News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 21 of 21
More than 70 Sisters area residents lit candles and paraded through the darkened streets of Sisters Sunday night, March 16, in a candlelight peace vigil. Melissa Ward, who organized the local vigil in conjunction with vigils across the country, emphasized to participants that the event was non-political and no signs or slogans were in evidence. The vigil formed behind Sisters Bakery and proceeded on a circuitous route to the Village Green where participants formed a circle... Full story
School will start later in Sisters next year, according to the 2003-04 calendar the Sisters School Board adopted at its last meeting. But the board's discussion suggested that it might make some minor changes later. The decision seems firm on three points: School will start later than usual, on Monday, September 15, the beginning of the third week of September; Christmas vacation will remain two weeks long, as in the past; and spring break will be only one week long rather than two as in the recent past (including this... Full story
Charlotte Nitcher at work in the new Sisters Library computer lab. Photo by Conrad Weiler A new wireless six-station computer lab is up and running at Sisters Library. Users will have Internet access, a digital library catalog, software productivity and children's programs to select from on the Dell computers. Two of the units come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Signup is right on the computer screen, thus freeing librarians from signup lists and checking time of use. Users simply type in their library card... Full story
KiteStrings 2003 -- a fund-raiser for the Sisters Folk Festival Americana Project -- will "lift off" on Friday, March 21, at 4:30 p.m. with a gala Art Stroll throughout downtown Sisters. The KiteStrings Art Stroll will feature some 25 kite-inspired pieces of artwork produced by local craftsmen and fine artists. The KiteStrings Art Stroll, presented in association with the Sisters Gallery Association and participating galleries and merchants, is free to the public. Stroll hours are 4:30 to 8 p.m. Proceeds from the event benefi... Full story
Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation (SOAR) has received a $250,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The grant is dedicated to construction of a new SOAR community activities facility. The Murdock Trust was created by the will of Jack Murdock, co-founder of Tektronix, who died in a float plane accident on the Columbia River in 1971. The mission of the Trust is "to strengthen the region's educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways." With the impending need to relocate and its... Full story
Greg Brown, former Deschutes County Sheriff, will serve 33 months in a minimum security federal prison for embezzling more than $575,000 from the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office and the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District. Brown was sentenced in federal court in Eugene on Tuesday, March 11. His sentence begins 45 days from that date. He will also face three years of post-prison supervision. Brown paid restitution to both the county and the fire district. The... Full story
Front (left-right): Student winners Zack Cummings, Trevor Jutte and Jared Schneider. Back: Teacher Gwen Philipsen, advisor Jeff Taylor and Toshiba representative Ron Partch. Photo by Jim Cornelius Imagine having studded tires that work when you need them and retract when roads are dry. You'd save on wear-and-tear to your tires and damage to Oregon highways could be greatly reduced. That's exactly what three third graders at Sonrise Christian School thought when they developed... Full story
The Sisters School Board has completed interviews of all five candidates who remain under consideration for the job as Sisters School Superintendent. Two of the seven semifinalists selected by the board earlier this month have dropped out. Judy Delahunt, a former personnel director for Redmond schools and a current member of the Redmond School Board, withdrew after being named interim superintendent of the Redmond school system for 2003-04. She will temporarily replace Superintendent Jerry Colonna, who last week was chosen... Full story
Black Butte Ranch (BBR) is considering new maintenance, recreation and registration facilities. Loy Helmly, BBR General Manager, laid out concep- tual plans for the Ranch at a Friends of Black Butte Ranch meeting on Thursday, March 13. Using computer generated map diagrams, Helmly outlined major suggested modifications involving the lodge, maintenance and service center and a family recreation center. The proposed maintenance center generated the most interest and support from the audience. A $1 million hub would be... Full story
Zack Ingle is at the very tip of the point of the spear. The 1997 Sisters High School graduate is a Sergeant in the 7th Cavalry, 3rd Infantry Division, tasked with forward reconnaissance in northern Kuwait. Sgt. Zack Ingle. Photo provided His unit is sure to see combat in the looming war with Iraq. Ingle is a top-notch soldier. In fact, he passed the grueling selection for the elite U.S. Army Special Forces and could now be headed for language school. He opted instead to... Full story
(Left-right): Joe Lymp of Oregon Community Trees; Katie Kause (ODF); teacher Samra Spear; students Pat McFarland, Matt Harp, Josh Kelleher, Jeff Boswell and Michael Forcum; city officials Gary Frazee and Eileen Stein. At back, teachers Glen Herron and Rob Phelps. Photo by Jim Cornelius Five Sisters students won honors in the 2002 Oregon Urban Community Forestry Awards for a tree study they performed in Sisters. Pat McFarland, Matt Harp, Josh Kelleher, Jeff Boswell and Michael Forcum inventoried the trees in Creekside Park... Full story
Matt Macauley laughed when a Newport, Oregon, resident called to tell him, "Newport looks like a walking billboard for the Sisters Shootout." She explained that Newport youth were "all over town wearing their Shootout tee shirts." Four teams had just returned to the coastal town after a weekend basketball tournament in Sisters. Macauley, SOAR's Tournament Director, had just finished the last of eight basketball tournaments produced by SOAR from December through March. Four hundred thirty-five teams from Washington, Oregon... Full story
Effective this month, the neighboring Detroit Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest has imposed a campfire ban at Marion Lake in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, northwest of Sisters. As part of a wilderness area, Marion Lake is accessible only by trail. From the east side, the lake is most commonly accessed from the Bear Valley or Jack Lake trailheads west of Camp Sherman. At an elevation of 4,100 feet in a wilderness, the area is hardly a public thoroughfare, but civilization has still managed to encroach on the... Full story
The Squaw Creek Stewardship Committee is looking for a few good men and women. The group, which was recently established under the auspices of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, established a primary role of developing connections between the community and the Squaw Creek stream system. The committee plans to meet once each month and would like to expand its membership to include more local residents. Squaw Creek, above Sisters, has been formally designated a national "Wild and Scenic River" by Congress. The creek and its... Full story
Rachel Sims (left), Jessica Heath, Shalena Edmunson and Sarah King with Deputy Chad Davis and Ike. Photo by Kristina Coulter The crowd at last Thursday's Sisters City Council meeting was a little out of the ordinary. The main difference was the four middle school girls, their families and a six-year-old German Shepherd named Ike in attendance. While watching television in mid-January, Sarah King, a seventh grader at Sisters Middle School, was inspired to raise money for bulletproof vests for the local patrol dogs. "I just... Full story
Volunteers bag fresh food. Photo by Jim Cornelius Folks in Sisters picked up some surplus fresh food through the Sisters Brown Bag program on Friday, March 14. The program is in place to supplement the food budgets of qualified local residents. The Central Oregon Community Action Agency Network (COCAAN) picks up surplus perishable foodstuffs from Bend and Sisters merchants for distribution on the second Friday of every month from 5 to 6 p.m. Although it is not affiliated with the Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank, the program uses... Full story
Conditions in Nicaragua are crude, but dental personnel are skilled. Photo provided Imagine that a toothbrush cost $1,000 -- if you could find one at all. Daily dental care would be out of reach for most people. That's the way it is in the rural hinterlands of Nicaragua, where Sisters dentist Steve Spear spent two weeks in January. The trek was a low-key affair organized by Bend resident Tim Jeffries, who has been visiting Condega, Nicaragua, for 20 years, helping its... Full story
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: I for one am... Full story
Because of my background, people sometimes ask what I think about the prospect of war in Iraq. Some are surprised when I say that I'm not very enthusiastic; as a rule, most military people don't "want" war any more than firefighters want fires or police want shootouts. I tend to look askance at people who answer polls as undecided; and, while I don't want a war, if I were asked "should" we be going to war, well, I guess I'd have to answer that I really don't know -- and there I'd be, filed away among those dreaded... Full story
- A deputy cited a man for careless driving after a citizen reported him making bad passes, speeding up and slamming on his brakes, taunting other drivers and generally driving like, ahem, well... The cited driver was on his way to the courthouse for a traffic trial... for careless driving. - A 15-year-old Sisters boy was arrested for domestic assault after an altercation with his mother. - Deputies cited a Sisters youth for vandalizing the bathrooms at the Village Green. - A deputy recovered a handgun stolen in a burglary... Full story
Reasons for war not credible Within days, perhaps hours, the U.S. will be at war with Iraq. All that can now be hoped for is a swift, efficient assault that brings an end with a minimum of bloodshed. War has been inevitable since last summer when the Bush Administration launched a campaign proclaiming a threat to the security of the United States and the world. But the harder Bush has tried to sell a preemptive attack, the more skeptical the world has become. There's a good reason for that: This war is not about the things... Full story
