News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 251 - 275 of 518
Claims of wolf packs 13 and 14 strong are circulating in Sisters Country. The Deschutes County Farm Bureau lit up Facebook with its post on March 24 that has garnered over 450 comments and more than 800 shares. Similar social media posts on the Next Door app are being widely shared. In boldface type the post says: "Heads up. A pack of 14 wolves has been spotted in Lower Bridge. They've already killed livestock." The Farm Bureau post has generated grainy user photos. In any... Full story
Dixie's on East Cascade Avenue turned into an art gallery of sorts on Friday, March 31, as dozens of Sisters Rodeo dignitaries and guests crowded into the store for the unveiling of the 2023 Sisters Rodeo poster. These posters have become collector's items over the years, and are eagerly awaited as the official start of rodeo season. While sipping champagne and recalling prior posters and rodeos, enthusiasts mingled with the 2023 Rodeo Queen Sadie Bateman. She's described as a... Full story
Mule deer populations, their habitat, and how to handle them is a big question in Sisters Country. The Deschutes County Community Development Department held an informational meeting last Wednesday at Sisters High School. They were pleased - and surprised - at the turnout. "Over 100," according to Department Head Peter Gutowsky, who along with two department staff and ODFW (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) Biologist Andrew Walsh made a formal presentation aided by slide... Full story
Bumblebee technician needed. That’s one of nearly 300 advertised jobs in Sisters. Dozens of other jobs are not advertised but are needed by nearly every business in town. Almost every store window has a “help wanted” sign. The bee technician job consists mainly of conducting field work near Santiam Pass. The work requires long days in the field, travel over uneven terrain while maintaining focus, and close attention to detail. The pay? $22/hour. Exotic jobs like this will like... Full story
Sisters Country has seen a decline in real single-family home sales this quarter as compared to last, as has the entire U.S. home market. However, the unit slowdown in Sisters is considerably less than nationally, and values are still strong. January In 2022, 32 homes sold in January with a total value of $20.57 million. The average home price was $842,156 (eight were over $1 million) and the median price, a truer gauge of the market, was $749,500. Sold homes averaged $287... Full story
In information provided to The Nugget by a local realtor, a Sisters Country landowner on Foothill Loop, three miles northeast of town, answered a phone call from the president of his homeowners association asking if it was true that he was selling his lot. He wasn’t, but it was listed as “For Sale” by a legitimate, licensed real estate broker in the Willamette Valley. It is customary in property transactions for HOAs to be called verifying the seller’s standing with respect... Full story
Bumblebee technician needed. That’s one of nearly 300 advertised jobs in Sisters. Dozens of other jobs are not advertised but are needed by nearly every business in town. Almost every store window has a “help wanted” sign. The bee technician job consists mainly of conducting field work near Santiam Pass. The work requires long days in the field, travel over uneven terrain while maintaining focus, and close attention to detail. The pay? $22/hour. Exotic jobs like this will like... Full story
Under mounting public pressure, the Planning Department is moving the application for an expansion of Sisters’ Space Age Fuel service station from a Type II to Type III procedure. Pliska Investments of Clackamas, Oregon is the owner of Space Age Fuel at 411 W. Cascade Ave., and it is their desire to dismantle the existing gas station and convenience store and rebuild it from the ground up. Under a Type II review of the application, the City’s planning team has authority to... Full story
An ad hoc assembly of activists calling themselves CATS — Community Action Team of Sisters — is becoming more vocal in its efforts to call attention to what it perceives as misguided decisions by City officials. At the March 8 regularly scheduled City Council meeting, CATS’ self-described “unofficial leader,” Mark Dickens, addressed the councilors, and began by telling them he had “unfortunate harsh words” for them. “This board has lost the trust of this commun... Full story
Sisters Country woke up to snow Friday morning that persisted off and on throughout the day, with accumulations of five to eight inches depending on location. The weather event had been forecast fairly accurately and ODOT crews were ready. The Nugget rode along with lead employee, George Ormsbee, in one of the two 465-horsepower plow rigs in the Sisters maintenance yard fleet on duty that morning. Many in Sisters do not even know of the yard’s existence two miles east of t... Full story
About six months ago Sisters Trails Alliance (STA) changed their logo and set about applying it to hundreds of trail marker signs on its 192-mile network. The decals were positioned over the existing ones, an easier chore than having to remove the originals first. Since that time vandals have systematically and steadfastly removed the new decals. In warmer weather, the removal of the new badge generally did not harm the original ones while reexposing their design. Now, in the... Full story
Avalanches kill 25-30 persons in the U.S. every year with many more injured each winter, according to the National Avalanche Center. At present the Central Oregon Cascades are at Level 3 risk (Considerable) on a 5-point scale. So far in the 2022-23 season, there are 14 recorded deaths including the one reported on page 1: seven in Colorado, three in neighboring Washington, all on February 19 at Colchuck Peak near Leavenworth, and one each in Oregon, Nevada, Montana, and... Full story
Walk anywhere in Sisters for more than three or four blocks and you are very likely to encounter spalling, the unsightly flaking on concrete sidewalks. It looks as if the surface is pitted or pocked. While it occasionally happens from putting sodium chloride (rock salt) based ice-melting products on sidewalks, its actual causes are several. They include poor quality concrete or inferior finishing, improper curing, corrosion of the underlying rebar (reinforcing bars or... Full story
“No, it is not a truck stop.” When asked by The Nugget what he’d like folks in Sisters to know about the expanded Space Age fueling station on West Cascade, that’s one of the things Jim Pliska emphasized. Pliska, along with his father, Harold, are the principal owners of the 21-station chain started in 1982 and headquartered near Portland. The Pliskas’ expansion plan has fueled vociferous opposition from some locals, led by a fledgling ad hoc group known as CATS — C... Full story
Many of us are old enough to remember the hit classic “Big Yellow Taxi” by 10-time Grammy winner, Joni Mitchell, whom Rolling Stone called “one of the greatest songwriters ever.” Two lines by the Canadian songwriter are indelibly etched in folk music. The first — “They paved paradise, put up a parking lot,” feels like a metaphor for the tension one feels when walking around town these days. Sisters Country residents are concerned about planned or proposed development... Full story
An ad hoc group called CATS (Citizens Action Team of Sisters) has formed, with the goal of helping to formulate policy for growth and development in the city. The group believes that Sisters is overwhelmed by the increase in population and building, and perhaps lacks competency to meet the growth. The new group, just getting itself organized, has no office nor governing authority nor official spokesperson. Mark Dickens is a lead organizer and speaks with conviction about the... Full story
An ad hoc group called CATS (Citizens Action Team of Sisters) has formed, with the goal of helping to formulate policy for growth and development in the city. The group believes that Sisters is overwhelmed by the increase in population and building, and perhaps lacks competency to meet the growth. The new group, just getting itself organized, has no office nor governing authority nor official spokesperson. Mark Dickens is a lead organizer and speaks with conviction about the... Full story
If letters to the editor are any indication, longtime residents of Sisters are saying that the level of frustration and concern with growth in Sisters appears to be at a new high-water mark. One such letter was from Sharon Booth of Tollgate, the same Booth who on February 3 posted a one-paragraph comment on the social media app Nextdoor. That comment has so far garnered 98 responses plus 21 “reactions” — basically emojis in support of her position — which is one th... Full story
Merriam-Webster: mosey intransitive verb: to move in a leisurely or aimless manner. I’m not in agreement with the “aimless” part. Those of us who mosey regularly have a purpose. We just can’t tell you what it is at the moment we are moseying. Last month took us on a road trip to Montana. That routed us through Oregon towns like Madras, Shaniko, Wasco, Biggs Junction, Boardman, and Umatilla, all places where folks still mosey. Especially on Saturday mornings and after church... Full story
The last few weekends have been the scene of squeals of joy and broad smiles at Ski Hoodoo, where barely sufficient snow and enough staff have allowed the Autobahn tubing park to reopen. Having been closed nearly in its entirety since the COVID-19 pandemic, the popular family activity has resumed on Saturdays and Sundays. The Delgado and Estoban families from Bend and Redmond, 13 in number, typified the hundreds who took to the lanes Saturday. The entourage didn’t mind at a... Full story
At the same time that the bond ratings house Moody’s Investors Service changed its outlook for St. Charles Health System from “stable” to “negative,” the four-hospital system has announced plans for a $90 million Cancer Care Center in Redmond at the corner of Canal Boulevard and Kingwood Avenue. The goal is to break ground in 2023 and to open the facility in 2025. The expansion is being funded with bonds secured in 2020. Who will staff it? Patient care staff expressed... Full story
Job boards, those online recruiting engines, are chock-full of well-paying jobs in Sisters. Jobs like a bank branch manager with an annual salary as high as $82,000 DOE (depending on experience). The Sisters School District apparently needs an accounting specialist for $42,000 to $45,000 per annum or a data and student information specialist that pays $4,000 to $4,667 per month. The District is also looking for a permanent, full-time custodian with a pay scale of $31,000 to... Full story
Last October, The Nugget reported on the commercial construction boom in Sisters, with close to 100,000 square feet of new development rising out of the ground. Some of these projects have spring delivery dates. Might they soon stand empty, glass-and-steel white elephants? When Laird’s 50,000 square feet of empty mixed-use space is included in the mix, one could wonder just who will come to fill them with workers, goods, or services. Kevin Eckert knows something about developm... Full story
Sisters Woodlands has made its first three sales and construction is underway. The planned development in the rectangle of North Pine Street, West Barclay Drive, and Highway 20, features some 359 homes and 44,000 square feet of commercial and light industrial space. In its infancy, Sisters Woodlands was imagined and touted as a practical option for workforce housing. At the time, one of the project’s owners, Paul Hodge, was CEO of Laird Superfoods when Laird projected as m... Full story
Good fences make good neighbors — so the saying goes. The Nugget’s story last week about the Forest Service mowing the underbrush in the Sisters woods, and thereby making homeless camps more visible, caused some readers to make contact in hopes of adding context to the story. One was Ashley Okura, one of the family owners of Ponderosa Lodge, the landmark motel at the Barclay/Highway 20 roundabout. Okura explained the long history of the new 1,700-lineal-foot fence b... Full story
