Wyden releases draft legislation for
free transfer of Bend Pine Nursery to Parks District
Senator is “deeply troubled”
by possibility of higher local tax burden and dismayed at Forest
Service “foot-dragging”
September 10, 2003
Bend, OR – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today
asked the Board of the Bend Metro Parks and Recreation District
for their comments on a new draft proposal to transfer the Bend
Pine Nursery from the Forest Service to the Parks District at
no cost. Since Wyden initially passed bipartisan legislation
in 2000 to authorize the sale of the Forest Service property,
the cost estimate has almost doubled from $3 million to $5.8
million, causing Wyden to weigh in on the issue again.
In a letter to the Board of Directors of the Parks
District today, Wyden wrote that he is, “deeply troubled
by the additional tax burden parks district residents are being
asked to endure to see this project to its completion.”
The Parks District commissioned an independent
appraisal of the property’s value in 2002, and that valuation
came in at $4.5 million. Now, after almost three years of waiting
for the Forest Service to act, the Parks District was told by
the Forest Service this week that its proposed $5.8 million
sale price is not negotiable and that the Forest Service needs
an answer on the proposed sale price in three weeks (by Sept.
30) or it may seek to sell the land to another buyer(s).
In his letter, Wyden expressed his dissatisfaction
with the Forest Service’s delays, writing, “It is
an understatement to say that I am frustrated by the foot-dragging
of the Forest Service, which, intentional or not, has served
to inflate the Forest Service’s potential payoff at the
expense of the residents of Deschutes County. I, for one, see
no reason taxpayers in the county should be asked to pay additional
tax dollars to reward the Forest Service’s ineffective
response time on this very important issue.” He added
that the land transfer process has “taken longer than
any reasonable Oregonian would have expected.”
The land sale was originally authorized by legislation
Wyden, in consultation with the Forest Service, passed with
bipartisan support from U.S. Senator Gordon Smith and U.S. Representative
Greg Walden. Wyden has followed the progress, or lack thereof,
of the sale since that time and decided to push the idea of
a free land transfer after a recent discussion with Deschutes
County Commissioner Tom DeWolf.
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