12
Columbia Gorge News
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
www.columbiagorgenews.com
SPORTS
ON TRACK
Maupin’s Deschutes River Athletic Complex
slowly, steadily becoming a reality
Joe Petshow
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
Take a good idea, add teenage
ingenuity, involve people who know
how to get things done, have pa-
tience through a pandemic, and the
result might be what’s happening
this summer in Maupin.
That’s where the Deschutes River
Athletic Complex, a modern track
and field / multi-purpose event
venue, is taking shape with renewed
vigor. Meantime, work also is start-
ing on construction and renovation
of the South Wasco County School
District facilities, made possible by
the November 2020 passage of a $4
million bond levy and subsequent
$4 million matching grant.
Jim Hull, SWC athletic director,
longtime coach and teacher, said,
“It is starting sometime in the
next week or so, along with our
$8 million bond, new gym, major
upgrades. It’s going to be crazy.”
Osprey nests and butterfly
gardens have been relocated. Sod
from the football field was removed
a few weeks ago — free to take by
community members who perhaps
needed some lawn patchwork
done. Fundraising continues for
the $1.6 million DRAC project but
“we have enough money to break
ground and get the foundation of
the track in by October,” facilitator
Michael Bergmann said.
Bergmann, who started a series
of businesses based in the Portland
area a few years ago after 30 years
at Nike, agreed last week to being
the spokesman on the project for
this article — recognizing this is the
peak of tourist season in Maupin.
He falls into the “knows how to get
things done” category.
“Someone described me once
as the guy who is good at putting
himself into situations and figur-
ing out how to get things done,”
said the president of his aptly
named company, IncubatorU, as
well as Portland Track. The latter
is the connection which landed
Bergmann his role with DRAC.
In August 2019, another go-getter,
Maupin outdoorsman Don Jacklin,
contacted Bergmann, asking if he
could come to town to talk about a
track and field facility the com-
munity wanted to build. Jacklin
had heard that Bergmann helped
accomplish track and field facility
upgrades in Portland — specifi-
cally one at Roosevelt High, which
inspired other positive, revitalizing
change in the north Portland (St.
John’s) neighborhood.
Jacklin, who founded All Star
Rafting guide service in Maupin
in the 1990s and is active in
the Maupin Area Chamber of
Commerce, invited Bergmann to
a meeting at South Wasco High
School. Bergmann was expecting
a one-on-one meeting, but when
he walked, “there were eight or
nine there and I was like, ‘Oh, they
kind of want to get this thing done’.”
When the group went outside to
view the site, Bergmann said he was
astounded with the Deschutes River
below and rolling hills as a back-
drop. “My first thought was that this
is more than just a track,” he said.
Just a track was all Holly Miles
wanted. The senior-to-be at South
Wasco High grew up running on
the pear-shaped cinder, grav-
el, hole-punctuated track that
awkwardly surrounds the Redsides’
football field. Her parents, Susie
and Rob Miles, owners of Imperial
River Company, challenged her to
be a part of a positive change, in-
stead of simply complaining about
the constant cinder in her running
shoes.
And she did, or they did, to
be more precise. The Miles have
been among a group of key local
catalysts in the progression of the
project. “Why can’t we just get a
real track” T-shirts sprouted up and
local fundraising began in earnest.
In the winter of 2019, track project
supporters started working with
the district bond committee to
develop a master plan for all district
facilities.
Then COVID-19 reared its ugly
head. Community-based, largely
volunteer projects are often a series
of start-and-stop affairs, inter-
spersed with setbacks and mile-
stones. Obviously, with a world-
wide pandemic turning things
upside down, DRAC lost some
traction, but the dream remained
alive. Small gains were made: The
local garden club got a new home
secured for its butterfly garden; an
osprey nest was removed from a
nearby power pole.
Shortly after the August meet-
ing two years ago, Bergmann
started doing his own connecting.
He dialed Ron White, a former
longtime employee of Hoffman
Construction (the contractor of the
recent Hayward Field redo), who
started Probity Builders in Portland.
The project management company
specializes in helping get construc-
tion projects off the ground.
“Ron and I kind of chipped away
at it,” Bergmann said. “We mapped
out the framework. We helped build
the plan and the vision, and we had
a fundraising event. Then COVID
hit and everything shut down.”
The project’s pulse kept go-
ing, but it was obvious that some
people’s ambitious completion
deadlines would not be met. “We
had a year that was really tough —
no events, no gathering. We pulled
back a bit,” Bergmann said.
Last summer, White, a retired
Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer,
and others used their contacts to
enlist the Oregon National Guard to
complete some necessary excava-
tion work, primarily on the north-
east corner of the site. About 40
National Guard members camped
on the football field and spent 11
days moving dirt and adding almost
5,000 cubic yards of fill and quarry
rock donated from Warnock Family
Ranch.
“That expanded the footprint (of
the project); provided a level sur-
face for the track,” Bergmann said
of the excavation and subsequent
engineering work. “And, luckily, we
got it done before the wildfires hit.”
Once that happened, the National
Guard was busy tending to fire-re-
lated concerns.
Last winter, the DRAC selection
committee chose Kirby Nagelhout
Construction Company as the con-
tractor for the facility. The choice
coincided with the school district
tabbing the Bend company to do
its renovation and construction
project, as well. Kirby Nagelhout
Construction also was the con-
tractor for Gorge renovation and/
or construction projects at Hood
Holly Miles, an incoming senior at South Wasco High School, has been working for the replacement of the non-regulation
cinder track at the high school. Construction of a new, state-of-the-art track — and more — is now underway.
“Myfirstthoughtwasthatthis
ismorethanjustatrack.”
Michael Bergmann
Portland Track
River’s May Street Elementary and
its two middle schools, and the
Sherman County Courthouse.
Plans call for the footprint of the
running track to be completed this
fall. Rob Miles, in his June monthly
DRAC update to the local school
board, said Phase 1 funding will
allow for pavement to be laid and
the hydroseeding of the infield. The
field will be prepared for Beynon
Sports, one of the subcontractors
at Hayward Field track, to pour the
track surface.
The funding has come from
many sources, many laid out in var-
ious places on the project’s website,
www.maupindrac.org. Susie Miles
worked behind the scenes on grant
writing, in addition to being front
and center on some of the project’s
online promotions.
Some of the larger contributions
include: A $250,000 Maybelle Clark
Macdonald Fund grant that has a
matching $250,000 component; a
Nike stock donation at a current
value of $266,000; and a Travel
Oregon grant of $200,000.
Bergmann said there is some
$600,000 left to raise, to build a new
grandstand and install lighting. “We
want to inspire someone to open
their wallet and help us get to the
finish line,” Bergmann said. “We’re
poised to go and have about $1
million committed; $1.6 (million)
will get us all the way, including the
stage, grandstand.
“I’d love to have Holly and her
friends get to have a track meet her
senior year (spring 2022).
Michael Bergman of Portland Track took an interest in the possibilities for a new
track in Maupin. Above, he explains how the new track will be positioned. He is
standing on a gravel extension to allow a regulation track, made with fill put in
place as part of a Oregon National Guard exercise. Below, Bergmann and Miles
teamed up to get support and funding to replace the red cinder track behind
them.
Mark B. Gibson photos
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