 |
Advocates look for more mental health funds
Newberg couple
embarks on a long bike ride -- across the U.S.
Mabel Rush refugees preparing for classes in a
new school
|
For want of a park |
Springbrook Estates residents gain
approval to use an adjacent field, but need clearing brush to create
a park |
By Heidi
Aubrey, Newberg Graphic intern
E-mail Heidi at haubrey@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Families living in Springbrook Estates, a manufactured housing park,
are looking for someone to help them clear a field so their children
will have a safe place to play.
“We want a safe, off-the-street area for our kids,” said Stacy Doby,
a resident who’s spearheading the effort.
Daniel Casey, the park’s owner, has agreed to let the residents use
the adjacent field, which he also owns, provided the residents make
any improvements themselves.
Approximately 60 children live in the community, which has 126
homes. The park does not have a play area, and, as a result, the
children have been playing in the streets. There is no public
recreation nearby.
“The park opened nine years ago and we’ve been here since the park
opened,” Doby said of her family, which consists of herself, her
husband and their 12-year-old son. “(A lot of us) moved in when our
kids were toddlers and infants and it wasn’t a big deal. But now
they’re older.
Part of the problem is the traffic in the park. “We’re at the
intersection of Wilsonville Road, Highway 219 and Springbrook Road,”
Doby explained. People use our neighborhood to cut through the
traffic. Within the last month and a half we’ve had two accidents
with kids on bikes. One child was (taken by Life Flight helicopter)
to the hospital.”
Doby said the field adjacent to the estates is vacant and appeared
to be a solution to the lack of a park.
“The field is ... the size of three football fields,” she said. “It
seems like a perfect solution to get permission from the owner to
let the children play there. I talked to the (on-site) managers
about it back in April, and they thought it was a good idea.”
Doby said the owner requested a formal proposal letter, which the
woman produced with signatures from neighbors and their children.
“After about three months, we got approval to use the field as long
as I personally signed a contract as a representative of the
neighborhood, which basically stated that the owner and the
management would not be responsible for the play area development
and they would not be responsible for liability issues,” she said.
Doby signed the contract July 28.
Doby said the owner isn’t likely to develop the field because both
it and the housing park are within the proposed route for the
Newberg-Dundee bypass.
However, in order to construct the play area the group is going to
need some help, help from people with large equipment.
“We’re looking for someone who has access to a bulldozer or
something like that who can spend a day and flatten it out,” she
said. “The stalks on the weeds and the brush are more than three
inches in diameter. Our mowers are not going to ... (cut through)
that.”
Doby began her efforts to get help clearing the field in mid-July.
She contacted a variety of organizations, including TV stations,
newspapers and community service agencies.
She said that if they couldn’t find someone to bulldoze the
field, another option would be starting a fund so they could hire
someone to clear the field.
Residents plan to donate their own play equipment to the park. The
field is already fenced, and the residents have been given
permission to install a gate between the field and the housing park.
“We’re not looking for a guardian angel to come down and
build an expensive play area,” she said. “The main thing we’re
looking for at this point is just clearing (the field) out and
flattening it out.”
|
|
From
Aug. 11,
2004, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
