris. Volunteers came from HB LEE Middle school, SUN Community Schools as well as GGAPP Peer group and Catholic Charities.

The festival started at 12 noon and lasted until 3PM. Constant rain didn't dampen the spirits of the several hundred guests that attended the festival.

Freshwater mussel

Volunteer Opportunity Last year the Johnson Creek Watershed Council partnered with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to conduct surveys for native freshwater mussels in Johnson Creek — with your help, we want to continue this work.

Spots are filling up quickly so RSVP today! All ages welcome. Saturday, July 16* — Gresham Woods Saturday, August 6th — Ambleside Saturday, September 24 — Bundy Reserve Time: 10:00am-1:30pm

Searching for freshwater mussels

Volunteers will learn about the biology and ecology of native freshwater mussels, and the many ways in which these animals benefit water quality and fish habitat. Native mussels are sensitive to pollution and disturbance, so exploring mussel distribution and the age structure of mussel beds provides insight on the biological conditions of Johnson Creek. Native Western pearlshell mussels were found in both stream reaches surveyed in the upper watershed, and native floaters were present in the lower watershed.

The event represents a unique opportunity for the general public to assist with field research

Road repairs, 165th & NE Russell Click to enlarge

Street Repairs Underway, Now through Fall 2011 Pothold Hotline Available Beginning this week and through the Fall five hundred individual street sections will be repaired within the boundaries of the City of Gresham.

Increased funding = More neighborhood repairs
Twenty-five percent of the five hundred scheduled repairs this summer will be residential. This is all made possible due to the increase in the gas tax and licensing fees. In total $3 million dollars will be spent on this project. In the past Gresham has only had $1 million dollars available at a time to repair city streets.

Got a Pothole? Give'm a Call
An adjunct to this project will be a Pothole Hot Line. Call 503-618-2626 to report potholes in your area.

Homes needed for 3 girls and 1 boy, ages 12-15 When: Jul 22-Aug 5, 2011 Where: Your Home! Gresham, OR Download Host Family Application (below)

Sharing Our Cultures

Thank you for your interest in hosting a high school exchange student from our Sister City of SokCho, South Korea. This is one of our two active student exchange student programs, with SokCho sending students to the Gresham area every other year opposite of the years students from Gresham travel to SokCho. The students come during the summer break approximately July 22rd through August 5th

UPDATE: Prowler strikes June 2 Neighbors Beware Sometime between 9PM Monday May 23rd and 6AM Tuesday May 24th a prowler ransacked several cars in the Capri Terrace area stealing receipts, vehicle manuals, registrations and insurance cards.

The next morning neighbors woke to find discarded items strewn across their lawns by the thief as he moved from house to house searching for unlocked vehicles. Locked cars were undisturbed and no car alarms were heard.

At 167th & NE Hoyt the thief ransacked several cars from three adjacent properties, rummaging through the glove compartments and throughly checking underneath and in-between the seats for items with name & address information.

The Gresham Police was called to the scene Tuesday morning after neighbors realized they had been robbed overnight.

Kia Selley (linkedin)

"A passion for the built environment.." Kia Selley, most recently a development advisor with the Portland Development Commission, has been hired as the City of Gresham's new Urban Design and Planning Director.

Because of the unique combination of skills Selley brings to the job, City Manager Erik Kvarsten has also asked her to oversee the Rockwood-West Gresham Urban Renewal area.

Selley begins work June 13.

At PDC, Selley managed budget and expenditures for the Convention Center Urban Renewal Area, and provided oversight for community infrastructure, district-scale plans and real estate development projects.

A landscape architect by training, her professional background also includes comprehensive planning, development planning, development review, urban design streetscape projects, design-guideline development for transit-oriented development, permitting for complex construction projects and affordable housing.

Click to download

Summer 2011 Newsletter is here. Download your copy today. INSIDE THIS ISSUE Nadaka Community Festival Disc Golf, Columbia View Park Reynolds 2011-12 Budget Recycling TV’s and Computers HB Lee MS, Sun Outdoor Club Nadaka Happenings 2011 Saturday Family Walks & Rides and more...

Download the full-color edition here!

Newsletters are a regular publication of the Wilkes East Neighborhood Association. They are hand-delivered to over 1,500 residences and businesses in our area, timed to correspond with our regular meetings.
Click here for ad rates.

Looking for a past issue? Check out the newsletter archive.

Got a story to share?

Wilkes East residents are encouraged to submit articles for the newsletter. Articles should be limited to 300 words and may be subject to editing. Send articles by email to: info@wilkeseastna.org, or by postal mail to: PO Box 536 • Fairview, OR 97024.

Jordan Beehler, Eagle Scout Click to enlarge

What began as a bird house project quickly turned into a passion Making A Difference Wilkes East resident Jordan Beehler is a young man with a warm smile who's interested in making the world around him a better place -- not only for himself, but for others in his community too. Jordan, an Eagle Scout with Boy Scouts of America Troop 606 is a senior at Central Catholic High School in Portland and plans to attend Oregon State University this fall.

In August 2010 Jordan began work on his Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project. This project is the opportunity for an Eagle Scout to demonstrate leadership of others while performing a project for the benefit of the community. This is the culmination of the Eagle Scout candidate's leadership training and requires significant effort on their part.

For his project Jordan choose to improve Nadaka Nature Park