THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2022 A5
Sports & Recreation
Submitted photo
The Redmond SunWest Builders baseball team won the Single-A American Legion state champi-
onship in Aurora on Sunday.
American Legion squad
wins state tournament
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
CO Media Group
A trip to the state tournament was sup-
posed to be the high point of the summer
for the Redmond SunWest Builders Amer-
ican Legion baseball team.
But it proved to be much more than that
after the squad won four of five games to
capture the Single-A American Legion
state championship at North Marion High
School in Aurora this past weekend.
“State was just icing on the cake,” said
Redmond coach Marc Horner. “We went
in playing well and the kids had some great
chemistry. All of them had a pretty big
role.”
The team of players 19 and younger
from Redmond beat Ole Athletics of Eu-
gene 14-4 in the championship game on
Sunday to advance to the Northwest Class
A Regional Tournament in Vernal, Utah,
starting Aug. 5.
It was the second time during the tourna-
ment that Redmond beat Ole Athletics by
10 runs. Redmond also accrued wins over
teams from Roseburg and North Marion,
with its one loss coming against the Colum-
bia Gorge Hustlers of The Dalles after al-
ready securing a spot in the title game.
During the five games, Redmond scored
47 total runs. Not all of them were needed,
because the pitching staff allowed just 13
runs — no more than four in a single game
— during the tournament.
“We scored more runs than we have
scored all year,” Horner said. “I think up
and down the lineup we hit the ball really
well. It was a lot of fun.”
Of the 16 players on SunWest, 12 of
them played for Redmond High School
this past spring.
“In my 25 years of coaching, this is one of
the most mature teams I’ve been a part of,”
said Horner, who previously coached at Red-
mond High for 12 years.
Now Redmond will test itself against the
best teams from Alaska, Montana, Wy-
oming and Utah in an eight-team dou-
ble-elimination tournament in Utah.
A team from Oregon has won the title
eight times since 1986, with the most re-
cent coming in 2013 (Central Point Com-
ets).
But according to Horner, the Northwest
Class A Regional, while on a bigger stage
and against the region’s top competition,
might not be as intense as the state tour-
nament, mainly because the team has now
reached the pinnacle of the American Le-
gion season.
“It is not as nerve-wracking,” he said,
“because it is our last tournament.”
█
Reporter: 541-383-0307,
brathbone@bendbulletin.com
Oasis
Continued from A1
It takes a village
The location of the site, a sticky
issue that has slowed starting on
the project, is also getting closer to
a final spot. Current plans call for
the shelter to be just north of the
Redmond Airport on the north
side of U.S. Highway 126. The
area is part of a 10-acre plot that
Deschutes County designated for
addressing homelessness.
The village, however, only
needs two acres for it’s plan to
include a garden area, dog run,
long-term parking/storage for
RVs and 20 housing units to be
built in conjunction with Hayden
Homes, Heart of Oregon Corps
and Redmond High School con-
struction technology classes.
HOC is set to build 15 units
while one or two units will be
built per semester by Redmond
High School Construction Tech-
nology classes for a total of three
to six units.
“It’s a twofer for the commu-
nity: support Oasis Village and
offer our youth an opportunity
to learn marketable construc-
tion skills,” said Bohac in a recent
press release. “Partnerships like
this and community support are
key to addressing homelessness
in our community.”
“We’re really proud to be
working with the youth in our
community,” Cook said. “We’re
hoping this isn’t a one-and-done
project [with Redmond High
School].”
The units themselves, which
are set to be 90-120 square feet
“tiny bedrooms,” are modest,
but have enough space for a bed,
desk and closet fit to house 1-2
adults per unit. And, because
they are not permanent struc-
tures, Oasis Village has some
flexibility in the layout of units
and can organize them and
move them as needed.
The village will accept res-
idents for six months to two
years, as long as they show prog-
ress on an individual work plan
toward stable housing. Pets will
be allowed, but drugs and alco-
hol will not.
The current plan is to build
20 units before taking a pause to
consult with the county “to make
sure everybody is happy with
where we are in the process and
any midcourse corrections we
need to make before increasing
ultimately to 30-40 units,” Cook
said.
The village will act as the third
transitional shelter in Redmond,
after Bethlehem Inn and Shep-
herd’s House, which is slated to
open in 2022. But Oasis Village
may be easier to access. Bethle-
hem Inn has a higher barrier to
entry while Shepherd’s House is
mostly faith-based. Oasis Village,
meanwhile, will act as a low-bar-
rier, village-style shelter for those
who may not fit the criteria for
the other options.
The Oasis board is conducting
monthly discussions with other
groups building shelter villages in
Central Oregon. Because of their
timeline, they have the advantage
of being able to learn from oth-
ers’ mistakes, Cook said.
“We’re all working together to
make these developments hap-
pen,” he said.
Missing pieces
Despite all these efforts, how-
ever, there are still some missing
pieces to the overall response to
homelessness in Redmond. Oa-
sis Village, Shepherd’s House and
Bethlehem Inn all act as transi-
tional housing, but there is still
a lack of temporary supportive
housing and permanent sup-
portive housing.
Because of this, people may
have a place to stay for a limited
period of time, but quickly find
themselves back on the street.
The average stay at Bethlehem
Inn is about 30 days, according
to Tara Feurtado, program direc-
tor at the shelter.
Long-term supportive hous-
ing, along with affordable hous-
ing, is still missing — which can
be needed as people claw their
way out of poverty and home-
lessness.
The efforts by Bethlehem Inn,
Shepherd’s House and Oasis Vil-
lage, however, are still integral to
the overall success of Central Or-
egon’s response to homelessness.
“We need all of these pathways
for people out of homelessness
and we need them as fast as we
can get them,” said Phil Chang,
Deschutes County Commis-
sioner.
In Redmond alone, the board
of Oasis Village estimate around
200 individuals struggling with
homelessness based on point in
time counts and numbers from
the winter shelter, which are un-
dercounts of the whole popula-
tion, Cook said.
Looking ahead
There are still hurdles for Oasis
Village to vault over — some re-
lated to the rising cost of construc-
tion materials, others to bureau-
cratic red tape. But, much of it is
related to the location of the site.
The units will need access to
utilities such as water, sewer and
power, which will be difficult
to connect with the utility lines
running south of U.S. Highway
126 and with the hard rock un-
derneath the site.
“We’re trying to be cost-effec-
tive,” said Hayes McCoy, the civil
engineer for Oasis Village.
Additionally, the location
needs to be within walking dis-
tance of businesses and ser-
vices. This may get easier, how-
ever, as conversations to expand
17th Street continue. Currently,
the only way to enter the vil-
lage would be from the high-
way, which is not convenient for
walking and biking. With 17th
Street going past, or through the
village, access would be much
better, McCoy said.
Once it connects, “all the sud-
den it’ll just be magical,” said
County Commissioner Tony
DeBone. “A lot better access to
that property.”
Getting involved
For those interested in Oa-
sis Village, attendees at the De-
schutes County Fair will be able
to see for themselves a recently
constructed unit sponsored by
Redmond Rotary to help kick off
their fundraising campaign.
“We’re going to be encour-
aging the community to get in-
volved,” Cook said. “Sponsor
these units and really be a part of
Oasis Village and for Oasis Vil-
lage to be a part of our commu-
nity. When I first saw these inte-
rior units, I was almost in tears
because it is far beyond what I
envisioned possible in that space
and we’re just really looking for-
ward to be able to bring this to
Redmond.”
█
Reporter: nrosenberger@
redmondspokesman.com