BORING, Ore. — The Mt. Hood Center in Boring is closed until further notice as Clackamas County posted a dangerous building notice on the front gates of the center, back on April 17. The county cited a lack of building permit on site of the equestrian and event center.
"It's been shut down for approximately a week,” said Aaron Shelley, who is the director of the center. "We just yesterday filed an appeal with the hearings officer so we can be heard before the state hearings officer and hopefully have the overturned soon."
Shelley first spoke with KGW after the dangerous notices were posted. In that previous interview, he describes this posting as a "smear campaign" by certain county officials.
"Because of the depth of the matter and because of how complicated it is, I think there is just some apathy that's taking place in those offices," said Shelley.
PREVIOUS REPORTING: Clackamas County closes event center over alleged code violations
According to Clackamas County, the center has a long history of violating various county codes. This includes hosting events with thousands at a time when the facility's max occupancy is 300. The county added that there's unpermitted construction on the site.
"We don't take these actions lightly. Issuing these notices is our last resort to any business, but we must to protect the public," said Clackamas County Attorney Jeffrey Munns in a press release.
"We want everyone to be safe at any facility they visit in the county, and our code enforcement team does a great job of working with owners of facilities who are out of compliance. In this instance, unfortunately, the owners of the Mt. Hood Center refused to follow county codes and state laws despite our repeated efforts to help them," Munns concluded.
Shelley, who is appealing the closure, feels otherwise.
"If it were up to me, we would schedule a meeting with the Clackamas County officials,” said Shelley. “We would sit down together this week and we would close the doors and we wouldn't come out until we had a resolution."
Clackamas County officials also pointed out two separate events that went against code violations, including a large rodeo where a bull was mistreated by rodeo workers on Dec. 31. On March 16, there was a concert well over capacity; video showed moments of chaos as people crowded the entrance, and county officials said it then turned violent.
Shelley said the center is reconsidering large events in the future as he says that “they are difficult to manage,” but for the time being, all weddings, birthdays and concerts have been canceled.