Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Lebanon community last week took another step toward completing a long-term plan for Cheadle Lake, located on the east side of Lebanon off Highway 20.
The plan includes an amphitheater, but an Oregon Jamboree official said he believes Lebanon’s plans are unlikely to offer competition to the Jamboree and its potential development of an amphitheater of its own.
On Dec. 7, Cameron, McCarthy, Gilbert and Scheibe Landscape Architects held a public meeting to begin developing a “Cheadle Lake Refinement Plan.” Lebanon Director of Public Works Jim Ruef provided an overview of Cheadle Lake’s history and the beginning of the effort to turn it into an events facility.
Cheadle Lake was purchased from a farmer in the 1940s by Cascade Plywood, which used it as a mill pond into the 1980s.
In 1996, the foundation and community started working a conceptual plan to convert the mill site into an events center and park, with a wide variety of uses. It became the site of Lebanon’s Strawberry Festival and Fourth of July celebration. The community also had ideas to build an amphitheater, ball fields and RV camping, among many others.
Last year, 93 acres of the lake and property were donated to Lebanon’s Community Foundation. Now the foundation has asked the city of Lebanon to take the property along with purchasing approximately 45 additional acres to develop the site.
The architects will hold another meeting in January and then present a plan to the Lebanon City Council before developing a final plan in March.
Cheadle Lake is targeted as a regional park. Among current ideas are a 75-acre RV park, ball fields, a pavilion for weddings and events, the amphitheater, overflow parking, boat rentals and restoration and preservation of natural habitat.
The amphitheater in concept for the past 10 years would probably have a capacity of 4,000 to 5,000, said foundation Executive Director Warren Beeson. It would provide a venue for concerts during the Strawberry Festival and other events, but nothing is set in stone. He said he didn’t envision it ever competing with something like the Jamboree.
“We’re kind of waiting to see how this process begins shaking out and see what they want to do,” Beeson said. “If we had $10 million, we’d be building tomorrow. It’ll be a huge asset to the community.”
But Lebanon doesn’t have that kind of cash and is looking at developing the park over the course of decades if necessary.
About 35 people attended the meeting and offered ideas for the plan.
The group also talked about coordinating with Albany in the availability of ball fields during tournaments.
At least three speakers said that they believed Lebanon should put up a large amphitheater, one saying the “amphitheater is a real opportunity for Lebanon,” a tourist attraction and something like Monteith Park in Albany.
In particular, one speaker pointed out that the Oregon Jamboree was looking at building its own amphitheater in Sweet Home. The Jamboree has a maximum capacity of about 10,000 on the Sweet Home High School grounds.
He said it would need at least a capacity of 15,000 to draw the artists necessary to keep the event going, and Lebanon should consider the same thing with an arena.
Others said they didn’t like the idea of a large amphitheater, or trying to compete with the Jamboree.
“I’ve never been one who’s been enamored of a large amphitheater – more of a community amphitheater,” said one resident.
Rob Poirier, a volunteer with the Oregon Jamboree and communications supervisor with Lebanon Police Department, asked, “Do we really want to try to compete with Sweet Home, what they might be doing in the future? It’s a consideration.”
One woman who spoke in favor of a large amphitheater said she withdrew her suggestion.
“I don’t want to be like the Jamboree,” she said. “I like the idea of keeping things (amphitheater and other features) in some sort of modesty to preserve the wildlife experience.”
An amphitheater, particularly a large one, would not really be competition to the Jamboree, Event Manager Peter LaPonte said. “I don’t think a venue (like that) is going to affect us at all.”
The Jamboree is a three-day country music and camping festival held annually around the first weekend of August. More than 500 volunteers put on the event, which has earned more than $200,000 per year in recent years. The proceeds are used for local economic development projects by Jamboree owner Sweet Home Economic Development Group.
If a well-financed group with deep pockets wanted to come in and steal the Jamboree concept, the Jamboree might have trouble, LaPonte said. “If we had our own venue, we’d want to do something more with it.”
If the Jamboree had its own venue, an amphitheater, the first thing it would do would be to focus on transitioning the Jamboree to the new site and maintaining the quality of the Jamboree for its patrons, he said.
Until the event was strong in customer satisfaction at the new site, the Jamboree would be unlikely to run any additional events, he said. The earliest the Jamboree might have a new site would be 2008 and more realistically in 2009. It would not be until 2010 that the Jamboree might work on bringing other clientele to another kind of event.
“No one is in a position to compete with us in entertainment,” LaPonte said, and the venue the Jamboree might develop would be unlike Monteith Park and what Lebanon is trying to do at Cheadle Lake.
The Jamboree would probably build a site that can handle 20,000 people, he said. It may not have a hard stage at first or other features in order to keep its debt load low, but it will be a different type of amphitheater.