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• September 27, 2010 50¢
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Money plan for police, fire will take time, Bend says Bend’s DMV argument: intent, not letter, of law By Erin Golden The Bulletin
Nearly a year after Bend officials warned councilors of a looming multimillion-dollar budget gap for police and fire services, they still haven’t settled on a solution. When the city’s nine-member Public Safety Funding Committee began
meeting this spring, the goal was to come back to the City Council with a funding recommendation by late summer. But as the end of September nears, the group is still months away from endorsing an option — which means the council might not be asked to weigh in on the situation until early 2011.
City Manager Eric King said the delay doesn’t mean the city’s money problems have gone away. Officials are still projecting a $17 million funding gap in the general fund, which pays for police, fire and other services, over the next five years. Instead, he said it’s become clear that the shortfall is too complex of an is-
sue to have a quick fix. “I would rather take the time and do it right,” King said. “That’s really what we’re trying to do with the committee, put together a thoughtful strategy, put the council in a position to make some good decisions on how to solve this long-term problem.” See Funding / A4
OUT ON ELK LAKE
Becalmed but not bested
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Sunday’s King and Queen of the Lake windsurfing race on Elk Lake was canceled due to a lack of wind, but Pete Rodgers, 45, left, and Randall Barna, 60, both of Bend, made the best of the otherwise pleasant, sunny conditions. With sailboats also on the lake, the two still had plans for a little competition despite the weather. “We’re gonna go down and race with the boats,” Barna said.
Office site has drawn protests; city drafting appeal to governor By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
A letter the city of Bend plans to send Gov. Ted Kulongoski regarding a controversial DMV office will focus more on persuasion than points of law, city attorney Mary Winters said Friday. The city’s letter, which is still in draft form and will not be mailed until the City Council reviews it, is being drafted at the request of southwest Bend residents who object to locating a DMV office at Brookswood Meadow Plaza, a small shopping center on Brookswood Avenue. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 6. Neighborhood residents have appealed to both local and state government to have the office located elsewhere, suggesting it would be out of character for the kind of businesses they expected would be located in the shopping center, and it will exacerbate traffic congestion. The letter is focused on three primary points. One, that DMV violated its own siting policies by choosing a location with no access to public transit. Two, that the location on the edge of town in a mostly residential neighborhood conflicts with the state Department of Land Conservation and Development’s preference for minimizing vehicular travel. Three, that while the language of the city’s development code likely allows a DMV office at Brookswood Meadow Plaza, the agency should consider the city’s intentions when the code was created and agree to place the office elsewhere. See DMV / A4
In modern waters, an ancient threat to struggling sea otters By Kenneth R. Weiss Los Angeles Times
MEDICAL DEBATE
$100K cancer drugs spur grim calculations By Marilynn Marchione The Associated Press
BOSTON — Cancer patients, brace yourselves. Many new drug treatments cost nearly $100,000 a year, sparking fresh debate about how much a few months more of life is worth. The latest is Provenge, a first-ofa-kind therapy approved in April. It
costs $93,000 a year and adds four months’ survival, on average, for men with incurable prostate tumors. Bob Svensson is honest about why he got it: insurance paid. “I would not spend that money,” because the benefit doesn’t seem worth it, says Svensson, 80, a former corporate finance officer from Bedford, Mass.
His supplemental Medicare plan is paying while the government decides whether basic Medicare will cover Provenge and for whom. The tab for taxpayers could be huge — prostate is the most common cancer in American men. Most of those who have it will be eligible for Medicare, and Provenge will be an option for many late-
stage cases. A meeting to consider Medicare coverage is set for Nov. 17. “I don’t know how they’re going to deal with that kind of issue,” said Svensson, who was treated at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in suburban Boston. “I feel very lucky.” See Cancer / A6
Santa Clarita can’t keep quiet on library takeover
TOP NEWS INSIDE WIRETAPS: U.S. seeking expansion into Internet communication, Page A3
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LOS ANGELES — Pity the poor sea otter. It’s been a struggle for the furry, button-nosed critter to make a comeback since being hunted nearly to extinction along California’s coast. They get chomped by great white sharks. They must scrounge in Los Angeles Times overexploited waters to A Southern sea otter find enough shellfish is held for its safety to eat. Their immune at a marine center in systems are weakened Santa Cruz, Calif. by polluted runoff and under attack by parasites that wash into coastal waters from the feces of domestic cats and opossums. See Otters / A6
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Vol. 107, No. 270, 30 pages, 5 sections
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“A library is the heart of the community,” says Jane Hanson, who is opposed to the outsourcing of the library system in Santa Clarita, Calif. “I’m in favor of private enterprise, but I can’t feel comfortable with what the city is doing here.”
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system. Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing
in a ravaged economy. A $4 million deal to run the three libraries in Santa Clarita, Calif., is a chance for the company to demonstrate that a dose of private management can be good for communities, whatever the financial situation. In an era when outsourcing is most often an act of budget desperation — with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another — the contract here has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing. See Libraries / A4