BEND, OR -- Members of the opposition group "Truth in Site" say they're not surprised OSU-Cascades is buying a 46-acre former pumice mine. Jack Matthews tells KBND News he believes it was the school's intention all along. "In my honest opinion, they've been totally disingenuous. Not only with the public, but with Truth in Site; we've been calling them on that since day one. It's a shell game. They want to have it, but they don't want to have a master plan. Doesn't surprise me in the least." Matthews admits he is happy the campus won't be spread all around since the college will now have two adjacent parcels and potentially a third.
The university is also looking at an adjacent 76-acre parcel that used to be the Deschutes County Demolition Landfill. They have two years to explore the viability of that property for future expansion.