In support of west-side campus for OSU-Cascades

We are longtime subscribers. I am writing on behalf of my wife, Sandy, and myself to voice our strong support for the west-side location, chosen with care, due diligence and expertise for the expansion of the Oregon State University-Cascades Campus. We have watched with great interest every step of planning for this campus expansion and have been deeply impressed by the thoughtfulness, flow of information, transparency and community inclusion in the process. I would add that we are both journalists and have, in our work, watched with heavy hearts and real dismay, in many parts of our country, the deleterious, delaying and often-damaging effects of NIMBY movements. We can’t let that happen here.

We live on the west side. We have driven by the chosen location hundreds of times since we moved here in 2006 and have always thought it would be the perfect spot for a college — long before OSU began its formal search. That doesn’t make us geniuses. It’s just common sense. Where better in our community to offer the campus experience? Students will have easy access to everything our beautiful city and area have to offer and we, the community, will have easy access to the academic and cultural riches — and the much-needed economic benefits — this four-year university will bring to all of Central Oregon.

Your editorial voice in support of this campus expansion — and its location on the west side — are both right and appropriate — and deeply appreciated.

Bruce and Sandy Cummings

Bend

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Access to preventive care gives peace of mind and makes financial sense for individuals and our community. Encouraging people to take care of their health before it becomes a crisis saves time and financial heartache. Employers of healthy workers reduce lost productivity due to sickness and absence.

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Trina Grube

Bend

OSU-Cascades: Arrogant or clueless?

Is the management at OSU-Cascades arrogant or clueless? If OSU-Cascades shoves its proposed campus into the inadequate west-side location, do they think that all conflict and controversy will suddenly vanish? Not so. Every snafu associated with OSU-Cascades will be a conflict between Bend residents and the university. Parking clashes, noise, construction problems, water and sewer issues, traffic congestion — each of these will be debated and disputed in the public arena. OSU-Cascades won’t be a welcome guest in Bend and will encounter more of a struggle to achieve its objectives and goals. I suggest this: Since it appears that Juniper Ridge has tanked, just sign it over, gratis, to OSU-Cascades. Then, OSU-Cascades, take what you can get and be happy with it.

Mark Morgen

Bend