By Pat Erdenberger, Hoodland CPO For The Mountain Times
As the snow melts and days warm slightly, we welcome the very busy month of March! 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.
The CPO will hold an in-person Hoodland Community meeting on Thursday, March 20th at 7PM at the Mt. Hood Resort, in the Osprey Room adjacent to the Altitude Restaurant in the main building. We thank the Resort for their donation of meeting space.
Our speakers at the March 20th meeting will be Aaron Bayer, Superintendent of Schools, Oregon Trail School District, and our regular feature, the “Mountain Minute.” The business meeting will follow the speakers’ presentations.
The February 20th Zoom meeting titled “Pursuing Rural Disaster Resilience” with a focus on the Upper Sandy River was a great success as Jay Wilson of Clackamas County Disaster Management took this historical subject on the road again. We enjoyed the “Mountain Minute” with Lori Catanboy, who brought us news from the Mt. Hood Resort in Welches. Thanks to both speakers.
The CPO is continuing to work on a framework for citizens’ emergency communication. Provisionally named the Hoodland Emergency Communication Network (HECN), the concept has already attracted interest from a dozen people living in the Hoodland CPO area.
We’re looking for volunteer trainers from experienced GMRS users and interest from HAM/GMRS operators to work with long term. Our distant goal is broad and it will take time to establish a corridor system of communication from Firwood to Government Camp, Timberline and Wapanitia. We don’t know what, when or where emergencies will strike. This network would constitute a full Mt. Hood corridor communications network for emergencies when the power and cell towers are down which would provide a helpful measure of resilience in our community.
Please continue to contact us at hoodlandcpo@gmail.com if you are curious and interested in more information, or if you are gung-ho to get this going.
Another very exciting event is the start of a series of science speakers, beginning in March at the Rendezvous Restaurant in Welches. The first speaker, Andy McEvoy of Oregon State University, will present “Wildfire Risk in Western Oregon: Understanding the Present and Planning for the Future.” Please join us in support of this Mt Hood Corridor Wildfire Partnership event on Wednesday, March 5th 6:00-7:30PM at the Rendezvous.
“It Takes This Village”