Deschutes County commissioners offer ‘State of the County’

Deschutes County commissioners addressed a variety of topics at their annual State of the County address Tuesday evening.

The Bend Chamber event covered many topics the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners are currently dealing with.

All three commissioners spoke about many topics at the Bend Chamber event, and all were positive about the future of the county, but they do feel there are many issues that need solutions.

When asked what they believe are the biggest issues the county is facing, each had different ideas.

Commissioner Tony DeBone said the county continues to grow, but the outlook for the county is positive.

“Definitely in a spot where we are just kind of growing into ourselves,” DeBone said. “People still want to be here. People who are retired and have funding and are able to live here. Young families that want to work hard and have an opportunity to live here. So as I say, the future looks bright, and there may be bumps in the future, too.”

Colleague Patti Adair touched on the region’s growing homeless population.

“I really would like to see the homeless coalition come up with some alternatives,” Adair said. “You know we have Bethlehem Inn, we have Sheppard’s House, but I believe we really need to do a bit more, and actually really help those people that really shouldn’t be there.”

Commissioner Phil Henderson said he hopes to find areas where the county can look at different uses for land.

“It’s a certain kind of land use system that makes it really difficult to get more land to grow on,” Henderson said. “And we contend some of the land that is labeled farm or forest, in Deschutes County isn’t really usable for anything. And you can see other things like solar farms on it, and what can we do to open up some other places, so we can grow?”

Commissioners also touched on the growth the county is seeing, saying their hope is to make sure the county can continue to thrive, even with the changes it is seeing.

“Deschutes County has the fourth most diverse economy in the 36 counties in the state of Oregon, ” DeBone said. “So that is specialty manufacturing in Redmond, biotechnology in Bend, home-based businesses, computers, software development companies,” DeBone said. “People moving here with their jobs, corporate jobs across the country. So yeah, we are seeing a diversified economy, which is good — we do need that.”

Adair added, “Our tourism dollars went up almost 10 percent again last year. So we are still having all those visitors. As far as more growth, I don’t think our growth was quite as strong as what it was a year ago, which is probably good. We need time to assimilate those people.”

Henderson said, “What makes Central Oregon great, and Deschutes County very great, is just the opportunities people have. There’s a combination of a lot of business growth now, but also so many things people can do here for recreation and what we call a lifestyle. And that hasn’t changed for 30 years, and it’s actually increased.”

Commissioners said they’ll keep working to make sure Deschutes County is a desirable place to live, while also making sure the growth is sustainable and the economy stays healthy.