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County
Forecast Recap: Future looks bright
in Deschutes County
At a
time when fiscal responsibility and
budgets are hot topics, Deschutes County
is in a good economic position. During
Tuesday’s Bend Chamber County Forecast
breakfast, Deschutes County Commissioner
Dennis Luke told a crowd of over 100 “the
state of the county is good.”
The county’s philosophy has been to be prepared for an
economic slow down. Luke said it’s not a
matter of if a slow down will occur, but
a matter of when. The county has
prepared budgets of three to four cents
less than the current full tax rate to
generate reserves.
“There is always the pressure to do more with the money
we have,” Luke said. “We felt we had to
put money in reserves.”
Luke pointed out many of the departments within the
county have reserve funds for when
times are slow or lean. The reserve
funds are available because the county
has not adopted a “use it or lose it
policy.” Luke says Deschutes County
should maintain its current service level
through the 2009-2010 budget year.
The county will continue to move forward with various
projects. One of which is a state police
building, which would be the second
building constructed by the county for
rent. Luke said while the county doesn’t
want to be a landlord, the funds
received for renting out the bottom
floor of the building will help to cover
costs. The building would house not only
the state police and a state of the art
crime lab, but also the 911 Operations
Center and meeting rooms.
Sheriff Larry Blanton also addressed the crowd and
discussed many topics including the Work
Center and the 911 Operations Center.
Blanton was grateful for the stable funding for the
Sheriff’s Department, and said this has
allowed several projects to move forward
including the remodel of the Work
Center.
Blanton said this is very important to the community
because 98% of those who are
incarcerated will re-enter society. The
Work Center provides the best treatments
and also teaches people how to fill out
job applications, resumes, and teaches
them significant life skills like CPR or
wildfire suppression.
“Unless you have a paycheck and a plan, you’ll go out
the front door and come right back in,”
Blanton said. “We need to be as
proactive as we can with those who are
incarcerated.”
The county views the 911 Operations Center as a vital
part of the community. Blanton said the
center needs to have permanent and
stable funding. “Unless we have the
basic funding for those who answer the
calls and send out for services, other
public services will fail,” he said.
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Groundbreaking at Brookswood
Meadow Plaza
On April 17,
a small local crowd gathered together to
celebrate the groundbreaking of the
Brookswood Meadow Plaza. The new
neighborhood shopping center will be a
feature in the River Rim community.
The celebration took place 15 months to the day
Brookswood Meadow, LLC decided to move
forward with the project. Brookswood
Meadow, LLC Vice President Scott
Wicklund said this project is important
to the local community because it will
not only cut down on the area’s carbon
footprint by reducing trips, but it will
also provide employment opportunities.
The project will consist of three buildings on the
corner of Brookswood and Amber Meadows.
Some of the possible businesses include
the following: a convenience store,
a pre-school, a family-style dining
restaurant, a athletic club, an insurance
office, a
dry cleaner, a small bank office and
much more.
At this time, it is unknown what will be moving into
the area. According to Brookswood
Meadow, LLC President Walt Ramage, there
has been a lot of interest from
businesses about available space in the
Plaza. “We are in negotiations with
several interested parties at this time
and are getting close to closing on
contracts,” he said.
Ramage said the community has been very supportive of
the project and he has heard a lot of
positive things. A new lighted path will
be placed along the north end of
Brookswood Meadow Plaza to encourage
pedestrian traffic to the retail center and
provide better access to Elk Meadows
Elementary School for the local kids.
“The community was kept in mind with this project,”
Ramage said. “The children will now have
a better way to cross the street rather
than right at the corner of Brookswood
and Amber Meadows.”
This will be the only commercial retail space located
on Brookswood Blvd. Brookswood Meadow,
LLC hopes to have the project completed
by mid-fall.
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Latest Information
on Oregon Employment Situation
According the
Oregon Employment Department, there was
a slight decrease in unemployment rates
from February to March for Deschutes and
Crook County. However, Jefferson County
saw an increase to 10.7 percent.
Deschutes had a fair showing in March with a 7.9
percent rate. This is down 0.3 percent
from February’s numbers, but was a
smaller than expected move for the
month, said regional economist Steve
Williams in his monthly report.
The current unemployment rate is 2.7 percent higher
than one year ago and is near the 8.2
percent rate from March 2004.
Continuing its job expansion from February, Deschutes
County added 670 jobs. Some of the
largest gains occurred in leisure and
hospitality, professional and business
services, local government, and retail
trade.
Williams states the increase is typical for this time
of the year as employment growth gains
momentum towards the summer months.
Though employment numbers have been
fluctuating over the past quarter,
Williams says Deschutes County has been
relatively steady.
“The county’s employment has been fairly stable in the
three months of this year, not showing
signs of either growth or decline,” he
said.
Nationally the unemployment rate is 5.2 percent. The
State of Oregon reported a rate of 6.3%
for March.
Information provided by Oregon
Employment Department
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Survey Question
Response
Last week the
survey question was How are
increasing gasoline costs affecting your
business? The following are a few of
the responses from chamber members.
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We are combining trips and
appointments, being more selective
with respect to the events and
networking we choose to ensure we're
matching with our target markets,
and generally cutting costs in other
areas by doing more ourselves. We
are putting off expenditures and
outsourcing less
(for example, administration,
printing, constructing displays).
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Our whole basis for doing business
is based upon visiting our clients
and prospecting for new clients
regularly. Face-to-face contact is
vital to building rapport and
long-term business relationships. If
we stop visiting with our clients -
someone else will be, so less
contact is not an option. That means
our consumption of gasoline will not
decrease even though prices continue
to rise. It will just become a
larger cost of doing business.
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Upcoming
Chamber
event .
Title Sponsor
June 23: Bend Chamber’s 2nd
Annual Team Challenge Golf Tournament-
Get your business known as a leader in
this competitive Team Challenge Golf
Tournament. Just one member of your team
needs to be an employee. Teams cost $600
per foursome. Sign up today at
www.bendchamber.org/teamgolf.
If you are interested in a sponsorship
or donation, contact Gayle at 382-3221
or by email at
gayle@bendchamber.org.
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Survey Question
From time to time, the Chamber will
attach a survey question to see what we
can do to make a product better for our
membership. We encourage responses from
members on our survey question so we can
better focus on their needs or ideas.
What are some things you would like to
see in the Weekly E-news?
Please email your
response to Courtney Linville at
courtney@bendchamber.org.
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