News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 16 of 16
The rubber is meeting the road, literally, here in Sisters. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced last week that Sisters has been selected to receive $5 million from the “Enhance” portion of the 2024-27 Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP), to build a roundabout at Highway 20 and Locust Street. Projects in this category are aimed at improving safety and reducing congestion on some of Oregon’s busiest roadways. Highway 20 at North Locust Stree... Full story
After a winter of low snowpack and rainfall, with dire warnings regarding continuing drought and high wildfire risk, Mother Nature has let loose a lot of moisture of late. But she just might be toying with us. For making yearly comparisons, the water year begins on October 1. Sisters is located in the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basins. On June 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Services issued their Oregon Basin Outlook Report, the... Full story
The semiautomatic rifles that have been used in 23 percent of mass shootings in the United States are variations of the AR-15 “assault-style rifle.” According to an NPR report, “In 1963, the U.S. military selected Colt to manufacture the automatic rifle that soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War. It was known as the M-16…Colt ramped up production of a semiautomatic version of the M-16 that it sold to law enforcement and the public, marketed as the AR-15…other manufacturers began makin... Full story
“Wolf, eat me. End my miserable life,” begs Akiko, heroine of an ancient Japanese tale. But the wolf explains that his kind do not eat human beings. Instead, the wolf gives Akiko eyelashes she can wear to see the truth about people. Akiko’s story was one of several relayed by celebrated storyteller Susan Strauss at the Wolf Welcome Committee’s event on Saturday at Paulina Springs Books. An audience of over 40 attendees listened intently to Strauss and author Rosanne Parry,... Full story
If you haven’t spent time with bats, you’ve missed out on knowing some very lovely and helpful animals that share this beautiful old earth with us — our home away from home. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Central Oregon’s bats way back in the early 1950s when I met up with one of our wonderful epidemiologists, scientists who keep an eye on diseases transmitted to humans through wildlife. The Bend paper had run a story on the front page about closing Broth... Full story
Olivia Pulver, a sixth-grader at Sisters Middle School, is training a wild Oregon mustang. Her mustang, Ronan, comes from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land outside Paisley, Oregon. Prior to this training, Ronan had never been touched by humans and had never been out of his wild homeland. Pulver is already making strides with training her mustang for the upcoming Teens and Oregon Mustangs competition that takes place in September. The final competition will include... Full story
Award-winning author Rosanne Parry came to Sisters last weekend to speak about wolves (see story page, page 18). Her middle reader fiction title “A Wolf Called Wander” echoes the travels of a gray wolf known as OR7, a.k.a. Journey, who walked across much of Eastern and Southern Oregon and into Northern California. Fifth-grade student Gusty Berger-Brown interviewed Parry on a walk along the Metolius River, near the habitat of two wolves who have recently begun to call Sisters Country home. Their conversation contains min... Full story
As if by a magic wand, Saturday’s steady and occasionally heavy rains were magically dispersed for the Sisters Rodeo Parade. A few drops, a fine mist made it through the wall of answered prayers intermittently, but not enough to dampen crowd enthusiasm — a smaller crowd than in past years, especially for the last rendition in 2019 which saw parade watchers stand two and three deep. “Hey, it’s Oregon. This isn’t our first time at the rodeo,” quipped Dwight Tully fro... Full story
Balancing the grit and rough-and-tumble of rodeo are the young women who with grace and style promote the sport. They are the goodwill ambassadors for the deeply rooted American tradition of rodeo. They are rodeo royalty. Their roles vary to a degree and they can be found selling tickets, appearing at local Western stores, or marketing rodeo at civic association meetings, schools, 4H, FFA, or just mingling — in full regalia — at community holiday gatherings. They... Full story
All dogs have personality, and most dog-people choose their breed based upon that breed’s general personality traits. Scotties are known for having strong traits. Stubborn, independent, opinionated, and devoted would pretty much cover their general character. Each individual dog builds around those characteristics, creating the pet we know and love. When adopting rescued dogs, we find that we become heir to a number of traits from their earlier home environments. Our little girl, Piper, came to us with a very subdued yet l... Full story
Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) will present a free concert by FY5 & Eli West at Fir Street Park on Saturday, June 25, at 7 p.m. Both artists have performed at the Sisters Folk Festival in years past and return for this stand-alone show as part of the annual Bluegrass Jam Camp taking place June 23-26 at the Sisters Art Works building. Colorado’s FY5 proudly swim in the deep currents of American music, playing new songs, well-informed of country and bluegrass traditions, but not b... Full story
It’s easy to forget that the Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture. Our forests are the largest farms in the country, producing dozens of harvestable crops — trees primarily. In our own Sisters District of the Deschutes National Forest, over $13,000 was collected in May alone for permits to harvest inside its borders for items other than trees. Chief among those are pine cones and mushrooms. The Nugget accompanied Jeremy Fields, the special forest p... Full story
The murder of Tina Lynn Klein-Lewis is a tragedy and a terrible shock to the community of Sisters. A woman of generous spirit was senselessly robbed of her life in a manner that left her friends and neighbors deeply rattled. Neighbors in the Cloverdale area are understandably upset that they were left unaware that Klein-Lewis’ killer was abroad in their neighborhood for several days before he was apprehended. They believe that the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office should have been more forthcoming with information that wou... Full story
Safety a priority After reading the article in The Nugget and also living on Cloverdale, I have several questions. Why weren’t we as residents notified that there was not an arrest made until four days after Tina was murdered? We live less than a mile away from the home she lived in and was murdered at. Safety should have been more of a priority. Very disturbing that the killer was in the area, and located not far from the crime scene four days later. Kristy Raasch Gun Legislation To the Editor: The Senate is in the p... Full story
One by one, as the four student speakers delivered their addresses Friday, June 10 at the 74th Sisters High School commencement, a clear theme emerged: gratitude. Perhaps having the final months of senior year return largely to normal following nearly two years of pandemic tumult gave the class of 2022 enough breathing room to allow them to reflect on the good in their lives. From start to finish, thankfulness, joy, and celebration marked the ceremony, which was held in a... Full story
Sisters Rodeo’s return made a big splash — literally. As in the sight and sound contestants and animals made as they splashed about in a wet, soggy, yet exhilarating event. J.J. Harrison, rodeo clown, made the best of it, with antics ranging from belly flops on the soaked field to mud bathing. Wednesday night’s Xtreme Bulls started out with a roar in overcast but dry conditions with two arena records set. The raging bulls may have had the better of the night, how... Full story
