Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
Tuesday • June 22, 2021
BEND’S MEL LAWRENCE REACHES OLYMPIC FINALS
TRACK AND FIELD TRIALS • SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
WILDFIRE SEASON
Fire
threatens
houses
in Warm
Springs
Expedited land use plan gets support
Oregon House backs request by Bend to
fast-track approval process for housing site
By GaRy a. WaRNeR
Oregon Capital Bureau
In a move with possible
statewide implications, the
House on Monday voted to
fast-track a Bend affordable
housing plan by allowing
the city to skip much of the
time-consuming land use
approval process in state
law.
House Bill 3318 was ap-
proved 42-16. By the after-
noon, the bill had been sent
to the Senate Rules Com-
mittee. No hearing date has
been set as yet.
With the Legislature ex-
pected to adjourn by Friday,
the bill would need to move
extraordinarily swiftly to a
vote that would send it to
Gov. Kate Brown.
“The fact that it is already
in Senate Rules has to make
me think it is being seri-
ously considered,” said Erik
Kancler, lobbyist for the city
of Bend. “It is late, but it has
a chance.”
HB 3318 would allow
Bend to bring a 260-acre
parcel near Stevens Road
into its urban growth
boundary to be developed
as up to 800 units of afford-
able housing. The other half
of the large parcel of land,
roughly 380 acres, is already
within the boundary and
was sold by the Department
of State Lands to a devel-
oper. The tract sits east of
SE 27th Street.
The bill is co-spon-
sored by Rep. Jason Kropf,
D-Bend, and Rep. Jack Zika,
R-Redmond. They argued
on Monday that state action
was necessary to alleviate an
affordable housing crisis.
See Land / A4
HOMELESS CAMPS IN BEND
By dyLaN JeFFeRIes
The Bulletin
The S-503 Fire on the Warm
Springs Indian Reservation
grew from roughly 4,300 to
6,200 acres Sunday night and
was zero percent contained
Monday morning, according
to fire officials.
Firefighters arrived with
engines and aerial support
on Sunday and were able to
hold the north side of the
fire, which was the main area
of concern as the fire spread
northeast toward residences
in the community of Pine
Grove in Wasco County, ac-
cording to a release from the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs.
Evacuation notices were
lowered Sunday for residents of
Pine Grove from a Level 3 “go
now” to a Level 2 “get ready.”
Structures and infrastruc-
ture in Pine Grove, as well as
on the Warm Springs reserva-
tion, remain at risk.
See Warm springs / A4
Three RV
fires burn
in one day
outside
La Pine
danielle McGovern sits Thursday with her dog Kalohe at their camp on emerson avenue in Bend,
where an official notice to vacate is duct taped to her tent in the background. Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
On Sunday, three separate
wildfires started by burning
RVs were reported at dispersed
campsites on public land out-
side La Pine.
Firefighters from multiple
agencies were able to access the
fires before any could become
the next state conflagration,
but as fire season kicks off in
Oregon, Mike Supkis, chief of
La Pine Rural Fire Protection
District, notes this time they
were lucky.
“It really is concerning that
in the course of two years we’ve
had six fires, three of them ma-
jor fires that really ran, right
next to this community,” Sup-
kis said.
See La Pine / A4
An editorial headlined “How
should Bend’s school district
teach controversial subjects?”
which appeared Sunday, June
20, on Page A4, incorrectly
stated the middle school where
the book “Ghost Boys” was
read. It was High Desert Middle
School.
The Bulletin regrets the error.
TODAY’S
WEATHER
fter living on the outskirts of Bend
for roughly seven years, Danielle
McGovern decided recently to
make camp in town on Emerson Avenue
so she could be closer to services.
But on Wednesday, the 51-year-old will
be one of dozens who will be removed by
the city of Bend, which is citing safety and
public health concerns as reasons for clos-
ing the street and clearing the camp.
Per state law, the city has a plan to store
what is deemed as personal property in
a secure storage location for 30 days for
people to retrieve.
Past cleanups at area camps show that few
campers ever retrieve their belongings
McGovern considers herself a mini-
malist, and hopes to be able to move as
much as she can back to a forested area
off China Hat Road in Bend. She has
learned to live with fewer attachments be-
cause the constant threat of losing it all is
always in the background of her day-to-
day life.
Previous moves have shown her that
despite her efforts to live with few posses-
sions, she usually loses about half of her
belongings each time because of the chal-
lenges around moving it.
“I won’t take things because I’m scared
to lose them,” she said outside her tent last
week. “I can’t have anything sentimental.”
See Cleanups/ A4
U.S. OLYMPIC TRACK AND FIELD TRIALS | 1,500 METERS
Bend’s Mehra finishes 11th to miss out on Tokyo
Bulletin staff report
Correction
By BReNNa VIsseR
The Bulletin
EUGENE — Bend’s
Rebecca Mehra came up
short in her bid for a spot on
the U.S. Olympic team.
Mehra finished 11th in the
women’s 1,500-meter final on
Monday at the U.S. Olympic
Track & Field Trials at Eu-
gene’s Hayward Field.
The top three finishers in
the race qualified for the To-
kyo Games.
Mehra, 26, and a mem-
ber of the Littlewing Athletic
team in Bend, finished with
Thunderstorm
High 88, Low 59
Page a13
INDEX
Business
Classifieds
Comics
a time of 4 minutes, 8.47 sec-
onds. Her personal best in
the event is 4:06.28.
Elle Purrier St. Pierre won
the race in an Olympic trials-
record time of 3:58.03 to
claim the national title and
punch her ticket to Tokyo.
Cory McGee was second in
4:00.67 and Heather Ma-
cLean third in 4:02.09, both
also securing spots in the
Olympics.
Mehra, who moved to
Bend in 2018 and works
part time for Bend Mayor
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Sally Russell, made her way
through the first round and
the semifinals to earn one of
13 spots in the 1,500 final.
Although she did not qual-
ify for the Olympics in the
1,500, Mehra is not done at
the Olympic trials. The Stan-
ford graduate is also qualified
in the 800, which starts with
first-round heats on Thurs-
day evening.
Two of Mehra’s teammates
from Bend are also entered
in the 800: Sadi Henderson
and Angel Piccirillo.
A12
A2-3
A6
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A4
A10
A5-7
Bend’s Re-
becca Mehra,
second from
left, competes
in the women’s
1,500-meter
semifinal sat-
urday night at
the u.s. Olym-
pic Track &
Field Trials at
Hayward Field
in eugene.
Christopher
Pietsch/The
Register-Guard
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
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Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 1 section
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