From the editor’s desk: Election season arrives in Redmond — so do bodegas and nail salons and the plague

Published 9:00 am Saturday, February 10, 2024

A still of video taken after the conclusion of the Redmond and Ridgeview basketball game Feb. 6. After Redmond won, the team gathered at midcourt and a fight between players and fans soon erupted.

Tuesday will be a big city council meeting for Redmond as councilors are expected to finalize language to put three separate questions before voters in May. You’ll want to be informed about this election as it could change the city charter so the length of the mayor’s term is doubled, term limits are instituted for both mayor and city councilors, and family members would be forbidden from serving in elected positions together.

The first case of plague (yes, that plague) in Oregon since 2015 was confirmed in Redmond this week. A patient hospitalized here tested positive for the disease. But the scary news is also a reminder about how far we’ve come since the 14th Century or so when the disease ravaged much of the Old World. Antibiotics and knowledge of germ theory allowed the inflected patient to survive the affliction and be released from the hospital. Still, with bacterial diseases as dangerous as the plague can be, it’s good to know it’s being taken seriously and the public if informed.

Redmond resident have been talking about an ugly incident that occurred soon after the final whistle in the Redmond and Ridgeview rivalry basketball game. School officials have a new policy in order to stop fights like that before they happen.

A popular Bend grocer has come to town, opening a convenience store in a southwest Redmond neighborhood.

Reporter Joe Siess stopped by Ollie’s Kitchen on its second day in business and found it already humming with activity. I guess a morning delivery of famed ocean rolls from The Sparrow Bakery in Bend can do that. According to the store’s owners, small bodega-style groceries and grab-and-go food options may be part of the company’s plan going forward. Give a read about what Ollie’s has to offer, then stop in and check it out yourself.

We’re pumped about Rosies Nail Salon, which will open soon downtown. We’re big fans of the Le family and you couldn’t find a cuter mascot for a business than young Rosie, who the salon is named after.

Law enforcement actions made headlines as well. First, police stopped a vehicle in Terrebonne that investigators tailed from Bend homeless shelter. Under surveillance for a couple of weeks, the passengers in the vehicle were suspected of dealing fentanyl and other drugs out of their apartment in Bend. The traffic stop netted a significant amount of fentanyl, according to police and all three people in the car were jailed.

Also, Hola – a staple of the Redmond restaurant scene — was broken into for a second time. The burglars have a taste for tequila and cash.

Longtime readers of the Spokesman recall award-winning columnist Lee Barker. The instrument inventor and recent memoirist took up the pen again, this time to write an ode to walking and talking to strangers. Check it out, and submit your own! Our fine stable of community columnists can always use some new perspectives.

I’m working on a fun Valentine’s Day piece to run in next week’s Spokesman. What’s better to read about than love? Hope you’ll check it out at redmondspokesman.com or see it print in the newspaper.

Quote of the Week

” Look, we are newlyweds. Do you really think our pillow talk has to do with the next vote on city council?”

— George Endicott, former Redmond mayor talking about his wife, and former city councilor Krisanna Scott-Endicott

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— Tim Trainor is editor of the Redmond Spokesman.

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