College bond to fuel success, changes

Clackamas measure bankrolls projects to upgrade, expand

Chemistry instructor Nick Hamel has got a stockpile of ideas just waiting for the money to make them happen.

Theres nothing I would say is really high-tech in here, says Hamel, opening the door to his 1982 chemistry lab in the

Pauling Center at Clackamas Community Colleges Oregon City campus.

The chemistry instructor, who started at the college in 1999, has dealt with out-of-date and unsafe equipment for years. The hoods where six people are forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as they conduct experiments on Bunsen burners; the eye-level shelf that does nothing but get in the way of his students learning; and the emergency shower with no drain sitting in the corner next to the refrigerator these are just some of things he would like to see gone.

Its not updating for the sake of updating, Hamel says of the colleges $90 million bond request to taxpayers this Nov. 4. Ballots arriving to Clackamas County residents excluding those outside the colleges special district in the Lake Oswego, Boring, Damascus and Sandy school districts will list it as Measure 3-447.

Hamel just might get his chance this go-around. After voters defeated a more ambitious 2011 bond request, CCC officials spent two years in a information-gathering project called Imagine Clackamas. More than 1,500 people in the CCC community responded to an online survey; 750 high school students and others participated in face-to-face surveys and more than 100 business professionals took part in focus groups.

The resounding message the CCC board heard?

Keep it cheap, says Gregory Chaimov, a Milwaukie attorney and board chairman.

They listened. This years bond request keeps the tax rate at its current 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or about $38 a year for the average household.

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College bond to fuel success, changes