News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 53 - 77 of 102
Karissa Bilderback is running for one of two open spots on the Sisters School Board that will be on the May election ballot this year. Bilderback graduated from Sisters High School (SHS) in 2000, and now is raising four kids who are in and entering the Sisters schools. Bilderback grew up in the Willamette Valley, and her family vacationed in Black Butte Ranch when she was young. Her family relocated to Sisters, partially because of the schools. “I loved high school and I f... Full story
Sisters Elementary School third graders put their reading skills to the test in the Oregon Battle of the Books regional competition March 11 in Madras. This is the first time ever that an elementary school team has represented Sisters School District in regional OBOB competition. This year was the first year back to in-person OBOB competitions post-pandemic. The third-grade team beat out the fourth- and fifth-grade reading teams in early March in school competitions leading... Full story
The Sisters City Council officially adopted their new set of goals for the 2023/24 fiscal year in a meeting that was held Wednesday, March 8. The Council discussed the goals in a workshop on February 15. The goal-setting workshop is a place where the Council adds, changes, or wordsmiths the goals put together by the staff. See related story with the goals in detail in the February 29 edition below. Some of the most noteworthy aspects of the goals are included in the section... Full story
The Heavenly Acres Rezone project took another step forward last week in a public hearing before the Sisters City Council. This rezone project in the neighborhood where many Sisters churches are located is included in the comprehensive plan map and zoning map amendment to rezone the subdivision on the west side of Sisters from Urban Area Reserve (UAR) to Public Facility/Institutional (PF/I) as well as Multi-Family Residential (MFR). The rezone will involve seven lots with a... Full story
The City of Sisters has a park plan that encompasses all the parks within city limits, with plans for future use, improvements, and additions of new parks. There hasn’t been an update to the Sisters Parks Master Plan since 2016. Last week, the City Council voted in a public hearing to approve the comprehensive plan amendment to update the Sisters Parks Master Plan as proposed. City staff has been working with the consultant group Cameron McCarthy, a landscape, architecture, a... Full story
The Sisters School District (SSD) is set to seek a fifth renewal of the local option tax levy. The local option renewal has been ongoing for 24 years, providing essential funding for the unique programs Sisters schools are able offer. Superintendent Curt Scholl will file for the local option levy to be on the ballot for the May election. The local option levy renewal is the same amount of 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The school board on March 1 approved the... Full story
Biochar is a fuel management practice that is taking the fire and science world by storm. A workshop on the use of biochar in our forests, on our farms, and more is coming to Sisters. The workshop is in partnership with the School of Ranch, High Desert Food & Farm Alliance, and Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture. Biochar is a burning technique that scientists and fire professionals are looking at to practice better forest management in the wake of intense... Full story
Sisters Elementary School (SES) celebrated reading last week, with local author Joyce Burk Brown, who read her and co-author Linda Wolff’s children’s book, “The Magic in Listening.” The author reading was the culmination of an entire Reading Across America week at the school celebrating reading and practicing habits such as active listening. Reading Across America’s official date was March 2, also author Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Read Across America was created to help kids get ex... Full story
Wellhouse Church offers Christian education to children and students in Sisters. They began serving the youth of Sisters in Christian education in 2020. “We started in pre-K and started expanding further in the fall of 2020, and we picked up where Sisters Christian Academy left off,” said Mary Ryan, director of operations at Wellhouse Academy. Ryan handles student enrollment, curriculum, and staff and teacher training. Wellhouse Academy serves students from kindergarten to... Full story
The Locust/Highway 20 roundabout is set to move forward in 2023-24 — along with many other ODOT roundabout projects throughout Central Oregon. In June of 2022, $5 million was added to the construction budget along with $250,000 from the City of Sisters for preliminary design for the roundabout. ODOT is advancing funds to maintain the 2024 construction due to halts in the timeline due to COVID and supply-chain issues. The Locust Avenue roundabout is part of the 2024-2027 S... Full story
Sisters would pay closer attention to housing and aligning its development code with its comprehensive plan under new goals proposed for 2023-24. The Sisters City Council is entering the new year by setting goals for the 2023-24 fiscal year. Every year, the Council gathers for a public meeting to discuss goals proposed by the staff, and to amend any existing goals or change the language of goals set forth before them. The Council met for such a session last month. Mayor... Full story
Beer-and-winter-weather-lovers gathered at the Suttle Lake Lodge last weekend for days filled with beer tasting, campfires, plenty of snow, and a little Central Oregon sunshine. The Suttle Lake Lodge hosted its fourth annual Winter Beer Fest at the Lodge and throughout the lodge property. Twenty different Oregon breweries brought their best beers for patrons to try, highlighting their winter beers as well as any new beer they were excited about featuring. The fest was three da... Full story
The Sisters Post of the American Legion has a new commander. Charles White, a veteran himself, is striving to reach the youth community in Sisters. The American Legion started in 1919 in France with World War I veterans getting together to help each other back into post-war life. The American Legion was officially chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1919. According to the American Legion national website: “Membership swiftly grew to over 1 million, and local posts sprang up a... Full story
An affordable apartment housing project in Sisters is continuing to move forward. The Sisters City Council received an update from Community Development Director Scott Woodford and Principal Planner Matthew Martin regarding the rezone of Heavenly Acres at last week’s City Council meeting. The rezone was approved by the Planning Commission last week (See “Rezoning approved for housing development,” The Nugget, February 22). The City Council’s public hearing regarding the rez... Full story
The Locust/Highway 20 roundabout is set to move forward in 2023-24 — along with many other ODOT roundabout projects throughout Central Oregon. In June of 2022, $5 million was added to the construction budget along with $250,000 from the City of Sisters for preliminary design for the roundabout. ODOT is advancing funds to maintain the 2024 construction due to halts in the timeline due to COVID and supply-chain issues. The Locust Avenue roundabout is part of the 2024-2027... Full story
Joan Warburg, principal of Sisters Elementary School, was this year’s recipient of the Sisters Branch of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post 8138 Educator of the Year award. The award recognizes an instructor within the Sisters schools that shows dedication to support of patriotism at their school. Commander Pat Bowe, Service Officer Bill Anttila, and Quartermaster Jeff Mackey presented the award to Joan Warburg last Thursday afternoon at Sisters Elementary School. They presen... Full story
At the end of last month, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s office responded to a drunk and disorderly call at Takoda’s in Sisters (see “Man arrested, threats assessed,” The Nugget, February 8, page 1). That Tuesday evening, it took 26 minutes for the west-county deputy with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) to arrive on scene. That is due to the gap in shifts at the local branch of the DCSO, which relies on the assigned west-county deputy to fill in shift gaps on S... Full story
The Sisters Elementary School (SES) teachers and staff are making strides to increase literacy and reading levels at the elementary level, particularly in kindergarten and first grade. Principal Joan Warburg presented to the Sisters School District School Board in January the highlights of SES Literacy Instruction Programming. Warburg outlined the new adoption of a core-based curriculum that offers literacy experiences around a common text at the elementary level. “There w... Full story
Jean Nelson-Dean has been working with federal natural resource agencies for close to 20 years. Her journey started in archaeology and quickly evolved into combining her love for the forest and natural lands with her communications experience. She’s now retiring from her position as Deschutes National Forest public information officer. Nelson-Dean grew up in Helena, Montana and attended the University of Oregon for college. She started studying archeology, something she had a... Full story
Sisters School District (SSD) is looking forward to the next two years and the state budget that will be proposed mid-2023, determining the funding for schools for the 2023-2025 biennium. Superintendent Curt Scholl spoke to The Nugget about what potential budget numbers look like for SSD. “We are looking at a lot of inflationary trends with affordable housing for our staff, and costs of operations being higher with the cost of fuel rising last year, things like that,” sai... Full story
Amy Yoder, 2011 Sisters High School (SHS) graduate, has combined her love for the outdoors with her love for science in working for the USGS (United States Geological Survey) as a hydrologist based in Boise at the Idaho Water Science Center. Her journey to her position at the USGS began during her time at SHS, and then through college where she developed her passion for water conservation and hydrology. During her time at SHS, Yoder was heavily involved in the IEE... Full story
Jeff Tryens grew up on the East Coast, and worked in Washington D.C. and Massachusetts as everything from a policy consultant to a deputy director of program activities for national public policy organization in the 1970s. He made the move to Oregon in the 1990s. Tyrens currently serves on the board of directors for Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD). Tryens lived in Oregon off and on for 30 years before returning to school on the East Coast at 49 years old. He went to... Full story
The Sisters School District (SSD) has been partnering with University of Oregon graduate students looking at possibilities for reconfiguration and reuse of the current elementary school property once the new elementary school construction is complete. The new elementary school location makes the SSD campus c off highway 242 a complete K-12 campus. However, the historic and memory-filled current elementary school building will still be owned by the School District when the... Full story
Molly Baumann wears many different hats in her career and life: mom, wife, and Forest Service employee, as well as secretary for the Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) board of directors. Baumann manages forest sites and forest development in Central Oregon. She oversees maintenance for sites in the Cascade Lakes area, and sites on the Deschutes River. She has been living in Sisters with her family for five years and entered service on the SPRD board to give back to... Full story
The Sisters School District (SSD) has quite a few new programs and updates that were presented to the school board in last week’s meeting. Students from Rima Givot’s biology classes presented an update on the Trout Creek Conservation Area (TCCA) trees that have been studied by students for many years. Students presented on the number of ponderosa pine, and western juniper trees in different one-acre plots throughout the area behind the high school. The TCCA is a 160-acre are... Full story
