Mayor Ed Fitch returns to city business as Redmond Council approves additional funding for east Redmond project
Tracee Tuesday
REDMOND, ORE. {KTVZ} — Redmond’s Tuesday night city council meeting carried both personal and political significance, marking Mayor Ed Fitch’s first public appearance since undergoing heart surgery earlier this month. His return coincided with a key financial decision regarding the city’s Managed Camp project in East Redmond.
The council voted to amend its intergovernmental agreement with Deschutes County, increasing the city’s contribution from $250,000 to approximately $322,000. The additional $72,559.38 will help cover rising costs tied to the project’s development, designed to support the region’s ongoing homelessness response efforts.
Deschutes County Commissioner Patty Adair said the funding increase stemmed from updated construction cost estimates that hadn’t been reflected in earlier documents. “The engineer’s estimate was a couple hundred thousand dollars higher than expected,” she explained, noting that contractor Taylor Northwest later reduced that projection by over $300,000.
However, Redmond City Councilor Cat Zwicker offered a different perspective. “What really happened is that we were working off preliminary engineering estimates,” she said. “When you get on-site and start digging into the land, you often find new challenges that require more time and money.”
Mayor Fitch also weighed in, emphasizing the importance of the Managed Camp to the city’s broader strategy on homelessness. “Before we adopted time and placement restrictions on camping, we had people living on residential and commercial streets, creating significant community conflict,” Fitch said. “Since those regulations and the camp’s development, those conflicts have almost completely disappeared.”
The council ultimately voted in favor of the funding increase. Commissioner Adair later said she expects county officials to approve their share of the adjustment at an upcoming board meeting.