Cooley Road on Bend’s northern edge will be closed for 10 days beginning Thursday, state transportation officials announced Monday.

The closure is a part of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Bend North Corridor project, which is creating an entirely new section of U.S. Highway 97 that will bypass the existing highway in the northern part of Bend.

Cooley Road will be completely closed from the highway to Hunters Circle. A detour will be in place along 18th Street to Empire Avenue.

“This full closure will allow crews to safely install concrete beams for the new U.S. 97 overcrossing as well as reconstruct Cooley Road,” the announcement said.

Crews will be working day and night, and all work is weather dependent and subject to change. The entire north corridor project is expected to be complete by the end of 2024.

Bend’s new transportation fee is scheduled for a public hearing at the next City Council meeting on March 20.

The hearing will be the public’s final opportunity to weigh in on the proposed fee, which seeks to charge residents and businesses for their impacts on the local transportation system.

The city says revenue from the fee, which will be implemented and likely raised in phases over the next three years beginning July 1, will partially remedy budget shortfalls left behind by property tax collection limitations.

Voters passed a transportation general obligation bond in 2020, which directs funds to building new projects. Revenue from the proposed transportation fee will first go toward maintenance of existing road facilities.

Recent City Council-hosted public listening sessions drew opposition to the fee. Many were upset about the lack of a public vote. The proposed fee is not a tax, so it doesn’t require a vote by residents — only the majority of the City Council’s support.

The St. Patrick’s Day Dash is set for noon to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Old Mill District. Mt. Bachelor Rotary and Cascade Relays are collaborating on this event.

The fun run event also will include green beer, cocktails, bagpipes, Irish dancers, face painting, food and a live band. There will be prizes for costumes and wearing green.

Funds raised will support the Assistance League of Bend. Registration is $30 for the 1.3 mile course, $45 for the 5K, and $60 for the 10K run. Participants will receive a swag bag, complementary drink token and race bib. The first 600 entrants will also receive a St. Patrick’s Day race hat.

Registration on Saturday will be available from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Old Mill, on the grass in front of the Hampton Inn.

Central Oregon Community College Foundation’s Meal of the Year is set for 5:30 p.m. April 13 in the Mazama gym on the Bend campus.

The scholarship fundraiser has limited seating, with tickets priced at $150. Funds raised will support COCC student scholarships.

The event, in its 45th year, will include a whiskey lounge, raffle, live auction and game of chance. The four-course meal will be prepared by COCC chef-instructor Brian Kerr and Cascade Culinary Institute students.

The event will honor the Miller family, who founded the company that would become Miller Lumber Co. They have supported COCC and the COCC Foundation since it began.

Recently, members of the Miller family donated a parcel of downtown Madras real estate to the COCC Foundation’s campaign. Proceeds will support the Madras campus expansion.

The COCC Foundation provides funding for scholarships and capital improvements, cultivates relationships with donors and develops programs to focus on COCC student success.

Gov. Tina Kotek wants to scrap a plan to implement tolls on large sections of two Portland-area interstates, she said Monday.

Kotek sent a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission on Monday saying the Regional Mobility Pricing Project for Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 should be halted, KGW-TV reported.

Kotek said in the letter that the “state’s path toward implementing tolling in the Portland metro area is uncertain, at best,” and that the challenges associated with the plan “have grown larger than the anticipated benefits.”

“Therefore, I believe it is time to bring the agency’s work on RMPP to an end,” she wrote.

In 2017, the state Legislature directed the Oregon Department of Transportation to start exploring tolling as a traffic congestion management tool that could be part of a major transportation funding package, but the plans have drawn increasing criticism as they’ve become clearer.

Kotek’s letter came a few weeks after a survey found a majority of Oregon voters opposed the Regional Mobility Pricing Project tolls, KOIN-TV reported.

The move also came after the Oregon Department of Transportation produced a report on the equity impacts of tolling and the agency’s plan to mitigate the impacts on low-income Portlanders. Kotek wrote in her letter that the report showed “a toll program which keeps toll rates low enough for working families and raises enough funding for major projects would fail to meet expectations for local project funding and revenue sharing.”

The state transportation agency is facing funding challenges because of a projected decline in revenue from the state’s gas tax, and Kotek said she expects the Legislature to tackle that issue in the 2025 session.

The governor said in the letter she is “confident that a more robust conversation on funding options will yield greater understanding and direction for our future moving forward.”

Oregon Transportation Commission Chair Julie Brown and Vice Chair Lee Beyer, as well as Oregon Department of Transportation Director Kris Strickler, all released statements later Monday suggesting they agree with Kotek.

Beyer said “metro leadership views on tolling have changed” and “local and regional opposition to tolling makes clear that Oregon is not ready for regional tolling.” Strickler said, “it is clear the toll program cannot be designed in a way that meets the needs expressed by our local partners while also meeting the needs of Oregonians statewide.”

Brown said she looked forward to conversations about other funding sources but added that while she didn’t believe tolling should be the only tool to solve challenges, “as a steward of our state’s transportation system, I believe it should be one of our tools.”

Kotek said this move should not impact the planned collection of toll revenue on the interstate highway bridge between Oregon and Washington that’s set to be replaced as part of a multibillion-dollar project supported by federal funding.