Month: May 2016

Bethlehem Inn announced Mondaythat it is the recipient of two challenge grant awards: The Collins Foundation has committed $20,000 and The Bend Foundation has donated $10,000 in challenge grant funding. This match grant funding will support the Inn’s program providing shelter, meals and case management services to adults and children experiencing homelessness in Central Oregon.

The Bend Area Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors said Monday it has made the difficult decision to cease operations in Crook County by June 30. As a result, Habitat will close the Crook County ReStore and will no longer offer homeownership opportunities in Prineville. According to Executive Director Scott Rohrer, the decision was a

With the rise of technology, identity theft is happening more and more frequently. “Overall, I believe there are 17 million cases of identity theft reported in 2014 and I believe that was up 2 million from the previous reported year,” Deschutes County sheriff’s Capt. Paul Garrison said recently. Technology has been making your information vulnerable

Cascade Natural Gas said it filed a natural gas rate increase request with the Oregon Public Utility Commission on Friday. If approved, it would increase residential customers’ monthly bill by an average of $2.07 a month. The main reason for the rate increase request is to recover infrastructure investments, such as the pipeline reconstruction work

The Crescent Ranger District on the Deschutes National Forest plans a prescribed burn a mile north of Davis Lake Tuesday while fuels specialists on the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District continue ignitions near the Fall River Guard Station. If conditions remain favorable, fuels specialists on the Crescent Ranger District will be igniting the 104-acre unit Tuesday

Bend resident Zach Pierce noticed hiking up Pilot Butte was harder than usual on Monday. “Yeah, I smelled the smoke before I was coming up,” Pierce said. “Actually it’s a little less windy down below when I started coming up I noticed the smoke.” Fire season is right around the corner, meaning smoke from controlled

Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue personnel play a vital role in Central Oregon. The team relies heavily on volunteers, and more than 50 of them participated Saturday in a mock mission involving the search for a lost father and daughter. The team covered over 1,000 acres, looking for clues as to where they could

Funding for the accessible merry-go-round at Sam Johnson Park received a shot in the arm this week when an anonymous donor agreed to match up to $24,000 in contributions from the public. The park was dedicated in October, but without the merry-go-round which was part of the original design. It will cost $55,000, but $7,000

They’re back from Otter Space! The High Desert Museum’s two resident river otters, Brook and Rogue, have settled into their recently renovated exhibit space, set to open to the public later this month. Closed since the fall, the exhibit will reopen Saturday, May 21. The Autzen Otter Exhibit first opened in 1983 and remains one

Volunteers are being sought by the National Weather Service to participate in the latest weather spotter training on Saturday, May 14 th in Bend. Weather spotters trained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) are key volunteers who assist the meteorologists by providing up-to-date information about storm activity. The Skywarn

With the “dog days” of summer fast approaching, Brookswood Meadow Plaza and its businesses on Monday reminded residents and visitors not to leave a dog in a hot car while running errands, working or attending events around town. While we all know not to leave a person in a hot and closed up car, it

A man who took down some campaign signs in Prineville in recent days told police he did so because they were creating a hazardous situation and blocking drivers’ view near a street corner, the police chief said Monday. Over the weekend, Prineville City Councilor and Crook County Commission candidate Jason Carr said several of his

The City of Bend WaterWise Program is kicking off the growing season with free sprinkler inspections for Bend utility customers in an effort to conserve our most precious natural resource, water. It’s estimated that about 60 percent of all residential water use is for landscape irrigation. Much of that water is wasted due to misaligned

Oregon Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins on Monday told voters who changed their party affiliation in the weeks leading up to the April 26 voter registration deadline that they may receive two ballots in the mail. She said Oregonians should vote with the ballot that reflects their most recent choice of party affiliation. In most

Three Bend men whose two vehicles became stuck in deep snow on a closed Forest Service road west of Bend were rescued Sunday, along with their two dogs, prompting a reminder from authorities that traveling on still-closed forest roads can be dangerous and lead to citations and/or costly towing bills. Sheriff’s deputies were notified around

Spring has officially started, and so has irrigation season. But despite a more solid snowpack this year, Central Oregon reservoirs are still not full. “Tumalo Creek is a fabulous creek. The water here is ice-cold,” Tumalo Irrigation District Manager Ken Rieck said Monday. The water comes straight from the glacier. This year, the Deschutes River

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., joined colleagues Friday in urging Education Secretary John King to create strong protections and a streamlined path to debt relief for student loan borrowers in the agency’s forthcoming “borrower defense” rule. The Oregon senators joined 41 colleagues onSenateandHouseletters reinforcing the need to ban mandatory arbitration — which

Boostedby a federal farm to school grant, Oregon’s popular and successful FoodCorpsprogram is adding three new sites, including two serving rural communities, one of them Bend. That brings the total ofFoodCorps sites in the state to 11 and increases thenumber of schools and children benefiting from an array of positive activitiescentered around healthy, local food,

Working past age 65 could lead to longer life, while retiring early may be a risk factor for dying earlier, a new study from Oregon State University indicates. The researchers found that healthy adults who retired one year past age 65 had an 11 percent lower risk of death from all causes, even when taking

The pavement sealcoat products used widely around the nation on thousands of asphalt driveways and parking lots are significantly more toxic and mutagenic than previously suspected, according to a paper published last week by researchers from Oregon State University. Of particular concern are the sealcoat products based on use of coal tar emulsions, experts say.