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In this Issue of C.O. Local BUZZ…

🌄Bend, OR Weather

📅 Lots and LOTS of Events

🎸🎃Rocktoberfest

🎃DD Ranch 2024 Pumpkin Patch

🎉New Event Calendar! Central Oregon Local Live!

📰Local News - What’s a Happening?

🏘️Former farm to become affordable housing in Redmond, but farmhouse will be saved'

🦌Grand opening event held for iconic and newly renovated Redmond reindeer ranch

📰Deschutes Co. Considers Allowing Mini-Storage Businesses On Ag Land

📰Madras Indoor Entertainment Venue Opening

Central Oregon Fire Info

Updates of Oregon Fires

🚧 Road Closures & Construction

🔥⛑️Fire & Rescue News

🔥Ex-wildland firefighter helps fight Sisters homeless camp fire using donated extinguishers

 🚨 Crime News

⚖️ Roommate Attack Case: Bend Man Pleads Not Guilty to Attempted Murder; Trial Set for January

📰 Community News

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

📲Sponsors & Partners

😁 MEME of the Day

🌆 On going Events

BEND

Events Sponsored By

Enjoy Bend Life Real Estate

What’s Up Central Oregon 

NIBLICK & GREENE'S

@ Eagle Crest

Thursday October 3rd

4:00-7:00 PM

Get your groove on and your social butterfly wings ready for a night of music, dancing, snacks, sipping (no host bar) all while with friends and soon-to-be friends!

Live Music from 5:00 -7:00 PM

By: Heller Highwater Trio

$25 Person Cash Entry - Includes Appetizers

DD Ranch 2024 Pumpkin Patch

Come see us this Fall at our annual Pumpkin Patch!
School Field Trips, Hay rides , Pony rides, Train rides, Paintball shooting gallery, Cowboy arcade, Petting zoo, Kids Korral, live music, food trucks and more!
Open Tuesday - Sunday, closed Mondays.

10:00 am to 5:00 pm

3836 NE Smith Rock Way, Terrebonne, OR

Got an upcoming event you want us to FEATURE?

Click here to let us know about your upcoming Event!

Former farm to become affordable housing in Redmond, but farmhouse will be saved'

Redmond, OR - A groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday that will turn a former small farm in Redmond into affordable housing.

RootedHomes, which builds workforce housing using a community land trust model, is the developer on the project.

The lot on Northwest 19th Street will feature two-, three- and four-bedroom homes with EV charging and covered bike parking.

The 100-year-old farmhouse will be preserved.

Janel Maurer raised her kids along with horses, goats and chickens on the land and is glad to see community gardens incorporated into the design.

"I got to enjoy this land with me and my kids, and now 23, plus this house, 24 different families are going to be able to share and create a community on these 2 acres makes me happy. I love Redmond!" Maurer said.

Construction begins next week and homeowners will be selected in the spring of 2025.

The project is the first of RootedHomes' four planned developments in Redmond.

VIDEO

Grand opening event held for iconic and newly renovated Redmond reindeer ranch

Redmond, OR - Julie and Jeff Larkin bought and renovated the beloved reindeer ranch in Redmond. Saturday was the grand opening event for The Ranch Market at the Old Reindeer Ranch.

Located just off the corner of Highway 126 and SW Helmholtz Way, the iconic ranch attracted locals and travelers alike for generations. The ranch famously known for its herd of reindeer, which was a featured tradition in parades and festivals throughout Oregon.

"We are Larkin Valley Ranch, in addition to owners of this property. So, we were looking for an extra space to raise our animals. We checked out several different places and we kept coming back here, because it was such a sentimental place to us growing up here in Redmond," owner Julie Larkin said.

Every week, the ranch plans on having different vendors of produce, meats, and a variety of other items. 

"Just trying to figure out inventories, vendors, local producers that produce with the same principles as we do. That have the same passion for feeding healthy food to people. Every week we have new products in, and new vendors in to share with the community," owner Jeff Larkin said.

The Ranch Market at the Old Reindeer Ranch is open year round on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays every week.

Unfortunately, reindeer will not be at the ranch, but the Larkins say they have a special surprise in mind for the holiday season.

VIDEO

Deschutes Co. Considers Allowing Mini-Storage Businesses On Ag Land

KBND

Bend, OR - Deschutes County Commissioners are considering a change to what is allowed on land zoned Multi-Use Agricultural. Commissioner Phil Chang tells KBND News, "There's a lot of land in the county in MUA-10, 'Multiple Use Agricultural-10,' as it's called. Currently in MUA-10, mini storage is not allowed. But a couple of different applicants have come in requesting for mini storage to become a conditionally allowable use." The change would allow mini storage facilities just outside incorporated cities, "Along Highway 97 and along Highway 20, close in to one of our incorporated cities. So, in this case, it would be a whole bunch of Multiple Use Agriculture-zoned lands near Redmond or near Bend."

Those businesses say allowing storage facilities on land zoned as MUA-10 would allow for future urbanization. But during this week's public hearing, Chang says they also heard from people worried about preserving rural character, "Particularly right on the edges of our cities, who said, essentially, 'this is a really significant change to what Multiple Use Agriculture zoning means and is intended to do.'"

Chang says, "The written record is still open for a few weeks. And then, we'll deliberate after that, whether to approve this code amendment application or not."

Currently, mini-storage facilities are only allowed in areas zoned for commercial or industrial use.

Madras Indoor Entertainment Venue Opening

KBND

MADRAS, OR -- A year-around event venue is opening in Madras. Andre Jackson owns the new John Brown Event Center at The Spot on South 5^th street. "We are working with larger corporations over in the valley such as the Portland Trail Blazers... as their single site in central and eastern Oregon to have their events and activities, to make them feel that we are part of their backyard. We are part of their community."

The JBEC holds about 300 people. It's available for national touring acts, throughout winter, along with private and corporate events. "That's why we are creating an indoor facility... to be able to have activities that individuals and families can enjoy the entire year long." After living in Central Oregon for many years, he knows there are not a lot of entertainment options between November and May, "You either stay home, you go skiing, or you go travel. So, the opportunity to go to a comedy show or experience a concert during the winter time is very, very limited."

The Spot will include upscale dining, a bar, and food trucks. "We're looking to also connect with the Bend community, Prineville, Culver, Redmond. So, they feel that Madras is their backyard, as well," Jackson tells KBND News shuttle buses are planned to run from Bend and Redmond to Madras taking passengers to and from shows.

The first show announcements will come in October with a grand opening planned for November.

Updates of Oregon Fires

Link to: Air Quality Index map

Another AQI Map

Link to: Northwest Large Fire Interactive Web Map

Ex-wildland firefighter helps fight Sisters homeless camp fire using donated extinguishers

Fire extinguishers that were distributed to the homeless community in the Sisters area this past summer were used to battle a fire that started at a neighboring homeless camp late Tuesday. And it turns out the person wielding those extinguishers is a former wildland firefighter.

The fire started around 11:45 p.m. on U.S. Forest Service about a half-mile north of the Best Western Ponderosa Lodge, Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District Public Information Office Julie Spot said in a statement. The fire started in a homeless camp.

Don Smith, a former wildland firefighter, lives in a camper across the dirt road from where the fire ignited.

"What caught my attention was a blast that came up from this way towards the camp. About two minutes later, the owner of the camp came up and knocked on the door, asked what was going on. I didn't know what was going on. I poked my head out and saw a wall of fire," Smith said.

Smith grabbed a pair of small fire extinguishers and reported the fire.

"I told my girlfriend that I had to call 911. Grabbed my fire extinguishers, and brought the guy with me. Handed him my phone. Started to go towards the fire and that's when I noticed the whole place had been engulfed. His propane tanks were the central heat of where everything was at," Smith said.

Those fire extinguishers were given to Smith by the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District.

Spor said those extinguishers had been provided to camps around Sisters through a community assistance program in July and August. The program was created to give homeless campers the ability to reduce the spread of such fires before emergency crews arrive.

"They were grateful for what we're giving them. They were thankful that we stopped by and chatted with them. Some people don't talk to many people who live out there," Sisters-Camp Sherman EMT Steven Lord said.

Firefighters arrived around midnight. With the help of Smith's quick thinking, fire crews were able to keep this contained in a 50-foot diameter.

"It didn't really post that much of a risk at the time, so we were lucky. Short response time. We were there pretty quick and able to extinguish it pretty fast," Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Chief Tony Prior said.

While Tuesday's fire was kept under control, it just takes one spark and the right conditions to set the forest ablaze.

"If it was windy like it was the next night, there would have been no hope. We would have been ablaze. that wind was crazy. It would have caught everything on fire. It would have been bad. I just wanted to make sure it didn't get anywhere near my home," Smith said.

The fire district wants to remind everyone fire season is not yet over, and likely wont be until at least mid-October.

VIDEO

Roommate Attack Case: Bend Man Pleads Not Guilty to Attempted Murder; Trial Set for January

A Bend man pleaded not guilty Friday to attempted murder and other charges in last month’s baseball-bat attack on his roommate, having failed to convince a grand jury in a rare in-person appearance that he should not be indicted because he acted in self-defense.

Deschutes County Circuit Judge Alycia Sykora set a Jan. 8 trial date for Timothy John Boyd, 66, who also faces charges of first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon in the August 18^th attack that critically injured Stephen Jay Steria, 58, at the home they shared on Southwest Arrow Wood Drive.

After his arrest, Boyd’s lawyer, Evander McIver, filed a petition to let his client appear in person before the grand jury chosen to weigh the evidence and decide whether there was enough evidence to file formal charges.

Prosecutors had objected to the requested in-person grand jury appearance, citing safety concerns, but the judge agreed to allow it.

McIver has filed a motion to quash the indictment, claiming Boyd’s visible restraints and the presence of deputies guarding him prejudiced the grand jury against his client. A hearing on that motion is set for next Wednesday.

Deschutes Public Library Events

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