By Kim Parmon, December 23, 2019
By Kim Parmon, December 23, 2019
I truly love my home. I am waking up every day in my dream house and that’s an amazing feeling. Sure, it needs plenty of work but the bones of my house are gorgeous! When I look around the space I very clearly see what it’s going to be someday when I’m done with it, and that is truly exciting.
I love my neighborhood too, but there’s not much to do here. My neighborhood is a bit “unmoored,” if you will. There’s no central hub where people gather, and that’s the main negative. So when I learned that the old Concord Elementary Building was being considered for a government project, I was intrigued. I’ve always admired the beautiful brick facade and wondered what was going to happen to it. I heard through the grapevine that Clackamas County had a plan for it and wanted community members to apply for a task force for this project. My curiosity piqued, I found the application online and submitted myself.
A couple of interviews, several months, and a task force vote later, I was in! This means that I get to participate in a body that is helping to shape a huge project for my community. How cool is that?! What’s on the table is creating a library, community center, and park on this six acre property. The purpose of the task force is to get community input on what we’d like to see in this space.
At my first meeting I heard the other members of the team advocate for a community garden, cooking classes, and walking trails. I heard proposals for brining in authors and artists to the new library give talks. There was debate about what would make a park both fun and beautiful. I sat there, listening to all of it, smiling to myself.
I was in a room full of people who all want to improve my neighborhood. They are spending their time dreaming up things that would make their neighbors happy and trying to distill those ideas down to practical, tangible proposals. I don’t know what’s the final project is going to look like but I see the possibilities. In the next few years my neighborhood is going to get that central hub it needs so badly! I feel incredibly lucky to be able to serve my community and make it better.
Do you live in North Clackamas and have ideas for this project? Reach out! I’d love to hear from you.