Steve Bates, chairman of the Boring Community Planning Organization, has long held that Boring needs a community center. It was one of his campaign promises that, if elected, he would try to get one established.

Now that the primary campaign has passed and the CPO can focus on other types of business, Bates is bringing his idea to the fore.

“I have been researching since I was elected last September,” he said, “and I came up with a plan. No one I have spoken to has said they’re against the plan. Some have called it an aggressive plan.”

In preliminary work, Bates spoke to several people to see how much support he would get for the idea, and he is now ready to bring it to the community and ask for its views.

While the topic will be on the agenda of the Aug. 7 CPO meeting, Bates already has some support.

He has four people who are willing to be among the minimum five required incorporators, and he has donations of $2,000 as seed money to begin the process of forming a nonprofit corporation.

But to date he hasn’t asked for the community’s support. That will happen at the Aug. 7 meeting.

Bates is thinking the majority of CPO members also will realize what he sees near his home.

“I use my neighborhood as a perfect example,” he said. “Fifty percent of us are retired, and another 30 percent will be of retirement age within five to eight years.”

Bates’ vision for services for the elderly and retired residents of Boring is to provide a full-service senior center that could serve all residents in various ways.

However, he does not see any existing building that would house that type of service. He believes it requires purchasing land and erecting a new building. He also wants to establish a nonprofit foundation to own the land and the building and ensure it is maintained.

Bates is realistic enough to know his ideas might have to be revised during the planning process — assuming he gets support from CPO members.

“I want it to be a full-service senior center,” he said, “but my vision may be modified based upon the reality of funding.”

Among other advantages of having a community center is the idea that Bates describes as “bringing the community together to raise funds and build the center.”

His hopes include the proposed center becoming the “core of the community.”

“(With the center) we would have a focal point,” he said. “We could have community events once or twice a month — just opportunities to get people together.”

Bates also laments what he calls “losing the sons of the pioneers.” He is referring to the community’s loss of its elders without recording some of the history that is resident only in their minds.

The new center also could provide opportunities for these people to talk about their memories and for some to be recorded and preserved.

Bates emphasized this effort is not an attempt to form any type of Boring government — simply a way of offering more services to the aging population.

The meeting will include reports from CPO committees, land-use issues, nominations for several offices and a presentation by Metro Councilor Shirley Craddick. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7, in the Boring Fire Department, off Highway 212 in downtown Boring. For more information, call Bates at 503-663-6271.