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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 |

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Accident on McCullough Bridge Causes 101 Backup STAFF REPORT

During rush hour on Thursday, September 18, an accident at the top of the McCullough Bridge in North Bend blocked traffic in both directions for roughly an hour. North Bend Fire and Rescue and North Bend Police were on the scene quickly to assess damage and attempt to clear the lanes. The jam was caused by a routine rear-ending in a very unfortunate location. Thankfully no one was seriously injured. One of the vehicles was able to drive off with the other needing to be towed. Though it was a relatively minor accident, it managed to cause major delays given it occurred in one of the County’s major traffic choke points. The Southbound lane was able to be cleared first allowing cars to trickle through by about 3:52 PM. The Northbound lane remained stuck leading to a backup of cars that wound down the 101 through downtown North Bend, with some reports stating that traffic extended all the way down to the Ko-Kwel Casino Resort. The necessary response vehicles were caught in the jam, and the progress being made in the Southbound lane had to be halted to allow responders coming from the southern end of the bridge to approach the bottleneck. When they arrived at around 4:27 PM they were able to get to work on the damaged vehicle stalled in the Northbound lane. The normal flow of traffic was finally reestablished by 4:32 PM and the jam began to unclog itself, with a huge volume of cars making their way through North Bend at the peak times for evening traffic. “It was a great collaboration between North Bend Fire and North Bend Police,” said Asst. Fire Chief Brian Waddington, praising his team’s response.

Chamber Of Commerce Hosts County Sherriff and Commissioner for Q&A Amid Budgeting Struggles BY NATE SCHWARTZ Editor

September has seen the return of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce’s Wednesday luncheons at the Ko-Kwel Casino Resort. In addition to providing a forum for announcements and networking opportunities to members of the local business community, each week sees a presentation of some kind. At the gathering on September 17, County Sheriff Gabe Fabrizio and County Commissioner Rod Taylor held a Q&A session to keep business leaders informed on the state of county level policing and the county’s budget struggles. The county sheriff’s office has been attempting to overcome financial hurdles, as The World has previously reported. A reported $4 million budget shortfall has led to closures of two of the jail pods alongside staff reductions in the department. The County Commissioners have been attempting to find creative solutions after two different public safety tax levies have failed on the November and May ballots in the last year. The issue of coverage across the county was the first raised on Wednesday, to which Fabrizio, who has held the Sheriff title since the beginning of 2023, responded candidly. His department has lost 14 employees in that time, split between the jail and patrol. These cuts have seen just 8 officers covering the 24-hour patrols. “We and the commissioners have all been working very collaboratively to try to figure out what it’s going to look like going forward. Thinking outside the box as best we can to try and help with the coverage. Right now, we have 8 people on the patrol. That’s 24-hour coverage for 1,621 of the 1,650 square miles of the county. Its rough. We have two people on,

somebody’s sick, somebody takes a day off, it’s a lot of overtime,” explained Fabrizio. He went on to explain that they are finding ways to help. Recently the Forest Service and ODOT have been taking on the cost for a position covering the Elliot State Forest. Those are very marginal gains however; there could be more cuts on the horizon given the likelihood of further shortfalls next year. Fabrizio explained that should there be further cutbacks, they would have to come from patrol. Should they close another pod in the jail, it would see the 49 beds available now cut down to just 5, which would obviously be untenable. “In next year’s budget cycle, which starts in February, we are most likely going to be looking at another $1.5 to $2 million cut. We’ve trimmed from every single department beyond what their capacity was to be cut. Including the surveyor, including the clerk, including attrition… The strug-

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gle is real, and there just isn’t any other way to squeeze blood out of the turnip,” opened Commissioner Taylor. “I thought the solutions to this would be more forthcoming than they are, but the constraints are so profound on us as county commissioners, and on the sheriff, that the solutions are very, very difficult. We’re dependent on the state for about 90% of our budget, and with the money come the strings, always.” Despite the struggles, there were some points of success worth pointing towards. First and foremost was the progress made on the sobering center, for which funds have been secured. Many nuisance and petty crimes are driven by intoxication, and with the limited space in jail, many of these offenders cannot be held over more serious perpetrators. Officers being able to take these offenders to the sobering center both keeps them off the street and allows for them to kick their habits, breaking neg-

ative cycles. It will be operating on the model set by Douglas County, which boasts between an 80%-90% reduction in recidivism, a number which Fabrizio said is likely an optimistic estimate but still promising. “The justice system is a cycle; you get stuck in it. You get stuck on parole, probation, you do something wrong, you’re back in jail and it extends your time. So how do we get them out of that cycle? This is one answer to that, one solution,” explained Fabrizio. “And with the opioid funding the commissioners gave up to run it, its no cost to the general fund. So, big benefit there other than, of course, saving on the jail space itself.” For further positives, Taylor pointed toward county departments that have been operating in the green. The County Forestry operation contributes between $2-3 million dollars in revenue to the general fund each year, which Taylor describes as a significant “shot in the arm” for operations.

The same could be said of the Parks Department to a smaller scale, as they are able to contribute one to two-hundred thousand dollars of their surplus to the general fund per year. Though there are pockets of optimism, the general outlook on county finances remains difficult. The Board of Commissioners will have to continue searching for creative solutions despite the bleak state of affairs.

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