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Plans in the works to expand region’s broadband Internet • GREEN, C1
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• October 11, 2010 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
In La Pine, development created to fight pollution hits new snag ‘New neighborhood’ builder quits program to avoid foreclosure
WORLD HOOP DAY
Going out for a spin
By Hillary Borrud
Land department official’s parents own Bend property eyed for first-of-its-kind deal
The Bulletin
LA PINE — A developer at the center of Deschutes County’s unique plan to prevent groundwater pollution around La Pine has exited that development program. Elk Horn Land Development, an affiliate of Pahlisch Homes, handed its property in the county’s La Pine “new neighborhood” back to lender Housing Capital Company in late neighborhood’ La Pine’s ‘new September. Elk Horn did so in order to avoid foreclosure, according to property documents filed with the county clerk. Inside Company • Map shows President Denproject’s nis Pahlisch boundaries, could not be Page A5 reached for comment. This is just the latest change for Deschutes County’s “new neighborhood,” which was created a decade ago with the help of Congress to transfer development from areas at higher risk of groundwater pollution to a new development connected to La Pine’s sewer system. High levels of nitrates were first detected in La Pine in 1982, and scientists believe nitrates from conventional septic systems in south Deschutes County are seeping into the area’s shallow aquifer. See La Pine / A5
By Nick Budnick The Bulletin
SALEM — With money to spend, Department of State Lands officials say they want to start investing in land in places like Central Oregon — news that could drive a ripple of hope through Bend’s stagnant real estate market. However, the department’s first deal of its kind is raising eyebrows among local real estate professionals. On Tuesday, the state Land Board will decide whether to approve DSL’s proposed purchase of land in Bend’s Old Mill District that is Inside co-owned by the parents of DSL • A closer look Assistant Director James Paul at the Old IV. Mill District The state purchase would property the stave off foreclosure for Paul’s state may parents as well as their partners: buy, Page Dennis Staines, a Bend homebuilder, and his wife, Virginia. A4 “This offer came in at the eleventh hour,” Staines said of the state’s interest in the property. Under the tentative deal, the state would pay $315,000 for .45 acres. Paul worked for the Oregon Department of Forestry until four months ago, when he took over DSL’s land management program, which is moving in a new direction, preparing to pay cash to private landowners for investment properties inside city limits, rather than just managing the wetlands, forests and rangelands that DSL is known for. See Land / A4
Rd.
utes River
ed “n of land for the so-call to c bought 544 acres plan Deschutes County a decade ago, in a Land Management pollution by connecting federal Bureau of prevent groundwater a subdivision called development and started developing slo sewer. Pahlisch HomesBut construction in the neighborhood un d. ing The Bulletin reporte Pahlisch Homes handed the remain in market crashed, and lender in September, through a deed to its subdivision back Rd. ss r Burge
New neighborh
Business interests invest in Bend council race
TOP NEWS INSIDE ISRAEL: Cabinet adopts controversial loyalty oath, Page A3
By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
IRAQ: U.S. pushes al-Maliki to make coalition broader, Page A3
State raises questions, eyebrows with plan to buy land
D
elaney Chapin, 9, of Bend, can’t hold back a smile as she spins three hoops
around her waist while participating — along with her family and more than 30 others — in the World Hoop Day gathering at Bend’s Harmon Park on Sun-
day afternoon. Local organizer Mollie Hogan, 39, of Bend, said the annual event raises money to send hooping ambassadors around the world to deliver hoops to children. For
the full story, see Local, Page B1.
Two special interest groups pushing pro-business positions in the Nov. 2 election are the largest contributors to the campaigns of two newcomers vying for different seats on the Bend City Council. The Central Oregon Association of Realtors and Oregon Reagan Political Action Committees have given more than $10,000 in cash or in-kind contributions to Position 5 candidate Mark Moseley and Position 7 hopeful Scott Ramsay combined, which makes up nearly 60 percent of fundraising totals between the two. See Funding / A4
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Realtor’s warnings on As rescue of Chilean miners nears, housing crisis unheeded camp hopes to live up to its name By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other top government officials have said they didn’t notice the dangers that Michael Blomquist saw in the runaway California housing market until five years after he did. As home prices and loan amounts in California’s Silicon Valley began mushrooming in late 2003, Blomquist said, lying, scheming and recklessness became everyday occurrences. The San Jose real estate broker was sure that the inflated incomes on applications and the tricky loans would lead to a housing bubble with disastrous consequences. See Housing / A5
Clowns perform Sunday at Chile’s San Jose mine, where 33 trapped miners are close to being rescued. Natacha Pisarenko The Associated Press
By Alexei Barrionuevo New York Times News Service
SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — Clowns dance and pass out caramels. The wives and girlfriends of the 33 trapped miners are picking out lingerie and getting their hair and nails done to receive their men. And relatives of the miners trapped underground for more than two months have learned a new phrase — “motor home” — from their new journalist friends. Such is life in Camp Hope, a moonlike outpost that has sprouted up as the temporary refuge for family members and about 1,300 journalists, many of whom have arrived in recent days to this gold and copper mine in northern Chile. See Miners / A5