SAturdAy • May 29, 2021 • Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
BUYING A HOME
MILLENNIALS USE CREATIVITY AND PATIENCE • BUSINESS, A5
COVID-19 in Central Oregon
BEND RESIDENTS ADJUST
TO LIFE WITHOUT MASKS
Merkley:
Money
needed
to avert
wildfires
By PEtEr WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Visitors stroll along Brooks Alley on Wednesday during the Bend Farmers Market.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
By KyLE SPurr • The Bulletin
A
t Bend’s Riverbend Park this week, Kira Lacis enjoyed leaving her mask at home. The Bend accountant, who moved in
December from Upstate New York, would have worn a mask a few months ago as she sat in the park surrounded by
joggers, bicyclists and people walking together or with their dogs. Some in the passing crowd wore masks, others did not.
But after a week of rain and
cloudy weather, the sun felt nice
on Lacis’ face. She was comfort-
able without a mask as she sat on
a blanket and read a book on her
tablet.
“We’ve all been through a lot,”
she said. “It does feel good. As
long as people keep doing what
they need to do to stay safe.”
For many Bend residents, this
Memorial Day Weekend feels
much different than it did last
year, when the pandemic was in
its early stages. People feel more
comfortable spending time out-
doors and many have adjusted to
the social distancing and mask
wearing guidelines indoors.
But those rules have changed
constantly in recent weeks, which
has left as much confusion as
excitement. Customers at gro-
cery stores have grown frustrated
and visitors don’t know if Bend
has the same mask rules as their
hometowns.
“It’s a very confusing time,”
Lacis said. “If you go into a store,
you’re not sure. But you kind of
assume you should wear a mask.”
See Pandemic / A7
To wear or not to wear? Mask
rules leave some folks confused
By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
Even after months of COVID-19 vacci-
nations, living in the pandemic is still con-
fusing for Central Oregonians when going
out to shops, restaurants, events, and ev-
erywhere in between. When buying milk
at the grocery store or hiking on a local
trail, do you still need to wear a mask?
You may have found yourself asking store
workers this question or checking business
windows for mask policy updates. We asked
around to learn more about where you still
need to mask up and where it’s OK to leave
the darn thing in your pocket.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
See Masks / A7
Visitors fill the sidewalk along Wall Street in Bend.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley says he’s hoping
to use his new subcommittee chairman-
ship to direct federal money toward pro-
tecting and improving the nation’s vast
public forests.
Given the 2020 Labor Day wildfires
that ravaged Oregon, and the future
prospect of a drier climate in the North-
west and elsewhere, Merkley said there’s
plenty of work to be funded.
“We know that these more aggressively
destructive fire seasons are going to keep
coming our way,” he told reporters on a
conference call Thursday. “Fire seasons
are getting longer, forests are getting
drier, so we have to do a lot more at the
front end to try to reduce the ferocity of
those blazes. That means a lot more for-
est management and prescribed burns —
and a lot of good jobs.”
The Oregon Democrat spoke the day
after he convened a hearing of the Senate
appropriations subcommittee that over-
sees budgets for the Interior Department
and related agencies, including the Forest
Service, which is part of the Agriculture
Department. Among the witnesses was
Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen.
Merkley took over as subcommittee
chairman four months ago, when Dem-
ocrats became the Senate’s majority party
with the tie-breaking vote of Vice Presi-
dent Kamala Harris. He sits on five other
appropriations subcommittees, including
agriculture.
“I took the chairmanship to make the
case for much more substantial invest-
ments in forest management, to support
and increase fire resilience, and to have
the best policies possible for the forests in
fighting climate chaos,” he said.
Funding priorities
Among his priorities are boosting
spending on forest collaboratives and
work to reduce wildfire threats, such as
forest thinning and prescribed burning.
Merkley secured a doubling of spend-
ing authority, from $40 million to $80
million annually, in the 2018 farm bill for
collaboratives. They draw together dis-
parate interests — timber industry and
environmental groups — to find ways to
restore forests. But Merkley said his next
goal is to get Congress to approve full
funding for them in the federal budget
for the coming year.
Merkley said he wants to boost spend-
ing on forest management by $1 billion
annually through work, such as thinning
and prescribed burning, to reduce the
prospects of catastrophic wildfires.
See Wildfires / A4
South Redmond Water Facility
construction on time, budget
Construction on the $16 million South Red-
mond Water Facility is on-time and on-budget,
according to Josh Wedding, water utilities man-
ager for the city.
When finished in May 2022, the facility will
contain a four-million gallon reservoir and the
city’s second booster pump, providing tap water
for homes and businesses across the city. It will
more than double Redmond’s system reservoir
capacity, Wedding said.
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Pleasant
High 77, Low 48
Page A8
Although Central Oregon irrigators are con-
cerned about drought conditions, and the new
facility will draw from the Deschutes Basin
Aquifer, the aquifer has enough water to support
the new reservoir, Wedding said.
Only 2% of water from the aquifer goes
to municipal use, like city water facilities, he
said.
Still, locals should try to be more efficient
with their water use, Wedding said.
“Let’s do more with what we have,” he said.
INDEX
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A5-6
B6
B3-4
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A6
B5
A7
Local/State
Lottery
Nation/World
Dean Guernsey/
The Bulletin
A2-3
B2
A4, 7
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A6
B4
B1-2
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 2 sections
DAILY
Bulletin staff report
the interior of
the 4-million
gallon res-
ervoir at the
South red-
mond Wa-
ter Facility,
shown here
on Wednes-
day, will
be fed by a
983-foot-
deep well.
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