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Tuesday, November 15, 2022 • Redmond, Oregon • $1
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MIDTERM ELECTION | 2022
Fitch ahead
in tight race
for mayor
Redmond Parks District
rec center bond leading
Schimmoller trails by 229 votes,
but election still too close to call
$49M bond for new
recreation center pulls
ahead in unofficial results,
operations levy likely failing
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
Ed Fitch is leading in a tight race for mayor of
Redmond.
According to unofficial election tallies, Fitch has
a 229-vote lead over Ben Schimmoller in the race to
replace longtime mayor George
Endicott.
Fitch has 4,728 votes, Schim-
moller has 4,499, Jay Patrick has
4,338 and Charles Baer is fourth
with 213. All Redmond precincts
have been unofficially counted,
though mail-in ballots are still
Fitch
being tallied. It’s unknown
how many ballots are still to be
counted, but Deschutes County
Clerk estimated a few thousand
across the entire county.
As of press time, Fitch was not
ready to declare victory.
“If these initial votes hold it
will be a sign that Redmond is
Schimmoller
ready for a change,” said Fitch on
Election Night.
By the next morning, the count had tightened
considerably.
“This is a close race and I’m not sure I’ve won it,”
he said.
Schimmoller said felt it was “pretty unlikely” that
he would pull out the victory, but he would watch
See Mayor / A6
LOCAL
BY NICK ROSENBERGER
Redmond Spokesman
After 14 years and two failed at-
tempts to pass a recreation center
bond in 2008 and 2019, the Red-
mond Area Parks and Recreation
District is on the cusp of building a
new facility.
Supporters of the bond knew it
would be a close call heading into
election night on Tuesday and their
predictions came true: according
to the latest tallies, the $49 million
bond is 664 votes ahead.
The accompanying five-year levy
to support operations, however, was
failing by over 4,500 votes.
Election results will not be certi-
fied until December.
“It’s so close,” said Katie Hammer,
parks district executive director, of
the bond.
Hammer said if the 20-year bond
is able to pass while the levy does
not, the recreation district will build
the facility and could try to pass an
operating levy at a later date.
Zack Harmon, a park district
board member, said they have mul-
tiple options to go out for a future
levy but that it wasn’t altogether
necessary for the facility.
Matt Gilman, the chairman of
the parks district board of directors,
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
Supporters of the proposed Redmond recreation center check their phones for the first wave of election results at
Initiative Brewing on Oct. 8 in Redmond.
said he felt good being about 660
votes ahead for the bond but that
he’s not “counting his chickens.”
The levy, however, is a different
story.
“The levy is not going to pass,”
Gilman said. “I’m okay with that.”
The parks district put the levy on
the ballot, he said, because they were
trying to be as transparent as possi-
ble so that when they built the facility
they wouldn’t surprise people with
“It’s so close.”
— Katie Hammer, parks district
executive director, speaking of the
bond’s 664-vote lead
another price tag. But, he said they
don’t need to be raising the opera-
tions money right at this moment.
Had the levy passed, Gilman
previously said they’d hoped pro-
gramming and activities would
fund the facility after the five-year
levy expired. Additionally, the rec-
reation district can use the next few
years during construction to save
the funds needed to operate the
facility.
However, the district may need
to go out for another operating levy
in the future depending on costs.
See Recreation / A6
HELPING VETERANS
Election results
Central Oregon Veterans Ranch
works to restore land, people
Three in line to win council seats, A3
INSIDE
Veterans Day
Parade photos, information on local
nonprofits, A8
BY GEORGE PLAVEN
CO Media Group
The night of his 32nd birthday, Robert Shaw
went to his truck and pointed a pistol at his head,
certain he wanted to die.
A husband and father of two young children,
Shaw had been drinking — as he often did — to
blot out the the pain of trauma and abuse he suf-
fered while in the U.S. Army.
“That day was the point where I was done,”
he said. “I didn’t want to be around anybody. I
wasn’t good enough for my kids, for my wife —
no one.”
Shaw doesn’t remember exactly what hap-
pened next, only that he didn’t pull the trigger.
He woke up the next morning at his home in
Bend and several days later arranged to talk with
a peer support counselor for Deschutes County.
George Plaven/Capital Press
A sign marks the entrance into the Central Oregon
Veterans Ranch between Bend and Redmond.
The counselor recommended Shaw visit
the Central Oregon Veterans Ranch, a 19-acre
working ranch in the juniper-dotted high desert
where veterans of all ages and eras can farm, tend
animals and poultry, and lend each other emo-
tional support.
It took some convincing, but Shaw ultimately
agreed. He was no stranger to agriculture, having
participated in 4-H and FFA as a kid growing up
in Northern California.
Before enlisting in the Army, Shaw also
worked on a commercial alfalfa farm and pump-
kin patch where he did everything from field la-
bor to equipment repair.
About a month after arriving at the Central
Oregon Veterans Ranch in the summer of 2021,
Shaw said he could feel himself begin to change.
He was opening up to others. Having somewhere
to go, and something to do, gave him a renewed
sense of purpose.
See Veterans / A5
WEATHER FORECAST
INSIDE
Calendar A2
Opinion A7
Coffee Break A9
Classifieds A6
THIS WEEK’S FORECAST SPONSORED BY
Volume 113, No 9
USPS 778-040
TUESDAY
Cloudy
WEDNESDAY
Sunny
THURSDAY
Sunny
FRIDAY
Cloudy
SATURDAY
Partly cloudy
SUNDAY
Partly cloudy
MONDAY
Cloudy
41/15
47/21
46/18
38/11
39/16
42/23
46/27
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