The old Dorman Center has stood on shaky ground for a long time.

But it finally fell to the county’s wrecking ball in September.

Deemed no longer safe more than five years ago, the Hoodland Women’s Club
(HWC) rallied to the Dorman cause and began the difficult task of fundraising
in order to replace it with a community center, starting a journey that ended
up in an economic and political cul-de-sac.

Barbara Saldivar presented the idea at an HWC meeting, and along with Kay
Baker took up the task of grant writing to secure funds to hire a project
manager.

The club tapped Diane Lokting, who spearheaded the eventually fruitless
fundraising effort and told The Mountain Times, at that time, what it had
meant to her.

“I was proud to be the project manager for the Hoodland Women’s Club,”
Lokting said. “Through this work I came into contact with many amazing
people – first and foremost the women whose vision to bring a community
center to Hoodland was a dream of over a decade.

“The demise of the project is very sad.”

Despite attracting many foundations, the fundraising effort came up short.
But the HWC wasn’t ready to give up.

The club joined forces with the Villages at Mt. Hood with a new idea for the
four-acre plot propped up by a community garden: this time, a community
park.

HWC member Regina Lythgoe launched the project with an appeal during a
Villages board meeting.

“We don’t have places to push our grandchildren on swings,” she said, and the
idea took wings.

The Villages solicited the creativity of the Mountain’s Ben Bliesner, Josh
Frazier and Jason Johnson and the trio created a mesmerizing CAD of what
the new park could look like. It included a skate park, public shelter, five
picnic shelters, a BMX track, playground, an improved community garden and
a park-and-ride area.

With Clackamas County Director of Business and Community Services Gary
Barth on board, the next step, once again, was fundraising. Barth said the
county was willing to lease the property for $1 a year – the county owns the
property – but it was up to the village to figure out the funding mechanism.
But the second bell tolled. The Villages at Mt. Hood was disbanded by the
county for reasons that strained credulity.

The question now, is there a third time? The Dorman Center is gone. But the
lot remains, yawning, waiting.

One thing is certain. Never take the HWC lightly. As has been reported in
previous stories in The Mountain Times, they don’t sit around knitting and
drinking tea.