Oregon: Assistance pledged to nursing home for Boomfest event

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The administrator of the Orchard Villa nursing home on Munding Drive went before Oregon City Council Monday and vented his frustration with the administration over its response to his request for assistance to prepare for the Bomfest’24 event.
Craig Sunday said he’d met that morning with Mark Mullins, assistant fire chief, and was informed that much of the assistance he’d requested “wasn’t going to happen.”
Orchard Villa and two other nursing/assisted living facilities, Charles Crest, on Dustin Road, and Arbors at Oregon, Isaac Streets Drive, are near the Boomfest site on the back lot of the Dunn Chevy dealership.
Sunday informed council he’d requested assistance with transportation, hydration fluids, and “some kind of tent.”
Rather than hunker down during the event, which includes bands and a fireworks display, Sunday said he wanted facility residents to have a safe place outside to observe the event if they chose to do so. He acknowledged such an arrangement would increase staffing costs.
He estimated a 23-bed dementia unit, home to seven veterans, is about 400-500 feet from the event site.
Sunday said he and his staff we’re trying to find ways to make the event enjoyable for the residents. “They’re going to live in it,” he said, with Orchard Villa’s close proximity to the event.
Mayor Mike Seferian responded to Sunday’s comments, telling members of council he talked with Sunday prior to council’s meeting and assured him the city would provide the assistance he requested.
He said a tent has been reserved and it will be stocked with fluids. Assistance with the cost of transportation and staffing will also be provided.
“We made a financial commitment and I believe we’ll have that all worked out,” he said.
On Wednesday, the mayor said there was a “miscommunication” between Mr. Sunday and the fire department, which didn’t want the responsibility for transporting nursing home residents with dementia.
Sunday said he was taking a “wait and see” posture on the city’s pledge.
“We really won’t know until after the Boomfest on how things went,” he said Thursday
Lynn Gibbs, a city resident, chastised the mayor for not seeking input from the administrations of the nursing facilities when he was considering the alternative site for the Boomfest event.
“Probably none of this would have happened if you’d gone to them first. When we do this stuff as a city, we have to look at the most vulnerable people in our city and take care of them.”
Others have questioned holding Boomfest in an area where nursing homes are located and the impact the noise could have on the residents – particularly those with dementia. The fest is scheduled to run from 2 p.m. to midnight.
In the past, the annual fest has been held in Oak Shade Grove, Seaman Road, but that site was already reserved this year when the mayor had lined up a date for a headlining musical act.
Steve Salander, a member of council, suggested a committee be formed to assist the mayor in planning next year’s Boomfest.