Employees work on dump trucks in the ODOT Maintenance Station Sisters Wednesday afternoon. 7-9-25 Andy Tullis/The Bulletin

After ODOT layoffs, Central Oregon braces for a rough winter on the roads

The Oregon Department of Transportation is counting on a mild winter.

After the agency delivered layoff notices to 483 workers across the state and closed a dozen rural maintenance stations Monday, it is not certain what the roads might look like during and after a strong Central Oregon snowstorm.

But the department is sure the roads will be in significantly worse condition than last season.

That is, unless lawmakers can come up with a deal to pay for plowing and other maintenance operations before then.

As the legislative session ended last month, Democrats did not have enough support to pass tax and fee hikes to shore up transportation funding with $14.6 billion over the next decade. When a last-ditch effort to pass a stopgap funding bill also failed, the transportation agency quickly cut about 10% of its workforce to close a $350 million budget hole. Hundreds more layoffs could be on the way.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has hinted that she will call a special legislative session to temporarily fund the agency.

“We do need to solve this,” Kotek said Tuesday during a video call with reporters. “I don’t think it’s acceptable for Oregonians to go without basic services provided by trained and experienced ODOT workers.”

Kotek said she would need “agreement from a whole lot of people” before calling the session.

“I would ask for a little bit of patience until we have the right game plan worked out,” she said.

More dangerous roads looming

Meanwhile, workers are feeling the impacts.

In Deschutes County, 21 employees were told their job would be cut by July 31.  Those include a group of maintenance workers, plus managers, engineers, analysts and office workers. One Crook County employee lost their job.

“This is a hell of a blow,” said Stacey Robinson, maintenance coordinator at the Sisters Maintenance Station, one of the outposts that’s set to close due to budget cuts. The crew of six workers and two temporary workers was responsible for taking care of U.S. Highway 20 from Bend to Suttle Lake, the east side of McKenzie Pass Highway and U.S. Highway 126 from Sisters to Redmond.

ODOT said on Monday that positions were eliminated based on their funding source — the State Highway Fund, which is funded by the gas tax, which produces declining revenues.

Maintenance stations were eliminated based on whether they could be served by a nearby station. Within ODOT’s Central Oregon region, two other shops were on the closure list: Mitchell (50 miles east of Prineville) and Condon (85 miles northeast of Madras). Another outpost in Detroit, just across the mountains on U.S. Highway 22, is set to close.

Remaining stations in Bend and Madras will be left to cover a larger area with fewer resources. Maintenance employees said Wednesday they had been told the Bend outpost would need to cover twice the amount of roadway than before.

“The public can expect slower snow and ice removal, particularly in rural and mountainous areas,” Kacey Davey, a spokesperson for ODOT, said in an email. “Deicing treatments will be scaled back, increasing the risk of icy roads and dangerous driving conditions.”

During winter storms, ODOT’s snowplows run nonstop. One plow might end up driving hundreds of miles in a day just to keep the 23-mile stretch from Bend to Sisters clear.

One plow driver suggested that Central Oregonians may need to invest in snowmobiles to get around this winter.

Highways around Bend have become more crowded, including the road to Mt. Bachelor, state Highway 372. During storms and holiday weekends, many drivers weren’t happy with the current level of upkeep on the road, as videos circulated on social media of cars sliding off the road and into one another.

Officials said maintenance last winter was at a similar level to previous years. The agency ranks local highways into five priority levels. The road to the mountain is in the third tier, meaning it already receives minimal overtime hours, and deicer and sand are only used on trouble spots.

Exactly which resources would be stripped away from that road and other local highways is still uncertain. ODOT managers are scrambling to figure out exactly how to fill the gaps.

Lawmakers still working

Meanwhile, lawmakers say they are working on a potential funding deal.

Rep. Emerson Levy, whose district includes Sisters and parts of Bend, said she supports the governor calling a special session to fund maintenance and addressing larger budget issues during next year’s session.

“We’re working diligently with ODOT to make sure we don’t have any maintenance impacts,” Levy said, adding, “I feel confident that we’ll get where we need to be before winter.”

Even if lawmakers do find funding for winter maintenance, the impacts to communities could come sooner. ODOT workers are responsible for repairing pavement and guardrails, managing vegetation, striping, installing and repairing signs and cleaning up roadsides, including homeless encampments. They respond to calls about downed trees and dead animals.

Often, they are first responders in emergencies. Sisters Mayor Jennifer Letz said her top concern with the ODOT cuts is losing help from the agency evacuating the city during a wildfire emergency.

“Without their personnel, equipment, and expertise, an evacuation could become just as dangerous as the wildfire itself,” Letz said. “That terrifies me.”

Decades of expertise could also be lost. Two local ODOT managers resigned in recent weeks as the layoffs were rolled out.

Employees at the Sisters station range from six months of experience to more than two decades. As the agency negotiates with the employee union, senior employees could have the option to stay on with the agency and bump out those with less experience.

Robinson, the Sisters station manager, has been with ODOT for 28 years. She said she doesn’t know what her next step is.

Either way, “It’s going to have a huge impact on me,” she said.