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Championship game coverage inside Sports • Pullout section, A5-8
Bend’s Planet Fitness location and others
are appealing to the governor to roll back the
state’s restrictions on gyms • BUSINESS, A11
COVID-19 | Conflict over closures
Redmond may seek
more control over
business openings
Summit High staff asks board
to wait for vaccine before opening
BY JACKSON HOGAN
The Bulletin
BY JACKSON HOGAN
The Bulletin
F
Two days before Christmas 2020, Gov. Kate
Brown announced that school reopenings as the
COVID-19 pandemic continued would be decided
by local authorities, not state metrics.
When Redmond Mayor George Endicott heard
about that decision, he wondered if a similar move
could help local small businesses, particularly
restaurants, that are struggling financially due to
COVID-19 regulations.
orty-seven teachers and certified staff
members at Summit High School asked
Bend-La Pine Schools leaders in a let-
ter Monday to hold off on reopening schools
until they can be vaccinated. The letter was
sent to the Bend-La Pine School Board and
Superintendent Lora Nordquist late Mon-
day afternoon. It states that rising COVID-19
cases locally, as well as the recent discovery of
a new COVID-19 strain found in the United
See Redmond / A4
About 65% of unionized teachers
at the Bend school sign a letter
asking to delay in-person classes
Kingdom, are causes for waiting to bring back
high school students for in-person learning as
planned on Feb. 8.
“Rushing back to school now seems fool-
hardy, especially with the promise of a vaccine
on the near horizon,” the letter states.
Local COVID-19 case counts have begun
to rise again after a brief late-December lull,
according to data from Deschutes County
Health Services.
James Williams — an English teacher at
Summit who wrote the letter — told The Bul-
letin that unionized staff at other Bend-La Pine
high schools are working on sending the school
board their own letters before the board’s meet-
ing Tuesday night. About 65% of unionized
teachers at Summit signed his letter, he said.
See Summit / A13
BEND
DON9T LIMIT
OFF-LEASH ACCESS
Dog-friendly group
tells Bend park district:
Woman
injured on
Christmas
Day dies
Man arrested in
case not yet charged
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
The Bend woman criti-
cally injured in an alleged
Christmas Day assault
died from her injuries over
the weekend at St. Charles
Bend. The man police be-
lieve is responsible, Ran-
dall Kilby, could now face a
murder charge.
Bend Police officers ar-
rested Kilby around noon
Dec. 25, several hours af-
ter he called 911 to say
Daphne Banks had fallen
and hit her head in a house
in the 6000 block of Gran-
ite Drive.
Doctors at St. Charles
Bend told police her inju-
ries weren’t consistent with
a fall as Kilby described. He
was taken to jail on suspi-
cion of second-degree as-
sault.
See Death / A4
A
political action committee
for dogs in Central Oregon
is challenging a proposal to
limit off-leash access to the
Deschutes River in Bend
parks to one location.
Bend Park & Recreation District is in
the middle of a two-year process to up-
date its River Access and Habitat Resto-
ration Plan, which includes a proposal
to create a permanent off-leash access
point upstream from the existing site in
Riverbend Park. The new site would re-
place the existing site, said Julie Brown,
park district spokesperson.
Two other seasonal locations are also
being considered in Riverbend Park and
Farewell Bend Park.
But members of the political action
committee DogPAC believe if the dis-
TODAY’S
WEATHER
trict continues to limit permanent off-
leash access to a single site, dog owners
will continue to find informal access sites
to let their dogs swim in the river. Both
the park district and DogPAC are con-
cerned that some unofficial locations
could have steep, unsafe river banks or
access where the river’s current is too fast.
It would be better to have several ap-
proved access sites, said DogPAC mem-
ber Val Gerard.
“DogPAC is trying to help BPRD re-
duce that informal access by identifying
multiple approved sites,” Gerard said.
DogPAC is encouraging residents
to share their opinions with the park
board before the board’s next meeting
Jan. 19, when district staff is scheduled
to present recommendations for off-
leash access.
“We would like the board to under-
stand how important this issue is to
the dog owners of Bend, who comprise
Breezy, some rain
High 57, Low 41
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about half the population,” Gerard said.
A total of 20,588 dogs are currently
licensed in Deschutes County. Some es-
timates show a similar amount of dogs
are unlicensed, making the actual num-
ber of dogs much higher.
Brown said the district is welcoming
public feedback on the park plan, which
wouldn’t be finished until the fall.
“These discussions are ongoing, and
there will be more opportunities for
dog owners, and all public input, in the
months ahead,” Brown said.
The district is planning to change the
off-leash access point in Riverbend Park
because it is on Old Mill District prop-
erty. The proposed new location up-
stream would be on park district-owned
property, Brown said.
DogPac members say the new site
would only be a fraction of the riverside
park property in Bend.
See Dogs / A4
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A5-7
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
The Oregon Legislature
returned to the Capitol on
Monday amid a raging pan-
demic that has the Salem
area under an “Extreme
Risk” list for COVID-19 in-
fections.
The 60 members of the
House and 30 members of
the Senate wore face masks
and maintained 6 feet of
separation while meeting in
the chambers in the 1938 art
deco Capitol. The agenda
was to swear in members,
elect leaders and set rules
for the session. The session
won’t officially get underway
until Jan. 19.
Julia Foran, of Bend, watches
as her dog Wesley explores
along the Deschutes River
while visiting the Riverbend
Dog Park on Thursday.
“These discussions are
ongoing, and there will
be more opportunities
for dog owners, and
all public input, in the
months ahead.”
— Julie Brown, with the Bend
Park & Recreation District
See Salem / A13
The Bulletin
ù
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 119, No. 10, 14 pages, 1 section
DAILY
BY KYLE SPURR
The Bulletin
Legislature
returns as
COVID-19
crisis rages
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