11/4/2009 - Prineville

by Matt McDonald

The COCC bond passes but not everyone is celebrating.

"Deschutes won the contest, Crook county lost the contest," said Robert Hiscock of Prineville.

Deschutes and Jefferson counties voted in favor of the bond. Crook county voters opposed it fifty eight percent to forty two. For Crook county that means paying for a bond the majority of its residents didn't want. Russell Thiess of Prineville explains why he voted no.

"There were so many unknowns about what they were going to do," said Thiess.

COCC plans to issue the forty one-million dollar bond in the next three to six months, hoping to break ground on a new health careers building on the Bend campus in six to nine months. A new campus building is slated for Madras across from the middle school and a technology center on the Redmond COCC campus. In crook county, no concrete plans for where the new campus building will go.

"There's no strict guideline that says exactly when you have to build by but there is a law that says you have to build within a reasonable period of time. That's usually considering to be in the four to six years area," said COCC spokesman Ron Paradis.

Crook county leaders are hoping it will be sooner.

"We've already got some movement underway with COCC and OSU. We're calling it our open campus," said Crook County Judge Mike McCabe.

The county has plans for a small campus near the OSU Extension center in Prineville, hoping COCC will be the first to build.

"We have about 500 credit students a year that come to us from Crook County. We have another, about 400, that are taking none credit classes," said Paradis.

Unemployment in Crook county remains the highest in the state, just short of twenty percent. Leaving some frustrated with the bill for the bond on the way.

"That's the way the vote went so I guess we'll cough it up," said Beth White of Prineville.