Bulletin Daily Paper 01/21/11 by Western Communications, Inc.

Mickey Avalon

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Young climbers head to national championships • SPORTS, D1

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Search resumes for Blaylock Members of the Deschutes and Linn county search and rescue units spent Thursday on the North Santiam Lori Blaylock

River, looking for signs of Lori Blaylock, the Bend

woman who disappeared nearly three months ago and is believed to have been killed and dumped in the river.

LOCAL, C1 Andy Tullis / The Bulletin

Bend mulls changes to city property fees

Prineville’s water woes

By Nick Grube The Bulletin

Redeveloping vacant lots and old buildings in Bend could become more expensive if the city moves forward with proposed changes in how it charges fees. The city is currently in the midst of updating the way it allocates and collects system development charges, or SDCs, and has been working with some in the development community to do so. The fees offset costs of things like roads, sewer lines and water mains. But while there has been a lot of agreement on the proposed SDC code, one new provision has some business leaders and even a few city councilors concerned about its potential impact. This new rule would require a property that has never had SDCs paid on it to now pay the fees if it has languished for more than three years and is about to undergo new development or use. For the most part, this would only apply to buildings that were constructed before 1992, when the city’s SDC program was implemented, or to vacant lots that once had structures on them before that same year. It could also include properties that were annexed into the city after SDCs were put in place. See SDCs / A5

Twenty-nine million years ago, Central Oregon had a wetter climate, covered with broadleaf deciduous trees and populated with a variety of early mammals. Centered in what is now Prineville was the Crooked River caldera, a volcanic feature whose eruption would affect life and the water supply in the area today.

Miohippus, a small ancestral horse

To learn about the geological history Illustration by Eric Baker / The Bulletin

City Council approves wetland to ease plight By Erik Hidle The Bulletin

PRINEVILLE — A new system for wastewater treatment in the city of Prineville will keep new building costs down, return water naturally to Inside the ecosystem and • Wyden, Merkley eventually create a back Walden on nature park open for public use. Bowman dam The Prineville City plan, Page C1 Council voted unanimously recently to abandon the idea of purchasing a mechanical system to clean wastewater and accept an alternative. The new plan has the city keeping its current system of lagoon

treatment and implementing an additional step in the process: create a wetland in approximately 280 acres of city-owned fields in the northwest part of town. The current treatment system consists of two large lagoons that clean the water over 90 days through naturally occurring algae blooms. The treated water is considered undrinkable but safe for irrigation purposes and to water the city golf course and 560 acres of field land owned by the city. Under the new plan, the water will continue to irrigate the golf course but a portion of the field land will be converted into wetland that improves wildlife habitat, allows for public access on potential trail systems and

that led to Prineville’s water shortage, see Page A4.

returns water into the Crooked River, which could benefit steelhead. “We will take flat fields and construct deep ponds, shallow ponds, berms and walking trails in the area,” said Eric Klann, a city of Prineville engineer. “There are areas where it will be wet for only a few weeks a year and could develop into a bird habitat, and then other areas that would be wet all year around for other species. “The water will seep in, and as it seeps through the soil, it will be purified and join the shallow groundwater table and rejoin the Crooked River,” Klann said. “We expect it will increase flows in the Crooked River by 2 million gallons per day.” See Prineville / A4

Need to learn? Take a test By Pam Belluck New York Times News Service

As debts mount, bankruptcy quietly pondered for states By Mary Williams Walsh New York Times News Service

Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers. Unlike cities, states are barred from seeking protection in fed-

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eral bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereigns. But proponents say some states are so strapped that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with

the federal government’s aid. Beyond their short-term budget gaps, some states have deep structural problems, like insolvent pension funds, that are diverting money from essential public services like education and health care. Some members of Congress fear that it is just a matter of time before a state seeks a bailout, say bankruptcy

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lawyers who have been consulted by congressional aides. Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions, and it could provide an alternative to a no-strings bailout. Along with retirees, however, investors in a state’s bonds could suffer, possibly ending up

at the back of the line as unsecured creditors. “All of a sudden, there’s a whole new risk factor,” said Paul Maco, a partner at the firm Vinson & Elkins who was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities during the Clinton administration. See Bankruptcy / A4

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Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques. The research, published online Thursday in the journal Science, found that students who read a passage, then took a test asking them to recall what they had read, retained about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods. One of those methods — repeatedly studying the material — is familiar to legions of students who cram before exams. The other — having students draw detailed diagrams documenting what they are learning — is prized by many teachers because it forces students to make connections among facts. See Test / A5