Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2010)
2 the clackamas print Wednesday, April 21; 2010 Pay more, ride less Scholarship deadline closes in on applican Time is almost up for free college funding! The Clackamas Community College Foundation scholarship application deadline is April 30. Applications are available in the Roger Rook building and online. A list of Foundation scholarships is available on the CCC Web site. Some scholarships require more than just the basic personal statement essay and two letters of recommendation. Essay requirements and applica tion tips are posted on the CCC Web site. Scholarship Coordinator Darcie Iven is available in the Roger Rook building to advise students seek ing information. There are scholarships available for all kinds of students; a high grade point average is not always necessary for quali fication, according to I More than $600 worth of scholarship m is available to student! Several scholarship] available to students si ing industrial sciences] as welding and -autoni technology. Letters of reconw dation and a perl statement essay are t included with the sei ship application. Ifstil bring an outline of| essay to the Writing Ci the instructors there] help students finalize! drafts. Students can bringl cations to the office I Roger Rook building they can mail them ini Foundation scholfl apllications will nA accepted again until] through April 30 on year. -Jaime Dunkle Brad Heineke Clackamas Print TriMet passengers board bus 32 in downtown Oregon City. Route 32 may undergo significant schedule changes such as a plan to start the routes over 40 minutes later and less frequent. By John Hurlburt Co-Editor in Chief Exactly one year and one week ago today, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood lauded Portland’s public transportation sys tem as one of the nations’ best, call ing it a model for the nation. Since last year, however, TriMet has seen a decline in both ridership and revenue. Now, instead of being able to build on the city’s reputation for being what LaHood referred to as, “die transportation capital of America,” TriMet is increasing fare prices again as well as reducing service. Among the 17 possible lines up for reduction are the 32 and 33 buses which run to Clackamas Community College. In order to gather public sentiment towards the forecasted reductions, TriMet held a series of three open forums con cerning the cuts and will continue to accept comments from the general public until Friday of this week. On April 6, one of these meet ings was held at the college, letting those in the community with opin ions, and knowledge of the event, come forth with how they think the changes will affect users. Standing in the back of McLoughlin Auditorium as a stan dard procedure, two security guards watched over the meeting, which ended up being peaceful, with many speaking carrying the somber tone of unwanted understanding. Hany Wise, a self-proclaimed veteran TriMet uset, was one of the few citizens who came out in order to speak his opinion and carry the message of those who couldn’t make it out. staff the clackamas print He expressed that many people with whom he had spoken to need ed the continuous unaltered services of the 32 bus and in fact many had requested increases. “I’ve taken off half a day to be here, it’s so important,” Wise said to a room filled mostly with TriMet personnel. The current plan would cause the 32 to come to Clackamas at 7:01 a.m. instead of 6:19 when it currently arrives. It would also cause the frequency of bus arrivals to decrease from coming every 20 minutes to every 30 between 4 and 5 p.m. Changes to foe 33 bus route would mean that foe bus would start its first trip from foe college at 4:30 a.m. instead of its current departure time of 4:20 The bus will also run every 17 minutes instead of every 15 minutes from 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 5 p.m. Between 6 to 8 p.m., it will reduce service from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes. On weekends, the bus will reduce services from every 17 minutes to every 20. Jason Barbour, a student from Portland Community College, came to foe meeting with hopes to change TriMet officials’ minds and to get them to seek out alternative forms of gaining revenue. He was espe cially concerned that bus routes to both CCC and PCC were being reduced. “We should really look for those dollars and cents elsewhere,” Barbour said. “It’s really necessary that we keep 15 minute services running to community colleges on weekdays.” According to Fred Hansen, TriMet’s general manager, foe changes are only coming after Co-Editors in Chief: Ad Manager; SHUTTLE: Free ri Continued from SHUTTLE, Page 1 The route is expected to run for 10 weeks when it will then go through review to see if people are taking advantage of its direct route from the Town Center to CCC. After the 10 week trial run the county, col lege, and CTMA will determine whether to keep it or scrap it. Although a slow first week, Thursday’s shuttle driver, Kent Devault said, “This week it’s at least three times the ridership we had last week.” Devault, along with foe other drivers, carries a chart where he tallies the number of riders each day. Uncertain to how many riders the shuttle will have to carry in order to keep it as a permanent route, it’s hard to determine if it will meet its minimum amount. Riders of the free shuttle on the other hand have already started a peti tion to have the route continue through Friday. “One of our very first passen gers in the morning that catches the first shuttle, a 75-year-old lady that works at foe county office; she does a lot filing and clerk work. She told me in the morning it saves her an hour and in the afternoon it saves her an hour and a half saving her two and a half hours a day in ride time,” said Devault. Because the shuttle mainly goes from foe Town Center to Clackamas, saving money on public transportation seems limited to those who live near in the area but “time” may be a different matter. Steven Weldon Arts & Culture Editor: Web Editor: Annemarie Schulte Brian Steele News Editor: * Erik Andersen Associate News Editor: Sports Editor: Mark Foster Associate Sports Editor: Stephen Forbes, I dent at CCC and al the Towncenter Xpresfl explains that foe 10 to] ute ride from the shut« CTC to CCC saves hfl time because of the difl as appose to the loop fl would normally have« with the TriMet bufl also said, “From evefl I have heard that has! here said that it cut tifl anywhere from 45 ni| hours of their time.” I u Staff Writers/ Photographers Production Assistants Joshua Baird, Brian Baldwin, Michael Bonn, Hillary Cole, Copy Editor: Alexandria Coover, George Kayla Calloway Associate Copy Editor: Craig, James Duncan, Cody Ferdinand, Travis Hardin, Brad John Simmons Heineke, Neil Lundin, Javierh Design Editor: Montero, Robert Morrison, Ste Kelsey Schneider ven Riley, Mark Sunderland, Photo Editor: Kitty Suydam John Shufelt Kayla,Berge, John Hurlburt Meredith James Jaime Duhkle 19600 S. Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 503-594-6266 nearly every other option has been exhausted. “We look at service reductions as foe last place we want to go,” Hansen said. Last year TriMet had to fill in a $31 million budget gap, which they sealed with loose-sticking putty consisting of a hiring freeze, execu tive furloughs and staff reductions of 120 employees. This year a decrease in money made from payroll taxes, 55 percent of TriMet’s operating budget, and lower than expected ridership are all expected to cause a financial shortfall of $27 million. Raised fairs could possibly add foe money needed in order to main tain foe status quo but this time around the transportation company has chosen to increase fairs only minimally, increasing them by 5 cents. TriMet’s last fair increase took place in September 2008 after fuel prices caused foe company to increase ticket prices by a quarter. Carolyn Young, foe executive director of communications from TriMet, pointed out that a dramatic raise in fair would further foe bud get problems, considering foe com pany has already lost $8 million to not having enough people taking advantage of their service. According to Young, 84 percent of transit agencies across foe coun try have to either raise prices or reduce services. She also went on to admit that foe reductions wouldn’t help retain riders. “When you decrease quality, rid ership will go down,” Young said. In order to view all service changes and to voice opinions about foe future reductions to TriMet, visit Trimet.org. For me, it’s wj more convenient Deborah Bell I Student Another student fl Deborah Bell said, “Fol way more convenient.’] Bell, who shows grfl est in the convenient! pilot shuttle route, sal wasn’t for this, I’d fl four busses; cuts two] transportation.” For more informal schedules of run time] web site at www.crc-tifl Goals I Karlie Gilliam, Bethany The Clackamas I Jackson, Tyler Kern, aims to report thfl Tiffany Myers, Wesley in an honest, unfl nfl Northcutt, Tom Redick, professional Content published™ Corey Romick Print is not screeffl Journalism Adviser: subject to censors™ Melissa Jones E-mail comment] chiefed@clackamfl
