Special
South County Presentation
by Kathy Matthews of
“In the News for La Pine and Surrounding Communities”
On
Friday, January 15, 2016, the La Pine Chamber of Commerce and the Sunriver
Chamber of Commerce held their annual joint meeting and breakfast at Thousand
Trails RV Resort off of Century Drive.
Anne
Gawith and Tony DeBone welcomed people to the meeting, which had been held during
the fall in previous years. There were
close to 200 people in attendance; the largest number yet.
There
is a lot of excitement and numerous plans for Southern Deschutes County in 2016. This year, Deschutes County turns 100-years-old,
the City of La Pine turns 10-years-old, the Newberry Crater Monument turns 25, and
this will be the 40th year of La Pine’s Frontier Days Celebration.
In place of announcements, the schedule of event sheet was handed out to highlight the fun:
The
first speaker on the agenda was Todd Dunkelberg, Director of the Deschutes
Public Library.
Todd
told us that in 1998, the Deschutes Public Library separated from the county
and became a special district with its own funding base. There are libraries in La Pine, Sunriver,
Sisters, Redmond and two in Bend. The
Deschutes Public Library offers the same service in all towns.
The strategic
plan for the library in coming years includes:
·
People - Doubling the number of people that
they serve,
·
Place - Double the amount of square footage over
current space, because over the next 30 years, 100,000 people are expected to
move into DC.
·
Platform – Connecting people with all library
services
There
are now early learning spaces at the libraries.
This brings in families, and in La Pine alone there has been a 10%
increase in visits.
Another
thing that people may not realize is that the libraries in Deschutes County have
a strong digital presence. People can
now download books to read on their phones or computers for free. They also offer wireless printing for a small
charge.
The
DCL is very helpful to businesses. They
have a large database that businesses can use, including demographic
information and reports. You can
schedule a local librarian for 90 minutes to show you how things work.
The
DCL is also helpful to non-profit agencies.
They can help you find out where the funders are and how to write grants
for your organization.
There
is now a county law library, with access to the physical books as well as
online info.
The
next person to speak at the meeting was Bob Bryant of ODOT, who spoke about the
Deschutes County Capital projects as well as other improvements of HWY 97 from
the Columbia Gorge to the California Border.
Bob told us that eventually, there will be a four-lane divided highway
with a concrete barrier from Sunriver to La Pine. Below are some of the things that ODOT is
working on over the next couple of years.
#1 –
US 97/Wickiup Junction: Work
will resume on the overpass as soon as weather and the ground permit. This project is costing $11 million dollars
in construction costs, with a total amount being spent of $17 million.
To
find out more about the project, you can check out these links:
#2 –
US 97/Romaine Village-Lava Butte: There are plans of a safety barrier all the
way down, with an open space for accesss to the High Desert Museum. This will be completed during the summer of
2016.
#3 –
US97/South Century Dr. (USFS Boundary Rd): Beginning in 2016, due to the high demand on
this section of the highway, a four-lane separated section to La Pine will be
worked on. The cost of this project will
be between 20-25 million dollars.
#4-
US97 Bend to Spring Creek:
Variable speed limit signage will be put into place, like HWY 26 has
over Mt. Hood. The speed limit is
legally 65 mph now, and some from out of town don’t take into consideration
hazardous travel conditions.
#5 –
US97 Sunriver Interchange: Scheduled for 2018, pavement work and also work on the La Pine
Streetscape.
#6 –
US97 Corridor Freight Plan: Scheduled for 2016, planning will be
continued for truck traffic. Truck
traffic is continuing to grow and there needs to be a lot more options for them
to park up and down the HWY 97 corridor.
Chris Doty from the Deschutes County Road Department then talked to us for a few minutes.
Chris’
big news was that the dirt road part of Huntington Rd in La Pine will be paved
this year, and so will the Deer Run subdivision. Turn lanes will also be installed. The 1.8 million dollar project will begin this
summer.
In
addition to that, a $1 million dollar project will begin in 2016 for the more
and more dangerous Burgess/Day Road/Pine Forest intersection. The county will need to get easements for
this, and that is where it might take some time to get everything done, but
they are working on it.
Steve
Renke of Deschutes County’s 9-1-1 District was the last speaker. (Sheriff Shane Nelson was scheduled to talk,
but was helping out in Harney County and was unable to attend.)
The
Deschutes County 9-1-1 Service District is replacing an end of life radio system this
year. They had hired a consulting firm
to help with this and it was going to cost $13 million dollars. Then they realized that the State of Oregon was
doing the same thing and are now teaming up with them. That cut the cost in half for the county, and
now it will only be $6.5 million. They
have been saving up money for the replacement so that part is already to go,
and the new system should be up and running by October of this year.
There
will be a district levy on the ballot in May to save up for the next upgrade,
which is anticipated in another 20 years.
If passed, it will amount to 6.32 cents more per $1,000.
9-1-1
is currently working on having a dedicated phone operator and dedicated fire
dispatcher. As it is now, the one person
on duty handles a lot of calls at the same time.
Tony
DeBone let us know at this point that we can schedule a tour to see how
everything works at 9-1-1 if we want to.
After
that, there was a drawing for free crab feed tickets and that was about it.
I do
want to take the opportunity to thank our county commissioners, Tammy Baney,
Tony De Bone and Al Unger for all of their dedicated hard work. Also, thank you to all the people who work
hard to keep our county a great place to live, and to the La Pine and Sunriver
Chamber of Commerce’s.
I
scanned the flyers that they gave us and have posted them below.
Thank you to today's sponsor, La Pine Redi Mix and Matthews Construction:
