An emergency training center nearly 10 years in the making is on the verge of starting construction in east Redmond, but not before local agencies move dozens of homeless people living in tents and trailers.
Deschutes County staff are drafting agreements to pave the way for CORE3, a planned training facility for police officers and firefighters that will double as a coordination center in emergencies. The agreements would let the County lease the undeveloped site to the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, a quasi-government agency, which would pay $300,000 for the County to clean up the land before taking ownership.
Staff got the nod from county commissioners on June 17 to draft the agreements and bring them before the board at a later date.
The goal is to break ground by mid-September on the first phase of the project — a three-quarter-mile asphalt track and pad for emergency vehicle training, along with fencing around the site and a new road. That’s expected to cost about $10 million, said Ed Fitch, mayor of Redmond and chair of the project’s board of directors. Collaborators on the project include cities, counties, fire, police and other agencies from across Central Oregon.
Leaders envision CORE3 as much more than the first phase, but the funding hasn’t been secured. Fitch said they’ll need another $20-$30 million to build a statewide emergency resilience center at the site that could serve as a headquarters for state government in the event of a large disaster. Fitch cites an earthquake caused by the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which scientists believe could occur in the coming decades.
“The primary objective is to get this done for police and fire training,” Fitch told the Source. “The resiliency center is priority number two.”
But homelessness on undeveloped government-owned lands in Deschutes County has ballooned since agencies started planning for CORE3 in 2018. County officials estimate there are about 60 people living in about 40 encampments across the 300-acre property along the eastern edge of Redmond’s urban growth boundary, just north of U.S. Highway 126.
That’s part of a larger tension between the City, County and people living outside in east Redmond across a swath of lands slated for industrial development. In an effort to clear the land and address camping, the City and County have ramped up sweeps and cleanups while partnering to build a 36-site managed camp in the area meant to help people transition to housing or shelter. But a lack of service providers willing to run the camp delayed its opening.
As construction projects move ahead, some campers have moved outside of Redmond into an area named the “green zone,” County-owned land without any planned projects.
According to figures presented June 17, environmental remediation of the CORE3 site will cost $1.1 million.
In total, the project has accumulated $36 million in funding, including a $13 million land donation from Deschutes County and nearly $20 million from the Oregon legislature. According to Fitch, another $20 million was earmarked in a bill this session, but the money was never approved. He hopes more funding will come in 2027.
Long term, the CORE3 project could include an indoor training facility, a fire training tower, a covered gun range, and other facilities to help prepare for anything from wildland fires to train car derailments.
“At the rate that we’re growing in Central Oregon, we really wanted to build that into our vision,” Shelby Knight, a project coordinator for the intergovernmental council, told the Board of Commissioners June 17. “However, this is pretty long term. This is going to be opportunistic, it’s going to be as utilization grows, as funding arises and the partners at the table are committed to working toward that vision together.”
Construction of the training track and driving skills pad should be complete by spring 2027. The construction cost for those items is about $8 million, according to a presentation by Knight.
This article appears in the Source July 2, 2026.
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36 camp sites for over 40 camps and over 100 individuals isnt even close to realistic. Since most if the people who live out there are disabled and vets struggling to even survive this is just a bunch of people who want to push the helpless out with no place to go and no options since all of the people from all around are showing up in redmond blm because there are no options for people. Stop spending millions on more not needed facilities and build them an appartment complex not like the oasis villiage that was build for the redmond homeless but houses no redmond homeless people actually they cant even walk on the property. That place is the biggest lie and waste of money. So is the homeless camp that sits empty. While there are so many disabled people stuck on blm in redmond with no way to even get drinking water. Stop lying and taking money and not helping. The core3 project is just another waste of tax payers money. They wouldnt have to pay so much in clean up if the people from town would stop coming out here and dumping trash amd destroying things. Yes the residents could clean up and they have been but the provided dumpster is miles away from camps and so many of these people have physical disabilities so thats unrealistic.
I’ve been homeless, it’s humiliating to say the least and people don’t do a god damn thing except for further the humiliation, I didn’t become homeless for drugs or alcohol, it was the Alameda fire and a fire victim who bought my rental that put me out on the streets, I’m in therapy because I tried to kill myself a couple of times to end the humiliation and hate from people who don’t fukkking give a damn, I have so much anger towards people.
Ya that’s a bunch of shit waste money on something we don’t want or need what a waste of money an government has failed us its time we take back our country with personal care about others an not building shit we dnt need we have homeless hello
HUH? So you mean to say its a waste of money to build a sustainable environment over allowing people to “camp” indefinitely on public land? In case you didn’t know the county has already wasted plenty of money on supply of water, refuse service, transportation and medical to only mention the few basic things. What WE don’t want, or need is these invasive human beings destroying our landscape. You are right is about damned time We take back OUR country and it starts with kicking the homeless OFF the public lands. The county has managed to secure the funding to provide the shelter the homeless need. If only these vagrants would get CLEAN and SOBER, follow basic housing rules, comply with normal standards. It is one thing to be disabled, or unable to work it is another be a lazy drug addicted loser!
Your posts always make me pause and reflect on what really matters
It’s so nice to see people in Oregon still make decisions for everyone else starting at the top of the food chain with the rich doing all the thinking for everyone and making plans for everyones future as usual and being heartless at it as usual
Years ago Ed Fitch became mayor and cleaned up the streets of Redmond and pushed the homeless out to that desert and then stated we are so patriotic here it’s flag city no homeless people here!!! So where they were forced to go is now being developed into some bullshit project and let’s not forget about the trash of the homeless people Redmond itself in there dry canyon project stuck a plack in place of a dump site instead of cleaning up the site that was made in the 1920’s funny how all that BLM land was empty for so long now that it’s occupied by homeless we must move them out again why don’t they use the already paid for military base training center that has been shut down in some ways do to budget cuts!!!! Ed Fitch is a joke!! Or they could use the youth detention center property that was never opened in crook county down the road from the prineville airport and Facebook center!!!!