BEND, OR -- City managers from across Central Oregon held their annual forum at Tetherow Resort Wednesday.  Community members and business leaders heard progress reports on the 6 cities.

"Really what events like this do is it gives each of us because we are individual organizations, individual cities an opportunity to share a story with a wider audience," La Pine's Geoff Wullschlager tells KBND News, "There's a lot of people say maybe from Redmond don't really know what's happening in La Pine or folks in Madras aren't familiar with what's going on Sisters."

Prineville's Steve Forrester says cities have to work together for common projects, like highway infrastructure, "And so those are the opportunities that we are faced with is how do we stay up to speed, number 1, and ahead of the game hopefully, on all the transportation issues."

The tri-county region continues to pace the state in population growth, and the City Managers have their hands full figuring out logistics to support the growth. "The demand continues to be very, very strong for all of us in Central Oregon. We need to find unique and innovative ways to get ahead of the game. It's very important that we have that infrastructure ready to go when the developer comes to town," Forrester says, "So we mentioned up there amongst the team, amongst the city managers is getting in front of ODOT getting in front of other governmental agencies."

Wildfire risk is another shared concern. Wullschlager points out the similarities between Sisters and La Pine, "We are in a unique situation between the actual amount of fuel and the jurisdictional interface between us and essentially the federal government."

Efforts to create more workforce housing were also highlighted during the gathering hosted by the City Club of Central Oregon.