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• July 26, 2010 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Building it greener • A wastewater setback, a solution and a planned September groundbreaking for the Bend couple seeking to construct the most environmentally friendly home possible. Read the latest installment on Page C1.
Bend and the ADA: past, present, future 2001 • Four Bend residents file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice that Bend isn’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Bend scrutinized as ADA turns 20
For one Redmond school, it has taken a village M.A. Lynch officials credit turnaround to community approach By Patrick Cliff The Bulletin
2004 • A settlement caps a DOJ investigation, giving Bend 10 years to fix buildings, sidewalks and curb ramps. • The Oregon Advocacy Center sues the city. It claims the new Bend Area Transit violates the ADA.
2007 • The city settles the suit, agreeing to fix bus stops within five years. • City engineers find that many curb ramps don’t meet ADA requirements. Layoffs put some of the survey work on hold, and cut short the city’s outreach and education programs.
2009 • February: Facing a tight budget, Bend considers renegotiating its settlement with the DOJ in hopes of getting an extension. • October: The city submits a new, scaled-back plan to the DOJ that calls for building or fixing 600 to 700 curb ramps by 2011.
2010
Dean Guernsey / The Bulletin
• March: DOJ denies city’s alternate plan, citing issues with 2011 deadline and the fact that city officials didn’t know how many ramps need to be upgraded. • July/August: City officials expect to have a complete inventory of noncompliant curb ramps. • September: City Council work session scheduled to discuss new DOJ work plan.
2012 • The city’s deadline to fix all of its bus stops.
2014 • The city’s current deadline to fix all of its buildings, sidewalks, parking spaces and curb ramps.
City of Bend employees Ty Combs, far left, and Will Smith, foreground, position a textured pad in wet concrete as, from left, Stan Glover, Kyle Braude and Jim Hall complete work on an accessible curb ramp project last week in Northwest Bend.
City hopes today’s celebration is a turning point; advocates say actions are what counts By Nick Grube
If you go
The Bulletin
When city of Bend officials cut into two cakes today — one carrot, one chocolate — to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, they’ll do so under the skeptical eye of accessibility advocates. For the past several years, the city has been under orders to fix many of its buildings, curb ramps and bus stops in order to meet the requirements of two settlement agreements that were the result of poor compliance with the ADA.
What: Bend’s 20th anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act When: Today noon to 4 p.m. Where: Bend City Hall, 710 N.W. Wall St. During that time, accessibility advocates have criticized the city for not taking ADA compliance issues seriously and for moving too slowly to make the fixes to its infrastructure. The city hopes to use today’s event,
which will have information booths, education sessions and a children’s story hour, as a turning point in its relationship with those advocates and reaffirm its commitment to one day have a fully accessible city. “It hasn’t been smooth sailing,” City Manager Eric King said. “There’s been some problems in the past, and we have a history that we have to overcome. I personally regret some of the decisions that we’ve made in the past, but we want to move forward. “Our hope is that we can work with the community to move past the settlement agreements as well as become a leader in this community — as well as in other communities — to show that we are a leader in accessibility,” King added. See ADA / A5
Megan Lewis’ third-grade daughter struggled to pass the state’s math assessment test this year. A student at Redmond’s M.A. Lynch Elementary, 9-yearold Taylor eventually passed the test after taking extra math tutoring at the school. “The school helped her to succeed in passing the test,” Lewis said. “It built up her confidence.” Taylor’s after-school tutoring was part of the Lynch community school program, which basically turns a school building into a community center. District officials believe the community approach, now in its third year, has transformed Lynch from a failing school into one of Redmond’s highest achieving schools. Three years ago, about one-third of the student body failed state reading and math tests. Now, about 90 percent pass both exams. A community school not only has tutoring but sports, counseling, health care and adult education. The school partners with organizations in the community, including Central Oregon Community College, NeighborImpact and the Latino Community Association. The community approach is designed to tie families more closely to their children’s academic success. As parents are at the school more often, they tend to feel increasingly comfortable in the building and invested in a child’s education, according to Desiree Margo, the new principal at Lynch, who helped build the community school model as a district employee. See School / A5
Cities view homesteads as income source By Monica Davey New York Times News Service
Classified reports paint bleaker Afghan picture Inside • Documents point to Pakistan spy service as giving aid to Taliban, Page A4
By C.J. Chivers, Carlotta Gall, Andrew W. Lehren, Mark Mazzetti, Jane Perlez and Eric Schmitt New York Times News Service
A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, groundlevel picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal. The secret documents, released on
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the Internet by an organization called WikiLeaks, are a daily diary of an American-led force often starved for resources and attention as it struggled against an insurgency that grew larger, better coordinated and more deadly each year. The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiegel were given access to the records several weeks ago
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 207, 30 pages, 5 sections
on the condition that they not report on the material before Sunday. The documents — some 92,000 reports spanning parts of two administrations from January 2004 through December 2009 — illustrate in mosaic detail why, after the United States has spent almost $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001. See Afghanistan / A4
New York Times News Service
The U.S. military is using an increasing number of drones in Afghanistan, but classified documents suggest their performance is less impressive than officially portrayed.
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A2
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B3
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C2
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B6
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C3
BEATRICE, Neb. — Give away land to make money? It hardly sounds like a prudent scheme. But in a bit of deja vu, that is exactly what this small Nebraska city aims to do. Beatrice was a starting point for the Homestead Act of 1862, the federal law that handed land to pioneering farmers. Back then, the goal was to settle the West. The goal of Beatrice’s “Homestead Act of 2010,” is, in part, to replenish city coffers. The calculus is simple, if counterintuitive: Hand out city land now to ensure property tax revenues in the future. See Homestead / A3
Sports
D1-6
BP: Oil company to announce change in leadership, Page A3