Mountain View rolls, Bend High falls D1 •
NOVEMBER 19, 2011
Bachelor, Hoodoo set to open • C1
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Tax breaks sought for Bend’s Juniper Ridge By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Property tax breaks are one way Bend officials hope to spur land sales at their 1,500acre Juniper Ridge real estate development. The city is working with Economic Development for Central Oregon to expand its existing
enterprise zone to include 256 acres of employment land at Juniper Ridge, located off Cooley Road in northeast Bend. About 25 acres of that land recently hit the market with an asking price of $7.6 million. As an enterprise zone, any eligible company moving into Juniper Ridge or any business
that expands there would be able to avoid paying property taxes for three to five years. For existing businesses, such as the Les Schwab headquarters or Suterra LLC, this incentive would only apply to the expansion or purchase of new equipment. See Juniper Ridge / A7
Inside • Where the enterprise zone applies — and how Juniper Ridge would fit in, A7 Proposed enterprise zone expansion A
proposed expans Bend’s enterprise ion to zon includes a section e Juniper Ridge, wh of ich had previously been excluded.
Juniper Ridge
LA PINE WATER, SEWER DISTRICTS
Audit reveals many fiscal irregularities
97
By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
COUNTDOWN TO AN EXECUTION
The La Pine sewer and water districts are small. They have a total of five employees, and about 600 customers. Even the districts’ office is tiny, and the conference room where district commissioners historically held meetings is so small that it barely fits the commissioners and office staff, let alone members of the public. Yet the amount of money the districts handle is large — more than $1.5 million annually in customer money — and a recent financial audit revealed widespread problems. For example, two office workers made more than $80,000 in unauthorized write-offs on penalties and service charges in a system auditors said was vulnerable to embezzlement. The district’s accounting practices are so weak that auditors wrote that embezzlement by employees would be “virtually undetectable.” Employees received untaxed benefits such as tires, free fuel and Christmas bonus gift cards, so the districts and employees are liable for the unpaid taxes. In one case, an employee was paid under the table at the behest of her mother, who at the time was president of the water board. See La Pine / A8
A look inside the death chamber
Gary Haugen is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Salem on Dec. 6.
Photos by John Klicker / For The Bulletin
The Oregon State Penitentiary’s execution chamber, as seen from the observation room during a media tour of the facility in Salem on Friday. Marion County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Guimond on Friday signed Gary Haugen’s death warrant. The twice-convicted murderer, who has waived all appeals, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection here on Dec. 6.
Yearly reviews cite consistent shortcomings By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
The recent audit that revealed a lack of financial controls and possible misuse of funds at the La Pine sewer and water districts was far from the first audit of the districts. The districts submit annual audits to the secretary of state, as state law requires for all municipalities that spend more than $500,000 annually. Candace Fronk, a partner at the Bend firm Harrigan Price Fronk & Co. LLP, has prepared the districts’ audit reports since at least 2004 and consistently noted shortcomings in their financial controls. In a 2004 sewer district audit, the earliest available on the secretary of state’s website, Fronk wrote that because the districts were so small, they could not assign specific accounting tasks to different employees. This can make financial records vulnerable to mistakes or abuse — for example , if a single employee both accepts cash payments and records transactions. See Reviews / A4
A 1,000-mile solo ski trek — across Antarctica But Felicity Aston has been there, done that. Weather and BUENOS AIRES, Ar- her own considerable stamina gentina — Reaching the permitting, the 33-year-old end of the Earth has British adventurer will become almost rouonly pause at the pole tine these days: One long enough to pick up more food and fuel. Her hundred years after Norway’s Roald plan is to keep on skiAmundsen beat ing, by herself, all the Britain’s R.F. Scott Aston way to the other side to the South Pole, of the frozen continent more than 30 teams — and become the first are trying for it this year. person using only muscle powSome will kite-sail over er to cross Antarctica alone. the vast Antarctic ice and If she manages to complete snow. Others will drive in this journey of more than from the coast. A wealthy 1,000 miles in late January, handful will be dropped she would also set a record for off one degree north of the the longest solo polar expediSouth Pole, for relatively tion by a woman, at about 70 leisurely guided treks of days. See Antarctica / A4 about 70 miles to the pole.
By Michael Warren By Lauren Dake
Shortly before Haugen’s execution, penitentiary officials will use these phones to call Gov. John Kitzhaber and Attorney General John Kroger for the final go-ahead.
The Bulletin
SALEM — The countdown to Gary Haugen’s execution has started, but prison officials will keep asking, “Are you sure you want to die?” If the twice-convicted murderer persists with his wish to be executed, then on Dec. 6, at about 7 p.m., Haugen will be killed by lethal injection at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. Today is day 19 in prison officials’ 45-day execution countdown. The day that three drugs enter his veins — one to
induce unconsciousness, another to stop breathing and the final to stop his heart — will be day No. 1. The 49-year-old murderer has waived all appeals and has been vocal about wanting to be executed. He was convicted in 1981 for fatally beating the mother of his ex-girlfriend. Killing Mary Archer landed him a life sen-
tence. While at the Oregon State Penitentiary, he killed inmate David Polin, which sent him to death row. If Haugen is executed, it will be Oregon’s first execu-
tion in 14 years. To prepare, Department of Corrections staff have been through two mock executions and consulted with other states. See Execution / A7
The Associated Press
British adventurer Felicity Aston skis across Iceland during a 2010 training trip.
After horrific crash, outrage over injustice in China By Michael Wines and Ian Johnson New York Times News Service
BEIJING — Days after a nine-seat van crammed with 62 kindergartners slammed into a coal truck in northwest
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China this week, killing 21 children and two adults, the 21st Century Business Herald — a state-run, reliably nationalistic newspaper — did something extraordinary.
It published a chart. In one column, the paper recounted recent school-bus accidents in which about 60 children had died. In an adjacent column, it listed the sums that
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 108, No. 323, 72 pages, 7 sections
selected Chinese government departments had lavished on new cars in 2010. No Chinese citizen needed a pencil to connect the dots. See China / A7
INDEX Business C3-5 Comics B4-5 Community B1-6
Crosswords B5, F2 Dear Abby B3 Editorials C6
Horoscope Movies Obituaries
The Associated Press
TODAY’S WEATHER B3 B2 C7
Sports D1-6 Stocks C4-5 TV B2, ‘TV’ mag
Morning snow High 35, Low 13 Page C8
TOP NEWS OBAMA: Returning from Asia trip, A3 NATALIE WOOD: Case reopened, A3