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In this Issue of C.O. Local BUZZ…

🤔Local Trivia

🌄Bend, OR Weather

📅 Lots and LOTS of Events

✈️🎆The Airshow of the Cascades - Madras

🎉New Event Calendar! Central Oregon Local Live!

📰Local News - What’s a Happening?

💲Mt. Bachelor's Parent Company Intends To Sell

🚧Empire Ave - HWY 97 Connector Road Opens Thursday

🏈Oregon alum Bo Nix to be 1st Broncos rookie QB to start opener since John Elway

🤔Bend city councilors discuss clearer rules to limit vehicle camping on city streets, similar to tent camping code

Central Oregon Fire Info

Updates of Oregon Fires

Hold the line! The Forest Service is Hiring Wildland Firefighters in Oregon and Washington

🚧 Road Closures & Construction

🔥⛑️Fire & Rescue News

🚨 Crime News

 📰 Community News

🍽️🍗Neighbor Rotisserie brings new concept, design and flavor to Bend's westside

 Got some news or know of news for our Community News Segment - share it with C.O. Local Buzz!

😁 MEME of the Day

🌆 On going Events

📲Sponsors & Partners

In what year was the first official Airshow of the Cascades held at the Madras Airport?

A) 1975
B) 1985
C) 1995
D) 2000

👉Find the Answer in Tomorrow’s Newsletter👉

BEND

MADRAS

Events Sponsored By Enjoy Bend Life Real Estate

What’s Up Central Oregon 

August 23 - 24th - Madras, Oregon

The Cascade Airshow, held in Madras, Oregon, is a thrilling event featuring aerial performances, classic warbirds, and a vibrant festival atmosphere. Scheduled for August 23-24, 2024, the show includes displays by the US Army Golden Knights, Erickson Aircraft, and a variety of unique aircraft at the Fly-In. Attendees can also enjoy the Les Schwab Car Show, live music, fireworks, and family-friendly activities. VIP and chalet tickets offer premium viewing experiences with added amenities.

For more details, visit the Cascade Airshow website.

Mt. Bachelor's Parent Company Intends To Sell

Posted by KBND News

BEND, OR -- Mt. Bachelor is among a handful of ski resorts POWDR intends to sell. The company announced Thursday morning it has already signed an agreement to sell Killington Ski Resort in Vermont. In addition to the Bend's Mt. Bachelor, POWDR says it intends to sell Eldora Mountain in Colorado and SilverStar Mountain Resort in British Columbia. The Bend sale will include the Sun Country Tours rafting outfit. JP Morgan will advise the process.

Local managers do not expect any changes to products, roles or operations at Mt. Bachelor for the upcoming winter season and they intend to operate "business as usual" to open the resort for skiing and riding on November 29, 2024. 

POWDR currently owns 10 ski areas in the U.S. and Canada and plans to retain Snowbird in Utah, Copper Mountain in Colorado and the Woodward brand, which includes several properties. 

Empire Ave - HWY 97 Connector Road Opens Thursday

Posted by Mike Thomas KBND News

BEND, OR -- Drivers will see more changes this week for the Bend North Corridor Improvement Project. The first takes place Thursday night.

“Coming from Empire and you want to go up to the shopping center instead of having to go on Highway 20 all the way around to Robal, that's been a detour, there's a new connector road, you can go straight on to 97 business right there without having to go all the way around,” ODOT’s Kacey Davey says work on the massive traffic re-route is almost finished, “It's actually going to be done by the end of this year. And after we make these changes this coming weekend, we're really starting to wrap things up. There'll be some repaving and everything that's happening on the old (Highway) 97 which we now call Business 97 or 3rd Street. We're getting pretty close.”

The 3rd Street to westbound U.S. 20 bridge will be closed this coming weekend starting Friday at 8 p.m. While crews work on this bridge, the southbound section of Business 97 that passes underneath it must be closed for safety. Both sections of road will reopen by Monday morning August 26 at 5 a.m.  U.S. 20 westbound traffic will detour using the new connector road from 3rd Street, continue north on U.S. 97 Business/3rd Street and turn left at Cooley Road to get back to Highway 20.?

Drivers are handling the massive traffic re-route better than they were a month ago. “As people get used to navigating these new roads and how to get around. There's been less and less U turns. We still get reports of some of them happening. People haven't been through the area yet but, you know, if you do miss your turn or whatever, go to the next exit, it's so much safer than trying to turn around right in the middle of a highway,” Davey says.

Signs will be placed along all of the routes showing motorists where they need to detour to make it to their destination.

Oregon alum Bo Nix to be 1st Broncos rookie QB to start opener since John Elway

Denver's unconventional quarterback competition concluded Wednesday with one final plot twist when Broncos coach Sean Payton walked up to his QBs during warmups and informed them rookie Bo Nix had won the starting job.

“He smiled," Payton said of the 12th overall pick out of Oregon and sixth QB selected in the 2024 NFL draft. “We were getting ready to practice, and that was it. You know, we didn't have cake and candles or anything like that.”

Payton didn't even share the news with the rest of his team when he gathered everyone after practice.

“I haven't told the rest of the team yet," Payton said. "Because I'm not going to spend meetings with the rest of the team on every one of these other positions."

Besides, he said, “they've kind of seen this coming."

Nix, who started an NCAA QB-record 61 times at Oregon and Auburn, has led the Broncos to scores on six of the seven drives he's directed in the preseason and he's been statistically one of the league's best passers this month.

Bend city councilors discuss clearer rules to limit vehicle camping on city streets, similar to tent camping code

KTVZ

Bend city councilors dove into the controversial issue of the homeless whose vehicles are parked on many streets Wednesday evening as staff outlined efforts to flesh out and more closely align vehicle camping rules with those enacted earlier to limit tent camping along city rights of way.

Of the roughly 5,000 calls police get each year regarding vehicles, about one-third are complaints that people are living in their RVs or cars along city streets, Deputy Police Chief Paul Kansky told councilors at a work session.

Since the clearing last year of the Hunnell Road encampment, one new focus spot has been NE Watt Way, where several people living in RVs or other vehicles recently received 72 hours’ notice to move due to health and safety issues, after months of complaints by nearby residents and businesses.

 “We have not issued one citation since implementation” of the camping code, Kansky said, as the goal is always for voluntary compliance and not just moving people but work with them and connect them to services.

“We haven’t towed anyone,” he added, as people have moved on as requested. He said a couple of the people living with vehicles along Watt Way have asked for ADA accommodation and “some folks are working diligently to comply this week. We do have the potential for a couple of tows later this week, if they are unable to comply.”

While the city does have a secured storage facility arranged for any vehicles moved out, Kansky also assured councilors they have no intention to charge a large fee to retrieve the vehicles, “like any personal property.”

While drafting such rules can be a sticky balancing act, the issue of enforcement can be even more problematic, prompting City Councilor Barb Campbell to say at one point during the work session that it was “weird” to hear Assistant City Attorney Ian Leitheiser talk about how even after new rules are in place – how long allowed in one space, how far they must move, etc. – that it won’t be immediately, firmly and universally enforced.

“It just kind of blows my mind,” Campbell said, to hear a city attorney speak of having an ordinance and not enforce it, that “we can pass something and not have it work as it is laid out on paper.”

The tricky details involve defining vehicle camping or sheltering, with Leitheiser saying they likely will make “some attempt to carve out the ability for people to sleep in their cars. ,,, If you can read a book for four hours in your car, why not sleep?”

How far a vehicle must be moved is one of many details councilors will discuss further, after staff does more work. “It needs to be enough to make a difference,” Leitheiser said. “Around a corner is not enough – miles and miles is probably too much.”

Campbell’s suggestion of another roundtable process with stakeholders, like was done before enacting the original camping code, didn’t draw colleagues’ support. Councilor Megan Perkins said the service providers she’s talked to said this spelling out of vehicle sheltering rules makes sense, to align with the tent camping rules.

But Campbell drew disagreement when she said those who have to move or follow more rules will just move to Juniper Ridge, China Hat or Phil’s Trail: “They can always move out into the forest.”

Pointing to efforts to create more safe parking and create more shelter beds and managed camping, Mayor Melanie Kebler said, “I don’t think it’s accurate to say we’re telling people to go camping in the woods.”

Leitheiser said under the planned changes, there will still “be substantial right of way in the city to engage in vehicle habitation under our code.” If someone is required to move, they still must be given 72 hours notice to do so, beyond the proposed 24-hour maximum, if they extend the tent camping regulations to vehicles.

The city attorney also said they will continue to prioritize health and safety issues, as they “don’t have the practical ability or intent” to move every vehicle that parks for more than a day on the street. Staff also said they want to craft buffer rules that are not based on zoning, but proximity to residences.

“The city wants to be able to assess and make choices when it makes sense, based on all the factors,” he said.

But Campbell wasn’t convinced, saying the proposed rules are "more cruel." And when it came time for a nod of heads on staff bringing back more fleshed out details for review on Sept. 18, she was opposed.

The challenges of resolving homelessness issues came back into view a short while later, during the citizens’ comment section of a light late-August agenda.

Jessica Gamble, executive director of the Home More Network, said the organization represents the voice of unhoused neighbors, having spent 2 ½ years living in a Subaru Forester, like many residents who live in dilapidated vehicles.

She asked the city not to move the people living along Watt Way, “many already in survival mode.”

Another commenter, “Smokey,” has lived in Bend for 37 years, and was more blunt.

“We don’t need more rules. We need more housing,” he said, calling for rent caps to stop more people being priced out of their homes.

“Shelters are a joke,” he said. “If you sneeze the wrong way, you’re out. … Get out of the city – you’re ruining it,” he told councilors.

Foster Fell also called for the city not to sweep people from Watt Way, saying it’s clear the rules are being selectively enforced.

“There’s simply no place for them to go, other than back further into the forest and the wildlands, losing their connections to service and caregivers,” Fell said. “Please pause and wait until there’s safe places to go for our neighbors.”

There was far less time spent on one other issue, as councilors agreed without debate to endorse a citizen-created Nov. 5 ballot measure to expand the Deschutes County Commission from three to five members. Kebler said she supports the measure to update county government “into modern times” from a system created a century ago.

Here's the vehicle camping discussion document city staff provided to councilors Wednesday night:

Or go to KTVZ to view

Updates of Oregon Fires

Link to: Air Quality Index map

Another AQI Map

Link to: Northwest Large Fire Interactive Web Map

Hold the line! The Forest Service is Hiring Wildland Firefighters in Oregon and Washington

Release Date: Aug 20, 2024

Jennifer O’Leary Risdal
Fire Communications Officer
(541) 731 - 0390
jennifer.o'[email protected]

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 20, 2024— The Forest Service is hiring Wildland Firefighters into permanent seasonal positions on hand crews, engine crews, hotshot crews, and more. Make a lasting impact on the world around you and unlock opportunities for professional growth and career advancement. Join the Forest Service’s Oregon or Washington fire organization and be a part of the team that is committed to caring for the land and serving people. Our mission is to protect our natural resources for multiple uses for today and future generations.

The Forest Service is holding an in-person recruitment event to fill approximately 200 entry level, GS-3/4 wildland firefighter permanent seasonal positions. Join us on Sept. 12, 2024, from 12 PM to 6 PM PST at any of the following locations:

• Wenatchee, WA – Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Supervisors Office, 215 Melody Lane, Wenatchee, WA 98801.

• Redmond, OR – Deschutes County Fairgrounds, OSU Extension Office, 3800 SW Airport Way Bldg. 4, Redmond, OR 97756 *Note, this event takes place from 1:00-6:00 PM PST

• Mt. Hood National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 16400 Champion Way, Sandy, OR 97055

• La Grande Ranger District, 3502 Hwy 30, La Grande, OR 97850

Applicants are invited to come and meet regional fire staff, get application help, and learn about the benefits of working for the Forest Service.

Applicants can also apply online. Jobs will be posted on USAJobs.gov from Aug. 23 – Sept. 24 using the direct hire authority. Review the job announcement carefully for deadlines and required information to include in your application. Employment start dates may vary.

For more information visit the National Wildland Firefighting Hiring webpage. Find a detailed list and a map of positions and duty locations on our Regional Fire Hire webpage.

Visit the Forest Service Careers webpage to learn more about career opportunities, benefits, hiring events, and resources to help with the application process.

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