Move over, CPO 14: the Gales Creek, Roy and Verboort-area Community Participation Organization (enumerated as CPO 13) is also in the process of launching, just weeks after CPO 14 officially launched.
“Washington County Community Participation Organizations (CPOs) are community-led organizations made up of neighbors who work together to improve their communities,” the county said on a webpage for the program.
Wednesday, May 22 from 6 to 7 p.m., an early step in launching, a short meeting to nominate officers, will be taking place at the Banks Public Library.
This newspaper will have more as the development of the group ramps up.
Find out which CPO you live in by putting your address into the tool below.
Disclosure: this journalist was involved in starting the previous iteration of CPO 13 before starting this newspaper, but is not involved in this version other than in the capacity of reporting on the events of the CPO program.
The Banks Public Library is located in Banks at 42461 NW Market Street. Contact library staff by phone at 503-324-1382, by email at [email protected] or find out more online at cityofbanks.org/library.
CPO 14 elects officers
Washington County Community Participation Organization 14 elected officers May 9, taking the final formative step in relaunching the organization in the Banks region.
More than a dozen community members met in the Jane Moore Community Room at the Banks Public Library, with visitors from neighboring CPO 13 which is also in the process of launching, in attendance.
The county is split into many CPOs, with Banks, Timber, Manning, and Buxton placed together in one CPO, CPO 14.
After opening the meeting, the first order of business was to approve a slate of candidates for several officer positions within the organization.
With none in opposition, the group became a formal entity with the election of the following, who had previously been nominated at an initial meeting the group held:
Ayla Hofler for Chair, Marsha Kirk for Vice Chair, Bergh Bechen for Secretary, Brian Matthews for Subcommitee Position 1, and Elaine Goldman for Subcommittee Position 2.
“We’re real beagles,” quipped new Chair Ayla Hofler.
Diving into the meat of the meeting, first up was a presentation from Banks School District Board member Will Moore, who began giving an overview of the school bond on the May 21 ballot.
The discussion quickly became a back and forth largely between Moore and newly elected secretary Bergh Bechen, who had several questions regarding the structure of the bond, the facilities, and the nature and history of funding in the Banks School District.
Following that, the meeting moved on to a presentation by Bruce Bartlett, who serves as chair of the Committee for Community Involvement Steering Committee, a CPO-adjacent county group, who gave an overview of the CPO program and how it operates and the past and present of the program.
Bartlett answered a number of logistical questions about the program, offering clarification regarding the limitations and structure of the program and taking questions from the audience and the new officers.
An agenda item to discuss amending the CPO 14 bylaws, a set of rules left over from the last iteration of the group years ago, was shortened due to the meeting’s first topics extending longer than anticipated, while a discussion regarding land use in Banks was also skipped. Both were postponed to the next meeting.
Moving forward, the group plans to meet the second Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. in the Jane Moore Community Room
The next meeting is scheduled for June 13.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
