News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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The topic of Sheriff Shane Nelson’s Tuesday, January 18 presentation at Aspen Lakes near Sisters — the effects and consequences of Oregon’s Ballot Measure 110 — wasn’t particularly controversial. The venue and the audience were. Nelson was asked to make a presentation at the regular meeting of People’s Rights Oregon 5 (PR OR5). He chose the topic. The event was portrayed in local media as a “closed-door meeting” because PR OR5 organizers planned to prohibit media attendanc... Full story
After a two-year layoff, Sisters Rodeo is saddling up for it traditional June run. But already it’s spurring out into the community arena — with a kickoff party set for Saturday, April 2, starting at 5:30 p.m. on Sisters Saloon’s outdoor patio. Dry Canyon Stampede will provide live music, and Sisters Rodeo Queen Mary Olney will be on hand signing autographs, as will this year’s Rodeo bullfighters.The Rodeo Kick-off Party is a first for the organization. “We’re just exci... Full story
My friends must have thought I had seriously over-caffeinated Friday afternoon. I took a late lunch break and went out to Zimmerman Butte for some kettle-bell-and-gunpowder therapy, and on the way out there I fired up the latest episode of Jack Carr’s Danger Close podcast, featuring geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan. As soon as I pulled into the Pit, I pulled out the phone and ordered all of Zeihan’s available books from the Deschutes Public Library. After my session, I sta... Full story
We’ve gotten all too used to the news: At a school in Somewhere, USA, a teenager brings a gun to class and opens fire. In the following days, the story comes out about a troubled youth who felt alienated and/or bullied, who was reading about mass shootings online and had found a way to acquire a weapon. If only people had picked up the signs… For Lezlie Neusteter of Sisters, a country in which mass shootings at schools are commonplace isn’t acceptable — and she ha... Full story
An annual rite of spring has returned to Sisters. A contingent of students from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, spent a week working with Sisters Habitat for Humanity at job sites in Sisters last week. Such exercises in volunteerism and community-building were a regular feature of Sisters Habitat’s year, but they were cut off in March 2020 due to COVID-19. “This is the first group back, and it happens to be the same great college,” said Christine Carriger, who m... Full story
I’ve always been a wee bit of a Celtophile. Almost all of the music I listen to on any given day has “Celtic” roots. We named our daughter Ceili (pronounced Kay-lee), which is Irish Gaelic for a party with traditional music, dancing, and storytelling. I cut my storytelling teeth on the tales of another Celtophile, the pulp fictioneer Robert E. Howard, and named our dearly missed dog Conan (Gaelic for “little wolf”). It’s more an affinity than a matter of heritage. My ancestry... Full story
Kris Kristofferson may have mourned a Sunday morning coming down, but on March 13, eight Sisters firefighters celebrated a Sunday morning going up. And up. And up. The team from Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Department participated in the annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Firefighter Stairclimb at the Columbia Center in Seattle. The event is a major fundraiser for LLS. The 2,000 participants are career, volunteer, or retired firefighters who climb up the second-tallest... Full story
The Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District is going back to voters to seek funding to provide a sustainable level of 24/7 staffing. The District has filed a ballot measure for the May 17 election, seeking a 69-cents-per-$1,000 (assessed valuation) levy to fund 24/7 staffing by fire officers/EMTs. Cloverdale Fire District voters in May 2021 said a vehement “no” to a levy that carried a tax rate of $1.35 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Voters rejected it by a 70 per... Full story
Our dogs aren’t just pets here in Sisters Country — they’re our companions; they’re members of the family. That means it’s a really big deal to entrust our furry friends’ well-being to another when we’re at work or when we go out of town. For years, folks in Sisters have relied on Central Bark for doggie day-care and boarding that they can trust — and on Groomingdales for keeping dogs looking and feeling their best with skilled and attentive grooming. Calvin Hass... Full story
Political tribalism crops up everywhere these days. Last month, I traveled to Savannah, Georgia, for a newspaper conference. With a free Saturday in hand, I figured to indulge my historical proclivities and headed down to the Savannah History Museum in the beautiful city’s lovingly cared-for historic district. The fellow at the front desk — a gentleman of retirement age and appropriately gregarious demeanor — asked me where I hailed from. I told him I had t... Full story
In the mid-1990s, Shane Lundgren was flying on the knife’s edge of adventure, in some of the most hostile environments known to aviators. Those adventures, along with other achievements in the field, earned him nomination among the Living Legends of Aviation. The Camp Sherman resident grew up on the wing. His father, Kim Lundgren, was a navigator for PanAm, and the founder in 1978 of Air Berlin. Shane was born in Palo Alto, California, and went to university in San Diego, m... Full story
Sometimes you know you’ve made a terrible mistake as soon as you take that first wrong turn. Oregon took a sharp turn down the wrong road in passing Measure 110 — the Drug Decriminalization and Addiction Treatment Initiative approved by voters in 2020. Measure 110 makes personal possession of a controlled substance a violation subject only to a maximum fine of $100, and established a drug addiction treatment and recovery program funded in part by the state’s mar... Full story
Mike Boyle of Sisters has been hit with significant fines by the Oregon Board of Massage Therapists (OBMT). Boyle is facing civil and criminal charges in association with alleged actions committed at Hop in the Spa in Sisters. Jeff Van Laanen, compliance and licensing manager for OBMT, told The Nugget last week that the board met in executive session on January 31, and elected to charge Boyle with 13 violations of ORS 687.021 (1) (a) (practicing massage without a license); and... Full story
You just can’t replicate the heat, the feeling of being in a building that’s on fire,” Sisters Fire Chief Roger Johnson told The Nugget on Sunday, as teams of firefighters entered smoking buildings in a live-fire training exercise. “You just can’t replicate that kind of training.” Firefighters and other personnel from Sisters, Cloverdale, Black Butte Ranch, Bend, Redmond, and Crooked River Ranch engaged in extensive training drills on property that is now part of the Sisters... Full story
Sheriff Shane Nelson is satisfied with the way the nearly two-year-old revised law enforcement with the City of Sisters is going. “I feel like we’ve got excellent coverage,” he told The Nugget. “And, most important thing about it is having the relationship with the community.” The City of Sisters and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) agreed to a $711,200 annual contract in March of 2020. The contract allows for a DCSO lieutenant and three deputies to be stationed i... Full story
Hardwood floors are works of art to Fred Silva. He’s always felt that way. “I’m a carpenter by trade, I can build houses; I can do it all,” he said. But creating beautiful hardwood floors is his passion and his art, the thing he truly loves. That love affair started very early — when Silva was about 8 years old. “My parents took me to Hearst Castle when I was a little kid,” he recalled. “I admired the hardwood floors.” Hearst Castle was the lavishly constructed hom... Full story
Someone asked Sheriff Shane Nelson the other night whether the ODOT cameras that have proliferated across Central Oregon could be used for law enforcement purposes. Nelson said that that would require a warrant and, to his recollection, it’s never happened in Deschutes County. The question carried a clear implication of concern over a high degree of surveillance creeping into daily life. Nelson noted that “anything can be used for bad” and that there must be a level of trust... Full story
Ryan Mantell and Joyce Johns can now lay their heads in new homes of their very own, thanks to the work of Sisters Habitat for Humanity and Heart of Oregon’s Youth Build program. Members of both organizations and a variety of community members braved a biting wind last Thursday, January 20, to mark the dedication of the two new homes, located in the ClearPine subdivision at the northwest corner of Sisters. The location represents a dream and a prayer fulfilled for Joyce J... Full story
Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson thinks that Ballot Measure 110 — the Drug Decriminalization and Addiction Treatment Initiative passed by voters in 2020— sounded good in theory, but brings negative unintended consequences. Measure 110 makes personal possession of a controlled substance a violation subject only to a maximum fine of $100, and established a drug addiction treatment and recovery program funded in part by the state’s marijuana tax revenue and state... Full story
At the febrile height of the French Revolution — the political event that created the modern world — the General Council of the Paris Commune issued a kind of passport for citizens who could demonstrate that they were politically reliable: the certificat de civisme. Proof of civic virtue and political reliability was absolutely vital. Without a certificate, a citizen was “civilly dead.” They had no rights, they could not find legitimate employment, and they wer... Full story
A little over a year ago, Evelyn Lopez was falling way behind in school.“Public school was not my calling,” the Sisters youth told The Nugget. “Not enough teacher one-on-one time, which I really needed.”Fast-forward to January 2022, and Lopez is thriving. Last Thursday, she was selected to cut the ribbon on Heart of Oregon Corps’ new child and youth development training classroom and pre-apprenticeship construction classroom in Redmond.As she works to catch up on credits t... Full story
State education officials are making ominous rumblings about the potential for the omicron variant of COVID-19 to push students back to online learning. “Student access to in-person instruction is under serious threat,’’ the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority said, as students returned to school after Christmas break. Sisters schools are determined to keep students in class. “It’s always been our priority since the start of this thing to keep in-p... Full story
We’re finally catching up to the third season of the international hit German TV series “Babylon Berlin” on Netflix. It’s supposedly the most expensive production in German history, and it shows — the production values are extraordinary, and they transport the viewer into this strange noirish world of the late 1920s and early 1930s, where cultural drift and decadence intertwines with extremely violent political tribalism. It’s a tale for our times. Adding to the piquancy... Full story
Well, that was… interesting. As I recall, most of us were thinking at this time last year that the weirdness that was 2020 would dissipate in 2021. Of course, calendars, like clocks, are just something we create in the feeble hope of imposing order on the course of events, which have a way of ignoring such contrivances and rolling along inexorably on their own chaotic path. The Year 2021 started weird, right from January 6, and kept on rolling through 12 months of... Full story
“It was a time of acute insecurity, when political, social, and legal norms were bent out of shape by warring protagonists for whom the system had long ceased to work and who sensed, in its weaknesses, an opportunity to remodel the world according to their desires. At times, the centre seemed unable to hold. Politicians urging unity and moderation watched aghast as factions tore at each other, all restraint set aside...” That passage comes from historian Thomas Penn in “Th... Full story
