State pays $1.66 million for site of new National Guard center in Redmond
Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, February 10, 2021
- The House chamber in the state Capitol in Salem.
The state has approved the $1.66 million sale of 20 acres in Redmond for development as a new Oregon National Guard Readiness Center.
The State Land Board — made up of Gov. Kate Brown, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and Treasurer Tobias Read — voted 3-0 on Tuesday to sell the land owned by the Common School Fund to Oregon Military Department.
The Land Board was established in 1859 to oversee transactions and care for assets held by the Common School Fund. It’s chair is the governor, with the secretary of state and treasurer as members.
The sale is part of a larger, long-range plan involving the Department of State Lands, Oregon Military Department, the City of Redmond and Deschutes County.
A 945-acre project would allow for expansion of the county fairgrounds. The project also includes new industrial parks and technology centers that supporters say would bring higher-paying jobs to the area.
The new Readiness Center would replace Redmond’s 65-year-old armory, but have an expanded mission of training National Guard soldiers from around the state. Officials have said earlier it will be the most seismically advanced National Guard facility in Oregon.
The center is also marked as a likely component of a Bend-area command post for state government and federal emergency response in the event of major disaster caused by movement of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off the coast of Oregon.
Scientists have predicted a possible 9.0 scale earthquake and subsequent tsunami along the 700-mile subduction zone that could kill up to 25,000 people in the Pacific Northwest.
Most areas west of the coastal range would be inundated by waves, while road, rail, air, utilities and communications west of the Cascades would be heavily damaged.
While the earthquake would be felt in Central Oregon, areas east of the Cascades are expected to escape with light to moderate damage.
State surveys found the Redmond Airport would likely be the closest airfield that would still be fully operational following an earthquake. Fixed-wing aircraft could land supplies from around the country and then helicopters could be used to fan out to areas throughout the Willamette Valley expected to be severely affected.
Previously, the state had set Salem as the center of earthquake relief operations, but studies showed the largest earthquakes along the fault would make the airport runways unusable to fixed wing aircraft.
“When constructed, this new readiness center will be a resilient facility that is more capable of surviving, and being a local and state asset, during an earthquake or other natural disaster,” Stan Hutchinson, the Oregon Military Department’s director of installations, said Tuesday.
State plans call for the Oregon National Guard Youth Challenge Program’s Bend campus on Dodds Road to also serve as a fallback site for emergency coordination in a major earthquake if other facilities in the Salem area are knocked-out.
The Land Board was established in 1859 to oversee transactions for the state’s Common School Fund. The board’s administrative agency is the Department of State Lands, charged with managing property and resource to fund schools while protecting wetlands and waterways for the future.
The Oregon Military Department is the state component for the National Guard, which can be used for state emergencies or be activated for federal service. There are 37 armories and other centers in Oregon.
