Senator Wyden tours Redmond Airport terminal project, meets with local officials and residents about economy’s challenges
Spencer Sacks
REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., took a tour Friday of the $180 million Redmond Airport terminal expansion project, calling it a “flight path for growth” and saying that also includes a need for several more air traffic controllers. He later met with local officials, businesses and family members about economic issues.
You can watch the senator’s two Redmond news conferences here in full, as livestreamed on KTVZ+.
“We’re working for more capacity to handle future crowds,” such as the upcoming holiday season, the senator said at the airport, joined on his visit by Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch and Airport Director Zachary Bass.
Wyden donned a “Fly Redmond” baseball cap and talked about how he and fellow Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley teamed up to secure $45 million in federal funding for the airport project, which is adding 80,000 square feet of space, covered jetways for boarding planes and much more.
“If you ask me, this is really a flight plan for growth in a wonderful part of Central Oregon, so this community can soar to even greater heights,” Wyden said.
He also noted that the Redmond Airport currently has four air traffic controllers at its FAA tower.
“They really need six, and they’d like to have eight,” he said, adding, “You cannot have big-league quality of life with Little League infrastructure, and that’s what’s so important about this community and this airport.”
Later, Wyden met privately, then held a news conference at NeighborImpact in Redmond with local elected officials, business leaders and others who expressed concerns about current economic conditions, including tariff impacts on businesses, rising health-insurance premiums and other issues.
“All across our state, working people feel like they’ve been hit with a wrecking ball,” the senator said. He later said he requested the meeting to “get the latest reality about life on the ground,” accusing the administration of telling “fables.”
State Senator Anthony Broadman and Bend Mayor Melanie Keebler were in attendance and spoke during the media conference portion of the event.
Adam Black, the kitchen manager at Shepherd’s House in Redmond, described how the rise in food costs has affected him.
“We’ve been watching food costs rise consistently. We have people who come in daily who are struggling,” Black said. “We’re happy to provide food boxes, but we can only do it so long as the food stays affordable.”
In advance of his visit, Senator Wyden made a substantial donation to Shepherd’s House.