Health Services Hosts Free Family Health Fair
Families with young children are invited to a free Family Health Fair hosted by County Health Services and WIC.
The event will take place on Wednesday, June 3 from 2-4pm at 2577 NE Courtney Dr. in Bend.
Families can connect with local health resources, receive dental screenings and access a mobile food pantry.
Solid Waste Program Aims to Reduce Recycling Contamination
County Solid Waste, in collaboration with The Recycling Partnership, City of Bend, Cascade Disposal, and Republic Services, has launched a program to reduce contamination in the recycling stream.
Over the next several months, Bend residents may see information attached to their recycling carts. Crews will place tags on carts set out for recycling on collection days. The tags list items that are accepted and what should be kept out.
Click the link to learn more about the program.
Learn more
You can also learn more about the recycling process in Central Oregon by watching this video.
See which materials cause common contamination problems and what you can do to help keep recyclables out of the landfill.
Free Yard Debris Disposal in La Pine, Redmond & Sisters Begins June 5
The FireFree program continues in June for residents in La Pine, Redmond and Sisters as they prepare for wildfire season.
Residents are encouraged to clear yard debris from around their homes and drop it off at collection sites for free from June 5 through June 13. Click the link to find collection sites and hours of operation.
Learn more
Community Justice Deputy Director Receives Top Honor
Community Justice Deputy Director Tanner Wark recently received the Community Corrections Outstanding Service Award.
This statewide honor recognizes people who go above and beyond to support community corrections efforts in Oregon.
Wark was recognized for strengthening coordination between counties and the Oregon Department of Corrections and for his work on other key projects.
Public Health Team Wins Community Service Award
The County’s Public Health Sexually Transmitted Infection/Human Immunodeficiency Virus (STI/HIV) team was honored for its work at a recent Oregon Epidemiologists’ Meeting in Sunriver.
Team members Trevor Hostetler, Charlotte Jones and Vinny Cancelliere received the HIV/STD/TB LPHA Community Service Award for responding to a challenging cluster of cases over the past year and for helping connect vulnerable community members with testing, treatment and follow-up care.
Through strong community partnerships, the team helped nearly 600 people last year with rapid testing, education and prevention services.
Employee Spotlight: Lee Klemp
Lee Klemp walks to work most mornings through downtown Bend, passing familiar faces before settling into a world of maps, data and problem-solving that quietly powers much of Deschutes County behind the scenes.
As an IT Applications Analyst II, Klemp helps support the County’s Geographic Information Systems, better known as GIS. It’s the technology behind interactive maps, emergency dashboards, election drop box locators and tools departments use every day to make decisions and share information with the public.
“It’s like Google Maps on steroids,” Klemp said with a laugh, explaining how he describes GIS to friends.
Klemp has spent more than 20 years working in GIS, but his path into geography wasn’t exactly planned. While attending community college in Illinois, he was unsure what direction to take until one geography professor changed everything.
“Just his energy and passion for it and the storytelling behind it made it really interesting,” Klemp said. “I went and met with him afterward and asked, ‘What can I do with geography?’ He pulled out these old black-and-white pamphlets and told me about this thing called GIS. I looked into it, and I got into it.”
That curiosity eventually brought him to Oregon and, later, Deschutes County in 2019. Since then, he’s helped support tools many residents rely on without ever realizing the amount of work behind them. From the County’s emergency management dashboard during wildfire season to DIAL and road mapping systems, Klemp and the GIS team help connect data to real-world decisions.
“It helps people look at their data, make decisions from that data and answer questions,” he said.
Outside of work, Klemp trades digital maps for real-world exploration. He enjoys biking, hiking, snowboarding and road trips across the Northwest, often using maps to discover new places before heading out in his 1986 Ford Econoline camper van named Penny. (pictured)
“A lot of times I’ll look at a map and try to find places I think might be neat to go, and then I’ll go explore those,” Klemp said.
At home, one large vintage world map hangs on the wall, but there are plenty more tucked away nearby, reminders that even in a world driven by smartphones and navigation apps, maps still tell stories.
And for Klemp, they always will.
