By Pat Erdenberger, Hoodland CPO For The Mountain Times
Happy New Year, everyone! By now most of you know that the goal of the Hoodland Community Planning Organization (HCPO) is to bring County information to our Hoodland community and have a voice back to the County. HCPO is interested in hearing from any individual or business to address concerns, issues, or to ask a question or two.
We will hold meetings in January and February via Zoom online, the third Thursday of the month, so that no one needs to travel too far at night in the cold weather. Anyone with suggestions for speakers at those Zoom meetings or to get on our mailing list, please write to hoodlandcpo@gmail.com and let us know your thoughts.
Reflecting on the year behind us, there’s been a lot of forward progress. We are well aware that many people in our community may have other commitments or difficulty getting out to evening meetings. We will work on broadening the audience for our speakers and community participation.
We covered a broad range of topics to be sure: Fire Hazard in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), the Welches Road Pedestrian Improvement Project, Clackamas County Candidates Forum, Bear Wise – Bear Safety at home, electric utility services issues and needs, water quality Q&A, insurance advocacy and information in Wildfire Zones, and the Hoodland Fire Station building project.
Our speakers and presenters were outstanding: Beginning in February through November we supported and heard from Jeremy Goers of US Forest Service, Scott Kline from Hoodland Fire District, Mike Ward in Clackamas County Engineering, League of Women Voter’s Candidates
Forum at the Mt Hood Resort, Dave Keiter of Oregon Fish and Wildlife, Randy Ealy from Portland General Electric, Curtis Olson from Salmon Valley Water, Charlie Wentz from the Oregon Division of Financial Responsibility and Alex Cettie of OTAK representing the Hoodland Fire Station rebuilding plan.
We’ve reviewed over 25 Land Use Permit applications this year, each one taking about 12-20 hours of volunteer time — well worth the time to see this community manage, grow and improve.
In 2025, the HCPO is looking forward to and planning on hearing from the Oregon Trails School District, the Mt Hood Corridor Wildfire Partnership, Local 501.3c organizations, NAMI the National Alliance of Mental Health Organizations, Clackamas County Disaster Planning with the Final Disaster Evacuation Report and Guidance, updates on the Welches Road Project, and the Fire Station update and any others you alert us to.
“It Takes This Village”