News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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Sisters Library will soon be under construction, in a major remodeling project that is expected to last through August. Local patrons will still be able to order books and pick up holds, and access other services at the library’s temporary facility. “Basically, it’s a trailer,” said Lynne Mildenstein, Deschutes Public Library’s (DPL) assistant director of operations. “It’s going to sit on the corner of Cedar [Street] and Main [Avenue].” The trailer is 24-by-40 feet, offering... Full story
My family is full of “themers,” which is a slightly more glamorous term for “nerd.” Virtually everything we do somehow gets spun up into the context of some song or story. Take mashed potatoes, for example. My role in the preparation of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner is limited to wielding the sharp implements. Carving the bird, sure— but before that I’m handed a bagful of potatoes and a peeler, and given a wide berth to make the peelings fly. This is all in service... Full story
’Tis the season for shopping. There’s nothing wrong with that — humans have an instinct for trade as strong as our instinct to explore and to build. It can get out of hand, of course, but shopping for gifts can be a delightful and uplifting experience. It depends a lot on how you do it. There’s nothing uplifting about storming a Walmart on Black Friday, trampling anyone in the way of your big-screen TV purchase. That’s not how we roll in Sisters. Here we have a rich ec... Full story
Rampant development and land-use conflicts. Pandemic illness. Economic instability and anxiety. Gun control. We could be talking about issues affecting Oregonians in 2022 — or we could be talking about issues affecting Puritan colonists and the Wampanoag Confederacy in 1675 New England. One of the things that makes the study of history so compelling is the way the same kinds of trials and tribulations resonate across centuries. An old saying, usually attributed to Mark... Full story
Outdoor School is a beloved tradition for Oregon sixth-graders. This year, however, it’s become a focus of controversy over how gender identity is handled at Camp Tamarack, and how parents were — or were not — informed about it. The issue gained broad attention last month when the Culver School District, on October 17, pulled students from a three-day/two-night excursion to the camp west of Sisters after some of them reported feeling uncomfortable with the g... Full story
Measure 114 may seem to some folks like a reasonable effort to quell the violence we’ve all seen play out across the country — and right here in Central Oregon. It’s not. The measure creates a permit-to-purchase system that is built to fail, imposing an unfunded administrative burden on law enforcement that will cost local departments significantly, and take resources away from actual public safety work. And it leaves legitimate, law-abiding gun purchasers high and dry... Full story
On Saturday, October 29, my clan will head down to Bend for a Thoroughly Modern Productions staging of my favorite Shakespeare play, “Macbeth.” I’ve seen many a version on the screen, but this will be my first time seeing The Scottish Play as it was intended, as live theater. It’s just the thing for the Halloween weekend, since “Macbeth” is the spookiest and most supernaturally laden of Shakespeare’s plays. Even people who know nothing else about the play recognize the... Full story
Being homeless is not a crime. The local Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office substation in Sisters is tasked with the delicate task of dealing appropriately with a houseless population and citizen concerns. Lt. Chad Davis will be one of the panelists in a Town Hall, “Houseless in Sisters,” on Thursday, October 20. Lt. Davis told The Nugget that much of deputies’ time spent in dealing with issues around unhoused people in the community involve trying to find solutions to problem... Full story
Clive Rainey’s passion for creating housing for those in need remains undiminished, after decades of service with Habitat for Humanity — which started with him stepping up as the organization’s first volunteer on April 1, 1977. His journey with Habitat took him to Africa, where he worked in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and in Uganda in the wake of the genocide perpetrated by its dictator Idi Amin. He retired as a paid staff member and moved to Gua... Full story
Ian Reid, Sisters’ district ranger, knows that when he takes his seat on the “Houseless in Sisters” panel on Thursday, October 20 at Sisters Fire Hall, he’ll be on the hottest seat in the house. It’s his agency, after all — the U.S. Forest Service — that is directly responsible for managing camping in the forests surrounding Sisters. And that’s where the unhoused of Sisters Country live. “It’s a complicated role,” he acknowledged in an interview with The Nugget.... Full story
For anyone paying attention, these are unsettling times. Downright scary, in fact. For the first time in decades, the specter of a nuclear strike looms as a real possibility as Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine falters and is rolled back. Even as I write this, Russian missile strikes are targeting Ukrainian cities — deliberately killing civilians — in retaliation for an apparent Ukrainian operation that damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge in Crimea. The knock on e... Full story
Some mighty trees have fallen in Sisters’ cultural forest in the past couple of weeks. Jim Anderson “went out among the stars” last month, and the same week saw the passing of Joe Leonardi, one of the pillars of Sisters arts scene for decades (see obituary, page 8). On Sunday, we got word that pioneering Sisters businessman and community servant Bob Grooney has died. For folks who knew these men, there is a sudden, palpable sense of absence in Sisters. It was strange to take... Full story
Colleen Thomas seeks to “demystify” the people who are experiencing homelessness in Sisters Country. She is hoping that a “Houseless in Sisters” Town Hall event set for Thursday, October 20, at the Sisters Fire District Community Hall will go a long way toward doing that. Thomas, Deschutes County’s homeless services coordinator, is one of five panelists who will participate in the forum, sponsored by Citizens4Community (C4C) and The Nugget Newspaper. “All individuals... Full story
When Cary Kiefer was in high school, she heard a speaker address the perils of substance abuse in a way that was so compelling she remembers it to this day. “That had a big impact on me,” the Sisters woman said. With family in Sisters schools, she wanted that impact to affect them and their peers, so she spearheaded bringing one of the nation’s most renowned public speakers on the subjects of mental health and substance abuse to Sisters. Tony Hoffman will offer two prese... Full story
Eight mountain bike racers from Sisters are rolling in style through their inaugural season under the auspices of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA). The Nugget caught up with team members as they prepared to head out the Peterson Ridge Trail for a practice session on Thursday. They’re halfway through their four-race season, and they’re making big improvements quickly. The second race of the season, held in Prineville last month, set a solid benchmark. “Ev... Full story
Editor’s note: Jim Anderson, long-time naturalist columnist for The Nugget died September 22, at the age of 94. At his family’s request, we’re republishing a column published in August of 2020, when he moved to Eugene and “retired” from writing. That didn’t stick; his column on the Reno Air Races can be found on page 16. It was a great honor and privilege to know and work with Jim Anderson, who, in Rudyard Kipling’s immortal phrase, “filled the unforgiving minute with 60 secon... Full story
Temporal milestones — birthdays, New Year’s Day — don’t carry a lot of weight with me. Never felt particularly different after a birthday, and the turn of a calendar has never really felt like the turn of a page. Certain events, however, do have the power to make me pause and reflect — and feel every bit of white in my beard. My daughter getting married this summer was one. It was a joyous occasion, of course, but it’s a bit disorienting when all the event... Full story
Our minds and our bodies are not separate — they are a deeply and intricately integrated system. When we experience stress and trauma, it can manifest itself in a multitude of physical symptoms. And when our bodies face a chronic condition, it can affect our mentality and emotions. Rosimery Bergeron, a licensed professional counselor out of Camp Sherman and Bend, works with that integrated system to relieve stress and trauma, enhance well-being, and improve... Full story
Sisters High School was one year old when my wife, Marilyn, and I moved to Sisters. I thought it was pretty cool that the outfit called themselves the Outlaws, because there were Outlaws at the hub of my musical and cultural wheel. I understood that the Western moniker “Outlaw,” as Sisters High School meant it, had nothing to do with robbin’ banks and stagecoaches — it was about being untamed and untrammeled, like the wild horse they chose for their logo. That set well... Full story
The shooting that left three dead (including the shooter) at The Forum Safeway in Bend Sunday evening is a stark reminder that no community is insulated from the plague of mass-shooting violence that has accelerated alarmingly across the nation. We all recognize on some level that an active shooter can enact his violent fantasies in any community — including our own — but our protective psychological mechanisms kick in, causing us to recoil from such a stark... Full story
Doug Reynolds’ life has revolved around outdoor adventure since he was a kid growing up in rural Connecticut. “From as long ago as I can remember, in all my free time I was tromping around in the woods,” he said. He was an active Boy Scout, skiing, backpacking, camping, and whitewater rafting. And he learned the ethic of respect for the environment. “All of that stuff sort of molded who I became as an adult,” he said. “It’s really been the primary focus of my whole life. I... Full story
A friend of mine has a plot of land north of Sisters that he loves as deeply and profoundly as a person can love a place. “I’ll never develop my land,” he told me. “It’s truly wild out there.” This friend of mine is not what you’d picture if you were to commission a forensic sketch of an “environmentalist,” but his depth of ecological understanding and his love for land and landscape is unmatched. He’s what you might call a “green-neck,” a term I hadn’t heard for a whil... Full story
A semitruck driver who was apparently seeking a place to rest for the night got badly stuck at Suttle Lake last week. His damaged truck ultimately had to be hauled out by a towing crew. Black Butte Police responded to a 911 call about the incident at about 7:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 11. The driver attempted to make a turn the truck could not negotiate and ran over boulders and stumps. The truck’s cargo container was crunched and it popped a tire, leaving it stranded. C... Full story
Local folks were shocked at the news that thieves hit the Sunglass Hut in the Old Mill District for $20,000 in product earlier this month. It was the kind of brazen shoplifting incident that has been occurring in bigger cities across the nation for the past couple of years. Lt. Chad Davis of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged that Sisters is not immune from such incidents and offered some tips for retailers. Davis emphasized that the safety of store staff a... Full story
Judging from the traffic through 3 Sisters Automotive Service Center last week, there is quite a bit of pent-up demand for the services Jorge Solorzano offers at the new operation. The new automotive business (unrelated to an outfit of similar name that is now closed) opened on August 1, offering a range of services like oil changes, brake work, tune-ups, changes of air and cabin filters, replacement of belts, and battery changes. “Basically in-and-out services, you k... Full story
