News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 3917
A few months before we moved to Sisters in 1993, my wife Marilyn and I — along with the rest of the nation — were transfixed by the news that came out of Waco, Texas. On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided the compound of a religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, seeking to serve a search warrant for a massive cache of illegal firearms, and an arrest warrant for Vernon Wayne Howell, who called himself David Koresh. The Branch Dav... Full story
My 95-year-old dad never saw a construction project he didn’t like. A child of the Great Depression and World War II, development to him has always signaled growing prosperity, more people accessing an American Dream he fervently believed in. And why wouldn’t he? The 10th of 11 children of a Swedish father and an Irish mother who came West to Washington and then California in the 1920s seeking opportunity, he found his trade as a printer when he was 12 years old, and rode tha... Full story
City planners did the right thing in kicking the application for an expansion of the Space Age Fuel service station up to Type III status, which means it will be heard by the Sisters Planning Commission. The planning commissioners should take full advantage of the opportunity to examine whether the application represents the actual intent of code changes enacted in 2019, and to explore what the City of Sisters’ options are in addressing the concerns of a substantial part of it... Full story
Each year in March, a team of firefighter-athletes from Sisters Country joins a couple thousand of their peers for a grueling climb up the stairway of a skyscraper in Seattle, Washington. It’s a great way to build and test fitness for a physically demanding job — but more than that, it is an opportunity to serve a cause that is meaningful — sometimes very personally — to those first responders. A cadre of Sisters and Cloverdale firefighters loaded with m... Full story
Heavy equipment knocked down the building that formerly housed Hop in the Spa last week. The new owner of the property, Roger Johnson of Sisters, told The Nugget he is working on plans to redevelop the property. The building on the Cascade Avenue site was completely removed. It had stood empty for many months in the wake of the closure of Hop in the Spa after its owner, Mike Boyle, of Sisters, was indicted on September 7, 2021, on multiple counts of practicing massage without... Full story
Sisters is the new headquarters for Jive Radio, and a lot of folks think that’s cause for celebration. KJIVE (96.5 FM/www.jiveradio.org), a non-commercial independent radio station owned by OpenSky Radio Corp., has its first-ever formal studio located in The Belfry. And that venue will host a celebration of the station and independent music on Tuesday, March 14. Cruz Contreras, singer-songwriter and band leader of the Black Lillies — who have played here multiple t... Full story
Last week, I flew to San Antonio, Texas, for a conference with my colleagues with Mullen Newspapers. Louie Mullen, the majority owner of The Nugget (with myself as minority owner), has community weekly newspapers across the country, and a dozen of the publishers of those papers gather regularly to share ideas and to work through the struggles that each of us face in a challenging media landscape. A snafu at the car rental counter put me on the taxi line at the San Antonio... Full story
Sisters resident Jim Cunningham knows a thing or two about air defense. As a brigadier general in command of the Oregon National Guard from 2000 to 2006, he was responsible for patrolling the skies above the state, on the lookout for intrusion by any hostile force. He held that command in the tense days in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. As the U.S. shot down four “objects” — at least two of them clearly balloons — in the spa... Full story
Mike Whitlatch has learned his business from the ground up — literally. “I started out cleaning ducts and putting in duct work under houses,” he recalled. With experience in every level of the business — from major commercial installations like Deschutes Brewery and St. Charles Hospital to residential applications — he has now launched his own company. Sisters Heating & Air took it’s first call last September, and they’ve been roiling ever since. Sisters... Full story
Aurolyn Stwyer is renowned for her beadwork and for her traditional dancing. The Warm Springs artist will bring her deep knowledge of the cultural heritage of her Celilo people to Sisters on February 21, in a Fireside Story Evening at FivePine Lodge and Conference Center on February 21. Stwyer learned beading in the traditional way — from her grandmother. “I would sit and watch, and finally my grandmother pulled out some beads and some needle and thread, she told me h... Full story
Steven Peterzen has had a busy week. Peterzen, who has lived in Sisters for more than decade, is the founder and owner of ISTAR Stratospheric Ballooning. ISTAR launches and recovers payloads for scientific and technological experiments for agencies, companies, and academic institutions. He has worked with Sisters’ science classes to launch balloons from Sisters Eagle Airport. With deep expertise and more than three decades of experience in the field, he’s been fielding pho... Full story
Life took a hard turn for Steve Rollins on December 2, 2022. The longtime Sisters mechanic took a bad fall at his home shop that left him with spinal cord injuries and facing a long road to recovery. “He slipped on ice,” his son Jeremy Rollins told The Nugget. “He said the last thing he remembered was the ground coming up at him.” What happened, though, was worse than hitting the ground. Rollins fell face-first into the hydraulic arm of a floor hoist used for lifting car eng... Full story
If you get in about 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a day, and do some lifting a couple of times a week — congratulations. You’re meeting the minimum recommended standards for good health. And you’re ahead of nearly 75 percent of Americans. In a study that may dismay fitness professionals, but certainly doesn’t surprise them, the Department of Health and Human Services reported last week that only 28 percent of Americans are meeting basic physical activ... Full story
It’s often overlooked or ignored, but new young drivers operate with restrictions on their license. Those restrictions are designed to minimize distractions while new drivers learn how to drive on their own. Under Oregon law, new drivers are provided with a provisional license, which restricts the number of passengers allowed in a vehicle — no passengers under 20 (unless family members) or driving between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. for the first six months; no more than three p... Full story
Brian David Owens stopped by The Nugget last Thursday to clear a couple of things up. Owens lives in the forest west of Ponderosa Lodge, and he was mentioned — by first name only — in Bill Bartlett’s story “Forest thinning reveals forest dwellings,” (The Nugget, January 18, page 1). He and his dog Dude came into the office, and we rang up Bill, and we all had a good conversation. Owens prefers that his full name be used. He wanted it understood that his frien... Full story
Knowing the community you are working in on an intimate basis makes a big difference in law enforcement. That was the message that came across loud and clear in a two-night Citizens Academy open house hosted by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) at the Sisters Fire District Community Hall on Wednesday and Thursday, January 18-19. Between 30 and 40 citizens turned out each night to get to know local deputies and to get a glimpse at how the DCSO operates. Everyone a... Full story
Sisters Country has its share of pests, from infiltrations of ants to tunneling voles in the grass to rodents getting into the garage or the house. Birds and bats can pose a problem. Pests can be a nuisance — and sometimes they can cause significant damage. Owner-operator Mike Larson has been in the pest control business in Central Oregon since 2002, and he’s developed an approach that goes way beyond period mitigation measures like spraying. “I’m more an integ... Full story
Erika Bolstad, a Portland-based journalist, followed the thread of family lore back to North Dakota to pick up the trail of her great-grandmother Anna, a homesteader in the early 1900s whose husband committed her to an asylum under mysterious circumstances. Bolstad’s journey became her book “Windfall” — finished during a residency at Pine Meadow Ranch Center For Arts & Agriculture in Sisters. Bolstad returns to Sisters on Thursday, January 26, to share her work at Pauli... Full story
A friend of mine here in Sisters once held high military rank that came with serious responsibilities. His job required that he handle sensitive, classified material. I asked him the other day what would have happened if he kept a tranche of classified documents, say, in an office at his golf resort, or in a garage next to his Corvette. “You mean after my court-martial?” was his response. At a minimum, he would have been fired — career over, pension at risk. He mig... Full story
While I was out delivering your Nugget a couple of weeks ago, I listened to the final episode of “Revolutions,” a podcast by historian Mike Duncan. Many a Tuesday evening of chucking newspaper bundles has been filled with this monumental achievement of historical storytelling, which started back in 2013 with the English Civil Wars of the 17th Century and concluded last year with a deep dive into the Russian Revolution. I am of the belief that you can’t understand the world... Full story
Back in 1980 the original Sisters Library—630 square feet and built in the 1930s—was lifted off its foundation, loaded on a trailer, and moved a few blocks to a new location. It was not long, however, before the community outgrew that building, as well as another 2,600-square-foot space built in 1989. In 2005, the current 8,300-square-foot Sisters Library began serving the public as part of the Deschutes Public Library System. Almost 20 years later the Sisters... Full story
The family of Maria Aviles Tapia, who died in a single-vehicle car accident on Thursday, December 23, is profoundly grateful to the Sisters community for the outpouring of support the family has received in the face of their tragedy. “They’ve been doing such a good support for the family and the kids,” said Maria’s brother Jaime Tapia. “I really, really want to say thank you.” Tapia, 38, died when the vehicle she was a passenger in slid on ice heading west toward Sisters jus... Full story
7 will mark 30 years that my wife Marilyn and I have lived in Sisters. Newly-married in 1993, we were California refugees, getting out of a state that had gone rotten with riot and congestion. We grew up on the fringes of the great concrete jungle, so we were oriented toward mountains and ponderosa pines, and we found what we were looking for in Sisters. We chose the place because Marilyn had a job offer from Phil Arends, who operated a thriving travel agency called Desert... Full story
A group of Sisters youths built a Lego robot and turned it loose in First Lego League competition at Mountain View High School on Sunday, December 11. Their robot made an outstanding run and the group just missed qualifying for state competition. The Broken Top Builders — fifth graders Amelia Folin, Arora Restani, Wesley Womack, and Mallory Perry; fourth graders Jordan Oathes, Brecken Poulos, and Will Bulloch; and seventh grader Nona Smith — have been practicing... Full story
Sisters artist Jim Horsley has painted landscapes, Western scenes, and military-inspired works. Now he has embarked on a magnum opus project that brings together his passion for painting with the Christian faith that underpins his life. In collaboration with his pastor, Steve Stratos of Sisters Community Church, Horsley is creating an art installation titled “Reflections of Jesus,” which will hang at the church. In an overview of the project, Horsley explained: “The colle... Full story
