Friday mornings are usually one of the slower days of the week for the volunteers at the Tualatin Food Pantry. 

But the week before the Thanksgiving holiday remains an exception. On this particular Friday in late November, teams of one-time volunteers from local businesses shuttle in and out of the pantry’s distribution center as part of those companies’ annual charitable efforts. It’s the first of three days that special holiday food packages are distributed to the pantry’s regular clients. The resulting bustle of people moving in and out of the pantry, which is located in the basement of the Rolling Hills Church off S.W. Borland Road, combined with a steady stream of vehicles arriving to pick up food boxes, creates a scene that, to the untrained eye, looks almost chaotic. 

But for Tracy Smith, the pantry’s program coordinator, it all makes perfect sense. Smith is in charge of assigning volunteers, both the regulars and the newcomers, to the tasks that need to be accomplished. At the same time, she’s answering the phones and also stepping in to help fill food boxes and sort items on the pantry’s shelves. Anything that needs to be done, really. 

“I do have volunteers who lead each day, and I would technically be in doing the field trips and scheduling, but I’m always filling in when I need to,” Smith said. 

That’s life working for a nonprofit organization, and Smith wouldn’t trade it for anything. She’s worked for 12 years at the pantry, which is part of the Oregon Food Bank network, and demand for its services has never been greater. 

“It’s huge,” she said. “It’s bigger than you think.” 

In large part, that is due to the ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the economy in ways society never predicted. One result is that despite several massive federal relief packages, the loss of jobs and careers continues to impact local residents, many of whom previously never sought assistance of any kind. That’s where the pantry can step in and provide some respite. 

“My fellow food pantries, I heard from one friend in Northeast (Portland), they went from serving 100 families to 1,000 families,” Smith said. “We actually went down, but that’s because Packed with Pride (run by the Foundation for Tigard-Tualatin Schools) opened and they were serving around 800 families, which is more than we have ever served because we were at 500. They were at all these pop-up sites in Tualatin giving out these Farm-to-Family boxes, so they really helped cover a lot of that increased need.” 

The individual food pantries weren’t affected as much as you would think, she added. But that can be misleading.

“It would give you a false sense of how there wasn’t an increase in need,” she said. “But if you have five pop-up sites and a brand new food pantry, that’s a lot of new need. Those boxes stopped in June, so now the food banks are starting to see the clients shifting. We are seeing a whole slew of new clients who got that unique pop-up pandemic help. So, there won’t be a day that goes by without new clients walking in here.” 

On occasion, the group’s 125 regular volunteers are augmented by a steady stream of temporary volunteers who arrive at the pantry for a day or two as part of what Smith calls “field trips.” On this day, a large group from Lam Technology’s Tualatin plant arrives and many of them appear a little lost. That’s where Smith and other regulars step in to offer guidance and find them appropriate work. 

“We both work for Lam Research and they put out a request for volunteers last week and we both signed up,” said Ty Huard, who along with fellow Lam employee Helen Peynado, filled boxes of deserts bound for special holiday kits given out for Thanksgiving along with the regular food boxes. 

Up to 12 regular volunteers staff the pantry on any given day, and it’s not uncommon to find whole families pitching in to help. 

“It just comes down to how you want your society to function,” said Barbara Feist, who volunteers on a regular basis with her husband, Alan, and her daughter, Davina. “We all are so much better off when everyone is taken care of, we all benefit. And here at the food band, we give people a little extra help, and that might help keep them off the streets or keep them from being homeless. It might be enough to help to get them that next job, so that they can do that as well. I just went a year without work and we were lucky that we could afford that.” 

The Tualatin Food Pantry is fortunate to receive regular food donations from local supermarkets, food distribution centers and a plethora of regular food drives hosted by local businesses. They use cash donations to purchase perishable products like meats, cheese and eggs to add to the food boxes received by clients. These clients used to receive one box per month with enough food for seven to 10 days, Smith said, but that has been bumped up to two boxes a month during the pandemic, due to the increase in need. 

“Most of our clients only come four to five months of the year,” she said. “We’re finding that with most of them, when they have an unexpected expense, that brings them to the food bank. So, your car breaks down, I will help you that month. You turn on the heat and it costs too much, I will help you that month. Christmas, I will help you.” 

She also noted that the pantry’s home at Rolling Hills Church is advantageous because its association with the cluster of nonprofit groups that operate there. These include the Borland Free Clinic and its health care services, Northwest Children’s Outreach, which provides emergency clothing for kids 18 and under, as well as a dental van sponsored by Medical Teams International and Legacy Meridian Park Hospital. The church itself also hosts Hope’s Table, which offers showers, laundry services and cold weather shelter space for unhoused clients, which make up a small, but significant portion of the food pantry’s clientele. 

“It’s pretty cool when families come here, they can get so many services all in one spot,” Smith said. 

Volunteer Linda Brecke agreed and said she started offering her time at the food bank in March 2020, as the pandemic first began to impact Oregon residents. At that time, Smith was working to shift the space from an in-person shopping experience to a distribution center where people picked up pre-packed boxes outside. Within six months, Brecke was moved into a team lead position, supervising a shift of volunteers on Mondays and occasionally Fridays. 

“I just started showing up and helping out, and I found I just loved the people I worked with,” Brecke said. “They’re just amazing volunteers and they’re fun and hardworking, and you really feel like you’re accomplishing something helping people. And our clients do appreciate it, so it’s nice to do something that gives to the community, but I also get a lot out of it as well.” 

$3 million road improvement project is a highlight of Tualatin Moving Forward program

Hundreds of Tualatin residents turned out on Saturday, Nov. 20, to celebrate the long-awaited completion of the Garden Corner Curves road improvement project in the Ibach neighborhood. 

The $3 million project brought a new and improved roadway to the sharp S-curve that sees S.W. 105th Avenue transition to S.W. 108th Avenue just north of Ibach Street. In addition, the project added a paved pedestrian and bike path to the curves, along with a new culvert and fish passage over Hedges Creek, which passes under 105th just north of where the curves begin. 

This corridor is heavily used by local residents, with around 4,000 vehicle trips per day being the norm. Now, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to safely share the route with vehicles and will take advantage of a pair of rapid flashing beacons that mark protected crosswalks on either end of the curves. 

“It’s amazing that we all saw the pictures many years ago, and it looks just like the pictures,” Mayor Frank Bubenik said. “None of us could envision it. They would go ‘There’s no way we can do this,’ and they did it. So, it’s very impressive what’s been done here and we’re super proud of it.” 

The Garden Corner Curves is the single largest piece of the wider $20 million Tualatin Moving Forward bond measure approved by voters in 2018. To date, the bond has funded 15 completed projects, with a number of others still to come. But the Curves is almost certainly the most highly anticipated piece of the bond puzzle. 

“We heard for years from the people in this neighborhood that they wanted these curves fixed,” Bubenik said. “Work on this project started well before 2018. It took five years of planning and two years of construction to get to where we are today.” 

Bubenik also praised the work of former City Councilor Robert Kellogg, who was instrumental in seeing the project through to completion with his advocacy. 

“He never gave up, before he was on council, while he was on council, even after he was on council, he tirelessly advocated for this project,” Bubenik said.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the project, as well as its namesake, is the Garden Corner Nursery, located at the south end of the curves. 

“Before the opening, it was kind of scary, folks would try to get past all the traffic,” said Garden Corner owner Jonn Karsseboom. “Now, this is a relaxing beautiful walk, it goes all the way down.

Despite the pandemic, the Tualatin Ice Age Foundation has had a busy 2021. In March, Dr. Andrew Boehm, an archeologist with the University of Oregon, and colleagues determined that the well-known Mastodon skeleton on display at the Tualatin Library could be a member of the newly defined Pacific mastodon species. It is the first reported specimen in Oregon and the northernmost specimen on the Pacific Coast. Later in March, a group of Tualatin Ice Age Foundation Board members gathered in the Tualatin Fred Meyer parking lot to look at the possible site of a new excavation effort aimed at finding the remains of mastodon and other species that once roamed the area. And then, in May, a one-ton chunk of volcanic rhyolite was lifted into place at the Tualatin Heritage Center.

There is an increased public interest in identifying and learning about the current relationship to the Ice Ages, which still affects our lands today. Area collectors and public places now open to the public have simply run out of room to preserve and display our ancient history properly. The Tualatin Ice Age Foundation was created to finance and provide space for local collections and displays and learn about Tualatin’s ancient history and the surrounding areas over 10,000 years ago.

Planned features Include additional Oregon ancient animal bones collected by several local individual citizens and Oregon Universities and unique histories of the Native Americans who lived in the area at the time. But collectors are running out of room, too and want a secure future for their collections too. 

The Center will also be one-stop amongst several major interpretive centers to be built for the National Ice Age Floods Trail history.Further information and a current display of the Tualatin Mastodon can be viewed at the Tualatin Library or by contacting Ice Age Foundation Secretary Jerianne Thompson, Library Director, at jthompson@tualatin.gov or 503-691-3063.

Additional members of the Foundation are Dr. Scott Burns, President, former PSU Geology professor and internationally known ancient history expert engineer; Linda Moholt, Treasurer, and former CEO of the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce; Yvonne Addington, former Tualatin City Manager who first received the mastodon bones back from PSU; Rick and Sylvia Thompson, Ice Age Floods Institute, Lower Columbia River chapter; Mike Full, retired McMinnville policeman and current scuba diver and fossil collector; David Ellingson, Woodburn High School teacher who has led students in finding fossils in Woodburn area; and Paul Hennon, retired Tualatin Parks Director. Full and Ellingson also manage the Willamette Valley Pleistocene Projects website.

There is still time to make a 2021 tax-deductible donation to help finance an Ice Age Interpretive Center in Tualatin. To donate or learn more about how you can get involved, contact Tualatin Ice Age Foundation Treasurer Linda Moholt at lindamoholt@gmail.com.

Plambeck Gardens to be built off Boones Ferry Road in the Basalt Creek neighborhood

An affordable housing project planned for the Basalt Creek neighborhood received the go-ahead from the Tualatin Planning Commission last month, despite objections from neighbors concerned about traffic impacts and other issues. 

Commissioners voted unanimously at a Nov. 18 meeting to approve a variance to city building height restrictions and parking requirements to allow project applicants, the Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH), to move the planned four-story, 116-unit apartment project forward. The variance was needed, according to the applicants, because both excessive sloping and soft soils on the 4.66 acre rendered much of the plot unfit and shrunk the area upon which a structure could be placed. This, in turn, also reduced the area available for parking. 

“There is an excessive slope on the north side of the site,” said Melissa Soots, a project manager and associate with Carleton Hart Architecture, the designer of the project. “The northwest corner is 12-and-a-half feet lower than the northwest corner of the building, and that area also has unsuitable soils. There’s also an existing hill at the northeast corner of the site, and that corner also has unsuitable soils and would have to be fully excavated to provide a suitable foundation.” 

CPAH acquired the property, which sits just south of the Horizon Community Church, in March 2020 after gaining support from the City of Tualatin. The City then annexed the property earlier this year. 

“We are a little more than midway through our development arc to get to construction,” said CPAH Housing Director Jilian Saurage Felton. “We anticipate construction would begin in early 2023, we are not at a complete design set yet and we would not move forward without knowing the commission will approve our request.” 

The project has already been awarded $16 million from the 2018 Metro affordable housing bond fund, and Felton noted that it is also backed by “a large amount of private investment” from private lenders and low-income housing tax credits.

The project will consist of two four-story residential buildings and a single-story community building. Apartments will be a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units. 

Despite the ongoing need for affordable housing throughout the Portland metro area, there has been significant opposition to the project, primarily based around concerns over adding additional vehicle traffic to an already congested Boones Ferry Road. 

“You already have a huge bottleneck going into Tualatin High School, especially during school hours, and the traffic just super concerns me,” Tualatin resident John Miller said. “But if they already knew of the issues before they bought the land, it seems like a maximizing of profit.” 

Other residents testified that they are in favor of the project because of the overwhelming need for housing locally. 

“When I heard about this development, you could have heard me three blocks away from my ‘Yahoo!’” said Carole Grennough, a member of the board of directors for nonprofit group Family Promise of Tualatin Valley. 

Commissioners listened to public testimony for far longer than they debated the matter, moving to a vote just minutes after testimony concluded. From here, it will require an architectural review before any building permits can be issued. 

“If you got rid of your community center, if you could shoehorn everything in at three stories and make the site not super livable, it would defeat the purpose,” commission chair Bill Beers said. “It definitely aligns with Tualatin’s 2040 goals, which is something that is very important like (Commissioner) Ursula (Kuhn) and others have said. This is the last buildable land that is zoned this way in Tualatin.” 

Furniture has been a part of the human story since ancient times. As soon as our ancestors settled into communities, furniture creation began. A place to live was enhanced by items that provided eating, sleeping and gathering spaces.  Lately, the Tualatin Rotary Club has been involved in décor. Club members have donated funds to furnish the Makerspace at the Tualatin Library, the Day Shelter at Family Promise and The Shelter Box Relief Organization around the world.

The Tualatin library staff had been involved with STEAM education for several years. Last year, the City Council approved the building of a flexi-use multipurpose room in the library. It is a place where library patrons can create physical objects and digital media.  There are vinyl cutters, sewing machines, a tabletop kiln and computers in the room. This new library area will enhance technology education and opportunities for our residents.

Once the room was completed, furniture was needed. Ordinary tables and chairs would not be enough.  Specialized equipment required specialized furnishings. Tables needed to be a certain height and length. Chairs also required certain dimensions as well as the ability to be stacked and moveable. Rotary provided the funds to purchase the “just right” fixtures. Unique pegboard systems were needed to display and store the makerspace tools. The community and the Rotary Club rallied around this project and now library patrons have access to all it provides. The library likes to think that patrons can arrive with an idea and leave with a finished project. Open labs are on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Furniture can also provide comfort and hope. Families who are experiencing homelessness have a refuge in Tualatin. The Family Promise Day Center opened in 2019 to provide a place for families to gather during daytime hours. Furnishing the shelter required specific items. Couches and chairs for cozy gathering spaces. A large table for mealtimes. Workstations for trainings and job searches. Areas for resting and showering and doing laundry. Multipurpose tables, chairs and shelving were needed for the children’s area. And staff offices were equipped with appropriate technology and work-based furniture. The shelter opened in 2019 fully furnished through a donation from The Tualatin Rotary Club. Covid 19 has impacted the current operations of the shelter. To allow for safe health concerns, the shelter is now operating as a food distribution center and an office. Family Promise is still constantly assisting the families in their program and guiding them to a future that includes a “place of their own.” The shelter will be in full operation again once our public health is safe.

Disaster! Unfortunately, more and more citizens of this world lose everything due to storms, earthquakes and wartime displacement. Rotary International and our local club have joined with ShelterBox to provide rapid shelter in times of chaos. The assistance provided is tailored to the situation and needs of the people. The typical ShelterBox includes a tent and necessary survival items. ShelterBox works closely with local governments and aid organizations. Rotary has been working since 2012 to assist families after a natural disaster or political conflict. The emergency boxes have been delivered to Nepal, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, and the largest effort so far has been to house displaced people of Syria. Around the word, over 1,000 Rotarian volunteers are on the ground to assist delivery and operations. On the worst day possible, help arrives in the large green ShelterBox tub.

Furniture is truly a human necessity. It can delight, inspire, shelter and encourage. The Tualatin Rotary Club has recognized this and acted with funds to assist others. The next time you rest in a comfy chair; remember that there are organizations working to make certain that furniture is a part of all human experience.

Rotary invites anyone in our community to join our club and take part in our good work. If you would like “a seat at our table” visit tualatinrotary.org and we would love to welcome you.

It’s important to remember our history, particularly the parts that may be unpleasant. 

That is at least part of the motivation behind the Tualatin City Council’s move to draft and adopt a formal land acknowledgement that will recognize the region’s Indigenous people and their history of displacement by American settlers during the nineteenth century and beyond. A draft land acknowledgement statement being developed by Tualatin is aimed specifically at recognizing the way in which the Atfalati and Kalapuyan tribes were displaced during the latter part of the nineteenth century after Oregon formally gained statehood from the federal government. It’s a history that, until very recently, has largely been ignored by public schools and local and state government. But that’s beginning to change, thanks in part to an initiative spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture and inspired by similar movements in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries with similar histories of colonialism. 

“The discomfort of whites is not intended to be divisive, but an opportunity to recognize the feelings of Indigenous community members and hopefully inspire future actions,” Tualatin Parks and Recreation Committee member Beth Dittman said at the Nov. 5 city council meeting. 

The land acknowledgement currently under development is intended to be read aloud at public and community events and will generally be used to guide future City actions so that they are respectful of Indigenous history. It is the first step in recognizing how the land in the City of Tualatin was acquired, a process that included both ratified and unratified treaties between local tribes and the U.S. government. Included in these are the 1850 Oregon Land Donation Claim Act, unratified treaties of 1851 and 1854 and the Dawes Acts of 1887, which led to the forced removal of tribal members from their ancestral lands. 

Current members of both the Atfalati and Kalapuyan tribes are today represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz. Both played an important role in developing a draft land acknowledgement statement. Additional work will be carried out in the coming months to finalize the statement and lay out a process for continuing public education surrounding Indigenous history, Dittman said. 

“We’d like for this to be something you use citywide,” Dittman said. “We also recognize that might take some dialogue and discussion amongst you before there is a level of comfort around that.” 

Councilors expressed unanimous support for the effort. 

“I’m hearing that folks are very supportive of the effort and that we want to accept the work that has been done,” Mayor Frank Bubenik said. “It sounds like we want to hand this off to our ad hoc DEI committee, get more community input and then circle back with what their recommendations are and then eventually have a land use acknowledgement.” 

Draft Acknowledgement: 

As we gather in community, we welcome everyone here with open hearts and minds. We offer gratitude for the land and our opportunity to be here today. Let us pause to acknowledge our presence on the unceded homelands and waters of the Atfalati (“at-fall-uh-tee”) Kalapuyans (“cal-uh-poo-yuns”). Today, they are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz. It is our duty to acknowledge the generational impacts of settler colonialism, forced displacement, and assimilation on Native American families. We recognize these First Peoples, who coexisted in interdependent and sustainable relationships with the land: they are still here and connected to this place. We honor past, present, and future Indigenous members of the Tualatin community.

The Tualatin Historical Society has another feather to put in its collective hat.

The Columbia Land Trust and Audubon Society of Portland recently awarded the Tualatin organization a Backyard Habitat Silver Certification, designating the Heritage Center’s patio and garden area “worthy of visitors who would like to learn more about how to make their own home and public landscaping more eco-friendly,” said Larry McClure. “The team also said they will be promoting our garden for its handicapped accessibility.”

He added, “Criteria we met included
1) removal of certain invasive species, 2) a ‘naturescape’ (with) more than 5 percent in locally native plants in various height layers, 3) reduction in use of pesticides, and 4) consideration of wildlife needs like beneficial insects; and 5) stormwater management or water conservation.”

Than Kehmeier and Susie Peterson, two experts in those practices, toured the Tualatin Historical Society’s campus Oct. 21 on an official visit to renew an application submitted by Chris Tunstall.

“The native plants installed originally in two patio planters was an Eagle Scout project along with binders of plant guides mounted on pedestals,” McClure said. “Chris worked over the past two years to secure more plants from Bosky Dell Natives to fill in blank areas where annuals were formerly added each summer.”

According to McClure, the site assessors were impressed by the plant identification signs and two updated guidebooks for visitors coordinated by Tualatin Heritage Center Manager Cindy Frost.

“Also getting attention was weed-removal work regularly done by Karin Olson and Margie Torgeson over the past several years,” McClure said. “However, Karin has now retired from spearheading these tasks, so we are searching for her replacement.

“A number of recommendations were made for shrub and tree replacement – we lost a big one this fall! – and for insect-attractors like small bundles of sticks and piles of stones lying on the ground, and mason bee houses and small dishes of water for insects to drink. These later actions can help move our award level to gold and on to platinum.”

For more information, visit www.backyardhabitats.org to find resources and links providing more details about the program and implications for landscaping in the Portland region.

Tualatin Troop 530 has been Scouting Strong in Tualatin since 1952 when it was formally chartered with the Boy Scouts of America, in the Cascade Pacific Council, by the Tualatin Parent Teacher Association. It was the first Troop to serve this community. The meeting place was Tualatin Grange School on Boones Ferry Road. In 1952, the population of Tualatin was only about 200. The city itself consisted of a few stores and businesses serving the surrounding farms. The small population was spread out across the area. Today, 27,600 people make Tualatin their home, and only two remaining Scouts, BSA Troops and only one Cub Scout Pack at Byrom Elementary School that continue to serve the community. Troop 530 has benefited from the strong support of several charter organizations over the years. The first was the Tualatin Parent Teachers Association from 1952-57. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3452 sponsored the troop from 1958-1979, and the troop met for some years at the VFW Hall. Since 1980, the troop has been sponsored by the Tualatin Lions Club and continues to meet in person locally. 

Troop 530 was able to meet virtually throughout the past year and was able to attend summer camp at Camp Meriwether this past summer. Troop 530 has a strong commitment in providing the community with many service projects such as Flags for Veterans, Flag Retirements, Tree Recycling, Scouting for Food, Tualatin Easter Egg Hunt, City of Tualatin Arbor Day events such as Ivy pulls and litter sweeps, Veterans Day ceremonies, Assisted Living visits, Tualatin Crawfish Festival contests, and more.

Many of these projects benefited Tualatin High School, Byrom Elementary School, Tualatin Schoolhouse Food Pantry, Tualatin Presbyterian Church, World of Speed, First United Methodist Church, City of Durham, and the surrounding City of Tualatin’s local natural habitats, parks, waterways, and the Meridian Marker, Scoutmaster Lance Lewellan and previous Scoutmaster Norm Dannemiller have had a great group of Assistant Scoutmasters and adults supporting the youth in their leadership development. The Troop has awarded the rank of Eagle Scout to 67 youth over the years, along with the honor of having two scouts who were elected and served for a year with the Order of the Arrow Scouting’s Honor Society. They are Nick Dannemiller, past National Chief 2014, and Tyler Inberg, National Vice Chief 2016, Currently one Eagle Scout, Mason Lewallen, is serving as the Wauna La-Mon’tay Lodge’s Chief for the 2021-2022 year,

If your son or daughter is interested in joining the adventures that scouting has to offer, the Troop meets on Mondays, at the Tualatin Elks Lodge, 8350 SW Warm Springs St, Tualatin, at 7 pm. All meetings are held with COVID guidelines, and the troop has a lot of outdoor activities and service projects that are fun and provide leadership development along the way. Contact Scoutmaster Lance Lewallen at scoutmaster@troop530.org or call by phone: (503) 753-8922 or visit their website sites.google.com/site/tualatinorbsatroop530.

Scouts announce tree recycling dates

Tualatin BSA Troops 35 and 530 will be offering Christmas tree recycling on Saturday, Jan. 1 (New Years Day) and the following Saturday, Jan. 8. Suggested Donation is $12 for small trees and $17 for trees six feet or larger.

To participate, have your tree curbside by 9 am on either date. Please make all checks payable to Scouts BSA and place into an envelope and attach it to the tree. To prevent theft a scout will come knock on the door if NO envelope is attached to the tree. 

To prevent theft a scout will come knock on the door if no envelope is attached to tree. If donating through Venmo, please put an X in an envelope or piece of paper to let the scouts know at the time of pick up.

Thank you for supporting your Tualatin Scout Troops this holiday season! For more information or if any questions call or text 503-662-2239.