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In this Issue of C.O. Local BUZZ…

🤔Local Trivia

🌄Bend, OR Weather

📅 Lots and LOTS of Events

🚗Classic Car Fest - River’s Place

📅Save The Date Section

💖🫴3rd Annual A Night to Remember - Bowties & Boots - Fundraiser

🎉New Event Calendar! Central Oregon Local Live!

📰Local News - What’s a Happening?

📰Well-known former Bend chef riding e-bike struck, killed by apparent DUII hit-and-run driver in Medford bike lane

📰City of Bend considers allowing limited debris, vegetation burning in hard-to-reach areas

📰County Clerk’s Office will test election equipment Monday, Oct. 14

Central Oregon Fire Info

Updates of Oregon Fires

🚧 Road Closures & Construction

🔥⛑️Fire & Rescue News

⛑️ 64-Year-Old Hillsboro Man Found Dead at Little Cultus Lake After Boating Incident

🚨 Crime News

📰 Community News

🏫Ridgeview High School Wins $25K in T-Mobile's 5G Competition

 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 COMING SOON - A NEW EVENTS CALENDAR JUST FOR “Fun N Games” in Central Oregon! Stay tuned!

BEND

Events Sponsored By

Enjoy Bend Life Real Estate

What’s Up Central Oregon 

Classic Car Fest @ River’s Place

Live music, vendors, food trucks, beer, and of course, Classic Cars!!

A benefit for Warrior Impact, a local non profit that provides support, healing and resources to Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress.

If you would like to register your car (1980s and earlier), follow this link:
REGISTER YOUR CAR

Saturday Oct. 19th

12 pm to 4pm

787 NE Purcell Blvd Bend, OR

Coming up - Save the Date

Got an upcoming event you want us to FEATURE?

Click here to let us know about your upcoming Event!

Well-known former Bend chef riding e-bike struck, killed by apparent DUII hit-and-run driver in Medford bike lane

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Family and friends are mourning the loss of a well-known, long-time Bend chef, Jason Thomas, who was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash by an apparent DUII driver Friday afternoon while riding his e-bike in a bike lane on a Medford highway.

Medford Police said Saturday that an initial investigation and witness statements indicate the bicyclist was heading south on the South Pacific Highway (Highway 99) around 3:20 p.m. Friday in a designated bike lane when a southbound vehicle drifted into the bike lane and struck him.

The driver did not stop and fled the scene, police said, but was quickly located in a nearby parking lot and detained.

Meanwhile, officers at the crash scene immediately attempted life-saving measures, but the bicyclist died at the scene. Medford’s Serious Traffic Accident Reconstruction (STAR) Team was activated to assist in the investigation.

Police said witnesses saw the vehicle swerving before the crash, KOBI-TV reported. Medford Police Special Services Sergeant Steve Furst said the agency is looking at this as a criminal case.

“Of course, we’ll have to gather all the evidence and do a complete investigation before we release all of our findings," Furst said at the scene. "But right now, we do believe that there was impairment involved with the driver of the vehicle that struck the bicyclist.”

Furst said the vehicle driver was not injured and is cooperating, KOBI reported.

Authorities have not released the names of the crash victim or driver, but NewsChannel 21 was contacted Sunday by family members of Thomas who wanted to be sure his many friends and family in Central Oregon were aware of his passing.

"Jason was a beloved husband, son, uncle, nephew, cousin, and friend," his wife, Nikki, told us. "He put a smile on everyone's face he came in contact with. Always willing to help at the drop of a hat.  He was one of the best chefs there was, and I'll miss his cooking very much."

Nikki Thomas said she met Jason working at the Pine Tavern, where he started in 2005. He’d also been a chef at The Phoenix Restaurant and at Bend Brewing Company.

Thomas's Facebook page shows he also worked as executive chef at Ox and Fin, a sous chef at Bourbon Street Bend and for a time was director of dining services at Cascades of Bend Assisted Living. He also studied at COCC.

The couple had been together for 16 years and married 10 years ago. Jason Thomas turned 41 last Monday.

Nikki Thomas, who grew up in Bend and graduated from Mountain View High School, said her husband was from the Galt/Lodi, California area "and moved to Bend when he was 18 to pursue his dream of working in a kitchen."

She said they still share a home with her mother in Bend, but after she graduated from nursing school in 2018, the couple moved to Reno for four years, then moved into their travel trailer in 2022. Since then, she has been working as a critical-care traveling nurse, most recently under contract in Medford.

Nikki Thomas said her husband rode his e-bike “all the time. I have an e-bike, too, and we have a truck to pull the trailer. He loved riding bikes.”

“He was doing everything right,” she said of her husband. “He had a high-visibility vest. He had a helmet on. He was doing everything he should have been.”

She said her mother and best friend traveled to Medford to help in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Nikki said she and Jason's friends and family have placed an impromptu roadside memorial along the Medford highway where the crash occurred, in Jason's honor, with photos, flowers and a handwritten sign: "Do Not Drive Impaired! You Ruin MORE Lives Than Yours!!"

“It’s going to be a long time before I get my life back together,” Nikki Thomas said.

VIDEO

City of Bend considers allowing limited debris, vegetation burning in hard-to-reach areas

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – For more than a decade, the city of Bend has banned open burning of yard debris, also known as backyard burning, within the city limits. But officials are proposing an exception to the rules, to remove vegetation that could fuel wildfires in some hard-to-reach locations.

The 2010 ordinance has some exceptions already – from campfires, warming fires and cooking fires to weed control by the city, county or state and training fires. But the rules ban burning of garbage, yard debris, construction or demolition waste or field, ditch or weed burning (which are allowed in the rural fire district outside the city limits.

The city council will hold a hearing and first reading of an ordinance Wednesday evening to amend the city code and allow some burning in city limits, with the fire marshal’s approval.

Unlike rural areas outside the city where burning is allowed, Bend residents have to haul away vegetation debris, recycle it or chip/mulch the material and distribute it on their property.

Deputy Fire Chief Jason Bolen notes in a council issue summary, "Due to the unique geographic features of Central Oregon, there are locations within the city limits in which debris cannot be physically removed from the property it originates from. Steep canyons, sheer rock walls, and other topography make debris removal impossible, while these same factors prevent the use of chippers or mechanical macerators."

"In these special situations, with the consultation and approval of the Fire Marshal, an amendment to the open burning ordinance is being proposed to allow supervised burning of debris by qualified forestry professionals," Bolen added.

"Without a solution, the vegetation will remain on site," he wrote, "and over time will pose a significant
fire hazard in terrain which is difficult to impossible for firefighters to safely reach and operate within."

The proposed ordinance notes that the current limits "have made it difficult for the city … to address the need to consider using burning as a fuels reduction method, where appropriate, to mitigate fire risk to persons and property in the city."

It also says that at least one neighborhood has been seeking to create defensible space between the Deschutes River Canyon and homes, in an area where it might be the most appropriate and/or feasible means of fuel reduction - but it's not allowed under the current code.

Under the proposed change, the fire marshal or designee would develop a burn plan for the property, including predicted weather conditions, “to ensure a clean burn during weather conditions that will lift the smoke into the atmosphere, preventing smoke from pooling in neighborhoods, or wind conditions to spread fire,” the official said.

Fire officials also propose notifying property owners and/or residents within 1,000 feet of the proposed burn site, providing details of what's planned and who to contact, before a permit is issued.

County Clerk’s Office will test election equipment Monday, Oct. 14

In preparation for the November 5th General Election, the Deschutes County Clerk’s Office will test the County’s vote counting system on Monday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m.

Deschutes County Elections ensures the security and integrity of the vote-by-mail process by conducting a thorough logic and accuracy test before and after every election. The public is invited to observe the testing at the County Clerk’s Office which is on the second floor of 1300 NW Wall Street in Bend. Please RSVP in advance if you plan to attend.

To learn more about ballot measures and candidate information visit: deschutescounty.gov/elections.

For questions, please contact Deschutes County Elections at (541) 388-6547.

Updates of Oregon Fires

Link to: Air Quality Index map

Another AQI Map

Link to: Northwest Large Fire Interactive Web Map

64-Year-Old Hillsboro Man Found Dead at Little Cultus Lake After Boating Incident

Little Cultus Lake, OR — A tragic camping and fishing trip ended in the death of 64-year-old Kent Christopher from Hillsboro, Oregon, after a boating accident at Little Cultus Lake.

On the evening of October 7, 2024, at approximately 7:35 p.m., the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a missing person at the lake’s campground. Christopher had been on a fishing trip with a family member when the two encountered trouble. According to the family member, they had been fishing on Little Cultus Lake when they both lost balance and fell out of their boat.

Unable to reboard the boat, the pair attempted to swim back to shore but became separated. The family member eventually made it back to the campsite on foot, but Christopher did not. After several hours with no sign of Christopher, the family member drove to the Cascade Lakes Highway to regain cell service and contacted Deschutes County 911.

Deputies arrived at the campground around 8:10 p.m. and were guided by the family member to the location of the incident. A search began along the shoreline, while a deputy with drone capability was called to assist. At approximately 9:24 p.m., the drone located Christopher’s body in the water.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Marine Search & Rescue team was dispatched and recovered the body that night. Authorities do not suspect foul play in the drowning.

Ridgeview High School Wins $25K in T-Mobile's 5G Competition

Ridgeview High School in Redmond, Oregon, is one of 16 schools nationwide to win a $25,000 grant from T-Mobile’s “Friday Night 5G Lights” competition. The funds will help improve the school's athletic facilities. A special celebration will be held during the home football game on Nov. 1, with giveaways and free food.

The competition had over 1,700 schools enter, including 35 from Oregon. The finalists, including Ridgeview, now compete for a $2 million grand prize, which will be decided by public vote.

Just Sayin’ 😎

Deschutes Public Library Events

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