News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 108
Some work remains, but SOAR is in its new building near Sisters High School. photo by Jim Cornelius Ready for teen-flavored and adult-approved activities, SOAR is welcoming families at its new building located on the west side of Sisters High School. SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation) staff spread their wings in the roomy building this month, after finishing the first phase of construction. This first phase created 10,000 square feet, three Head Start classrooms, one pre-school child care room, an... Full story
Edgington Road will remain unimproved. photo by Jim Cornelius Some folks like their neighborhood just the way it is: less developed and less expensive with less congestion. City staff announced Thursday, February 12, the speedy death of proposed road improvements in the Edgington Road Local Improvement District (LID). Deschutes County distributed a mail poll to the property owners in the LID asking if they supported improvements on Edgington Road from Highway 242 south to the Baily Ditch Road, as well as improvements to the... Full story
The Sisters City Council lent its support Thursday, February 12, to a project designed to reduce poverty by encouraging entrepreneurship in Central Oregon. Alan Flood, an advocate for the Bend Community Action Team (CAT), asked the council to support a grant intended to reduce poverty in Central Oregon. The request did not require any financial support from the city. The council voted unanimously to sign a resolution declaring its support of CAT's $60,000 grant to aid the Oregon Microenterprise Network (OMEN). "We understand... Full story
Bill Duehren has read with students for 11 years. More readers are needed. photo by Torri Barco Every week for 11 years, retired resident Bill Duehren has volunteered an hour to read with young children. "If they can read, they can learn anything," Duehren said. "If they can't read, they can't learn anything." Start Making A Reader Today (SMART), a book and reading program for children, opened in 1992 at Sisters Elementary School. At that time, Sisters was one of only eight schools in Oregon to meet the low-income ratio... Full story
Leading students into temptation... photo by Torri Barco Fatty foods and sugary pops sell -- and that's a problem for local educators in the wake of the national growth spurt of childhood obesity. Cheese fries and pizza are school cafeteria favorites, district officials say, and sometimes needed just to get students to purchase a meal (see "School cafeterias take on obesity," The Nugget, January 28, 2004, page 4). Soda pop vending machines are also tempting sources of low-value calories. The machines generate large funds for... Full story
Some local residents are worried a proposed Hood Avenue/Main Avenue couplet will create three busy streets instead of one. To help prevent such an outcome, the Couplet Advisory Committee at its Monday, January 26, meeting expressed a unanimous desire to see heavy truck traffic aggressively diverted off Cascade Avenue and onto the Hood Avenue and Main Avenue arms of the couplet. The 20-person committee met for its monthly meeting to refine plans to design an east-bound Hood Avenue and a west-bound Main Avenue couplet. The... Full story
Construction of a new sewer line in the third phase of the Buck Run III subdivision will resolve a lingering controversy involving property owners who were not included in the original sewer system. The Sisters City Council voted 2-1 Thursday, January 22, to charge six property owners on Tyler Avenue a reimbursement fee to install a sewer line along their street and connect it to the sewer line on Maple Street. The city council agreed to work with the property developers to shoulder part of the cost to install the sewer... Full story
Oatmeal instead of cheese fries or pizza is a tough sell anywhere -- especially in a school cafeteria. In the face of national concern over youth obesity, school cafeterias are under pressure to fight back. Janice Comfort, Sisters School District nutritionist, said the challenge is finding ways to serve foods that are healthy and still sell. "Some parents want us to serve hot oatmeal, but we can't get kids to eat it," Comfort said. "Our biggest thing is trying to find healthy foods the kids will eat. There's also the matter... Full story
The City of Sisters is trying to make its rules easier to enforce. The Sisters City Council unanimously passed amendments to ordinance 324 in The Model Development Code for the City of Sisters on Thursday, January 22. Brian Rankin, assistant city planner, said the new language emphasizes more clearly criteria that the city had already intended to communicate in the former ordinance. "Before, if a developer wanted to rezone, he would have to demonstrate it would not have a negative effect on the city," said Brian Rankin, city... Full story
Anticipating urban growth, the City of Sisters is trying to maintain the "feel" of Sisters and still provide adequate housing. The Sisters City Council made a decision Thursday, January 22, that will shape commercial and residential development in areas currently just outside the city limits. The council approved amendments to ordinance 324 of the Model Development Code for the City of Sisters. The new provisions limit commercial services and require some affordable housing. If the city's Comprehensive Plan is adopted in the... Full story
Sisters took a big step towards building a long-awaited new City Hall when the Sisters City Council voted unanimously this month to select a local architectural firm to design the building. The council approved a contract in the amount of $60,000 with Steele Associates Architects, the firm that designed Sisters High School and donated the design for Barclay Park. The city selected Steele Associates after reviewing 16 proposals, with costs ranging from $56,000 to $178,000, said Scott Steele, project principal. The council... Full story
Active elementary school kids stave off a growing trend of youthful obesity. photo by Torri Barco Sisters has not escaped the growing epidemic of obesity in America, but its active lifestyle has given it an edge. Local statistics indicate that students at Sisters High School are slightly under the statewide obesity ratio -- a figure which has increased dramatically over the years. Sisters High School nurse Sally Benton gave the ninth and 11th grade classes a Body Mass Index test at the beginning of the school year. A BMI is... Full story
An innovative parking method, which is popular in Europe, could make an appearance in Sisters along with a proposed Hood Avenue/Main Avenue couplet. The parking method would require drivers to back in to angled parking spaces along the two proposed one-way highways. Jean Wells Keenan, owner of The Stitchin' Post, said backing in to a parking space is less intimidating than the standard backing out onto busy streets. Keenan said she has to reverse out of parking lots in downtown Bend and feels it creates a traffic hazard. She... Full story
The Sisters Ranger District office complex lies in the path of a proposed couplet. photo by Jim Cornelius Tension mounted at the Sisters Couplet Advisory Committee's meeting on Monday, December 15, as the Sisters Ranger District faced the impact a proposed road couplet design could have on Forest Service property. The committee looked at a sketch of plans to create one-way couplet legs eastbound on Hood Avenue and westbound on Main Avenue by 2010. This couplet is intended to act as a "pressure relief valve" for highway... Full story
Deputies are keeping an eye on the new McKinney Butte Road. photo by Jim Cornelius Speeding has been a concern on the newly built McKinney Butte Road, which is used by cars traveling to Sisters' middle school and high school and various churches. Sergeant Marvin Combs told the Sisters City Council on Thursday, December 11, that the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office gave out five citations in November for speeding during only one hour of monitoring the road before and after school. He said most of the citations went not to... Full story
In the face of plugged dry wells and dirty catch basins, the City of Sisters is purchasing a long-awaited sewer truck. The truck will speed up many tasks, including flushing sewer lines and cleaning dirt, cinders, leaves and pine needles out of the city's catch basins and dry wells. The City of Sisters has over 200 catch basins and dry wells in the streets and most of them have never been cleaned, Gary Frazee, public works director, said in a staff report for the City Council in its meeting on Thursday, December 11. The publi... Full story
A couplet must enhance the downtown commercial area -- at least that's what the Couplet Advisory Committee set as its primary focus in its first meeting on Monday, November 10. The committee, which consists of 18 business owners and community leaders, was created by the mayor last month to help refine plans to disperse highway traffic from Cascade Avenue by creating a one-way Hood/Main Avenue couplet. Members of the committee said the idea of a couplet paints a negative picture for members of the community, who picture a... Full story
Sisters city officials are disappointed with the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners 3-0 vote to deny support of a permanent tax district for sheriff's office services. The vote was taken Wednesday, November 12. Instead of putting a permanent tax system on the ballot in May, the commissioners will support a five-year, temporary property tax levy. Sheriff Les Stiles told the Sisters City Council last month the history of two- to three-year levies must stop, because he is losing hard-working deputies who leave for jobs whic... Full story
Sisters' mayor now has a vote on the city council after Sisters residents voted Tuesday, November 4, to approve changes to the Sisters City Charter, which sets laws for the city government. One hundred eighty-eight, or 88.67 percent, of the 212 voters cast ballots in favor of the changes, according to the Deschutes County website. Twenty-four residents voted against the changes. Residents living inside the city limits received the ballots via mail. The former charter was approved in 1967, said Eileen Stein, city... Full story
Locust Street/Cascade Avenue is slated for a traffic signal. photo by Jim Cornelius More people, more traffic and congested intersections -- and more people yet to come: Sisters is growing at an annual rate of about 13 percent, which is comparable to the growth rate of Las Vegas, according to city and county reports. With about 700 more residents expected by 2006 and the promise of even heavier traffic, the city is taking a look at ways to make maneuvering around town more feasible. So far, the city has identified two interse... Full story
Construction should start this week on a pedestrian path traveling along Highway 242, from the Forest Service triangle to the high school. Deschutes County imposed requirements on Hap Taylor and Sons, Inc. in September 1995 to build the pedestrian path to mitigate traffic impacts resulting from the creation of the company's gravel mine, located west of the high school on Highway 242. At that time, mining opponents argued the gravel mine would add traffic from large trucks, which would create safety hazards along the route.... Full story
A new bridge, a new upscale subdivision, a new road to disperse traffic and a bridge over Squaw Creek are in the works for Sisters. The city is planning to build a 1,450-foot road connecting East Cascade Avenue and Highway 126. The road will run along the east side of the partially-built Squaw Creek subdivision, past Sisters Elementary School and over Squaw Creek. One-third of Squaw Creek's planned 106 lots have been completed, said city planner Neil Thompson. The development is a hallmark of the times: Sisters population... Full story
The Multnomah Publishers general office building at 204 West Adams Ave. is on the market. The Sisters City Council agreed unanimously in its October 23 meeting to market the building and lot for $949,900. The City of Sisters purchased the building in early 1999 to use as a new city hall, but discovered it would be too expensive to make the extensive changes needed for the building to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Instead, the city plans to use the money from the sale of the Multnomah building to help fund... Full story
There's more of them this year... photo by Eric Dolson Sisters Elementary School moved one of its counselors from a small room to an electrical storage room this semester because the school is cramped for space. "She's actually in a converted utility room," said principal Tim Comfort. "We just put in a wall. It would be nice to have a counseling office." The students, teachers and administrators are bursting the building's seams, due to an unexpected increase in this year's enrollment. The school's enrollment for... Full story
More and more "special needs" students are coming to Sisters. Sisters Elementary School is experiencing growth in its special needs program, which serves students with speech impairments, learning disabilities, autism, Down Syndrome, and Asperger's Syndrome (characterized by difficulties with social skills). About 70 students, or 17 percent of the 429 students, are in the special needs category, said Tim Comfort, principal. In the past, the number of special students averaged 13 percent of the student body, Comfort said.... Full story
