News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 276
Don't neglect your drainfield now just because the City of Sisters plans to build a sewer. That could be a very, very expensive mistake. "We don't have a sewer yet. Until such time as we are actually hooked up to a sewer, we still have to use drainfield rules," said John Mason, County sanitarian for the Sisters area. The one exception is the area set aside for a reserve drainfield. "Once we know a sewer is going to be provided within five years, we can eliminate the requirement for a reserve area," said Mason. But if a... Full story
The essay contest to win a 60-acre ranch in Cloverdale has been canceled and the property is now for sale. The website used to promote the contest (http://www.wina-ranch.com) now markets the property. According to owner Tom Flenniken, the contest did not attract enough entries. The ranch is back on the market for $695,000. Flenniken had hoped for 4,000 essays. These were to be judged, and the winner would have been awarded the property. Instead, Flenniken said he received only about "one-third of what I needed." He would not... Full story
Deschutes County plans to cut your taxes this year. So will a number of other local governments, including the City of Sisters, Central Oregon Community College and Black Butte Ranch. Others are taking a more cautious approach, waiting for direction from the state Legislature before cutting services. The problem arose when taxing districts in Central Oregon ended up with a higher tax rate last year-and more money-than they should have because of a glitch in the new way Oregon collected property taxes after Measure 50. Efforts... Full story
A speculator in property at Aspen Lakes Estates is being sued by a Realtor for not paying commissions. A pretrial hearing has been set for August 5, 1998. The Realtor is Barbara L. Nicholson, d.b.a. Tumalo Real Estate. The investor is DK Investment Company, with Daniel Kerr of Kaiser, Oregon listed as registered agent. Matt Cyrus, a partner in Aspen Lakes, said that he was aware of the lawsuit against DK Investments but that Aspen Lakes was not involved. Realtor Nicholson agreed. Cyrus said that Kerr purchased two lots and... Full story
To thousands of people it seems like a dream. Write a 500-word essay, and possibly win a $600,000 ranch outside of Sisters, Oregon. Others are a little concerned. The entry fee is $150. They want to know that the contest is legitimate. Ranch owner Tom Flenniken vows that it is. A semi-retired Realtor, Flenniken says that he wants his contest to be so "clean it squeaks." Flenniken hired a Portland, Oregon, lawyer who had done this once before to design the contest. He hired an English professor to assemble a team of... Full story
A major redevelopment of the resort at Suttle Lake will be reevaluated by the U.S. Forest Service. Public response to the plan was negative, according to agency representatives. The developer plans to meet with the Forest Service on June 18 to discuss ways to modify the plan or "come back with a new direction," according to Larry Solie, one of the partners and director of operations at Suttle Lake Resort. The proposal that drew fire called for replacing campsites with cabins, construction of a 10,000 square foot lodge and... Full story
John W. Boyle of LaPine will face Dennis J. Landwehr of Bend in the Democratic primary for Position #3 on the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners. Landwehr is an engineer who works on energy research projects. He served on the Deschutes County Solid Waste committee for eight years. Landwehr said the top priority for Deschutes County, the fastest-growing county in Oregon, is managing growth. "We have to find ways to make growth pay for itself." Aware of certain state restrictions on systems development charges, Landwehr... Full story
Deschutes County is thinking about building a meander into Camp Polk Road to put more distance between vehicles and the end of the airport runway at Sisters Eagle Air. In a May 7 letter to the City of Sisters, Deschutes County senior transportation planner Steve Jorgensen wrote "I am concerned over the long-term future of Camp Polk Road and its proximity to the airport runwayAs traffic increases over the next 20 years on Camp Polk Road, technically, the county can't make any capacity improvements to it because of its location... Full story
A Sisters High School student has learned that offering to buy plutonium to make a bomb is no joke. On April 13, the boy sent e-mail from a computer at the school via the school's Internet service, Outlawnet, through a mail forwarder in Beaverton to the Nuclear Control Institute. The message read, "Im (sic) hungry. Feed me plutonium. I want to build a bomb." He used another student's account information which had not been removed from the computer after she sent an e-mail a week before. The Nuclear Control Institute notified... Full story
It's a riddle. If Deschutes County property owners didn't pay more taxes than they owed, how did they pay too much? The riddle has snagged county politics, and may have an effect on the county commission race between Nancy Pope Schlangen and Tom DeWolf, as well as the upcoming vote on the sheriff's levy and library bonds. The problem is that Measures 47/50 - attempts to revolutionize Oregon's system of property taxes - had some flaws. The legislation was intended to roll back property taxes to levels below those paid in... Full story
For more than a year, the Hap Taylor & Sons construction company has been hauling gravel out of a surface mine five miles west of Sisters. When that mine was first proposed, it drew angry opposition from Sisters-area residents, who forecast choking dust, noise and highway carnage from gravel trucks. The mine was the focus of intense controversy as two groups of Sisters-area residents fought to stop the operation before it started. The fight ended in January, 1997, after two days of mediation talks allayed the most pressing... Full story
Two young men from Sisters who were convicted of dealing drugs are in even more trouble after allegedly contacting the informant who participated in their original arrest. Nicholas Levine, 19, turnedhimself in to police on Tuesday, March 16. Jeffrey Trainor, 19, has already been returned to jail. On September 29, 1998, Levine and Trainor were arrested for possession and delivery of marijuana to a man in the Sisters City Park. A female juvenile with the two young men was arrested for conspiracy to deliver. During the bust,... Full story
The number of citizens registered to vote in the City of Sisters may drop significantly this month. Out of 45 people who have so far responded to a query about their legal residence, 32 have moved elsewhere, according to Deschutes County Clerk Susie Penhollow. Until questions were raised by the city, these people were registered to vote in Sisters. In a story in The Nugget on January 21, City Administrator Barbara Warren said there were 512 voters on the rolls. Warren believed as many as 123 of those, or 20 percent, no... Full story
Governor John Kitzhaber stopped at the Redmond Airport on Friday, February 6 as part of a tour announcing his campaign for reelection. "It was important that we make it east of the mountains," said Kitzhaber. "What happens here affects people in Portland and Eugene." On Monday, February 9, Republican Bill Sizemore announced his intent to oppose Kitzhaber in the fall election. According to published reports, Sizemore intends to stress reducing the size of government and attack Kitzhaber's proposals for more spending on roads,... Full story
A mischievous wind howled through Sisters on Tuesday, February 2. It shattered trees, blocked roads and damaged homes. A gust to 75 miles per hour at 3 p.m. pulled the steel roof from Ponderosa Heating and Cooling in the Sisters Industrial Park. A section of the flying roof draped over utility lines. The resulting electrical surge damaged phones, fax machines and computers in the neighborhood. "Our dumpster had blown overwe went out to pick everything up before it ended up everyone else's yard," said Bill Spezza, who owns Pon... Full story
Jan van den Berg will resign from the Sisters School Board since he has enrolled his sixth-grade son at Sunriver Preparatory School. The family will move to Bend in February. "I just felt he was not getting the academic intensity he needs and deserves (in Sisters)," van den Berg said on Monday, December 29. The boy has been going to school at Sunriver since before Thanksgiving. Van den Berg has never hidden his disagreements with the general thrust of public education. "The school is trying to be too much of a social... Full story
Calls to the Sisters Post Office are now being routed to a center in Colorado. The U.S. Postal Service says the new system is intended to increase customer satisfaction. But it is a big change from small town service, at least in rural Oregon. One of the first things a caller has to do, after dialing the new 800 number (1-800-275-8777, or 1-800-ASK-USPS) is decide if the call should continue in English. According to U.S. Postal Service spokesman Robin Wright in Colorado, the new system is designed to improve service, and... Full story
Panoramic View Estates residents are being asked if they want 4.5 miles of the subdivision's main roads to be paved. Those in favor believe that reduced dust, wear and tear on vehicles, increased property value and more complete service from school buses and postal carriers would make the project worthwhile. Opponents to paving are unsure of those benefits and say they moved to Panoramic for the rural lifestyle, for Panoramic's "stubborn backwoods character," which they feel would be threatened by paved roads, higher speeds... Full story
You got your property tax statement in the mail last week. Eagerly, you ripped open the envelope, ready to be thrilled at the large property tax reduction promised by the state legislature. Wrong. In some cases, taxes actually went up in Deschutes County from the year before. Rarely was there much of a decrease, less than most taxpayers anticipated and far less than the 17 percent reduction seemingly promised by elected representatives who rewrote Measure 47 in the last legislative session. What happened to your tax... Full story
Even though police did not immediately return files and aircraft radios seized from Brent Steven Sherman when ordered to do so by the court, Sherman failed to prove that Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan "willfully failed to obey the Court's directive." So ruled Circuit Court Judge Stephen Tiktin in a decision signed on November 19, finding that Dugan was not in contempt of court. Sherman said he will ask the judge to reverse the ruling, and, failing that, will appeal to a higher court. The files and avionics... Full story
Like much of the rest of Oregon, the Sisters School District has seen a slight decrease in enrollment this year. The number of students, expected to be about 1,054 at this time, stands at 1,044, according to superintendent Steve Swisher. The state provides about $4,500 to the Sisters district for each student. With enrollment down by 10 students, the district could lose a significant chunk of anticipated state funds. "That is about $45,000 less that we had planned in the budget. We would be short that revenue if this trend... Full story
The body of Karl Roy Iwen, 27, was recovered from the side of Three Fingered Jack one week after Iwen lost his footing and fell an estimated 800 feet from near the top of the mountain on October 25. According to Linn County Sheriff Dave Burright, Iwen's body lay "in a steep bowl of rock, at about the 7,000-foot level. Beyond the ledge where his body (was) lying, there is another drop of about 60 feet, a slope of loose rock, then another drop of 1,000 feet to the Pacific Crest Trail." According to Burright, on November 1, a... Full story
The U.S. Forest Service is the latest outfit to pitch in for the raising of four classrooms at the Sisters Elementary School - and they got a job nobody else wanted. With a volunteer crew, the Sisters Ranger District installed fiberglass insulation. When the job was done, Lands Forester Jeff Sims said "I don't think I am going to go into the insulation business, I can tell you that." The Sisters Ranger District got involved when an employee read about other companies volunteering for the project. He mentioned to Acting Distri... Full story
A mountain climber tumbled 800 feet off the west side of Three Fingered Jack west of Camp Sherman on Sunday, October 26. According to reports from rescuers, Karl Roy Iwen, 27, of Salem, apparently fell 200-300 feet near "The Crawl," then apparently cartwheeled another 500 feet, and may have landed in a crevasse. Two other climbers, who had just met Iwen at the trailhead that morning, reported to authorities that Iwen slipped while descending1 at about 2:30 p.m. They were unable to reach him and hiked out to the trailhead at... Full story
Santiam Pass highway crews are going to cut the amount of sand they put down on the highway this winter nearly in half from prior seasons. Chains will be required more often. The Oregon Department of Transportation's Highway Division is responding primarily to environmental concerns, according to Don Jordan, District 3 Manager in Salem. District 3 extends east past Suttle Lake to the Jack Lake Road intersection with Highway 20. Jordan said the Forest Service has indicated that cinders flowing into creeks and rivers harm... Full story
