Source Warmup

2024 Street Preservation Plans

Bend City Council approved about $4.6 million worth of street preservation work on March 20. This year, the City plans to improve approximately 59 lane miles in Bend including about 16 miles of paving, 21 miles of chip seal, when asphalt emulsion and rock are applied to roads, and 22 miles of slurry seal, a treatment for low-volume residential streets.

“We have 900 lane miles of roads to maintain, and the cost of maintaining streets has increased considerably in recent years. In future years as the transportation fee increases our revenues, we will be able to steadily improve the pavement conditions,” said Transportation and Mobility Department Director David Abbas.

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BPRD Loses Board Member, Announces Next Executive Director

Bend Park and Recreation District announced on March 20 that current deputy executive director, Michelle Healy, will become the next executive director, beginning July 1. This comes after current ED Don Horton last year announced plans to retire.

The board officially approved the employment contract at its March 19 meeting. As the new executive director, Healy’s salary will be $214,000, according to BPRD’s Communication Manager Julie Brown. According to the press release, the board of directors conducted an internal search for the role. The board conducted an internal search for a successor, with input from district staff, community partners and stakeholders. BPRD’s goal was for a smooth transition ahead of the departure of Horton, who started in 2003.

Zavier Borja resigned from the board on March 19, due to frequent travel and job-related responsibilites. He’s currently working as the Regional Solutions Coordinator for the Governor’s office. The current term expires in June 2025.

“I’ve taken a hard look at myself and how I want to show up and it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t what the community deserves, what the voters deserve, what my colleagues, the staff deserve,” said Borja. “I felt it was the responsible thing to do, to vacate my seat and have someone that has a lot more capacity and time that they can give to the district in which it deserves.”

BPRD hosted an informational open house for the open board seat on March 15 and applications were due on March 22. Finalists will be invited to show presentations at the April 16 meeting.

—Julianna LaFollette

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“I think during COVID people were like, we can’t escape — we’re all in this one giant room, unless we’re in a bedroom. So now a lot of my floor plans are going back to individual spaces.”

—Interior designer Sara Van Stelten, from this week’s Feature story, “Central Oregon Home Design Trends.”

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75,000

– Pounds of trash picked up on Deschutes County land in Juniper Ridge since July 2023. From this week’s News story, “Deschutes County Waits to Relocate Juniper Ridge Residents, Continues Cleanup.”

This article appears in Source Weekly March 28, 2024.