Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
TUESDAY • May 25, 2021
Oakland A’s coming to Portland on a baseball fact-finding mission
SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
Another year without a Pet Parade
Bend park district can’t handle such a large event with 5 weeks to go; third cancellation since 1932
BY MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
T
he Bend Pet Parade, usually held
on July 4, has been canceled for
the second year in a row.
The Bend Park & Recreation Dis-
trict, which organizes the parade, said
it is not feasible to provide a safe and
enjoyable community event due to its
size. The Old-Fashioned Festival held
in Drake Park after the parade has
also been canceled.
The district says the event typically
sees 6,000 to 8,000 participants and
spectators. Managing a large event in
early July would post challenges, ac-
Bill Inman, of Bend, holds his dog, Meadow, at the
2015 Pet Parade in downtown Bend. Bulletin file
cording to a release from the district
Monday.
Don Horton, the park’s executive
director, said there were multiple rea-
sons to cancel the parade and festi-
val. Social distancing challenges for
COVID-19 was one problem, he said.
Another issue was timing.
“It takes months, not weeks to plan
events like these, and therefore we
can’t look five weeks into the future to
predict what may happen,” said Hor-
ton. “At this point, we could not put
on a safe event given the time con-
straints.
See Parade / A13
COVID-19 outbreak
La Pine
High cases
push kids
to online
only again
Vaccination rates are much lower
than in other Deschutes County cities
BY JACKSON HOGAN
The Bulletin
A COVID-19 outbreak at La Pine High
School that forced nearly half its staff and stu-
dents into quarantine has prompted school of-
ficials to send students back online for nearly
two weeks.
As of Friday afternoon, 15 staff members
and students from La Pine High had been di-
agnosed with COVID-19, which resulted in the
massive quarantine, according to a letter sent to
families Friday by interim principal Anne-Ma-
rie Schmidt.
That quarantine resulted in many classes be-
ing taught by substitutes, and some students be-
coming nervous about contracting COVID-19,
Schmidt told The Bulletin. So although it was
frustrating putting students back into distance
learning, it was the best decision, she said.
“I would describe it as hitting the pause
button for a minute,” Schmidt told The Bul-
letin Monday. “It could help those cases from
spreading, give everybody some distance.”
La Pine High students are expected to return
to in-person school on June 4 — the same day
seniors graduate. School ends for the rest of the
school’s students on June 17.
Bend road projects continue —
and in some cases, open early
See La Pine / A13
BEND
Low-barrier shelter
to open at spot of
old warming shelter
trian crossings, street lighting, and landscaping between
sidewalks and curbs, according to the city website.
This section of road, which has been closed since No-
vember , will open Friday evening, Oster said.
This work went faster because contractors and neigh-
bors agreed to fully close the road instead of keeping one
lane open to traffic, Oster said.
“It’s really ideal to do it all at one time,” Oster said.
Before Friday, one lane of the road will be open on
Murphy Road from Country Club Drive while each lane
is paved one at a time. Crews will also be pouring sidewalks
and doing landscaping and irrigation work.
The final phase of the Murphy Road improvements will
begin soon with the BNSF railroad bridge overcrossing
and extending Murphy Road to connect Brosterhous Road
to 15th Street. Improvements include making shared-use
paths, safe crossings and bike lanes.
This work will happen through the end of the summer.
BY BRENNA VISSER • The Bulletin
A paving crew
with Knife River
Corp. works on SE
Murphy Road near
SE Parrell Road in
Bend on Monday.
Murphy Road
improvements are
ahead of schedule.
Dean Guernsey/
The Bulletin
E
ven as the world stood more still due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, transportation projects
in Bend have not slowed.
Ryan Oster, the engineering and infrastruc-
ture planning director for the city, said despite
the pandemic, several major transportation projects in
town have stayed on budget and on schedule.
A new roundabout at Columbia Street and Colorado
Avenue was completed May 14. The city will now turn its
attention to building a roundabout at the intersection of
Columbia Street and Simpson Avenue, which is closed
and has detours, Oster said. Construction began on May
17 and will be finish sometime in August.
The city also recently finished work to modernize Mur-
phy Road between Country Club and Parrell Road three
months ahead of schedule.
Street upgrade improvements include a two-way left-
turn lane, shared-use paths, bike lanes, protected pedes-
See Roadwork / A13
BY BRENNA VISSER
The Bulletin
The building formally used as a warming
shelter in Bend will reopen as a low-barrier
homeless shelter starting June 1, according to
the city of Bend.
It will become Bend’s first long-term,
low-barrier homeless shelter, according to
Shelly Smith, a senior analyst with the city of
Bend.
The Shepherd’s House, a nonprofit that helps
homeless people, will operate the shelter at 275
NE Second St. The shelter will run seven days a
week from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. for at least the next
six to nine months, according to the city.
A low-barrier shelter does not exclude any-
one based on anything other than being able
to cooperate within the shelter, compared with
a high-barrier shelter such as Bethlehem Inn,
which does not allow people on drugs.
See Shelter / A13
Vaccinated-only seating plan gets approval in Oregon
The Thursday tip-off of the NBA
Western Conference playoff game be-
tween the Portland Trail Blazers and
Denver Nuggets will be the first big test
for Oregon’s newly approved vaccinated
sections at arenas, theaters and other
businesses.
“We are thrilled to partner with the
Governor and Oregon Health Authority
TODAY’S
WEATHER
as the first indoor sports venue in Ore-
gon with vaccinated sections,” Portland
Trail Blazers President Chris McGowan
said Monday. “Rip City has shown us
such tremendous support throughout the
season.”
Gov. Kate Brown announced the pol-
icy early Monday, saying fans going to the
Trail Blazers games at the Moda Center
would be among the first to try out the
new plan.
Some clouds
High 59, Low 37
Page A13
INDEX
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A11
A14
A9-10
“When fans left the Moda Center last
March, it was one of the first signs this
pandemic was about to change our lives
in ways we hadn’t previously imagined,”
Brown said. “Vaccines are the key to our
return to normal life.”
Venues, businesses and “faith institu-
tions” can still opt to remain with their
current, more restrictive health and safety
measures, according to Brown spokes-
man Charles Boyle. But after verifying
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A7
A8
A7
Kid Scoop
Local/State
Lottery
A12
A2-3
A6
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A4
A10
A5-7
vaccination, those who are in the new
special sections are not subject to mask,
physical distancing or capacity limits that
are still in place for other sections.
Multnomah County, home to the
Moda Center, recently hit Brown’s target
of 65% vaccination rate among residents.
The mark triggers a drop to the looser
rules of the state’s lower risk tier for
COVID-19 infection.
See Vaccinated / A4
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 1 section
11
Number of COVID-19 cases
reported in Deschutes
County on Monday — the
lowest since late March.
Full chart on A2
Also: Testing’s value
shrinks as vaccines beat
back the virus, A4
DAILY
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[