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Vandals damage Redmond park bathrooms
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
Vandals struck five bath-
rooms in Redmond parks,
causing at least $50,000 in
damage and forcing the facil-
ities to close for more than a
month.
As of April 26, restrooms
are closed for repairs at Sam
Johnson, Fairhaven, American
Legion, Kalama and Quince
parks.
Vandals broke toilets and
sinks, clogged plumbing,
scrawled obscene graffiti on
walls and more.
“Some, apparently youth,
have gone in there with basalt
rocks and destroyed the bath-
rooms,” said Mayor George
Endicott. He called the van-
dalism “very disturbing.”
According to the Redmond
Police Department, the park
bathrooms opened for the
season just two weeks ago.
The cost to repair and replace
damage to the toilets, sinks
and other amenities is esti-
mated to be $10,000-$15,000
per location.
According to Heather Cas-
saro, communications man-
ager for the city, the parks
department plans to replace
Flight school
to help fill
pilot shortage
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
Forrest Reading was looking for-
ward to getting behind the controls
of an airplane for the first time.
“A little nervous, a lot excited,” he
said on the tarmac of the Redmond
Airport.
Reading is a new student at the
Hillsboro Aero Academy, a private
flight school with a campus in Red-
mond. Reading grew up in Pasco,
Wash., and worked as a gate agent for
Horizon Air.
Over the years, Reading would
chat with pilots as they waited to
board their planes in Pasco. He came
to realize that he, too, could make a
career out of flying. After talking it
over with his wife, he decided to go
back to school and get his pilot’s li-
cense.
“It’s a big chance and a big use of
time and money,” he said. “But it’s
gonna be worth it.”
Reading is exactly the kind of stu-
dent the industry is hoping to attract.
Historically, most airline pilots came
either from the military or from a
traditional four-year college. Many
airlines required a bachelor’s degree,
in addition to the numerous licenses
required to pilot a plane. That’s an
expensive proposition for young
people and those considering a ca-
reer change. It costs roughly most
students roughly $70,000-$90,000 to
secure all the necessary licenses and
training required to fly a major air-
craft.
“In the past, there were so many
applicants and a degree was used to
narrow the field,” said Nik Kresse,
vice president of airplane operations
for Hillsboro Aero. “Now, there’s a se-
rious shortage of pilots and everyone
is being creative about ways to fill
those spots.”
Boeing estimated that major air-
lines will need to hire 645,000 pilots
in the next 15 years — with 212,000
of those based in North America.
To meet the demand, Horizon Air
and Alaska Airlines partnered with
Hillsboro Aero to start the Ascend
Pilot Academy. The academy aims to
the porcelain sinks and toilets
with stainless steel amenities,
which should be more imper-
vious to vandalism. Cassaro
said there are video cameras
in some of the parks where
the vandalism occurred, but
police continue to look for
more information. Most city
parks are open until one hour
after dusk and the restrooms
have remained unlocked
overnight.
Lieutenant Jesse Petersen
of the Redmond Police De-
partment said that they always
increase officer patrols of the
parks during the summer
months once school is out, but
he expected those to increase
immediately.
“We will pay more attention
to them, given the trends that
we’re seeing,” said city man-
ager Keith Witcosky. “We hav-
en’t ever seen it at this level, in
terms of the disrespect of the
infrastructure.”
If you have information re-
garding vandalism, or witness
a crime in-progress, report it
to the Redmond Police De-
partment non-emergency line
at 541-693-6911 or online at
https://redmondoregon.gov/
reportacrime.
Photo courtesy Redmond Police Department
One of the park bathrooms damaged recently in Redmond by vandals.
LAY OF THE LAND
New homeowner looks to create School of Ranch
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
M
ark Gross
knows he fits
the stereotypes.
He grew up in New York, then
spent much of his successful ca-
reer making good money in the
Bay Area. He is a progressive, left-
wing Jewish man who touched
down in Central Oregon just two
years ago.
He and his wife snapped up
10 acres outside Terrebonne that
offer stunning views of the Cas-
cades. On clear days, you can see
all the way to Mount Hood.
“I know we’re lucky,” he said. “I
definitely know it.”
Before he moved to the prop-
erty, Gross had never used a
chainsaw. He had never attached
a plow to an ATV and cleared a
snowy driveway. And he’d never
had to fix that ATV on a cold,
dark morning when the driveway
really needs to be cleared. You
know — the basic requirements
of owning property in Central
Oregon.
“I quickly discovered if you
don’t how to learn to do it your-
self, you’re going to kill yourself,”
he said.
In an attempt to improve safety
and knowledge of home and land
improvements among new resi-
dents of Central Oregon, Gross
is starting the School of Ranch.
He describes it as a casual, social
group that he hopes can be a place
where new landowners can talk
about problems they’ve encoun-
tered and skills they’d like to learn.
He also hopes that long-
time residents who hope to pass
along their priorities and knowl-
edge show up, as well. The goal,
he says, is to pull together a
Photo by Tim Trainor
Mark Gross drives his ATV on his 10-acre property outside of Terrebonne. He is hoping to connect new landowners
with old hands who know how to care for rural homes and ranchlands.
solutions-focused group made up
of both rural newbies and folks
who know the Central Oregon
landscape like the back of their
hands.
Urban upbringing
Gross is a fast learner who has
picked up a number of different
skills throughout his varied ca-
reer. He was a professional poker
player for a spell, then became a
high school teacher and later cre-
ated an educational software sys-
tem that made its way into class-
rooms nationwide.
But learning how to care for of
a piece of the High Desert, and
become self-sufficient on land
outside city services, has been an
entirely new challenge.
“In my life it has always been a
software problem,” he said. “Out
here, it’s a hardware problem.”
The problems — and possible
solutions — were innumerable
and overwhelming.
“The biggest yard I’ve ever had
was an eighth of acre. The only
question was where to put the
plant,” he laughed. “Now I have 80
of those (eighth acres) — it’s more
about terraforming and caring for
the land than putting in one plant.
What’s one plant going to do?”
The old hand
Bob Baker, 74, has a lot more
experience on a lot more land.
The Redmond resident grew up
on his grandfather’s cattle, horse
and sheep ranch near Bakersfield,
California. The ranch, older than
California itself, sprawled over
more than 2,000 acres.
“My riches are all my memories
growing up down there,” he said.
“I’d take a horse and go out riding
and ride all day and never leave
the place.”
Baker was drafted and served a
year in Vietnam. After he got out
of the Army, he took a job as a te-
legrapher for the Southern Pacific
Railway.
“The telegraph was rapidly dis-
appearing to make way for the
telephone,” he said. “But I learned
the old way.”
His wife at the time was from
Central Oregon, so he lived here
for a while. Then he went to train
dispatch school and was sent to
stations throughout the West, dis-
patching and scheduling trains
from the Canadian border all the
way down to Mexico. He retired
in 2008 and bought 5 acres of
See Ranch / A5
See Flight / A4
Houseless single mom clings to future hopes
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
When sheriff’s deputies evicted
Tessy Moon from her Redmond home,
she told her children they were going
camping.
At first, it seemed like fun, but two
and a half years later, it’s anything but
that.
Being houseless has taken more
imagination and hard work than
Moon could have ever imag-
ined.
Getting drinking water and
propane for electricity and
heat to the camp site requires
a half mile or more walk and
a plan on how to carry the
heavy tanks across unstable
Moon
terrain.
She used rocks and found wire fence
material to carve a playground out of
sagebrush and hard-packed
dirt for her kids to play and
ride their bikes.
Throughout it all, Moon
has remained hopeful that one
day soon her family won’t be
crammed into a fifth-wheel
RV in the sagebrush of a re-
mote area of Redmond.
“We try every day,” said Moon, a
36-year-old mother of four. “It’s hard to
stay clean when you’re homeless.”
Their family van, which doesn’t
have a current registration, runs, but
only when there’s extra money for gas,
Moon said. So most days, she and her
family walk or use the one bicycle they
own. Just a week ago, she was on her
bicycle in Redmond when she was hit
by a motorist. Moon suffered just a few
scrapes and bruises and the bicycle is
See Hope / A4
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Volume 112, No. 36
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