Category: ktvz-local-news

Campbell Porter

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) — After years of restoration work, one of Central Oregon’s most beloved roadside landmarks is ready to shine once again. The Petersen Rock Garden & Museum, located between Bend and Redmond, will celebrate its grand reopening this weekend, the site’s biggest event in decades.

A ribbon cutting is set for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 4th, to mark the occasion. Thanks to a generous grant from Webfoot Home Improvements, the museum’s display cases, cabinets, and flooring have been fully restored. Visitors will also notice upgrades to the glow-in-the-dark rock room and the old café.

During those restorations, the garden’s new owners made an unexpected discovery.

“We found a brochure from, like, 1953 that was hid behind the 90-year-old cabinets,” said Tonia Smith, manager of Petersen Rock Garden. “It’s actually in pretty good condition, even colored. We were able to look at some of those pictures and do our best to recreate a couple of things there.”

The reopening celebration is free to attend, though donations are encouraged to help preserve the historic property. Food trucks will serve hot dogs and desserts, and local geologists will be on hand to explain the minerals and fossils that make up the museum’s impressive displays.

For rockhounds and collectors, there will even be a raffle featuring thunder eggs and rare angel wing agates.

If it’s been a while since your last visit, or if you’ve never seen this iconic Oregon treasure, now’s the perfect time to experience the creativity and whimsical spirit of Rasmus Petersen’s original rock garden.

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Campbell Porter

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Have you ever dreamed of owning a bookstore in downtown Bend? That opportunity may soon be available.

The owner of Underground Books in downtown Bend is considering passing the torch. While he has no plans to close the store, owner Justin Schlosberg told KTVZ News he’s entertaining offers.

A potential sale would include the store’s furnishings, some artwork, and a curated collection of books.

“I try to basically have good literature here, you know, and then also rare antiquarian books is a big thing that I sell here,” Schlosberg said. “I have a large room that’s spilling out to shelves with tons of antiquarian books going back to the 1800s.”

Details such as the lease would still need to be worked out, but any buyer would also inherit the shop’s reputation and loyal clientele.

Schlosberg said he’s in no hurry to sell, and Underground Books is not closing any time soon.

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Tyson Beauchemin

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — You may have seen these concrete barriers in the middle of NW Delaware Avenue, or noticed some of the cross streets from Colorado Avenue have been changed to one way.

It’s part of the city’s plan to help protect cyclists in the Old Bend neighborhood. Delaware is part of the Bend Bikeway Project.

It’s something the city has been working on for a long time, to encourage the residents of those neighbors to bike or walk. However, the city has struggled with drivers speeding down these streets, making them unsafe for bikers and pedistraints

Now they’re trying out these diverters, which change the traffic flow. Ariel Méndez, Bend city Counciler explained the changes, saying, “These are on the Greenway network, which is, a network of streets that is intended to prioritize people walking and biking and wheeling. And, this is something that other cities have seen that really promote safety. And we’re going to give them a try here. ”

The reactions of the people living on Delaware have been mixed. Tony Roberts, who lives right next to one of the blocked intersections said “I’m not crazy about them, but, I’m willing to sit here and see what they do to the traffic.” Roberts and his wife have had to change how they drive to and from their home due to the new diverters.

Lloyd McMullem, has lived on Delaware for decades. She said she missed the opportunity for public comment, but wasn’t opposed to them entirely. “I think in the end, it might be a good thing.” she said, adding ” because we had felt like maybe we need a roundabout because people were so fast in the street. So if it solves the dilemma, then I’m all for it. ”

Many residents interviewed by KTVZ for this story expressed an interest in the possibility of a mini-round about, instead of diverters, to minimize the change in the flow of traffic.

There’s also been a little initiate confusion that comes with any traffic pattern change. Some drivers are trying to enter the new one-way intersections from the wrong directions, or making three point turns in the middle of the street to change directions.

The city of Bend is collecting data and feedback on this project.

They want people to visit the Bend Bikeway Project website, read their plans and send comments which could influence future projects.

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Triton Notary

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) Construction professionals across Central Oregon will have an opportunity to learn how to navigate a major industry shift at a free, full-day seminar hosted by Hooker Creek Companies on April 13.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Riverhouse Convention Center in Bend, followed by a complimentary social hour from 3 to 4 p.m. Lunch will be provided at no cost to attendees.

The seminar focuses on Type IL cement, also known as Portland Limestone Cement, which has fully replaced traditional Type I/II cement in Oregon and now makes up more than 60% of the U.S. cement market. While the material meets ASTM standards and delivers comparable strength, industry professionals say it behaves differently in real-world conditions.

Those differences have created challenges for contractors and finishers, particularly in Central Oregon’s hot, dry, and windy climate. Reported issues include surface crusting, crazing, delamination, plastic shrinkage cracking, and faster setting times.

Organizers say the seminar is designed to provide practical, field-tested strategies to help professionals successfully work with Type IL cement in both public and private projects, especially as the region continues to experience significant growth.

The keynote speaker will be Chad White, a senior concrete consultant with Structural Services Inc., who brings more than four decades of hands-on experience in concrete construction. White began his career as a cement mason apprentice and went on to lead a successful construction company for more than 15 years. He is a member of the American Concrete Institute, a published author on concrete slab installation, and a featured speaker at the World of Concrete conference. He also co-authored a widely used 2025 field guide on placing and finishing Type IL cement mixes.

The seminar is open to a wide range of industry professionals, including engineers, inspectors, contractors, construction managers, developers, and public agency staff. Officials from the City of Bend and Deschutes County Public Works departments have already registered to attend.

The event has been approved by the Oregon Construction Contractors Board for continuing education credits for both residential and commercial license holders.

Registration and additional details are available online at cementseminar.com.

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Harley Coldiron

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — A new superstore and community training center in north Bend today. Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler cut the ribbon before the first shoppers poured inside. In the first fifteen minutes more than 220 customers checked out the new store. But it’s not just deals on second-hand goods at this Goodwill. The facility includes a job center and classroom.

The center, located near the new Bend Costco, offers free skills training and employment services funded by retail sales and community donations. It’s not just for employees, anyone from the public can attend classes on computer literacy and job skills.

This expansion follows a year where the organization helped connect residents to thousands of local jobs across Oregon and Washington

The new facility features 10,000 square feet of retail space and a Job Connection facility. It will employ more than 50 people and host a rotating group of Career Center instructors. These instructors work with community members to develop personal and professional skills.

In 2025, Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette instructors provided more than 40,000 hours of free skills training and educational services. These classes were available to employees and community members throughout northwest and central Oregon and southwest Washington

The organization also connected local residents to more than 9,000 jobs through hiring events and job fairs last year. According to the organization, these employment specialists partnered with various companies including Amazon and Safeway to facilitate the hires.

For the first four days, the store will be giving away $100 gift cards each day. After that, the stores hours will be 10 AM through 8 PM, Monday to Sunday.

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Silas Moreau

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Are we designing our city for happiness? That’s a question that will be asked by nonprofit organization Building a Better Bend’s 2026 lecture series will ask. The inaugural talk, titled “Is Bend Building a “Happy City?” The Science & Design Secrets of Happy Cities,” will examine how urban design can foster community connection.

The event will feature a presentation and discussion with internationally recognized urban planning expert Mitchell Reardon. Reardon has worked on urban planning projects in cities throughout North America and Europe, including Park City, Utah and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The “Happy City” talk, as well as the 2026 lecture series event will be presented by First Interstate Bank.

The talk is scheduled to take at OSU-Cascades in the Ray Hall Atrium, on May 7th from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and are required for entry due to limited capacity. A recording of the presentation will be made available to the public following the conclusion of the event.

Here are some key topics to be covered in the discussion:

– Designing for Joy: What research says about designing spaces that promote social life, play, andwellbeing- Urban Living Rooms: The role of plazas and gathering spaces in building community- Making It Happen: How public-private partnerships can deliver meaningful, people-centeredplaces

The event is particularly relevant to several upcoming developments in the core of Bend. These transformative projects include the future City Hall site, the Bend Central District and the Korpine site located near Crux.

Reardon will also explore how public-private partnerships can help integrate public spaces with private development. This approach is intended to create more vibrant neighborhoods through collaborative design and planning.

The Building a Better Bend board highlighted the importance of community involvement in the city’s future. “This lecture is an opportunity for Bend residents to engage with cutting-edge ideas in urban design and consider how we can build a more connected and joyful community,” the board said in a statement.

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Kelsey Merison

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Cascades East Transit will implement significant service enhancements across Central Oregon beginning May 4th, 2026. The changes include increased bus frequency on Bend routes and the launch of a new route in Jefferson County connecting Warm Springs and Madras.

The transit system, which is operated by the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, designed the improvements to increase reliability and expand access for riders. The update includes system-wide changes focused on safety, bus cleanliness, and customer service.

Routes 1 and 4 on Third Street will run every 15 minutes during the busiest weekday service hours. This is an improvement from the current 30-minute intervals. Additional routes in Bend will increase weekday peak service from 45-minute to 30-minute intervals. Select high-demand segments near Neff Road, St. Charles Medical Center, and portions of 27th Street will also improve to 15-minute frequency.

A new route in Jefferson County will begin service on May 5th, 2026. The line will connect Warm Springs and Madras to Kah-Nee-Ta and Simnasho. The route is intended to improve connectivity to health care, jobs, and essential services while providing new recreational opportunities.

Andrea Wasilew serves as the outreach and engagement administrator at CET. She highlighted the program’s focus on connecting with specific groups in the region. “Our goal is to make transit easy to understand and accessible for everyone in our community,” Wasilew said. “Through ongoing outreach and partnerships, we’re connecting with riders where they are – supporting seniors, people with disabilities, and rural residents in accessing transportation and staying connected to essential services.” 

The agency will also add a new stop at the Central Library in Bend on May 11th, 2026. Beyond specific routes, CET is advancing upgrades to existing bus stops and transit facilities. Other system-wide efforts include enhancing call center support, improving schedule reliability, and increasing public awareness of service changes.

Cascades East Transit is also focusing on professionalism and customer service. Improvements are planned for bus cleanliness and overall on-time performance for the network.

Riders will begin to see updated schedules and information at bus stops, on buses, and at Hawthorne Station in Bend. Further information is available on the Cascades East Transit website or by calling the customer service center at 541-385-8680.

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Kelsey Merison

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon U.S. Senator Ron Wyden is demanding answers from Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano over a recent executive order that would create a national voter database. The order requires the Social Security Administration to share citizenship data with the Department of Homeland Security to establish a list of eligible voters across the United States.

Wyden, the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, expressed concerns that the directive undermines the rights of states to manage their own registered voter lists. The move comes amid ongoing debates over mail-in voting and the introduction of the SAVE America Act. That bill is currently under consideration by the Senate and contains similar provisions that would compel states to share voter registration lists with the Department of Homeland Security to verify citizenship.

Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, sent a formal letter to Bisignano characterizing the executive order as an attempt to suppress mail-in voting. He argued that the use of private Social Security Administration data acts as a “backdoor” to influence federal election eligibility.
“This latest brazen attempt to create a national voter database aims to undermine the rights of states to conduct their own elections, including manage their registered voter lists and use private SSA data as a backdoor to give Donald Trump power over who is eligible to vote in federal elections,” Wyden wrote. “Facilitating Trump’s directive to create a flawed voter database would be willing participation in blatant voter suppression ahead of consequential midterm elections.”

The U.S. Constitution grants states the power to establish the times, places, and manner of elections. This includes the creation and management of voter lists. The Trump administration has previously requested that states provide their voter registration lists, leading to concerns regarding privacy, security, and potential violations of the Privacy Act. The creation of a national database would give the administration unprecedented access to private voter data.

Oregon serves as a primary example in the debate over voting methods because it is one of nine states that conducts elections by mail. While the administration has claimed mail-in voting leads to higher cases of fraud, state data shows a low incidence of criminal activity.

A review by Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office found that approximately 61 million ballots were cast between 2000 and 2019. During that 19-year period, there were 38 criminal convictions for voter fraud in Oregon. This represents a fraud rate of .00006%. These findings contradict assertions that mail-in systems are prone to widespread abuse.

Wyden also addressed the timing of the executive order in relation to upcoming midterm elections. He criticized the administration’s broader policy agenda while questioning the motivations behind the database directive. “This is a desperate last-ditch effort by a failing president to suppress American votes because his agenda of pardoning pedophiles, embarking on his Iran war and ripping away health care is about to lose him the midterms,” Wyden said earlier this week of Trump’s executive order. 

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Kelsey Merison

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Oregon Department of Forestry is inviting public comment starting April 3rd on planned timber sales, recreation projects, and forest management activities. The feedback period for the draft Annual Operations Plans for state-owned forests runs through May 18th.

These plans outline on-the-ground activities expected to occur during the coming fiscal year. By law, Oregon state forests must be managed to provide social, economic, and environmental benefits, including clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, and revenue for rural communities and timber-related economies.

The plans involve seven specific districts across the state: Astoria, Forest Grove, Klamath Falls, North Cascade, Tillamook, West Oregon, and Western Lane. These annual plans describe discrete activities designed to achieve broader objectives established in long-range Forest Management Plans and Implementation Plans. Participants can view the documents on the State Forests’ Annual Operations Plans website.

Common activities detailed in the operations plans include timber harvest operations, forest road construction, and maintenance and recreation improvement projects. The documents also cover reforestation and young stand management, habitat improvement for native species and invasive species management.

Department officials said the most useful public input identifies whether activities are consistent with longer-range plans, offers suggestions to improve efficiency, or provides additional solution-oriented information. The plans also undergo interagency reviews.

There are three primary methods for the public to submit feedback. Online comments can be submitted through the Oregon Department of Forestry website and digital comments can be emailed to odf.sfcomments@oregon.gov. Physical mail can be sent to ODF Public Affairs at 2600 State St. in Salem.

The public comment period closes at 5 p.m. May 18th. Following the review of public input and agency feedback, the plans will guide operations for the upcoming fiscal year.

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Kelsey Merison

SALEM, ORE. (KTVZ) — Emma Keen, an 11th-grade student at the Oregon School for the Deaf in Salem, will compete in the 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Semifinals in Washington, D.C., on April 28th. Keen will represent Oregon as one of the state champions vying for a spot in the national finals and a $20,000 grand prize.

The competition is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with state arts agencies. Designed to improve public speaking skills and teach literary history, this year’s event coincides with the 250th anniversary of the United States. Participating students will recite poems from an anthology that celebrates historic American voices.

Keen is scheduled to participate in the third semifinal session at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. ET) on Tuesday, April 28th. This session includes champions from 19 jurisdictions, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Minnessota, and Washington. Keen is the 2026 Oregon champion and is one of more than 130,000 students to compete in the program nationwide this year.

2026 Oregon Poetry Out Loud competitors (Emma Keen is third from the right, dressed in all black)

The national semifinals consist of three separate sessions. A total of nine students will advance to the national finals. To qualify for the finals, students must place in the top three of their respective semifinal sessions. Judges will evaluate each recitation based on physical presence, articulation, interpretation, and accuracy.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter highlighted the educational impact of the competition. “Poetry Out Loud helps students discover the power of language while building confidence, communication skills, and a deeper connection to literature,” Carter said. “We are thrilled to welcome our champions to Washington, DC, during America’s 250th birthday. In reciting works that helped shape our nation’s history, they are honoring the past while developing the skills to shape the future.”

A total of $50,000 in cash prizes and school stipends will be awarded during the competition. The national champion receives a $20,000 grand prize. The second and third place finalists will be awarded $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. These monetary prizes are administered by Mid Atlantic Arts.

All competition sessions are free and open to the public at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium. The organizers will provide American Sign Language interpretation and closed captioning in English and Spanish for both the semifinals and finals. Those unable to attend in person can view the events through a one-time-only webcast at arts.gov.

The 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Champion will be announced at the conclusion of the finals on the evening of April 29th. Full results and a list of all participating champions are available at PoetryOutLoud.org.

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