Central Oregon fire dispatch center plans move to Redmond

The Redmond City Council approved a new 20-year lease agreement Tuesday night with the U.S. Forest Service, which plans to move the region’s wildfire dispatch center from Prineville to the Redmond Air Center.

City officials said Wednesday the agreement includes the development of a 7,000-square-foot facility that will support efforts to relocate the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center, to the Redmond facility.

COIDC provides dispatch support and coordination for all risk incidents for the Oregon Department of Forestry, BLM Prineville District, the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests and the Crooked River National Grassland.

The movement of COIDC from the Prineville Airport to the Redmond Air Center facilities at the Redmond Airport “will improve the efficiency and safety of those operations and the ability of agencies to respond to these all risk incidents,” the city announcement said.

“On behalf of all the agencies, I want to say how excited we are to reach this point of working with the City of Redmond to provide dispatch facilities that will increase our ability to safely respond to all incidents on Central Oregon lands,” said John Allen, Deschutes National Forest supervisor.

Since 2000, RDM has financed about $5 million for the construction of buildings on airport property for the Forest Service. The ongoing debt service is paid for by a lease with the agency. The city said it “has, and continues to have, an interest in strengthening its partnership with the Forest Service. “

“The mission of the Forest Service and their role in protecting the Central Oregon region and beyond makes them a partner we want to be aligned with when it comes to Airport development” states Redmond City Manager Keith Witcosky.

COIDC was established in 1996 and covers 4.5 million acres of public and private land across a 9.5 million acres ranging from Crescent, Oregon to the south to the Columbia River Gorge to the north and from the crest of the Cascade Mountains to the west to the Grant/Harney county line. Within this area there is an average of 450 fires per year.

Within this area the Oregon Department of Forestry covers approximately 450,000 acres of privately owned forestland in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. The Bureau of Land Management Prineville District manages 1.65 million acres of public lands including 385 miles of Wild and Scenic rivers on the Deschutes, White, Crooked and John Day Rivers. The Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and the Crooked River National Grassland encompass just over 2.5 million acres of Central Oregon.

Currently, eight employees work year-round at the facility, but during the summer about 30 people operate out of COIDC, with an additional 25 to 30 employees working out of other offices to meet the logistical needs of fire crews, smokejumpers, helicopters, air tankers, water tenders, engines and fire teams. With the expanded facilities, it is expected to improve the efficiency of those logistical operations, the city said.