Those living in the sites are provided with a case manager who helps them find stable housing.
Executive Director of Mountain View Community Development and pastor Rick Russell says safe parking lots also make the surrounding area safer.
“Before safe parking, a lot of our locations had people coming in late at night. Maybe drinking on site, you know, they weren’t supposed to be there. But once you get the presence of people and security, that activity disappears.”
Russell says the county’s decision will help open new safe parking locations for those in need. Still, the challenge of finding willing property owners interested in providing those locations will remain.
“One of the bottlenecks for us is finding locations. So we’re gonna try to reach out to property owners who might be interested in safe parking, and I would encourage property owners to reach out to us as well and open this program to more participants,” Russell said.
For Teresa Sherman, safe parking helped her navigate a life-changing experience.
“There’s a lot of people who are homeless because of the choices they’ve made. And there’s people who don’t have a choice,” Sherman said.
Sherman was diagnosed with cancer six years ago. Soon after, she was left with nothing. She even lost her children.
“I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have money for means. I didn’t have housing. I lost everything. With being in this program, I was able to move from the dirt, go from not having my children to being able to move into a house with my kids and make dinner for them every night. It’s amazing what these people have done for my family,” Sherman said.
Russell says half of their safe parking residents are employed, while the other half are primarily elderly or disabled.
To the delight of many skiers and snowboarders, Mt. Bachelor is once again open, and they hope to stay open this time for the season.
“It’s something I dream about and means everything to me,” Erik Needleman said. “I’ve been waiting all summer to go skiing again. An opening day last weekend, a little bit of disappointment, but we’re back out here having fun.”
Friday conditions were better than many expected.
“Surprisingly good… just fun to get back on the snow,” JD Sareault said. “Pretty soft, pretty fluffy, definitely a couple of sharks you got to watch out for.”
The mountain staff are thrilled too, with more than a foot of snow at the base in the last 48 hours.
“The change in cold temps, the snowmaking that we have going, the foot or two of snow that we’ve gotten, it all points to a really positive direction,” Mt Bachelor’s Lauren Burke said. “We were able to have two lifts open this morning and are looking forward to expanding to rain in the upcoming week.”
Pine Marten Express is set to open on Saturday, and Mt Bachelor says they are working toward opening the Outback and Cloudchaser lifts soon.
That’s all good news if you plan on celebrating the season of your leaving responsibilities at a lower elevation.
“My girlfriend’s coming up here in a little bit, so she had to get out of work to come up here,” Needleman said. “It seems like everybody’s doing that today, too.”
Alpenglow, Early Riser and Red Chair are all on track to open next Friday. The new Skyliner Express 6-pack is on track to open before Christmas.
Remember that sign along Highway 97 in Bend to promote tourism in Prineville, but it misspelled the name of the city? A corrected ad is now up, but the city is still poking fun at itself for the error.
The new sign reads “Prinevelle,” but with that word scribbled out. Then it says “Prineville: Eat, shop & play just 35 miles away.”
About a month ago, the billboard read “Explore Prinevelle” before people realized that the letter “i” was replaced with an “e.” If you didn’t take a close look, it was pretty easy to miss.
The City of Prineville partnered with businesses to buy the original ad. A lot of people had to approve it before it was placed along the busy highway.
“It was approved and moved forward, but I think what happened when the company moved it forward to the printer they sent the wrong file that was of a previous one that had not been accepted. Therefore, the spelling mishap was overlooked completely,” Prineville Chamber of Commerce Board Chair Jeff Fox told Central Oregon Daily News on Nov. 13.
Fox said then that the typo may be a blessing in disguise because of the attention it was getting online.
“I wish we could take credit for it being on purpose because sometimes, these are favorable mistakes to have,” Fox said.
The ad was replaced with a Smokey Bear ad later that day. But it appears the city decided it wanted to keep having fun with the typo.
Before coming to Bend, I forecasted the weather in Alaska. That’s where I developed a passion (ok, obsession) for cross-country skiing.
As soon as I got into town, I was told by a friend to “Visit Virginia Meissner.” To a non-local, that was a confusing recommendation. But when I looked into the story a little more deeply, little did I know that Virginia Meisner is quite a legend in these here parts — including having a popular sno-park named after her.
“My mom was born in Salem and she was an only child and her dad really liked to fish,” said Virginia’s daughter, Jane. “So he would be, you know, out there chopping across the fields and because he didn’t have a son. Once she got big enough, he just took her along.”
Virginia went off to college and continued her passion for the outdoors. That’s where she met a handsome ski instructor and they got married.
“Now, after my parents got married, they were both teaching skiing at Willamette Pass,” Jane said. “But my mom, she was always a little timid of alpine skiing. So cross-country was kind of more her favorite. And then when Mount Bachelor opened in 1958, they got to talking to somebody and found out that they could make more money teaching at Mount Bachelor than they could at Willamette Pass. And they did that for quite a long time. But about the mid-60s, the college approached my mom about teaching cross-country classes.”
Virginia built up quite a fan base of students that she would take out on the forest roads in the area and guide them through her favorite spots.
“She approached the Forest Service and said, you know, we need to to mark some of these trails, clear some of the trees out of the way that are on some of them, mark some of the trails,” Jane said. “And about that time, because she had enough of her students that were followers that would ski with her every winter, they decided to talk to the Oregon Nordic Club, which was out of Portland in the Mt. Hood area and see about starting a chapter of the Oregon Nordic Club and called it the Central Oregon Nordic Club.”
The first baby steps of what was to come began taking form.
“They ended up marking a whole lot of trails and they also worked with the first service and the Oregon National Guard to build the first shelters that we had. The very first shelter that was built was the Swampy Lake Shelter,” Jane said.
Sadly, Virginia was diagnosed with cancer in the 1980s. But, that didn’t stop her from working to continue to see her vision through.
“So all of the trails, you know, up until the time that she passed away in 1988, all of the trails were in conjunction with the Forest Service and the Central Oregon Nordic Club,” Jane said. “Under her guidance of kind of, you know, ‘Where’s the best trail? Where’s the best place to mark these trails and to clear the debris that there might be across the trail?'”
And though she remained an active advisor and teacher until the end, sadly, Virginia never did see the fullness of her vision completed.
“Well, they were just starting to lay out the trails. They were starting to decide where to build the shelter. They put the sno-park in when she died. So the Forest Service came to me that summer and said, ‘Can we name it the sno-park after your mom?'” Jane said.
And that sno-park has had a massive impact thousands of people throughout the decades. And while Virginia may not be with us in body anymore, her spirit remains in the sights, sounds and souls that will be using the park for decades to come.
“It really is just amazing to me what she did and it’s such a great honor that they decided to name that sno-park after her,” Jane said.
An advocacy group is suing Oregon’s secretary of state after her announcement that former President Donald Trump will remain on the 2024 primary ballot.
Free Speech For People filed the lawsuit Wednesday, on behalf of voters, against Secretary of State of Oregon LaVonne Griffin-Valade. They are asking her to issue a temporary rule that Trump is ineligible to appear on the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Enacted in the wake of the Civil War, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies from public office, regardless of a prior criminal conviction, any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to its enemies,” the group said in a statement.
Free Speech For People says Trump’s actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which aimed to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s election, disqualifies Trump under that definition. They want him removed from any future ballot for federal office.
Griffin-Valade announced on Nov. 30 that she does not have the legal authority to remove Trump from the primary ballot. Citing the Oregon Department of Justice, Griffin-Valade said a presidential primary is not a case of someone being elected. Instead, it’s a chance for voters to tell their party who they prefer to be the nominee. Delegates at the national convention ultimately decide who that nominee will be.
She also said her decision affects the primary election, not the general election next November. She said, “When the general election comes, we’ll follow the law and be completely transparent with our reasoning.”
Similar challenges have been filed in Michigan, Minnesota and Colorado. So far, none have barred Trump from the ballot.
More than 12,000 current and former Central Electric Cooperative members will be sharing nearly $2.5 million in capital credit payments, the not-for-profit utility announced Friday.
CEC will mail checks to 12,113 members totaling $2,481,482, The average check will be $204.
The cooperative said it has returned more than $46 million in capital credits to its members since 1981. CEC says it has sent credits to members in 40 of the last 43 years.
Here is the full announcement from CEC, including an explanation of how members receive credits:
REDMOND, Ore. – Central Electric Cooperative announced today that 12,113 current and former members will receive capital credit payments totaling $2,481,482. CEC will mail members their checks next week.
Individual checks to current and former CEC members who purchased power in 1999 will average $204. The difference between the $3.5 million capital credits retirement and the $2.5 million paid to members is for members for whom CEC does not have a current address. Members can inquire regarding unclaimed capital credit payments by checking the list on the coop’s website, which is updated frequently.
Since 1981, Central Electric has returned more than $46 million in Capital Credits to its members.
As a not-for-profit utility, Central Electric has two options for raising capital, borrowing, or raising capital from its members. The cooperative lowers its capital costs by melding member capital credits funding with borrowed money on which CEC must pay interest.
Cooperative members share in the benefits of margins annually earned. CEC’s bylaws authorize its board of directors to pay capital credits to members when the utility’s financial condition permits. CEC has issued Capital Credits to members in 40 out of the last 43 years.
The Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District firefighters began pile burning west of Bend on the north and south sides of Skyliners Road Friday. That work may continue for another two weeks as conditions allow.
“Smoke and flames may be visible from Skyliners Road and trails within the Phil’s Trailhead network. Residents in communities near Skyliners Road are encouraged to keep doors and windows closed to help decrease smoke impacts,” the Deschutes National Forest said.
Firefighters select pile burning units for ignition based on moisture levels, forecasted weather and conditions predicted to move smoke away from communities where possible. Piles may smolder, burn, and produce smoke for several days after ignition. Once ignited, firefighters monitor piles until they are declared out. Please do not report ignitions.
While smoke may linger in the area, removing these large accumulations of woody debris during the winter months minimizes fire danger. The landing piles are concentrations of leftover materials associated with vegetation management activities being done to reduce hazardous fuels loading adjacent to communities.
