The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners heard two appeals to Thornburgh Resort’s denied fish and wildlife management plan at a public hearing on Feb. 1. The resort already started construction near Cline Buttes, but its decades-long legal struggle continues to shake up plans for the nearly 2,000-acre property. In December a hearing officer with the […]
Jack Harvel
Jack is originally from Kansas City, Missouri and has been making his way west since graduating from the University of Missouri, working a year and a half in Northeast Colorado before moving to Bend in the Spring of 2021. When not reporting he’s either playing folk songs (poorly) or grand strategy video games, and checking out the different hiking trails in Central Oregon.
High Desert Duelists ▶ [With Video]
The earliest known blades are 500,000 years old, predating written history, the Ice Age and humanity itself. An unknown human ancestor carved the first blades out of a lava stone in what is now Kenya. Archeologists uncovered the blade in 2009, and it could signify a revolutionary shift in human cognition that archeologists previously believed […]
School Nurse? Nope; School Clinic
Mosaic Medical, a nonprofit community health organization, is developing a new school-based health center at Mountain View High School. The medical provider already established clinics at Bend High School, Redmond High School and M.A. Lynch Elementary. That’s in addition to La Pine Community Health Center’s health center at Gilchrist School and St. Charles Health Systems’ […]
Concerted Effort to DisPlay the Arts
A recent study recommended that the Central Oregon Center for the Arts, a nonprofit with a mission to champion an inclusive, vibrant center for the arts, could build and support a facility with a 1,200-1,500-seat theater, green rooms, a small “black box” stage, rehearsal space and storage for instruments in Central Oregon. It’s the third effort […]
Goals! Goals! Goals!
The Bend City Council considered priorities for the next two years over two days of roundtable meetings January 23-24. The City sets priorities every two years once new city councilors are sworn in. The goals are informed by a community survey the City conducted in December, garnering 400 responses through phone calls and statistically significant […]
Bend Funds Project Turnkey Shelter ▶ [With Video]
On Jan. 18 the Bend City Council approved an agreement with NeighborImpact, an antipoverty nonprofit in Central Oregon, to fund the Stepping Stone Shelter. The City will pay the nonprofit $2.6 million to operate the shelter for three years with funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act. The shelter is one of 19 motels […]
Measure 110 Starts Off Poorly
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan released an audit of Measure 110, the bill that decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs and funneled taxes on marijuana sales to treatment services, on Jan. 19. Auditors gave the program low marks, with one auditor saying they’d give a grade of a C and the other a […]
Parking Minimums Abolished
On Jan. 18 the Bend City Council adopted a rule eliminating mandatory minimums for off-street parking at new developments. That’s after the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted new planning rules in July. The OLCDC eliminated parking minimums to lower the cost of building new housing and to reduce reliance on cars for environmental […]
Worrell Park and Rec?
Deschutes County Commissioners rejected a proposal to designate Worrell Park, a 1-acre downtown park, as an area of special interest. Last month Deschutes County Commissioners reversed a plan that would have redeveloped the park, chipping away at some of it, to increase the number of parking spaces in anticipation of a courthouse expansion. “Areas of […]
Thornburgh Facing Appeals Over Water Use
More hearings are ahead for Thornburgh Resort, the new development near Cline Buttes, after a Deschutes County hearing officer rejected a new fish and wildlife mitigation plan. Both the developer, Kameron Delashmutt, and a longtime opponent of the resort, Nunzie Gould, appealed the decision. The hearings officer cited a lack of input from the Oregon […]

