News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 29
Sisters’ reputation as an arts community has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years, largely thanks to the efforts of KathyDeggendorfer. The Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce honored Deggendorfer for those efforts on Thursday night, February 17, naming her Citizen of the Year at the organization’s annual awards banquet at Eagle Crest Resort. The award is a tightly kept secret, but Deggendorfer said she “knew something was up because I saw all my buddies, the peopl... Full story
Hayden Homes’ plan to develop a 43-acre residential community in northwest Sisters has met its first hurdle. The Sisters Planning Department has advised them that their Master Plan and Conditional Use Application are incomplete. Richard Nored, president of HGE INC., Architects, Engineers, Surveyors & Planners, reviewed the Hayden documents for completeness. Areas of concerns were: Impact Study for Water — The current water system was developed for 1,123 residents. The city population is already over 1,400. Hayden has add... Full story
The City of Sisters will not have a full-time police force — at least not for a while. The Sisters City Council recently agreed to extend the existing three-year contract another three years beginning July 1, 2005. That contract provides for police protection through the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. In case the city changes its mind and wants to go with its own full-time police department, there is a cancellation clause whereby either party can terminate the contract with 90 days’ notice. The current contract, which... Full story
Residents living east of Green Ridge in the Sisters Ranger District might see low-flying airplanes Tuesday, February 22 through Friday, February 25. Forest Service pilots will conduct aerial firefighting exercises. Nine Forest Service pilots will fly 2,000 to 200 feet above the ground simulating fire operations. The exercise will simulate the work of lead planes, which direct air tankers to wildland fires, check flight conditions and supervise retardant drops. Forest Service firefighters will be on the ground to enhance the... Full story
The Lundgren Mill site, long considered surplus property by Sisters school officials, may soon be sold. The school board officially put the 29.5 acres on the market with an asking price of $87,000 per acre in August 2003. Not much had been heard of it since until this month, when the district received two offers. There are hints that more offers may be coming. Those interested in the land have not been publicly identified, but it’s likely that they’re looking at it for commercial or industrial development. The property lies a... Full story
Three candidates have filed for the May 17 school election — one for each of the Sisters School Board positions that will be on the ballot. The filing deadline is March 17. Board Chairman Glen Lasken is seeking re-election to Position 5, as previously announced. He is completing six years on the board. Two businessmen active in school affairs have filed for the seats being vacated by Bill Reed and Eric Dolson, who do not plan to run again (see The Nugget, February 9, page 1). The candidates are Rob Corrigan, Position 1, a... Full story
The Sisters High School Jazz Band is on a roll — six in a row. Last week the award-winning Varsity Jazz Band successfully defended its title at the Capital Conference Jazz Fest at Stayton High School. In fact, the Sisters Junior Varsity (seventh-10th graders) scored high enough to place in the top three according to Jody Henderson, Sisters School District Band Director. But, in order to offerrecognition to as many schools as possible, conference rules allow only the highest s... Full story
Dancing Coyote didn’t take long to make an impression in Sisters. “The day I opened, they were waiting at the door,” said Ebony Small of her new consignment furniture store. Small thought an affordable furniture store was “really something Sisters needs.” She wanted to open “a business for locals” and she wanted to remove the seasonal aspect of a tourist-based business. So Small got serious about her dream, researched costs, found the “perfect building” and opened Dancing Coyote this month. She said “it’s fun to see... Full story
• The new owner of Sisters Market, Kent Couch, is taking a local poll before reopening the doors. Couch has asked all community members to actively respond to questions about how to improve the store and provide customers with the merchandise they need. He is taking all suggestions and has left a box for input in front of the store. • Lynda Dineen is still operating her jewelry making and gem cutting school as well as her design studio in Sisters, although she has sold her OutWest Designs gallery. For information on cla... Full story
Steve McGhehey is helping craft the proposed 45-acre Dutch Pacific development around Conklin’s Guest House at the north end of Sisters. He has a long track record in the area. He is a power player in Sisters area real estate. But he didn’t start that way. McGhehey graduated from the University of Oregon with degrees in psychology and sociology because, he said, “the business department was too boring.” After seven years in marketing training with Xerox, he went into real es... Full story
Justin Hedemark, Casey Meudt, Kyle Whipps and Byron Womack swam personal records in almost every race segment they entered at State Championships at the Mt. Hood Community College Pool. They entered two relays and two individual events. Their individual and combined efforts earned them top finishes and a fifth place in the final team rankings. Casey Pyke and Tyler Young accompanied the relay team as alternates. In the first event of championship finals, the 200-yard medley relay, Sweet Home’s Larry Coulter and Astoria’s Andre... Full story
The Stayton Eagles snapped the Outlaw boys basketball winning streak on Tuesday, February 15. The Outlaws fell 60-48. Three days later Sisters lost 77-61 at home against Cascade in their final game of Capital Conference play. The Outlaws tied with Cascade for second place and were to face the Cougars again on Tuesday, February 22, at Sweet Home in a playoff tiebreaker. In last Tuesday’s game against the Eagles the second period proved to be Sisters’ demise. “The second quarter... Full story
It was a frustrating weekend for wrestlers Isaac Gordon and Brandon O’Brien. Both wrestlers lost in some close matches at the State Wrestling Tournament at the State Fairgrounds in Salem, Thursday and Friday, February 17-18. The first match of the tournament started out well for both Gordon and O’Brien. Gordon (125 pounds) won by decision 12-8 over Kyle Watkins of Pleasant Hill and O’Brien pinned Ryan Sahsel of Taft in 2:55. Gordon lost his next two matches and was eliminated. O’Brien lost his second match by decisio... Full story
The Sisters High School Nordic ski team had new snow to offer at their home course at Hoodoo Mountain Resort during the Northern League Championships held Saturday, February 19. The event is a warm-up for next week’s Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association’s State Championships scheduled to take place February 25-26 at Willamette Pass. Saturday’s meet operated as a pursuit race. Pursuit races include two contests to determine the overall winners. The first contest of th... Full story
The Lady Outlaws kept their composure to win 43-41 in a very tight basketball contest against Stayton on Tuesday, February 15. Sisters held a slim lead the entire first half but the Lady Eagles came back to outscore the Outlaws in the thirdperiod. With just three minutes to go, Stayton took a six-point lead. The Lady Outlaws kept their cool and aggressively went to the basket, forcing the Eagles to foul. With one minute left on the clock Sisters was down by two. Katie Hughes... Full story
Every once in a while what could be a tragedy becomes a win-win situation — but the dominoes have to be lined up just right to make it happen. That’s the way it was for an American Bald Eagle rescued in northern Lake County at the end of January this year. A rancher near Silver Lake discovered the eagle lying on the ground, and when he started to pick it up, the first thing he noticed was the bird gave no resistance. Its feet and talons were drawn into a tight “fist” — so tigh... Full story
• A deputy and some citizens rounded up loose horses belonging to a local rancher. The rancher, thinking they were trespassers, fired a round into the air from a Glock 9mm. The deputy on hand explained why that wasn’t a good thing to do. • Someone stole checks from a local mailbox and passed some in Redmond. • Some citizens got stuck in the snow on Three Creek Road. They got unstuck before deputies arrived to help them. • Deputies impounded a car after contacting the driver as a suspected prowler. Information in “Sisters... Full story
To the Editor: The news of the monies going to the Sonrise Christian School from our public funds. The ducking of the school administrators even down to the district superintendent of the time it started. How do you miss a $130,000.00 budget line Item? The one regret expressed, now that the school will have to lower itself to a yellow school bus from the nice activities bus that is owned now. This is the shameful part in my opinion. Through all this mess, no one has stood up and claimed responsibility. There is no integrity... Full story
A proposal for a special $600-a-lot assessment to accelerate road repairs in the Crossroads community has failed. The official vote tally was 79 yes to 53 no, short of a two-thirds required approval of 88 votes, according to Dorene Fisher, chair of the Crossroads Property Owners Association’s Board of Directors. The vote was taken at a special meeting held February 19 at Sisters Community Church. Some 99 people attended the meeting representing 133 votes in person or by assigned proxy. Approval of the assessment would have p... Full story
Sisters may soon build its own “Friendship Force” as part of an effort to increase international cultural understanding. An introductory Friendship Force meeting will be held, Sunday, March 13 at the Tollgate recreation building at 3 p.m. Friendship Force is an international organization that provides members with opportunities to live with people both at home and abroad. According to organizers, staying with a friendship force host creates a rewarding cultural experience and allows people to see the world through the eye... Full story
Drive Forest Service Road 14 into Camp Sherman today and you will see stacks of small-sized trees thinned from the dense forest stands along both sides of the road. Come back in a few years, Forest Service officials say, and you will see a more open healthy forest being restored to what the Metolius Basin forests once were. Machine and hand thinning of the dense stands in the basin got underway this winter. Foresters hope to reduce the impact of catastrophic wildfires,... Full story
Franz Helfenstein, a math professor at Central Oregon Community College, put down his calculator a few years back and fell into a “Ring of Fire.” He described his 1999 expedition along the Pacific Rim’s volcanic “Ring of Fire” for a large Sisters COCC Lunch & Learn gathering last Wednesday at Sisters Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration. In mid-June, 1999, Helfenstein, Jon Turk, and Evgenie Filimonov (Jenya), left Nemuro, Japan, for Petropavlovsk, Russia on three 16-foot WindRiders (trimarans). Their exciting adventure... Full story
The kids in Mr. Albertson’s first grade class had time on their hands earlier this month — literally. The students built a towering clock of cardboard and construction paper, wildly decorated with all sorts of colors and symbols. The clock will be auctioned off in April during the “time-themed” My Own Two Hands fund-raiser. This year’s theme is “Make Time” and the students did just that. As part of the project, they took a field trip to Beacham’s Clock Company where they hear... Full story
Wanted! Information leading to the history of Erastus P. Buchanan. Born November 9, 1839. Died June 23, 1916. Known gravesite: Camp Polk Cemetery. Harold J. Slavik, Jr., of Springfield, Oregon, has made it a near lifelong project to track down the whereabouts of Civil War veterans in Oregon. His latest search is for biographical information on Erastus Buchanan, a veteran of the Confederate Army. According to a compilation by Sisters’ resident Diana Pepperling, Erastus and A... Full story
Probably no one but seismologists noticed it, but minor earthquakes returned to the South Sisters area in January and early February. The tremors came after two months of no activity and nearly a year after a series of more than 100 minor quakes were recorded in March, 2004. A single quake with a magnitude of 1.5 was recorded on January 11 at 3:59 p.m. PST and four much smaller ones were recorded on February 6 from 12:18 p.m. PST to 12:22 p.m. PST, ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 in magnitude. All quakes were recorded just west of... Full story
