This seems like such an odd story—how does a government operation not get its lease renewed?—but KOHD is reporting that the DMV did just that and now has to move.

The Bend DMV field office is moving temporarily to the former Bend Visitor Center, now owned by another division of the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The office will leave its current location after close of business on Dec. 17 and will reopen Dec. 22 at the ODOT Region 4 annex building, 63085 N Highway 97, Bend. DMV will operate at this location until a permanent site is ready for use in Bend. That location has not been announced. The DMV hopes to have one secure by January. It has to relocate because the lease at its current location was not renewed.

The temporary office's hours of business will remain the same - 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except Wednesday, when the office is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Just in time for the holidays...

The old Visitor Center is just across the street from and a bit north of Shopko.

This is one of the more unusual events I've heard of, but it's definitely worth blogging about. If you're unhappy with the way the government has been handling the economy lately (among other things), this might be for you.

You've no doubt heard of the many Tea Party Rallies being held all across the country to protest the bailouts, wasteful spending, the corruption of earmarks, passing a record $700 expenditure bill without reading it, the rapid addition to our national debt (future bankruptcy?), the promised increase in taxes (re: cap & trade, the hidden tax) and the ramifications of all on our economy, job growth and unemployment. In addition, there is government ownership and control of private businesses on the horizon, and the promise of more massive spending and foolish government entitlement programs and amnesty to illegal immigrants, which are now costing the American taxpayer $350 billion a year.

So, a few of us are a little peeved and want Washington to Hear us.

A Tax Day Tea Party is planned for Bend to be held at Troy Park, next to McMenamins, on April 15th from 3:00 to 7:00. We invite all Central Oregonians to attend the rally, bring your tea bags, your signs, and your folding chairs for a good time with grassroots speeches, music, and a march through downtown. If you' like more information, let me know.

A bit more info can be found here.

All in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party, of course.

I'm sure you've seen the local commercials for "Talk of the Town"—the locally-produced cable-channel "town hall" TV program—and like me, haven't paid them much mind. After all, they're a little goofy in that "public access television" kind of way.

But this Monday's Talk of the Town sounds pretty interesting: it's a "Meet Your Legislators" edition, with State Senator Chris Telfer, State Representatives Gene Whisnant and Judy Stiegler, and Deschutes County Commissioners Dennis Luke, Tammy Baney, and Alan Unger all attending.

Imagine having the chance to go one on one with your state representatives. What if you could ask them anything on your mind, including state budget cutbacks, how that will impact us in Central Oregon, and more? You now have that opportunity!

Join us Monday, March 23rd, 5:30 p.m.
Cascades Theatrical Company
148 NW Greenwood, Bend

FREE TO ATTEND but seating is limited. Please RSVP!
388—5814
talk@bendbroadband.com

The resulting program will be aired on COTV 11 the following Monday, March 23rd at 7pm.

Made available on the Deschutes County website is the 2009 State of County presentation, so I snagged it and converted it to PDF for anyone who's interested. You can get it here. It's about 3 MB in size.

Originally it was a PowerPoint presentation, which explains the slideshow format, and the fact that it's summarized and disjointed. But still interesting, if you're into that sort of thing.

The overall message is the poor economy... but pay attention to the last few slides for some unexpected (gallows?) humor.

Ever take time to read the City Code for Bend? It's definitely interesting. Like Chapter 5, Offenses, section 5.070:

Possession of a Throwing Star.

(1) Definition: "Throwing Star" means any instrument, without handles, consisting of a metal plate having three or more radiation points with one or more sharp edges, and designed in the shape of a polygon, trefoil, cross, star, diamond, or other geometric shape for use as a weapon for throwing.

(2) A person commits the offense of possession of a throwing star if the person knowingly manufactures, causes to be manufactured, brings into the city, keeps for sale, offers for sale, exposes for sale, gives, lends or possesses a throwing star as defined in section l herein.

(3) Possession of a throwing star is a Class A misdemeanor.

[Section 5.070 added by Ord. NS-l398, passed 6-20-84]

I am simultaneously greatly amused and a bit puzzled by this one. Did we have an epidemic of ninja gangs in Bend in the early 80s to cause such a specific ordinance to get on the books? So far my digging around hasn't revealed any history behind it.

But what's more puzzling is why there's only the restriction on throwing stars. Why not nunchucks? Or swords?

Last night's local elections for City Council seats were pretty tight (all except Position 4—Jim Clinton owned that one), and resulted in some surprises. Here are the results of the four seats that were up for grabs:

Position 1:

I expected Peter Gramlich to hold on to this one.

Position 2:

This one was tight... at one point, Jeff Eager and Jodie Barram were separated by only two votes. (This was the seat vacated by Chris Telfer).

Position 3:

Position 4:

I am a little curious as to what the various write-in's were...

So, here's what our new City Council looks like:

• Bruce Abernethy (Mayor)
• Mark Capell
• Bill Friedman
• Jim Clinton
• Tom Greene
• Jeff Eager
• Kathie Eckman

So where am I going with this? I've had the idea for awhile to do some in-depth posts about the members of our local governing body, and this seems like an awfully good starting point. More to come over the next several weeks.

After pointing to Deschutes County's election results page earlier today, I've been watching it since 8pm (when the polls closed) to see local election results (aside from the Obama win, I'm very interested in some of the Oregon—and Bend—specific races). So far, though, there's nothing—no results at all—which is a little frustrating.

KTVZ's election results, though, are showing a whole bunch of the Oregon election results (though only a few of the very local elections so far).

So right now, KTVZ is the winner, though I'm checking both.

With today being Election Day and all (you voted, right? Right??), everyone interested in outcomes is going to be online trying to find numbers. Deschutes County has a good page of election results here, in an easy-to-scan, no-nonsense format. National down to the local issues.

No results have been updated yet (just after 1pm), but I expect that should change shortly. (I think?)

Here's something cool that we just discovered: the City of Bend website hosts audio MP3 recordings of all City Council meetings, going back to 2005. That's rather progressive and tech-savvy.

No video yet, though. Which is a shame, since the meetings are recorded for COTV on channel 11. They wouldn't even have to host the videos themselves; just put them on YouTube.

My wife pointed out the irony of the Bend City Council meeting tonight to present the proposed city fireworks ban, while at the same time this image appeared in today's Bulletin:

Fireworks at the Les Schwab Amphitheater for the Pacific Amateur Golf Classic; photo copyright Rob Kerr and the Bulletin

More detail: The City Council is meeting tonight, open to the public at 7pm at City Hall (710 NW Wall St., downtown), and one of the items on their agenda is indeed a proposed ordinance banning all fireworks in the City of Bend. There is concern among some public officials over the fires that were started due to fireworks this year (I don't have the exact number handy), both in terms of public safety and dollars spent in fighting these fires, and the solution is to adopt a general-purpose ban.

But come on. Banning all fireworks (except sparklers and snakes, and road flares unless said flare is used as intended during an emergency) is plain ridiculous—particularly when the ban extends to possession, sale and use. That's right, under this ordinance, even simply possessing fireworks in the City of Bend makes you guilty of a Class A Civil Infraction.

Now, authorized fireworks displays—presumably like the yearly July 4th Pilot Butte show, and last night's Pacific Amateur Golf Classic show—are exempt, so we wouldn't miss out on the big show(s) each year. What's ironic about this though is that almost every year the Butte catches fire during the show—which generally accounts for most of the yearly fire problems!

But really, banning all fireworks in the city is just not realistic—people will simply buy them elsewhere (the stand set up just outside city limits, anyone?) and set them off anyway. Enforcement will be next to impossible. And, a worse scenario is that the ban does work, and ends up pushing all the fireworks out of the city into the rural district—which as we all know, is a virtual tinderbox around here in summertime. The fire danger increases dramatically—and the municipal fire department doesn't respond to fires in those rural areas. That wouldn't be pretty.

You can read a summary of the issues here (PDF), and the proposed ordinance itself here (PDF) and make up your own mind. And I'm quite sure tonight's City Council meeting will be entertaining.

Today's election day—did you get your ballot returned yet? If not, the County website has a PDF of ballot drop sites where you can turn it in. All ballots are due by 8pm tonight, and it's too late to mail them—postmarks do not count, they have to be in the County's possession by the deadline.