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Redmond High School Considers Closure Due to Major Repairs

A Redmond school facilities assessment found critical maintenance issues at Redmond High School, prompting considerations of closing the school. According to RSD Public Information Officer Holly Brown major issues with the schools’ heating system would cost nearly $10 million to repair. With a $4 million budget to fix it, along with a major repair that wouldn’t allow students in the building, the District is looking at the possibility of housing RHS students at Ridgeview High School. The bond planning committee will gather to discuss ideas, getting feedback from the community, and is expected to have a final plan to present to the Board of Directors in late spring.

— Julianna LaFollette

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Bend Police Make 10 DUII Arrests in 48 Hours

On Dec. 20, a press release from Bend Police Dept. announced that it arrested 10 people for driving under the influence of intoxicants over a 48-hour period the previous weekend. Since the beginning of 2023, Bend Police has arrested nearly 600 drivers for DUII. In addition to normal patrols, the Bend PD is working grant-funded overtime shifts to combat DUII drivers in Bend.

— Julianna LaFollette

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752

— Number of calls handled by the Deschutes County Crisis Response team from May to October, with 75% of those calls not requiring the assistance of a police officer. From this week’s News story featuring Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler.

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“‘Did you know there are four other Palestinians in Central Oregon?’ I didn’t until this happened, and now I have four other Palestinian friends and that’s fantastic. So, I want to see the light in these moments.”

—Redmond resident Karim Bouris, of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, from this week’s News story, “Two Friends Explore Common Ground.” (A longer version of that conversation is available as a podcast at bendsource.com.)

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In case by gas companies, court rules Oregon’s climate change regulations invalid

The state’s Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 20 that the three-year-old Climate Protection Program is invalid due to a failure by the state to file required disclosures. The judges said that the state’s Environmental Quality Commission didn’t comply with requirements when it voted in 2021 to create emissions rules that exceed federal rules and affect entities holding industrial air pollution permits under the federal Clean Air Act, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reports.

The program was approved in 2021, requiring fossil gas companies operating in Oregon to cut emissions, aiming for a 50% reduction by 2035 and 90% by 2050.

The gas companies said that in the process of imposing the regulations intended to cap and reduce emissions, the commission did not submit required disclosures to them and to other entities that hold federal industrial air pollution permits. State officials told the Capital Chronicle that they’ll either appeal or pursue an administrative rule change to fix the issue.

— Compiled by Nicole Vulcan

This article appears in Source Weekly December 28, 2023.