"Spend a couple of hundred bucks to shoot a video, post it on the internet, call it good, and lay off whoever works on the tours."

Not only would it be cheaper, it would solve the problem of pumping yet more carbon into the atmosphere from emissions generated by that giant RV thing they are running up there. Also, it's hard to imagine that even $10 a head covers more than the cost of the gas.

The web site states that the "Tour scan accommodate one class per day.." Proof reading did not catch that this should have said "Tour SCAM"

And at the bottom of the make your reservation page it says, "pay my bill". How convenient.
How's about I pay for the water and Randy pays for the bus!?

Forget that. Use it for entertainment. Put a snowplow blade on the front, paint "BIKES SUCK" on the side, run it through downtown, and videotape the carnage. If you can tell the difference between the Portland feed and the climax to the remake of Dawn of the Dead, you've been in Portland for too long.

I think Big Pipe tours would be so much more interesting. Participants would come away flushed with excitement! They could end via an outflow pipe into the river. Optional crappie fishing! Water we waiting for?

The Admiral would do better at Disney with a more believable crowd that is into make pretend than he is doing here with people whom he can’t fool!

What I really love about that bus is:

1. It's manufactured not by a company known for buses, but by a company known for limousines. They don't build things cheap, they aren't transit buses designed to take abuse - they are luxury coaches.

2. When Portland decries how we must "buy local", "support local businesses", yada yada...I seem to recall we have a big company down on Swan Island that makes big trucks. I think their name is something like Freightliner. And Freightliner does make truck chassis for buses.

What does Portland do? Buys International? Where are International trucks made? I seem to recall that International bought a little company down in Coburg called Monaco RV, and shipped them out of state to Indiana...and why would Portland, so incessantly insistent on "buy local" support an out-of-state company over one right here smack in the middle of Portland?

Of course...the bus is a waste of money, but at least it could have proclaimed it as cost-effective and creating jobs here in Portland. It can't even do that with this damn out-of-state manufactured luxury motorcoach...it's SIMPLY a waste of money with ZERO economic benefit now or ever!

But if we got rid of it, how would we check on Randy's party house?

They had me until...

Participants must bring their own lunch.

Well! I never! Tours of local sanitation and water treatment facilities back East always include a catered meal! Or at least a buffet!

What ruffians you Westerners are...

Participants must bring their own lunch.

But tommy, participants will probably get a big dipper (rats, wait, that would be Randy)

The number of Bull Run tours has at least doubled in recent years. The main problem? With far more humans in the watershed, the risk of humans bringing infectious Cryptosporidium into the watershed increases. The finding of even a few crypto from humans could lead to revocation of a variance from Bull Run treatment. That would lead to a huge cost to ratepayers (hundreds of millions of dollars) to build a treatment plant, which could have been avoided. Candidates for Portland City Council who are interested in leading the Portland Water Bureau should review the history of this tour program and insist on substantially cutting it back- at the very least to the pre-Leonard numbers. Citizens can learn to love and protect the Bull Run without unknowingly exposing our water to waterborne disease and/or an expensive treatment plant.