News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 456 - 480 of 1025
Jarold Ramsey will share his love for history and for his native Central Oregon in the third Fireside Stories Evening of the year on Thursday, March 5 at FivePine Conference Center. The Three Sisters Historical Society hosts Ramsey, an award-winning essayist and poet, as well as a published playwright and a respected authority on traditional Native American literature. Ramsey’s talk is titled “In Praise of Doing History, Sisters Included.” He describes his talk as “deal... Full story
Glancing down as I walked the dog along the creek bed, my eye was caught by a thin, rectangular, gray stone. I was compelled to pick it up and run my hands over its satiny surface and put it in my pocket to bring home. I have become somewhat of a rockhound over the years. Instead of T-shirts and knickknacks from trips, I have opted to bring home stones from places of significance to me. The Russian River in northern California provided a number of rocks I collected while... Full story
The contract between the City and the Chamber is expiring on June 30, 2020. Negotiations have begun to craft a new visitor information and marketing contract with the Chamber serving as the destination marketing organization (DMO) and Sisters Country Visitors Bureau. Pursuant to state law and the Sisters City Code, the City receives transient room tax (TRT) revenues paid by occupants of transient lodging facilities located within the city. State law requires the City spend a p... Full story
Jason Huber, adult and youth programs coordinator at Sisters Park & Recreation District, loves working with kids. He was hired in December 2018 as a program assistant and is now the programs coordinator. Huber moved to Sisters 12 years ago from Mesa, Arizona, where he grew up. His family moved here before he did. After coming for a visit, he decided Sisters would be a good place to start a new chapter in his life. He worked at Three Creeks Brewing Co.’s pub while earning h... Full story
The process for determining Sisters City Council goals for the 2020-21 fiscal year had some new wrinkles this year as discussed at their goal-setting session last Thursday. When the councilors gathered with City Manager Cory Misley and City department heads, they were presented with a proposal recommending that in each odd-numbered year, after elections, City goals be established for a two-year period allowing for multiple budget cycles to implement. The starting point in... Full story
She began working at SPRD four years ago as a part-time building attendant and now works full-time overseeing the cleaning of the building, the landscaping around the building, plumbing issues and, perhaps most importantly, keeping the oil-fueled boilers operating properly. In her four years at SPRD, she has worked for four different executive directors and is really happy with how everything has turned out. “I’m proud of the employees and the organization as a whole for ris... Full story
Pat Vandewater of Sisters recently returned to her Pine Meadow home from Orlando, Florida, after her Athletic Club of Bend women’s tennis team placed fifth in the United States Tennis Association National Championships, representing the Pacific Northwest region of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Vandewater started her competitive tennis career as a member of the Madison High School tennis team in Portland when they won the City championship. After school she put her tennis racq... Full story
Early Oregon skiers didn’t have any of the luxuries afforded today’s boarders and skiers, but ski they did, at a number of ski hills. Discover those hills and their histories on Tuesday, February 18, when lifelong Bend resident and former mayor Steve Stenkamp shares his photos and history at the Three Sisters Historical Society Fireside Stories Evening, “Lost Oregon Ski Areas.” Stenkamp grew up on the east side of Bend during the 1960s and graduated from Bend High in 1975. A... Full story
•?Sisters City Council will hold their annual goal-setting meeting on Thursday, February 13, starting at 3:30 p.m. Staff has been working on department work plan objectives and year-to-date financials to provide an update to Council. This will be a thorough review of progress through this fiscal year and planning for next fiscal year. After that meeting, alignment of Council goals and department work plan objectives will come together in a proposed budget document presented t... Full story
“Through that process I found a deep appreciation for the community here, the history that led to the Sisters we see today, and the shared goals for the future,” Mardell said. “When the opportunity arose (to apply for the planner position), it provided a great alignment of my goals: to work for a smaller city where a planner’s duties have a great deal of variety, while also working for a city that I care for deeply.” A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of... Full story
The Sisters City Council approved two new ordinances at their January 22 meeting having to do with public events and transient merchants. Ordinance 500, known as the Public Events Ordinance, provides for a permit system for public events and the special use of public property, parks, streets, rights-of-way, sidewalks, trails, and/or bikeways. Fees will be charged to recover the costs of administering the permits. The ordinance contains regulations to protect property, public... Full story
Creekside City Park will be closed to large events, and event-related street closures will be cut back and streets will not be closed for events during the summer — with exceptions for the Rodeo Parade and the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Those are key results of new City Ordinance 500, having to do with public events, and Ordinance 501 regarding transient merchants, passed on a four-one vote at the January 22 Sisters City Council meeting. According to City Manager Cory... Full story
As the pages of the calendar keep turning, and months become years, and years become decades, planning for the future takes on a different look. Instead of saving for retirement we are in it, carefully spending the money we hopefully put aside earlier, or depending on Social Security to live. Medicare has kicked in and annually we are trying to find the best deal for supplemental gap insurance and drug coverage. It is a fact we are on the short end of our lifespan so now is th... Full story
Recent disconcerting non-life-threatening health issues are proving frustrating, irritating, and a little limiting of my normal routine. On a scale of 1-10, however, they are maybe a 1.5. They are evident enough, though, to cause me to re-examine my goal of “aging gracefully” and what that really means. Several years ago, graceful aging meant I didn’t get upset with additional birthdays or hide my age. I’m 75 and glad to still be here and functioning, if not quite as smoothly.... Full story
The smile on Valerie Selig’s face as she talks about her three- and four-year-old Grasshoppers in the Sisters Park & Recreation District preschool program speaks volumes about her, her work, and the children. “It’s not really work, and they pay me for it!” Selig said. “It is what I love.” A naturalized U. S. citizen who was born and raised outside of London, England, Selig graduated from college in England, trained to work in children’s residential homes. She quit her firs... Full story
As the City of Sisters works out how best to provide law-enforcement services as the community grows and changes, the idea of creating a municipal police force returns to the fore. Sisters has been there before. The city of Sisters was originally platted in 1901, but the citizens didn’t approve incorporation until 1946 (vote was 115 for, 61 against). According to the Deschutes Pioneer Gazette, quoting Alvin Cyrus, one of the early buildings in town was a one-person jail. L... Full story
Timber and railroads were what built and supported Central Oregon in the early 20th century. Local historian Steve Lent, of the Bowman Museum in Prineville, will bring that time alive with his photographic presentation of “The Rise of the Timber Industry in Central Oregon” on Tuesday, January 21, 7 p.m., at the Three Sisters Historical Society Fireside Stories Evening at FivePine Conference Center. Lent, a Prineville native, is well-known in the area for his keen interest in... Full story
Chad Rush, recreation programs manager at Sisters Park and Recreation District for the past two years, has spent most of his adult life working with children and teens as a private school administrator, athletic director, and youth athletic coach. He spent 15 years at Portland Lutheran School, which was originally part of Concordia College until it was split off from the college in 1977 as a high school. In 1986, pre-K through eighth-grade classes were added. After leaving... Full story
The City of Sisters and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office are in the midst of negotiating a new contract for law enforcement. With the steady growth of Sisters’ population over the last decade, combined with ever-increasing tourism, crime can be expected to increase proportionately. According to DCSO, total cases handled each year fluctuate. That number can be easily impacted depending on several factors. As an example, if there are 10 car break-ins in one or two eve... Full story
The question of housing affordability looms large in Sisters and across the Pacific Northwest. Last week, 28 people explored the topic in Citizens4Community’s December Let’s Talk session. City Manager Cory Misley provided an overview for the participants on the affordable housing picture in Sisters, including data on housing in Deschutes County from the Oregon Housing Alliance. There is a serious shortage of affordable housing in Deschutes County. For every 100 families with e... Full story
As I write, the calendar will turn to December 21, the winter solstice, and a time that brings me joy every year as we begin the climb out of shorter days and longer darkness toward the light and warmth of spring and summer. The cold and dark of winter has always been my time of remembering and reflecting. As I listened to Christmas carols the other day, I was struck by the word “joy” in “Joy to the World,” one of my favorite carols that always ended the midnight Christm... Full story
Carmel Perez Snyder, Director of Advocacy and Outreach for AARP Oregon, made a formal presentation to the council of the designation of Sisters as an official World Health Organization (WHO) Age Friendly City at last week’s City Council meeting. That designation is held by only seven areas in Oregon, and Sisters is the only one in Central Oregon. Snyder made the point that the designation is much more than just a piece of paper to hang on the wall. She likened it to a b... Full story
The lobby at Touchmark at Mount Bachelor Village in Bend looked like Santa’s workshop last week when the residents and members of Sisters Area Woodworkers (SAW) and the Central Oregon Woodworkers (COW) of Bend gathered to celebrate the completion of their annual toy project for children at risk. The cooperative effort includes beautifully handcrafted wooden toys made by the woodworkers and finished by residents of Touchmark before being wrapped in cellophane and finished o... Full story
During 2018, the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District responded to 1,163 emergencies including 89 fire-related calls, 862 EMS-related calls, 30 public service calls, 153 false alarm/good intent calls, and 29 other calls. Patients who sought treatment at the main fire station totaled 128 for 2018. The District responded to 220 back-to-back incidents, which occur when a second incident is dispatched prior to the completion of the first incident. Of the 862... Full story
Citizen of the Year honors at last week’s Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony went to long-time Sisters resident and extraordinary volunteer Toni Landis. “Her primary motivator in life has always been to help people,” Chamber Executive Director Judy Trego told the audience. “Whether it was art classes for children in Sisters, working with seniors as a State of Oregon ombudsman, or creating the Home Help Team to offer low-income and home-bound folks the home re... Full story
