Keith Scott, 6-foot 4-inches tall and built like his 1987 Ford pickup, towers over the podium at Bend City Hall. He cranes his neck toward the microphone, fixes his green eyes at the ground in front of city councilors, and begins his bi-monthly speech to the council.

This time he?s asking the council to complete the Reed Market Road interchange off the parkway.

?Let?s go for it and get this finished,? he says. He thanks the councilors for listening.

Scott, dressed in his gray suit and black turtleneck, with hair slicked in a near throwback to a ducktail, is a fixture at council meetings, speaking on behalf of Woodriver Village.

The 56-year-old, Scotch-Irish president of the Woodriver Village Homeowners Association first stepped into the local political limelight to defend his neighborhood during the controversy about the southern crossing. One proposed road alignment would have mowed down six homes in his quiet, once-obscure neighborhood in the trees, and Scott was determined not to let that happen.

Warren Blazenski ? who would have lost his house ? said Scott effectively mobilized the neighborhood to fight the road alignment and save the homes. Scott called everyone he could ? some didn?t know that their neighborhood was in jeopardy. He put together informational meetings so the neighbors could unify against the road alignment.

Although he was focused and intent on winning, Scott never lost his cool at a city council meeting.

?His size makes him a powerful presence in a room, but he counters that by his good will and gentle nature,? Blazenski said.

On a recent cold winter morning, Scott sat on his couch wearing a thick green flannel shirt and a plaid scarf wrapped tightly around his jowly neck. He sipped his second cup of coffee and said he calls himself the ?Woodriver Village woodpecker? because he pecks at the city council.

Mayor Bill Friedman said that when the southern bridge was a hot topic, Scott always told the council what the homeowners there were thinking.

?He?s a fellow that is sincerely interested in the area in which he lives and is doing his best to let the council know what he and the people of Woodriver Village are interested in,? Friedman said.

And to keep himself informed, Scott reads everything he can about city business in the newspaper and elsewhere, and attends city and park district meetings as much as possible.

City Councilor John Hummel said Scott is at every council meeting advocating for Woodriver Village and at most ?coffee with the council? meetings.

?You could not have a more dedicated, committed neighborhood organization leader,? he said.

Scott?s parents moved to Woodriver Village from the Bay Area in 1976. At the urging of his father, Scott started buying homes there in 1982. His father died in 1987, and in 1998, Scott bought the green and yellow mobile home he lives in now so he could be closer to his mother.

Scott, who makes a living as a landlord of six mobile homes in Woodriver Village, became association president in 1999.

Talk to Scott?s neighbors, and they?ll describe him as passionately dedicated to the village, well-informed, hard-working and basically just a nice guy. He?s a self-described homebody who spends much of his time working in the neighborhood, and associating with people he knows through his job.

Chris Abramczyk, an association board member, said Scott removes yard debris for elderly neighbors.

He helped re-establish a family whose home was gutted by a fire last year. And he lets low-income people work off their rent in desperate times.

?He?s one of these people that from my cynical world view I look at and think: ?There?s someone that something good should happen to,? ? Abramczyk said. ?He deserves recognition. He is what everyone says we?re supposed to be as citizens.?

Although he?s always well-prepared, sometimes when Scott talks in public he?s a little hard to follow. That?s because he speaks with a slightly unusual syntax in which his words sometimes race, and then crawl.

His mother, Mary, 87, said that when he learned to talk, he chattered really fast and developed a stutter. Speech therapy helped work out the stutter, she said, but he has always been quite a talker.

?We could not shut him up,? she said.

?The minute he opens up his mouth he has a lot to say. He?s never been shy,? she said. ?He approaches the bigwigs with no concern whatsoever.?

Jerry Oats, a former homeowners association president who knew Scott?s parents decades ago, said: ?He talks and rambles on, but he?s got nerve to get up there and have his say. Some people won?t even get up if they don?t have a speech impediment.?

It appears to Oats and others that Scott really likes being in the limelight.

And Oats said it?s worked for the neighborhood.

?He?s done as much or more than any president of Woodriver Village,? Oats said.

When Scott reminisces about his youth, his narrow eyes squint and a smile slides across his face. He loved music and cars. He loved cruising the strip in Richmond, Calif.

He still loves cars, especially Cadillacs ? collecting them, driving them, working on them, drawing them, writing about them in readers? forums in collectible car magazines. He also loves to read classics, and watch old movies. Without a second?s hesitation, he said his all-time favorite book ? and movie ? is ?Gone With the Wind.?

Scott went to Contra Costa Community College in San Pablo and studied business administration. He enjoyed the social part of school and found American government and history interesting.

But life hasn?t always been easy for Scott. He went through some hard times in his early 30s, when he said he ?hit rock bottom.? In 1972, he was penniless and almost homeless.

?I was like Scarlet O?Hara, when she went back to the plantation and found there was no money or way to grow crops,? he said.

He said he realized his only choice was to change his attitude to survive.

?I just accepted the philosophy that one has no choice but to take life as it comes and God helps those who help themselves,? he said.

In the Bay Area, he entered an iron workers apprenticeship and became an officer and the family picnics chairman for the iron workers union. He retired in 1990 after he broke his leg in a fall at an oil refinery.

He entered public life in California before he came to Bend, becoming president of a neighborhood association during the late 1970s and 1980s. Back then, his proudest achievement was getting a traffic signal built at a major arterial, he said.

In Bend, he?s still got a lot of work to do for his rustic, 147-parcel neighborhood that?s primarily full of mobile homes. He wants the city to build as many access roads to Woodriver Village as possible ? right now there is only one and it?s a steep treacherous hill in the winter. He wants more street lights and stop signs in the neighborhood.

?I may be shooting for Pluto, but we could use sidewalks and a wider road,? he said.

Scott said the only thing that would force him to leave town is if he gets priced out of his neighborhood, one of the few places left in Bend where some people can actually afford a home. He said maintaining his financial independence will be his biggest challenge.

?I feel like this will become the the Aspen, Colorado, of the Pacific Northwest,? said Scott, referring to rising home prices in Bend.

When he?s not trying to fight big battles at city hall, Scott is dealing with daily duties in his neighborhood.

Gary Loggan, a past president of the Woodriver Village Homeowners Association, said a couple of times there hasn?t been a driver for the association?s snowplow, and Scott has manned the equipment to clear the neighborhood streets.

?For an elderly (person) who can?t get out and has health problems, it?s Keith to the rescue,? Loggan said. ?That?s sort of in keeping with his personality, with his character.?

Anne Aurand can be reached at 541-383-0323 or by sending an e-mail to Anne Aurand.