I am writing to you in response to an article published in The Bulletin on Sept. 23 by Scott Hammers titled “Juniper Ridge full of dump sites, transient camps.”

I live near this area and have watched the proliferation of homeless camps and trash dumps grow out of control over the past four years. It’s alarming to me that the city was given this property to develop and claims not to have the resources to manage it.

I can’t imagine what companies like Les Schwab must think about their decision to buy into the city’s grand plan for the area. It seems like the city has abandoned their early partners and taxpaying residents in the area not only in terms of future development but in terms of creative solutions to effectively manage the property until it does get developed.

Assistant City Manager Jon Skidmore, is quoted by Hammers as saying, “… (the city of Bend) has occasionally struggled to keep camping, dumping and other prohibited activities in check.” When has the city not struggled with this problem? He is also quoted as saying, “… We, (the city of Bend), don’t really have the resources to monitor that area on a daily basis.”

The only things I’ve seen the city do in the past four years is post signs and push some dirt around. I am sure that if this problem existed for my west-side neighbors, the assistant city manager would not get away with this weak posture and would find the necessary resources to attack and solve this problem.

In my years as a manager I was given many projects that I believed to be insurmountable due to budget constraints, time constraints, manpower issues and etcetera. If I had responded to those challenges in the way the assistant city manager seems to be, I would not have lasted very long.

I do agree with the assistant city manager that most of these people are mentally ill or are “somewhat on the fringe of society.” The city has partner resources that they can employ at little or no cost to help the people who need it and who want it. Give our local police department ownership of the problem and task them with solving it.

Police departments already have resources in place to handle problems like this and would surely look forward to the challenge. Offer the police department some city resource support such as the city maintenance crews and equipment and I’m sure they will find an affordable solution to the issue at hand. Press your work force, don’t make excuses for them.

Figure it out, city of Bend. That’s what we’re paying you to do! There may be a larger societal problem working here, but don’t pitch this problem back to “society.” This is a Bend problem, and we expect you to solve it.

Consider this: post a 30-day notice of your plan to evict trespassers, offer assistance to those evicted, bulldoze and clean the trash out, and have the police conduct daily directed patrols on horses, bikes, quad runners or simply some four-wheel-drive vehicles they already have in their fleet. Regular directed police patrols don’t need to take much time from their regular patrol duties.

Maintain this posture until the property is developed. This Juniper area is part of the city of Bend. In my view, this is the city’s minimum responsibility as the owner of this property.

The city stands to make money when the land is sold and developed. Having this property in disrepair will not fetch top dollar.

— Mike Adye lives in Bend.