Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
Saturday • March 27, 2021
SISTERS VOLLEYBALL FINDS WINS
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS, B1
Coronavirus
in Oregon
MADRAS
FROM FARM TO TABLE
Governor:
Vaccination
eligibility
moved up
By Gary a. WarNEr aNd SuZaNNE rOIG
The Bulletin
Submitted photos
devon and Cheri Bowen run the Green drive Mercantile in Culver. the Bowens plan to be part of the new Farm-to-table market in Madras that will open
Memorial day weekend in the plaza outside City Hall.
Madras farmers market highlights local agricultural products
By KyLE SPurr • The Bulletin
to sell their products in the region. They often rely on wholesale orders and people traveling to their farm stores. To
better showcase the county’s agricultural goods, the city of Madras created a new Farm-to-Table market that will
open Memorial Day Weekend in the plaza outside City Hall.
The market will be open every Friday from 2
to 6 p.m. May 28 to Sept. 3.
Lysa Vattimo, city recorder and spokesperson
who developed the idea for the market, said it
will be a first for Madras. An existing Saturday
market mostly features
“If there are travelers, arts and crafts, while
new market will ex-
it could be something the
clusively offer products
from Jefferson County,
nice from them to
such as meat, eggs and
stop and learn a
vegetables.
“This Farm-to-Ta-
little bit about our
ble market is going to
community and
be really unique,” Vat-
said. “It will only
what we do out here.” timo
be open to farms and
ranches in Jefferson
— Cheri Bowen, who
County. We really want
runs a 5-acre farm in
Culver with her husband, to support our local
growers.”
devon
Vattimo, who will
be the market liaison,
said she is still gauging interest from local farms
and determining how many vendors will be at
the market each week. She expects the market to
draw large crowds of locals and visitors who will
be passing through Madras during the summer.
Colt Bowen,
4, helps milk
one of the
family cows,
Buttercup,
at the family
farm in Culver.
the Bowens
run the Green
drive Mer-
cantile on the
property and
plan to be part
of the new
Farm-to-table
market in Ma-
dras that will
open Memo-
rial day Week-
end in the
plaza outside
City Hall.
TODAY’S
WEATHER
sition hall at the Deschutes
ing together. Wirkkala
County fairgrounds that’s
claims he acted in self-de-
filling in for the Deschutes
fense after Ryder strangled
County Circuit Court.
and tried to rape him. A
Wirkkala faces a life sen-
jury convicted Wirkkala
tence if convicted.
in 2014, but in 2018, the
“This event was the
Oregon Court of Appeals
most traumatic moment of
vacated that conviction
Wirkkala: “I
because, it ruled, the jury
was defending my life and being here and
discussing it is bringing it
heard a portion of a police
myself and my
back and yeah, it’s pretty
interview after Wirkkala
family in my
tough,” he told the jury.
had invoked his right to an home.”
The state rested its case
attorney.
Friday was the sixth day of Wirk- on Thursday. That afternoon, med-
ical doctor Dan Field testified for
kala’s second trial, held in an expo-
Mostly sunny
High 70, Low 43
Page a8
INDEX
Local entities
mull over
potential
state guns bill
the defense the scratch marks on
Wirkkala’s neck visible after the
shooting appeared to be the
result of being strangled from the
front.
Though Wirkkala has sat at the
defendant’s table over the last eight
years, it’s Ryder whose character has
been parsed more in the courtroom
and by the media.
Ryder, 31, was a software engi-
neer at G5 Digital Marketing in
Bend. He was married and had a
2-year-old child.
The Bend-La Pine Schools community,
as well as local city and county government
officials, had mixed reactions to a bill pass-
ing through the Oregon Legislature that
would ban firearms from state buildings
and potentially give more local control over
concealed, permitted firearms in publicly
owned spaces.
OREGON
Under the proposed
LEGISLATURE
bill, local entities like the
school district, would
• Bill barring
have to vote on whether
firearms from
state buildings
they want to follow a state
passes Senate,
ban. One potential im-
a3
pact: The bill would make
it easier for Bend-La Pine
Schools to prohibit parents from bringing
concealed, but permitted weapons onto
school grounds during parent-teacher con-
ferences. That would be welcomed by Bend
High School history teacher Amy Sabbadini.
“I’m not okay with concealed weapons
in schools,” she said. “I’ve been in many a
meeting with parents that were very tense,
and I’ve never liked the idea that one of
them could be armed.”
See Wirkkala / A4
See Guns / A7
Defense makes its case as Wirkkala testifies in retrial
Luke Wirkkala took the stand in
his defense Friday, insisting once
again he had no choice but to shoot
his houseguest David Ryder in
2013.
“I was defending myself and my
family in my home,” Wirkkala said
to the question posed by his lawyer:
Why did he shoot Ryder?
It’s a question the jury will ul-
timately consider in the retrial of
Wirkkala, 40, who’s accused of kill-
ing Ryder after a day spent drink-
BEND-LA PINE SCHOOLS,
POLITICIANS
By JaCKSON HOGaN aNd BrENNa VISSEr
The Bulletin
See Madras / A7
By GarrEtt aNdrEWS
The Bulletin
See Vaccines / A7
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A5-6
B6
B3-4
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A6
B5
A6
Local/State
Lottery
Obituaries
A2-3
B2
A4, 6
Puzzles
Sports
B4
B1-2
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 119, No. 74, 14 pages, 2 sections
DAILY
J
efferson County has a reputation as a rich agriculture community, but farms and ranches do not have many places
Deschutes County received nearly double
its normal allotment of COVID-19 vaccines
this week, health officials say.
And while Gov. Kate Brown on Friday
moved up the timetable for eligibility, the
county is better able to respond by getting as
many people vaccinated in the three 12 hour
shifts at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo
Center as possible, said Molly Wells Darling,
deputy incident commander for the De-
schutes County Incident Management Re-
sponse Team.
“This puts us in a pretty good place,”
Wells Darling said. “We’re very excited that
we’re receiving more vaccines and we’ll be
able to push through our mass vaccination
clinics next week.”
The county will receive 8,190 first doses
of COVID-19 vaccines. Residents who have
signed up should be receiving text or email
messages on Friday asking them to schedule
their time to receive their shot, she said. Ad-
ditional messages will be emailed or texted
on Sunday.
To get as many residents vaccinated
as possible, the county urges residents to
pre-register online by going onto www.cen-
traloregoncovidvaccine.com. When there’s
availability the county will email or text a
link to schedule a time for an appointment.
The link is good for 48 hours, Wells Darling
said.
Residents unable to go online can call
541-699-5109, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday
through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 pm. week-
ends.
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