The Villages at Mt. Hood held its quarterly Town Hall Meeting Feb. 20, and the
overarching theme was single digits.

The Villages holds 4 meetings a year, 1 every 3 months. The meeting kicked
off at 9 a.m. Of the 9 board members, 8 were present. There were 8 members
of the community in attendance.

But despite the disappointing numbers, the give and take was lively in
response to the board’s agenda of fielding questions from the community.

Subjects reverberating in the spacious gym at Welches Elementary School
included: a look back at the Villages failure regarding the Miller Road Quarry
during last year’s slide on Hwy. 26 in Sandy; the Villages inability or lack of
desire to put Clackamas County officials’ feet to the fire; the need for the
Villages to partner with other organizations; the Villages’ poor image in the
community; law enforcement; public safety; and the continuing turtle that
hovers over the Mountain: Incorporation.

Local activist and naturalist Don Mench launched the discussion, calling the
Villages decision last year to thwart the Oregon Department of
Transportation’s use of the Miller Road Quarry site “a big mistake.”

“It was a loss for our community,” Mench said. “We lost out on a chance for
$1 million in restoration work (that would have come our way). I see this
stuff. So do others. You need to work on your image, but I don’t think you can
recover.”

Board member Rick Applegate defended the decision, pointing out there were
cinder block homes that would have been impacted by ODOT at the quarry
site.

“Our community was not even notified or asked for input,” Applegate said.

“We had to respond (with the emergency meeting).”

Board member George Wilson pointed out ODOT was going to bring in road
spoils from Sandy to the quarry, impacting the stream environment.

“Your public meeting got everyone excited,” Mench responded. “It was a
ridiculous fervor that was created. Besides, the spoils would have been yards
upstream.”

Board member Doug Saldivar tried to smooth things over.

“We don’t know everything,” he said. “We need your (Mench) input. Come
more often. Educate us.”

Discussions continued in syncopated patterns until the subject of incorporation
came to the floor.

Mench was quick to weigh in.

“At best it would create a little tiny city of Welches,” he said. “Our tax base
would double. We like our low property tax base.”

Saldivar kept the subject flowing.

“I’m just saying we need to have a discussion about it,” he said. “Let’s work
on solutions.”

“Incorporation is decades away,” Mench said.

But Mench’s idea larder was not empty.

“This board needs to create memorandums of understanding with county,
state and federal agencies,” he said. “Clackamas County does nothing toward
our stream restoration. It doesn’t partner with the Forest Service, the Sandy
River Basin Watershed Council, Fish and Wildlife, no one.”

Mench pointed out the Villages could help with this.

“But the Villages isn’t doing anything,” he said.

“The Forest Service is doing things. You could work with ODOT and get snow
removal projects contracted to locals. We have a district ranger who is a fish
biologist. The Portland Water Bureau is involved up here. You’re (Villages)
missing a big opportunity of bringing the county in on these things. Instead,
you keep digging the hole deeper. Stop digging.”

Applegate took the suggestions seriously.

“Lots of ideas have been brought to us today,” he said. “We have jobs to do.”

As the meeting adjourned the sparse participants stayed around, still
discussing the direction of the Villages board.

The feeling was that things would be done, one step at a time, to keep with
the meeting’s singular theme.