Celebrate the July 4 holiday with a bike parade and other old fashioned family fun and festivities in The Village at sunriver
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Nature Center.............. 10 SROA News.................. 26 Calendar...................... 13 Public Safety................ 34 Women’s Club.............. 21 Commentary................ 45 Classified..................... 48
The ballot to choose new members to fill seats on the SROA Board of Directors is coming in July. Read about the candidates.
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S U N R I V E R
S C E N E A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE SUNRIVER OWNERS ASSOCIATION
July • 2012
volume xxxVIII • Number 7
SROA awarded for putting asbestos contaminated area to good use By Susan Berger Turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse is no easy task, but has been accomplished by the Sunriver Owners Association (SROA) with the opening of the Sunriver Homeowners Aquatic & Recreation Center (SHARC). Located in the heart of the residential and resort community, the $18 million dollar project has been named recipient of a 2012 Oregon Brownfields Award. The award was presented June 13 during the annual Oregon Brownfields Conference in Portland. Other 2012 Oregon Brownfields Award winners include the June Key Delta Community Center, the Tabor Commons project and remediation and future development of a 30-acre Willamette River waterfront parcel owned by ZRZ Realty Company — all located in the Portland area. The term “brownfields” refers to: “real property where the expansion, redevelopment or reuse is hindered by the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.” More than 5.5 acres of the 22-acre site where the aquatic and recreation facility now sits was riddled with asbestos-containing material (ACM) — remnants of the Army Corps of Engineers Camp Abbot military training facility that occupied Sunriver between 1942-1944. The camp was demolished in 1945. Asbestos was first discovered in 2002, and required annual cleanup as material reached the surface from freeze/thaw cycles over the winter. Over an 8-year period, the cleanups yielded approximately 1,500 pounds of ACM. Under the direction of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, asbestos remediation was integrated into the SHARC construction project as a permanent solution to eliminating potential health risks to owners, visitors and the environment. SUNRIVER SCENE SUNRIVER OWNERS ASSN. VOLUME XXXVIII • NUMBER 7 P.O. BOX 3278 SUNRIVER, OR 97707
Nature center and observatory turn over a new leaf
From left, Hugh Palcic, Bill Peck and John Salzer were present to accept award honors during the Oregon Brownfields Conference in Portland.
The remediation portion of the SHARC project to “cap” the asbestoscontaminated areas cost $353,000. The asbestos capping included up to 2 feet of topsoil, 8-10 inches of baserock and a topping of concrete or asphalt. “SROA was able to effectively encapsulate the asbestos, turning the liability of a vacant tract of asbestoscontaminated land into a safe and en-
vironmentally sound public recreation area,” stated Tony DeBone, Deschutes County Commissioner in a letter of support for the award nomination. “The project had a significant economic benefit to the region, employing more than 175 workers per day during the height of construction. In all, 19 area Turn to Award, page 3
by Brooke Snavely Approximately 10,000 people, just one percent of the estimated one million people who visit Sunriver every year, find their way to the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory (SNCO). “People just don’t know about us,” said Rick Braithwaite, SNCO marketing committee member. This summer the organization is working to improve attendance with new branding, signage and marketing campaigns tailored to the nature center and the observatory. Both facilities are offering and planning new programming and new outreach designed to increase awareness of this “unappreciated gem we have here,” said Harry Hamilton, SNCO board president. Changes at the observatory The observatory has been renamed and is now known as the Oregon Observatory at Sunriver. It claims to be the largest public access astronomical Turn to Leaf, page 3
Former Sunriver Sports bike shop manager dies during Bend race By Dylan J. Darling Courtesy of The Bulletin When Billy Tufts died June 10, he was running a race with the woman he loved and planned to marry. The Bend man was about seven miles through the Dirty Half, a halfmarathon on Phil’s Trail in the woods west of Bend, when he collapsed and lost consciousness. “It was very shocking and out of the blue,” said his fiancée Staci Carsten. “His heart just stopped.” What caused the 40-year-old Tufts to die is a lingering question, Carsten said Tufts’ family hopes will be answered by a private autopsy in Portland. There was no evidence of foul play. Turn to Race, page 4
Photos courtesy Peter Frick-Wright
Billy Tufts, 40, died unexpectedly during the Dirty Half half-marathon in Bend June 10. An avid cyclist, Tufts was the former bike shop manager at Sunriver Sports.
PRSRT STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID BEND, OR PERMIT NO. 213