News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 49
Hayden Homes’ bid to build a 400-unit housing development near Sisters Middle School is riding a bumpy road. At a meeting of the planning commission Thursday night, the Sisters Planning Department recommended that the Planning Commission deny the application to build 400 new homes west of town. Senior Planning Director Bill Adams addressed the Planning Commission and a packed City Hall: “Maybe the applicants are trying to put a square peg in a round hole,” he said. The Hayden Homes development lies in an area of the city... Full story
A boisterous crowd filled the conference room at the Sisters Fire Hall, Thursday, May 12, to hear Senior Planning Director Bill Adams bring the formula food ordinance draft before the planning commission. The draft that Adams presented was the third version. He outlined several minor word changes between the second draft and the third. Then Adams presented the findings of the city’s legal counsel concerning litigation issues and the impacts of the ordinance on existing formula food restaurants. The existing formula food r... Full story
One way or another the City of Sisters is going to finance the construction of a new City Hall. Included in an estimated $12.9 million in expenditures this next fiscal year is a $2 million debt for the city hall, which the Urban Renewal Fund will carry. City Manager Eileen Stein has written other scenarios into the budget for this next fiscal year that could be played out in order to cover the cost of the new facility. According to Stein, the Urban Renewal Agency Budget Committee already anticipates a $2 million debt for the... Full story
Lacrosse appears to be a wildly contagious passion and it’s infected Sisters High School athletes thanks to Coach Bill Rexford. Dozens of players from across the state were here last weekend to play in a tournament hosted by Sisters’ fledgling club. The players charged up and down the field with their sticks with a netting basket at the top, passing a hard rubber ball back and forth and maneuvering for shots on their opponent’s goal. It’s not a sight Sisters is accusto... Full story
Now that McDonald’s has made its way into Sisters, city officials — pushed by citizen outcry — are bracing for more franchise fast food. Some feel that fast food chains threaten the Sisters image. City planning commissioners are looking at a draft ordinance that would restrict such “formula food” institutions in Sisters. A formula food restaurant is defined as franchises and corporations in which the ingredients, menus, décor, and uniforms are identical in six or more other restaurants. The draft is still in its early stag... Full story
Patrol cars from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office will prowl the streets of Sisters for the next three years. The City of Sisters has renewed its contract for police services with the Deschutes County Sheriff. The contract covers the next three years with an annual $356,694 price tag and an additional five percent increase each year. In the last two years the annual sum has increased by more than $50,000. The agreement is effective July 1, 2005 and terminates June 30, 2008. The agreement pays for law enforcement w... Full story
In the last four years, Space Age Fuel in Sisters has been involved in two incidents involving furnishing alcohol to minors. In a 2000 episode, owner Yacoub Bedaywi reportedly sold alcohol to an Oregon Liquor Control Commission decoy. In 2004, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission hit Space Age Fuel with a $3,795 civil penalty or 23-day license suspension on charges that an employee — Bedaywi’s son — failed to verify the age of a 17-year-old juvenile before selling him alcohol. The juvenile, Stephen Withrow, allegedly became i... Full story
Developers do not agree on which property should be brought into Sisters Urban Growth Boundary under the proposed Sisters Urban Area Comprehensive Plan. The plan requests that an additional 59 acres of land be brought into the Urban Growth Boundary in order to accommodate the growing city over the next 20 years. The 59 acres of land is to fill the need for commercial/industrial, residential, and space needed for the expansion of the city’s sewer treatment facility. To fill the need for residential land, 30 acres has been d... Full story
Wrangling over which developer’s parcel of land to include inside Sisters Urban Growth Boundary won’t derail long-awaited efforts to finish the Sisters Comprehensive Plan. After seemingly endless rounds of writing and revising, city officials believe that the adoption of the plan is close at hand. The plan is used to guide city officials on how Sisters grows and develops over a 20-year period. The plan outlines population growth, an inventory of commercial and industrial land while assessing future needs for housing, tra... Full story
There was no showdown over the design of the new City Hall Monday night. In fact, only a handful of people turned out to hear a presentation from architect Scott Steele — and they didn’t come for a shootout, just some critique. Mayor David Elliott attributed the relatively muted response to the fact city officials had opted to design the facility in the vein of the 1880s Western theme. “If we changed it from a Western them, we’d have 30 people in here complaining that we didn’t follow the rules. That’s all I’ve heard is make... Full story
In 1979, Sisters adopted its first Comprehensive Plan. This has served as the city’s only guiding plan over the last 26 years. The plan review process started in 1990. After more than a decade of public involvement and a redrawing of the Urban Growth Boundary, in 2004 it was completed and adopted by the city council — temporarily. By the fall of 2004, Deschutes County’s 20-year population forecast had been appealed by the Sisters Forest Planning Committee to the Oregon State Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). (The Siste... Full story
Sisters citizens will get a first look at plans for their new City Hall on April 25. City council members will be presenting a proposed exterior design for Sisters’ new city hall building to the public from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the current City Hall. The purpose of the meeting is to get public comment on the design. Last Friday, City Manager Eileen Stein received elevation drawings of the new facility from the architect, Scott Steele. On Thursday, April 21, city council members,... Full story
Construction and real estate sales are booming in Sisters -- and inventory is shrinking. photo by Jim Cornelius While home prices skyrocket in Sisters, Realtors struggle to maintain enough inventory. Sisters has attracted national attention in two different sources this last month. A feature on Sisters appeared on the front page of the travel section in The New York Times. Then Sisters was listed in a top ten of emerging second-home markets on the internet at MSN Money. Regardless of the recent recognition, Realtors agree tha... Full story
As Sisters grows, the local electric utility has to continually upgrade its system to keep up. Jim Crowell, spokesman for Central Electric Cooperative (CEC), explained: "The upgrading projects for each year would take way more than two hands to count on," he said. "I don't mean that we're doing nothing in Redmond, Prineville and Madras. It's just that the biggest impacts of growth are in the Bend and Sisters area." There are two transmission lines to Sisters. One line runs north of the Sisters/Redmond highway (Highway 126)... Full story
Sisters is on the verge of significant and lasting changes as local government develops a plan for a couplet, expands the Urban Growth Boundary and attempts to promote economic development. Developers and civic action groups are also weighing in to shape the future of the town. In early January, the City of Sisters drafted the "Goals, Staff Work Plan 2004" to create "where are we headed" vision statements. At the top of this document it states, "Vision: people of all ages and income levels can live and work in Sisters,"... Full story
As Sisters grows, the local electric utility has to continually upgrade its system to keep up. Jim Crowell, spokesman for Central Electric Cooperative (CEC), explained: "The up-grading projects for each year would take way more than two hands to count on," he said. "I don't mean that we're doing nothing in Redmond, Prineville, and Madras. It's just that the biggest impacts of growth are in the Bend and Sisters area." There are two different transmission lines to Sisters. One line runs north of the Sisters/Redmond highway (Hig... Full story
A packed house learned about the McKenzie Canyon Irrigation Project on Tuesday, March 2. photo by Jeff McCaulou Squaw Creek Irrigation District wants to pipe another of its irrigation ditches in an effort to conserve water. SCID hosted a meeting March 2 that sparked debate and questions over the project to pipe irrigation water from Squaw Creek. A small room at Sisters District Ranger Station was packed with landowners, farmers, and water experts. Marc Thalacker, manager of Squaw Creek Irrigation District and Mike Riehle,... Full story
Sisters is on the verge of significant and lasting changes as local government develops a plan for a couplet, expands the Urban Growth Boundary and attempts to promote economic development. Developers and civic action groups are also weighing in to shape the future of the town. In early January, the City of Sisters drafted the "Goals, Staff Work Plan 2004" to create "where are we headed" vision statements. At the top of this document it states, "Vision: people of all ages and income levels can live and work in Sisters,"... Full story
Breaking the law almost cost a snowmobiler his life on Saturday, February 28. In the Three Sisters Wilderness Area at Tam McArthur Rim, snowmobile tracks are all that is left to tell a story of a narrow escape from an avalanche that veteran patroller Gabe Chladek from the Sisters Ranger District said was the largest one he had ever seen in the Cascades. Chladek is no stranger to avalanches, having worked as a ski patroller for Hoodoo Ski Area and spending years on the wilderness boundary at Three Creek Lake as winter... Full story
More construction is underway at Pine Meadow Ranch. photo by Jim Cornelius The New Sisters Village (Pine Meadow Ranch) development is entering Phase III of the project. The newest of Sisters' roads in the PMR development will be paved sometime in April. The new sewer lines in Phase III are completed. The water lines are going in right now. Doug Sokol, a partner in the Pine Meadow Ranch Development Company, explained the process: "They can put in the sewer and water and utilities, but when it comes to grading and putting in th... Full story
The rationale for expanding the urban growth boundary comes from population forecasts generated by the City of Sisters Planning Department. These population forecasts have come under scrutiny by local watchdog groups and the math department at Central Oregon Community College. The City of Sisters planning department's population forecast showed that the city had a shortage of 90 acres for residential housing. Proposed new "Neighborhood Centers" total 111 acres. Last year, the Sisters Forest Planning Committee (SFPC) filed an... Full story
Two Forest Service projects designed to reduce wildfire fuels near Sisters have come to a grinding halt due to appeals and litigation. People living near the McCache Project and the Metolius Basin Project are eager to see the Forest Service push ahead despite any disagreements with how the Forest Service intends to conduct the projects. The McCache project covers areas bordering Black Butte Ranch and Tollgate. Right before implementation of this project in October of 2003 a lawsuit was filed by the Blue Mountains Biodiversity... Full story
City Planner Neil Thompson brought the Sisters Comprehensive Plan before the Deschutes County Planning Commission in a public hearing on Thursday, February 12. Thompson opened the meeting by saying that the Planning Department had addressed issues raised by William Boyer, head of Friends of Deschutes County, in a letter sent by Boyer. Thompson disagreed with Boyer's contention that a population forecast has to be adopted prior to the planning department continuing with long-range planning efforts. Deschutes County Planning... Full story
A global epidemic has hit Sisters. This past week email viruses have plagued most users from big business to small, including the personal user. The plague is costing the U.S. business sector billions of dollars. "This is a huge problem," said Jon Renner, director of OutlawNet. "Everybody is getting clobbered by it. I've had several customers call and they're angry at me." This strain of computer virus arrives in an email attachment. As soon as the user opens the attachment the virus, which is a program, then directs the... Full story
This spring, the Deschutes Basin Land Trust (DBLT) will move forward on the Metolius Basin Project. On April 17, 2002, the Land Trust announced that Willamette Industries had offered it an option to purchase 1,240 acres of the forest land on Lake Creek. DBLT met its Friday, July 25, deadline to purchase the land. The purchase required a Herculean fund-raising effort that targeted $3 million for the purchase and for restoration and management of the property on this principal tributary of the Metolius River. The acquisition... Full story
