Marilyn Battese said she doesn?t mind driving in from Crook County nearly every day to work as fitting room associate at the Redmond Wal-Mart.

?I get to see the sun come up, which always brings me a smile,? said Battese, 56, who allots about an hour each way to get from her home near the Prineville Reservoir to her job.

Battese, who?s one of 35 other Crook County residents who are among Wal-Mart?s 200 employees, said the driving time is worth it ? she?s willing to drive the extra distance for a job with good pay and good benefits.

And according to a recent study done by the state?s Employment Department, a growing number of the county is commuting to Deschutes and Jefferson counties for work.

Community leaders say the trend has implications for everything from road construction to community identity.

Kevin Sicard, regional economist with the state?s Employment Department, said Crook County leaders had been asking him for data on commuters for quite a while ? but the state doesn?t ordinarily keep commuter information, nor does it specifically track who?s commuting where and why.

?It?s the first study that?s been done, but I?m hoping to refine it,? Sicard said.

The Census does keep track of commuters, but those statistics only come out every 10 years.

Using wage records, Sicard figured about 872 Crook County workers ? out of a total employment of 6,968 for the studied time period ? worked in Deschutes and Jefferson counties, which is about 13 percent.

The numbers come from January to June of 2001.

Out of these 872 counted commuters, about 750 of them were driving into Deschutes County and another 109 were headed towards Jefferson County.

But what are they leaving for? In a word: Jobs.

Crook County?s economy is struggling. The closure of two mills last year, combined with the slowing national economy has left fewer jobs ? especially higher paying ones ? in the area.

According to Sicard?s project, those coming into Deschutes County were working primarily in service and retail jobs. For example, 32 employees of St. Charles Medical Center live in Crook County.

Most driving to Jefferson County were being lured by wood products jobs, probably the Bright Wood plant, Sicard said.

And money was definitely a factor.

?It looks to me that most people weren?t willing to commute for less than 10 bucks an hour,? Sicard said.

Hourly wages for commuters working in both counties ranged from a little above $8 to almost $20. For Battese, leaving the county to work just makes more sense.

?I guess my preference would be to work in Prineville,? she said. But she had a hard time finding a good-paying job. ?I like Wal-Mart, and with the benefits it works out better to work here.?

The recent survey can?t be directly compared to the Census numbers, and Sicard said he is waiting for the 2000 Census data so he can see how accurate his own study is.

At the 1980 Census, only 8 percent of Crook County?s workers commuted out of county. That grew to about 13 percent for the 1990 Census. Jefferson County?s 1990 Census shows a similar number of commuters, with 15 percent.

In Deschutes County, 5 percent were working in another county.

However, taking the population increase into account, Crook County Judge Scott Cooper said the 13 percent means a lot more commuters ? an increase peak-hour drivers may have noticed.

?To anyone trying to leave Prineville in the early morning or come back in the late afternoon, the traffic is like gridlock,? he said. The number confirmed Cooper?s observations and concerns about the county?s economic and social fabric.

?As commuting increases, it reduces retail traffic into Prineville,? he said. He added people are more likely to do errands on the way home from work or during their lunch, drawing away dollars from the local stores.

And the more commuters an area has, the greater the potential for it becoming a ?bedroom community.?

?Ideally, we like to have people live where they work,? said Roger Lee, director of Economic Development for Central Oregon.

Property taxes from businesses support local cities, counties and school districts without demanding many of the services residents do.

?Residential development doesn?t pay for itself,? Lee said. ?The ideal is that we have a mix of businesses and homes.?

And the amount of time spent in the car can have changes on the community as well.

?People who are commuting don?t have the time to volunteer in the community or spend with their family,? Cooper said.

For the Oregon Department of Transportation and the county, the amount of commuters combined with the population growth leads to the need for road improvements on the highways that link Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties.

According to ODOT traffic counts, the number of cars at the intersection of the Powell Butte Highway and Highway 126 has grown about 10 percent in the last five years with an average of 3,000 cars passing by daily.

The number of cars going back and forth over the Crook and Deschutes county lines on Highway 126 has increased by about 64 percent in the past five years. More than 7,400 cars travel between the counties on any given day.

ODOT plans to add passing lanes to the east end of Highway 126, where the road comes into Prineville, by the end of 2003, said Steve Wilson of ODOT.

Cooper said he?d like to see passing lanes near the west end of the highway as well.

?The passing lanes help with congestion and driver frustration,? Wilson said. ?But it really doesn?t improve capacity.?

Wilson said there are no immediate plans for actually adding more lanes the whole length of the two-lane highway, and that traffic capacity would have to increase a great deal more before the lanes were needed.

As for the commuters, Sicard said tracking the drivers provides Crook County with some enticing figures to lure potential employers ? a reason Cooper said he wanted the study done.

?Basically, it shows an available work force that right now is willing to drive out of the county for jobs,? Sicard said.

?It shows what people are willing to work for ? and can help determine what will attract them to stay.?

Kelly Kearsley can be reached by calling 541-504-2336 or by sending an email to Kelly Kearsley.