News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 502
If you’ve never been to an air show, you might reconsider. The perception held by many is that they are only for aeronautic buffs and pilots, or that they feature only airplanes. That is not the case with Airshow of the Cascades scheduled for Friday and Saturday, August 26-27 at the Madras airport. “What folks need to think of is not a textbook air show but a festival,” said Joe Krenowicz, who heads the Madras Chamber of Commerce. “If planes don’t interest you, then bring the... Full story
Sisters Country is home to the Cloverdale Livestock Club. It’s our version of 4H and it’s been around more than 75 years. The international program began in 1902, boasting more than 6 million current members and 25 million alumnae. Thirty-four youth from 8 to 18 make up the Club here, mostly from Sisters Country but a few from as far as Crooked River Ranch and Bend. The Deschutes County Fair, August 3-7, is the big event, what the young people are all working toward. This is... Full story
Steve Orange plays bass guitar. He’s also Timber Sales Administrator for the Deschutes National Forest, Sisters District. Co-worker Mike Boero, an archeologist for USFS, plays drums. Together with Macon Lohning and John Van Heel, guitarists and lead guitar and singer, Jonas Tarlen, they make up the Smoke Drifters band. They took the stage last Friday night from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Eurosports Food Cart Garden who sponsor live music every Friday night in June, July and August. T... Full story
Have you ever wondered who are and what are inside the six cottages on the perimeter of the Forest Service’s Sisters District station? Three are bunkhouses, one is storage space, and the other two are for fire-related management. In the three unairconditioned bunkhouses with full kitchens, are nine seasonal workers and two interns. The seasonal hires perform a myriad of forest management work assignments that are not accessible when the snows are deep. They work for periods of... Full story
Three Sisters Irrigation District serves 129 farms on 7,572 irrigated acres. The 130-year-old district delivers water from Whychus Creek to farmers and ranchers through over 62 miles of canals, laterals and pipelines. Ninety-three percent of those conveyances have been converted to pressurized pipe. The results, 25 years in the making, are measurable. Losses to seepage or evaporation are now negligible. Water delivery has been improved in times of drought by 25 percent. The Di... Full story
True or false? People read more in the summer. True, according to a 2021 OnePoll survey of 2,000 respondents. Fifty-six percent admitted to reading at least one “serious” book in the summer to look smarter. Thirty-six percent use the summer months to brush up on their knowledge of history, while two in five read more mysteries during vacation months than they do at any other time of the year. More than half of those polled (53 percent) look forward to romantic reads on their h... Full story
St. Charles Health System CEO Joe Sluka is stepping down after eight years at the helm of the regional hospital system. The move was not entirely unexpected, given the recent news of the financial crisis in which Central Oregon’s only hospital chain finds itself (see “Perfect storm engulfs St. Charles,” The Nugget, June 22, page 1). St. Charles operates four hospitals, one each in Bend, Redmond, Madras, and Prineville. Sluka cited the challenges of the pandemic and the finan... Full story
On July 12, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) confirmed the state’s fifth detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial flock in Deschutes County. The affected flock included approximately 30 chickens, 40 ducks, and geese. Since the owners sold their eggs to the public, USDA classified the birds as a poultry flock rather than a backyard flock, meani... Full story
If you talk with realtors and read national trend headlines you’d assume that the market for single-family homes in Sisters Country would be slowing, maybe even plummeting. If the raw data is any indicator — you’d be wrong. Homes are on the market for more days now and bidding wars are less common, but for some properties, price skirmishes are still happening. “Buyers are being a little more choosy and a little less panicky,” said Tina Perin at Coldwell Banker BAIN on Ca... Full story
Contractors and electric utilities nationwide are sounding the alarm over the global shortage of electric transformers — those ubiquitous green boxes or gray cylinders that sit on ground pads or hang on utility poles transforming high voltage to that which your house, office, or store can use. A transformer is a piece of equipment that either increases or reduces the voltage as electricity is transferred across the electrical grid to customers. Home builders are... Full story
Would you pay $2,399 plus airfare to come to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show? Of course not. You live here. But 80 did, all part of Country Heritage Tours’ “2022 Sensational Sisters.” Two luxury motor coaches collected the group in Portland, gave them a drive-by tour of the Oregon Coast and the Columbia Gorge before bringing them to Sisters, the centerpiece of their week-long excursion. They hailed from 17 different states, with one in the entourage from the Netherlands. On Fr... Full story
Two weeks ago The Nugget profiled some forest residents, each portrayed as good citizens caught in hardship but doing a commendable job of keeping their forest homes safe and tidy. Two took aim at some of their fellow forest neighbors whose housekeeping left much to be desired. Nobody that I know is more dedicated to preserving the beauty and safety of our woods than my neighbor Dave, a nurse. Dave and his wife live within 20 yards of the Deschutes National Forest, and have... Full story
Thirteen women, members of the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Sisters, are engaged in Prayer Shawl Ministry. In 1998, Janet Severi Bristow and Victoria Galo, two graduates of the 1997 Women’s Leadership Institute at the Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut gave birth to a worldwide movement as a result of their experience in a program of applied feminist compassion, and the love of knitting/crocheting combined into a prayerful ministry and spiritual p... Full story
After that injury from accident, joint replacement, stroke, or even everyday backache; after the doctors, the hospital, or the rehab center, come the visits to physical therapists some liken to medical mechanics. Whatever one chooses to call these trained professionals, hundreds and hundreds of Sisters Country folk count themselves among the grateful for the healing arts they’ve received from one of Sisters’ skilled PT providers. There are 110,000 licensed physical the... Full story
The Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer was released online Wednesday, June 29. Given the intense interest by property owners to learn about their land’s or building’s risk rating, the system’s server was clunky and struggling to keep up with demand. It improved the next day, but it may not be up to full speed for a few more days, as it is a statewide tool (bit.ly/WildfireRiskExplorer). It appears to be intuitive and fairly easy to use for everyday Internet users. The Nugget picke... Full story
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about 30 percent of water usage for the average American family occurs outdoors, such as watering lawns and gardens. The same agency says that in the West, where water is lost almost instantaneously to either the blazing sun or thirsty vegetation, outdoor water usage increases to about 60 percent of total household use. John Berggren, a water policy analyst with the conservation organization Western Resource Advocates... Full story
Firefighters were called to the Zimmerman Butte cinder pit last week to extinguish a brush fire caused by a bullet that ricocheted into the nearby sage, igniting it. The area, close to Sisters, is popular with target shooters. The flames were doused quickly, nobody was injured, and no citations were issued, officials deciding it was a one-off, unintended event. The Nugget asked Sisters District Ranger Ian Reid to discuss forest safety in general. He started by saying, “This i... Full story
A throng of celebrants 2,000 strong turned out to Sisters Eagle Airport on Monday for the annual Fourth of July Fly-In that has become one of Sisters’ signature events. The Independence Day celebration was about more than just airplanes. There was a 5k run, a vintage car show, demonstrations by Cascade RC (remote control) Flyers Club and a pancake breakfast served by Rotary Club of Sisters. Spectators lined up before 7 a.m. Rotary servers were concerned they would run out o... Full story
Wildland firefighting is dangerous and dirty work, with every imaginable hazard beyond the fire — falling limbs, toppling trees, smoke inhalation, fall, and poisonous snake bites, to name a few. While most firefighting is done on the ground at close range, it’s the support of aircraft that is often the deciding factor of controlling the fire. Sisters Country residents are no strangers to wildland fires or the sight of aerial tankers and helicopters dropping retardant o... Full story
Fire Chief Roger Johnson of Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District is vigilant in an effort to catch sparks of what he thinks might be undue concern among Sisters Country property owners as to their potential cost of hardening their dwellings to mitigate fire risk. Oregon Senate Bill 762 is a $220 million sweeping legislation that deals with a wide range of wildfire issues. Some advocates have raised red flags about potential costs. Johnson was particularly uneasy about the... Full story
Brandi Gregor is a veteran, having proudly served in the Oregon National Guard. She moved to Sisters a while back and has taken up residence alongside FS Road 100, more or less behind Ponderosa Lodge, within easy distance, aided by her walker, to Mainline Station and Ray’s Food Place. She sat for a lengthy interview with The Nugget last week just outside her newish tent and star-spangled banner camp chair. She showed a range of emotions from a flash of anger when she misunders... Full story
If you’re like me, you might be feeling a little withdrawal now that the Rodeo is over. Of course, you could saddle up and head over to Prineville on June 23 for the Crooked River Roundup with a $67,500 purse. Or maybe plan an Independence Day weekend at the St. Paul Rodeo and it’s whopping $285,000 purse. Or, save a whole bunch of $5 gas and find your way to Sisters Movie House today for “Bitterbrush,” which has scored an impressive 86 percent at Rotten Tomatoes. Emelie... Full story
Ever hear the expression “curiosity killed the cat?” Mushrooms can do that. Kill your cat or dog. Hundreds a year, according to PetMD. And thousands end up in vet clinics, often on an expensive, emergency basis. There are some 10,000 fungal species that have been identified from all over North America. Roughly 10 to 20 percent of mushroom species are edible, 5 percent have medicinal properties, 20 percent can make you sick, and about 1 percent are known as deadly. Here in Sis... Full story
The recent closure of the lab at St. Charles Family Care Clinic in Sisters is just one symptom of a financial crisis engulfing St. Charles Health System. The term is not an alarmist. When The Nugget met with Mike Richards, operations VP for St. Charles Medical Group, and Lisa Goodman, public information and government affairs officer for the parent organization, St. Charles Health System, they used the term “financial crisis” four times in the conversation. They made no eff... Full story
Senate Bill 762, adopted last June, provided legislative direction to the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) regarding the wildland-urban interface, statewide fire risk mapping, and prescribed fire, directing the Department to review and clarify the enforcement of rules pertaining to forestland and baseline standards for unprotected and under-protected lands in Oregon. The ODF is a state agency and the U.S. Forest Service is federal. The ODF fights fires, among myriad other... Full story
