r/Bend

Nuevo New Mexico is now Muerta en el suelo as it was attacked from all angles in a Bloody battle. All empires fall eventually, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and now, the Nuevo New Mexico Empire. Rest in peace.

5 lucky states remain, Hawaii now holds a strong portion of the mainland, Megasota and Cascadia hold Large areas while The Vermonster isn’t really much of a monster yet.

I just want to say a humongous thank you to everybody who views, shares and engages with the posts. The last one got over 4 MILLION views and 16K upvotes. That shows how crazy big we are getting. I don’t see how the finale can’t get up to 10 Million. Maybe that’s a bit ambitious but if things carry on this way, never say never. As usual keep being amazing, and this is TRULY the endgame now.

Almost walked straight into this guy when going to my greenhouse this morning 😅😅 it has moved around a little but hasn’t gone far. Should I be worried and at what point would I need to call Think Wild? There are owls in our immediate area and I saw a second one fly out of a nearby tree, but I’ve never seen them around during the day like this.

I ran out to catch the phenomenal sunset last night and snapped a couple of cool photos of our local mountains to the north!

Curious why the graph has these massive drops, is it just a recording error?

Lovely spring day

Hi! I found an adult Siamese Cat with no collar wandering around the Canal Commons apartments (Empire/Thornhill - Mountain View) tonight at approximately 9:15pm. They are currently safe in my and my family’s care and quarantined from other household animals, but we are leaving for a family trip in the first thing in the morning, so hoping to find the owner(s) ASAP!

UPDATE: OWNER FOUND, THANK YOU!

EDIT: NEVER MIND, I AM AN IDIOT. Should have gone back through emails before posting. Or, you know, looked at the dates. Those bills are for 2 months at a time. Carry on.

OK, I never look at the garbage bill, so it has taken me a YEAR to notice that my monthly bill went from $16 to $19 to $20 to suddenly doubling to FORTY-TWO DOLLARS.

Is that for real? I looked at some individual invoices and it's for the same service, weekly pickup of a 32/35 gallon trash bin (the smaller one).

Hey all,

A friend reached out with this request below since they're directly impacted by this change. I don't know much about this, but I wanted to share it with all of you to raise some awareness. If you feel similarly, you can reach out to the decision makers and funders below. Please share with others who might be impacted.

They don't have enough karma to post in the Bend subreddit, but may be able to chime in in the comments.

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For those who don't know much about the Little Kits closure by OSU-Cascades, basically, after over $4 million in funding OSU is closing their childcare center after less than a year.

Here's two articles with more information:
Bend Bulletin: Bend parents ‘devastated’ over impending closure of OSU-Cascades daycare
CO Daily: Bend parents feeling blindsided as OSU-Cascades ends Little Kits daycare

I have an advocacy request. I have created a template letter below that I sent and I think it would help for them to hear from more people.

OSU Administrators

christine.pollard@osucascades.edu
laurie.hill@osucascades.edu

Commissioners

ComissionersPatti.Adair@deschutes.org

Phil.Chang@deschutes.org

Tony.DeBone@deschutes.org

Federal Elected Officials

senator_wyden@wyden.senate.gov

Senator_Merkley@merkley.senate.gov

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Dear OSU Administrators/Commissioners/Elected Officials,

Thank you so much for the generous funding you provided that made Little Kits possible.  I am so grateful to have been part of this program.  I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the abrupt planned closure of the OSU Cascades Little Kits Early Education Center.

Little Kits is a high-quality childcare center that has become an essential resource for local families, staff, and students. The center provides safe, nurturing, developmentally rich care that allows parents to work, attend school, and contribute to the community while knowing their children are thriving.

OSU Cascades and community partners invested over 4 million dollars in public funding into creating this facility and recruiting exceptional educators to build the program from the ground up. The center has been open for less than a year and has never been given the opportunity to operate at full capacity due to staffing limitations connected to OSU hiring freeze, out of reach tuition pricing and a complete lack of marketing and is now being closed due to low enrollment and ongoing operational costs before even having the time needed for a program like this to succeed. 

The sudden decision to close the center threatens more than 70 childcare slots in a region already facing a severe childcare shortage. It also risks losing highly qualified educators and abandoning commitments made to families, staff, students, and the broader Central Oregon community regarding affordable childcare, training early education educators and providing high quality care.

Also of concern is the lack of transparency and fair biding process to a new operator on a tax payer funded facility. And a decision that was clearly made and perhaps finalized prior to the announcement to families and staff that the facility would be leased to a fully federally funded headstart program that fundamentally changes the intention of the facility. It will no longer provide daycare hours, serve the faculty, staff, students and community, no longer offer toddler and infant spots, no longer accept Baby Promise and ERDC, the facility will certainly close for a minimum of 45 days, the program will fully shut down and the families and staff will have no opportunity to remain with the facility.

In March of 2025 OSU stated, "[the OSU childcare center] basically has sustained over the last five years", and "the timing felt right for growth", and "we didn't want to build a center that we wouldn't be able to staff."

My ask is that an urgent solution is explored that keeps Little Kits open until September 2027 while giving OSU time to look into alternative models and funding, ideally with the goal of stabilizing Little Kits for the next 5 years.  

In any case I'm asking that the closure be halted and a solution be found that allows continuity of care, retention of current staff and families, ERDC status, Baby Promise Provider Pathway, transparency of process, and ensures quality care standards.

Thank you for your time, leadership, and support for Central Oregon families and children.

Sincerely,
[Name]