Parks Advisory Board - April 21, 2026

Agenda

1. 6:00 Call Regular Meeting to Order Introduction of new Parks staff 
2. 6:05 Meeting Minutes Review/Approval of the March 17, 2026 PAB Minutes 
3. 6:10 Citizen Input & Correspondence 
4. 6:15 Stone Creek Update – Mike Turley 
5. 6:25 Park System User Data – Tom Riggs 
6. 6:40 Park System Plan Update – Tom/Ellen/Justin/Rob 
7. 6:55 Administrative Updates – Tom Riggs 
8. 7:10 Park Updates – Mark Shaw 
9. 7:20 Good of the Order 
10. 7:30 Adjournment 

Next Regular Scheduled Meeting: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 
In person at Carver Park, 14888 S Springwater Rd, Oregon City, OR 97045 

Minutes

Members Present at DSB 118: Mike Ferrell, Louise Lopes, Brian Echerer, Tom Hester, Rob Smoot

Members Present Via Zoom: Justin Ostrander, Sarah Furber, Steve Glazer

Members Not Present: Don Morgan, Chad Parker, Angela Pederson, Cary Watters

Staff Present at DSB 118: Tom Riggs, Barb Guthrie, Mark Shaw, Jennifer Salotti

Guest: Mark Turley

1. Call To Order
   Justin called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm
   1. Introduction of Jennifer Salotti, new Parks staff member
2. Meeting Minutes
   Justin called for the approval of the March 17, 2026, meeting minutes. One correction was noted, Angela was not present at the March 17 meeting; Mike called for the motion to approve minutes with correction, Steve 2nd the motion.  Minutes were approved. 
3. Stone Creek Update – Mike Turley
   Mike was introduced to the new PAB members; Mike is the General Manager for Stone Creek Golf Club and has been in that position for 21 years. 
   • The club has had a great start to the year, just from January to March we are up 13% in rounds from last year and 18% up in revenue. The good weather does contribute to that.
   • We acquired a new cart fleet in December; the customers have spoken positively about them.
   • All lights at the club have been converted to LED.
   • We are gearing up for the summer season, and have started the seasonal hiring, with most if not all of the summer staff back. Many who are college students and they return each summer. We have 12 FTEs and between 20 to 25 part-time staff.
   • Tournament deposits for people who host their charity events at Stone Creek are now coming in, and we are gearing up for those events that will take place over the summer.
   • Maintenance crew has finished all of their winter projects and now it is a matter of maintaining the golf course.
   • Tom H asked if the expenses are up by 18% to match the revenue. Expenses are not as high as 18%, however labor is up from last year.
   • Justin asked about big projects that are coming up; we did have some breaks in the irrigation project that’s coming up, but we caught them early for limited impact.
4. Park System User Update
   We have a website that shows our traffic data from magnetic car counters at our park locations. They are not entirely flawless but do give us a reasonable count for each location. PAB was shown the numbers for 2025. It shows that July and August are when we hit our highest use. It counts every vehicle that goes in the park, campers, day use user, sheriff passing through on patrol. This is where we pull our data for the level of visitation we have. Then we multiply each car by three for an average of 3 people per car.  At Boring Station Trailhead Park, we actually count people because it’s trail counter instead of a car counter. Overall summary; Carver is the most visited park, with the top 5 being Carver, Barton, Stone Creek, Metzler and Eagle Fern, with an overall visitor total for all our properties of 1.4 million visitors per year. We also have a Library pass program that residents can check out a parking pass from a Clackamas County Library to visit one of our parks. To date people have used our Cultural Pass 2,718 times since 2023.
5. Park System Plan Update-Tom
   We have had several productive focus group meetings; the first one was with county park staff, county staff from other departments, business partners, i.e. tourism and economic development.  Consultants have had other focus group meetings; from youth,  low-income and disabilities communities, as well as limited English proficiency and BIPOC communities. We gathered good information, and we are awaiting the report from that information. A week ago, Mark and Tom went out to the parks with the consultants, shared insights into the system and the operations out in the field. Justin asked when or how the information and feedback will be shared and will that be with whom. The feedback will be shared with the Technical Advisory Committee and the Public Advisory Committee to vet what people are saying about Parks. Then to start framing out options. The public survey is now out and will be able to gather additional feedback. Tom will have the survey link sent out to the PAB.

6. Administrative Updates-Tom Riggs
   Tom shared some reorganization changes with the rangers staff. In the past, parks had two Park Ranger Coordinators, one North and one South, and each of them had a Park Ranger that worked with them. With the north coordinator position now vacant, not being able to replace that position or some version of that due to budget limitations, we will just have one coordinator and two rangers.  That translates into a situation of having fewer boots on the ground for the coming season.  There are more opportunities for grant money related to physical projects and capital improvements to park infrastructure, but finding funding for park operations is very difficult.

   The federal deadline for ADA website compliance has been pushed back a full year, but Clackamas County is well on the way to being compliant anyway. 

   We’ve updated our program for Disabled Veterans in alignment with Oregon State Parks changes to the Special Access program.  The State of Oregon has changed their discount from 10 free nights per month to 4, and we are continuing to follow their lead. However, we have a stay limit per season of 28 days, so this may not affect our overall total of Disabled Veteran camping nights. 

   We are now officially beginning the process for updating County Advisory Boards and Commissions (ABCs) bylaws, so will be able to start work on the Parks Advisory Board bylaws.

7. Park Updates- Mark Shaw
   • Boring Station Stage. 
     • Foundation and sidewalk in-Work done by the Northwest College of Construction
     • Masons to begin work on pillars in May
     • Potential for mitigation dollars to fund additional projects at Boring Station – interpretive signs, entry arch, native plantings, amphitheater kit. More to come.
   • Boones Ferry Marina Maintenance 
     • Marinas take a lot of work; one common task is removing woody debris that floats downriver and gets pushed up against the docks. 
     • Our contracted vendor removes buildup with a jet boat, underwater chainsaws, and scuba gear. 
     • A recent cleaning took our vendor 1.5 days to complete due to the amount of logs
   • Project Updates
     • Interactive Park Maps for Public and Staff - from a single page, public can pan to each park property and zoom in to see amenities. 
     • Barton Metro Project Update and Roadmap- Pre-Application Meeting with Engineers, Planners and Land Use scheduled for 5-12; will vet plan to ensure proper zoning, discuss layout, traffic impacts, etc. 
     • Seasonal Hiring Update; all vacant positions filled/in process – 10 returning, 11 new
     • We have been awarded $150K from Sustainability and Solid Waste to purchase 2 trash compactors. One will go to Metzler, one to Barton’s West Campground
8. Good of the Order
   • PAB member Brian shared with the group the 2025 trash report with the PAB- it showed the locations of the metal detecting outings of the Oregon Treasure Trail Society.  Brian will give a dem of metal detecting at the Carver Park PAB meeting in May. 
   • Tom Hester mentioned the possible use of AI to help with Parks Social Media outreach
   • Cary did attend the Stone Creek Management review of applications. Tom also serves on that review committee, they had preliminary discussions, several bids were submitted.
9. Adjournment:
   Justin called for adjournment at 7:34 pm
   Mike called for the motion to adjourn, Tom H. second.