Portland News and Events for July 16–22, 2015

Beaverton Police Hold Free Child Safety Seat Clinic

The Beaverton Police Departmen, in a partnership with Safe Kids Washington County and Kuni Collision Center, will conduct a free child car seat clinic Saturday July 18 at Kuni Collision Center located at 3725 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR 97005. The clinic will run from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The last vehicle will be accepted at 11:30 a.m. to allow the technicians to be finished by 12 p.m.

This clinic is designed to teach parents and caregivers how to properly install and use a child safety seat. A properly installed and used child safety seat will greatly decrease the chance of a child sustaining a serious or life-threating injury during a motor vehicle crash.

A certified technician will help parents and caregivers learn to install and use their child safety restraints properly. No appointment is required just drop by during the event. Each car seat check will take about 30 minutes. Please note that the last car will be accepted at 11:30 a.m.

State, Local Foundations Contribute to Help Build New Boys & Girls Club in Rockwood

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland Metro (BGCP) received a big boost from the State of Oregon last week with the passing of a $1 million bond dedicated to the building of a new Boys & Girls Club in the east Multnomah County community of Rockwood. With the additional recent support of $300,000 from The Collins Foundation and $100,000 from OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation, BGCP is nearing the halfway point of a $9 million campaign designed to build and maintain the new facility, and provide operational funding for the broader organization.

As a result of the unexpected closure in early 2013 of the Police Activities League (PAL) Center, the only youth service program of its kind in Rockwood, and the subsequent loss of youth programming in a community with great disparity, BGCP stepped in and secured two years of operational funding to support the transition of the PAL youth to school-based sites in a partnership with the Reynolds School District. Identifying the significant void in youth services and the tremendous need for facility-based programs that offer educational, recreational, and social development, leaders in the City of Gresham have identified a new Boys & Girls Club as a catalyst for positive change in Rockwood.

The City of Gresham has identified the site of the former Drake's 7 Dees Landscaping business located at the corner of SE 165th and Stark Street for the construction of the new Rockwood Boys & Girls Club. The new Club facility will be approximately 30,000 square feet occupying 1.7 acres of a 4-acre plot. Additional land on the site will be dedicated to a creating campus of critically needed wrap-around services for kids and families ages zero to adult to include an outdoor recreation space, a new Open (Meadow) School and an early childhood service provider. BGCP plans to break ground on the new Club facility in the fall of 2015. Target open date is fall 2016.

Free Backyard Composting Workshop July 21

Columbia Springs in east Vancouver will host a feww Master Composter/Recycler Backyard Composting Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 21 at Columbia Springs in east Vancouver.

Participants will learn how to build soil health in their own back yards in this workshop, which offers an introduction to the science of composting and a visit to a composting demonstration site to view composting bins and systems in action.

Pre-registration is required for all workshops. To sign up or learn more, visit columbiasprings.org/mcr/workshops. For questions, contact [email protected] or (360) 882-0936 x224.

Gresham Police Report on Pedestrian Safety Mission

Officer with the Gresham Police Department issued 50 citations for crosswalk law infractions and another 20 citations for other offenses while conducting a Pedestrian Safety Operation on June 3 at the intersection of East Powell Blvd and NE Liberty Avenue. The primary focus of this detail was to raise pedestrian safety awareness of drivers and pedestrians through education and enforcement of pedestrian right-of-way laws. The detail was conducted from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; warning signs were posted prior to entering the pedestrian safety operation zone. Education of both drivers and pedestrians are vital to keeping our roads safe.

Motorists must stop and yield to pedestrians who are waiting to cross, or are crossing the roadway. Motorists are also required to stop at all crosswalks when there is a vehicle already stopped in a lane adjacent to the lane they are traveling in. Refer to Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 811.028 Failure to stop and remain stopped for pedestrian, for specifics on the law regarding drivers and ORS Chapter 814 for laws pertaining to pedestrians.

Funding for this pedestrian safety detail was made possible through a grant from the Oregon Impact and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Additional missions will be scheduled during the summer and again in September as the new school year begins.

For more Portland and Seattle area events, see our Community Calendar.