Bend, Deschutes County to share road workload

In a move to deal with tight budgets, the city of Bend and Deschutes County are teaming up to share the workload. They have started discussions about consolidating services like road and fleet maintenance, officials said Friday.

Both sides have started negotiations that would allow them to share equipment and services for many projects around the area, like the construction on several roundabouts in the city.

Bend City Manager Eric King said the city has a long history of sharing their resources with other areas, but now they want to come up with a better-organized system that makes it more efficient.

“You know, I think in the long run, the reason behind it is so that we can realize some efficiencies and some economies of scale, by combining our operations,” King said. “We hope not to compromise the service level, so that we can still provide quality service, but just do it in a different way.”

Bend will start agreements with Deschutes County, but will also allow Jefferson and Crook counties to be involved as well. King said he hopes the agreements go beyond road maintenance into other sectors of public service.