News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 26
Sarah Woods is opening her new business, Roam Natural Skincare, in Sisters. Woods, born and raised in Eugene, vacationed with her family to Sisters and fell in love with the area. “It was always a ritual for my family to come over and vacation and we love the area,” said Woods. Woods, her husband and two kids made the move in November to Central Oregon, currently living in Bend. Woods began her career as an esthetician while she was in college at the University of Oregon in Eu... Full story
The Oregon High Desert Classics, Central Oregon’s premier hunter-jumper show and J Bar J Youth Services’ largest fundraiser of the year, is canceled. The organization had been working on plans for months, in coordination with US Equestrian Federation, Deschutes County, and the State of Oregon, to keep staff and participants safe. They were able to address numerous safety concerns and had the space to allow for social distancing on the 40-acre J Bar J Boys Ranch. The hope was to hold the competition in July without spectators,... Full story
A Great Dane is one of the biggest dogs in the world and, due to their massive size, have a fairly short lifespan, usually six to eight years, and only some will even make it to 10 years of age. Bella May Cupcake, an AKC registered Great Dane, was born February 22, 2009, and has spent 11 years as a remarkable family companion pet to Emily and Rick Kroytz and their three children. Kroytz, a registered nurse at St. Charles, told The Nugget, “I had always wanted a Great Dane a... Full story
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced the appointment of Barry Bushue as the state director for Oregon and Washington. Bushue is currently state executive director of the Oregon Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a family farmer. A leader and advocate for the natural resource communities for more than 25 years, Bushue is the owner of a retail and agritourism business east of Portland. Throughout his career he has represented the state and its farming communities — fostering... Full story
The majority of Oregon’s cultural organizations are facing suspension of operations or permanent closure due to the COVID-19 impact, reveals an Oregon Cultural Trust survey released last week. The most comprehensive survey of Oregon’s cultural community since the crisis began, the survey includes data and comments from 330 cultural nonprofits representing 83 percent of Oregon counties. Participants project a collective loss of $40 million and average losses of $121,281 through June 30. The majority of respondents (54 per... Full story
With summer travel season upon us, families are hitting the road — and that of course, means four-legged family members, too. To ensure safe travels for everyone, it’s important to take heed of a pet travel safety issue — pets and distracted driving. When we think of distracted driving, the typical culprits that come to mind include texting, eating, applying makeup, chatting on the phone or even daydreaming. We seldom consider that traveling with an unsecured pet is a dangerous distraction. TripsWithPets r... Full story
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs reopened Indian Head Casino on Thursday June 18. “We are very excited to open and with the amount of phone calls we receive on a daily basis from our guests, we know they are looking forward to our opening too.” said Belinda Chavez, Director of Marketing for Indian Head Gaming last week. “We are committed to following the CDC’s guidelines and we have implemented safety and sanitation measures in addition to limiting our occupancy to 250 total guests.” The casino will open with new... Full story
Many summer events may be canceled, but Oliver Lemon’s Sisters is making sure that support is not. Sisters Country’s local grocer is selling custom-designed T-shirts to raise funds for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and Sisters Folk Festival, both of which were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’d give the shirts off our backs to help our community,” said Lauren Johnson, CEO of Oliver Lemon’s. “A T-shirt fundraiser to help the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and Sisters Folk Festival is the next best thing.” The T-shirts w... Full story
As I got into my car the other day to head home from work the warm aroma of homemade bread welcomed me. I’d stopped at Melvin’s (AKA Oliver Lemon’s, but we all still call it Melvin’s) and bought a loaf of Sparrow Bakery sourdough bread which makes the best grilled cheese sandwich of all the breads I’ve tried. The warmth of the afternoon sun had heated the inside of my car sending the lovely aroma wafting through the air. On my way home I stopped at Sisters Meat and Smokehouse to buy chicken breasts planning to make my famous... Full story
Summer is here, and when the mercury rises furry friends are at risk for heatstroke or death if their pet parents make the mistake of leaving them in a parked car. Unfortunately, every year across the nation, thousands of pets fall victim to or die from hot-weather-related conditions due to the ignorance or poor judgment by a pet parent. Leaving your pet in a parked car can be a deadly mistake. The temperature inside a car can reach 120º Fahrenheit in a few minutes. Even partially open windows won’t protect your furry f... Full story
Americans are buying guns at a record pace, in the face of insecurities wrought by pandemic and social unrest. More than two million Americans have become first-time gun owners so far in 2020. Many of those new gun owners — and people who are already well-versed in firearms — are seeking a concealed carry permit. That’s no surprise to firearms trainer Shaun Curtain. “We are constantly seeing new shooters who just want to be responsible with firearms,” he told... Full story
Rachel N. Smith wrote: Driving home from my café job, I passed a little family standing with a sign asking for help. They were stranded travelers from Texas and spoke very little English. The previous day, I had seen them in the same placed and stopped to share my tips on the way home. I pulled in next to the veterinary clinic to share again. As I walked up, their eyes brightened, three beautiful girls and their parents. The youngest sat on a bucket looking miserably bored. I found out they spoke Italian, and were... Full story
A large portion of the “Resiliency” focus area of the Sisters Country Vision is focused on fire danger, preparedness, and mitigation strategies. As Sisters Country gears up for an unusual fire season in the midst of COVID-19, vision partners are also celebrating the progress made over the past year on several of these strategies. Preparing for fire season looks notably different this year. In Sisters Country, five separate agencies respond to wildfire incidents: USFS, ODF, and the local fire districts of Sisters-Camp She... Full story
Over the past week Oregon has seen increasing numbers of positive COVID-19 cases. It seems that is due to both more spread of the virus, including concentrated outbreaks, as well as more testing. Although this is alarming, Deschutes County has fortunately not mirrored that trend. It cannot be definitively said why exactly fewer positive cases have occurred here. It is likely fair to say that it is as much preparation including social distancing, face coverings, and sanitation, as it is luck and other factors. Since the... Full story
A woman — later found to have been intoxicated — was the focus of an extended rescue mission on Broken Top last weekend. On Saturday, June 20 around 7:10 p.m., Deschutes County Dispatch received a 911 call regarding a hiker, later identified as Chantel Nelson, 34, of Beaverton, who was reportedly hiking near Broken Top mountain and “in trouble.” According to Nelson’s hiking partners, she was also beginning to lose consciousness and could not continue on her own. Based on this information, two DCSO deputies and n... Full story
Jill Neal, who’s “wild, tasteful women” have become iconic images, landed them on the cover of two magazines in June. The Sisters artist’s celebratory women grace the cover of the June issue of Pink magazine based in the Hamptons, and Paisley magazine from St. Simons Island. The artist has been busy since recently closing her gallery in Sisters and moving strictly into online sales. Her new “Front line” mug released in June, and has been sent all over the country, including a... Full story
No one was sure what the future would hold when Deschutes Public Library closed its doors to the public on March 16. The duration of the closure, how to continue serving the community, even what to do with checked-out books — it was all an unknown. But in recent weeks the library began a limited return to operations, and in early June customers started picking up and placing holds on materials. The next chapter in the Library’s phased reopening started on June 22, when customers were allowed to enter the buildings a... Full story
Many avid cyclists who sculpted their fitness over years of hills, endurance, and pushing the pedals don’t see e-bikes as the next great innovation in cycling progress. Grouchy attitudes of “earning it” or “they don’t deserve to ride unless they can do it themselves” are short sighted at best and bigoted at worst. E-bikes are here to stay, as the European market is booming with commuters, travel companies, and brands innovating well beyond what is currently available in the USA. There have been fundamental milestones... Full story
The Deschutes County Stabilization Center is now open and serving children and adults who are in need of short-term, mental-health crisis assessment and stabilization. The Stabilization Center, located in north Bend, will also address the needs of citizens in mental health crisis who have been referred to law enforcement or the emergency department. “We’re so excited that this facility is now open and staff continue to work with local law enforcement to meet our community’s needs,” said Deschutes County Commissioner Phil He... Full story
The walls are already going up on MidOregon Credit Union’s new facility that lies directly across the parking lot from Ray’s Food Place, so a groundbreaking ceremony is a little belated. That’s just how things roll in 2020, and regardless of timing, a host of dignitaries broke out the golden shovels last week and made the dirt fly. The ceremony celebrates a significant investment on the part of the credit union, building its own facility after moving into rented space next to... Full story
When our high school team was told in April that we would not be returning to school for the rest of the year, our hearts sank for the seniors. There were literally tears from a number of us. This lasted for about two days, and then we began to rally. We had ideas of how to celebrate our graduates coming from everywhere, and we put together a core team of Lynne Fendall, Jillian Frankl, and Mel Petterson to collect ideas for a few weeks. These three were the heart, soul, and energy of graduation. While we were collecting ideas... Full story
To the Editor: I want to thank everyone who helped with the Class of 2020 Street Banner and Keepsake Project. When Citizens4Community brought up the idea with parents and the school, we knew it was important for Sisters to come together to honor our graduating seniors during a tough time because of COVID-19. We were limited as a community in how much we could support our Sisters High School (SHS) seniors at graduation, but we could show our love through these banners. We had no way of knowing C4C would get so much support... Full story
Staff at Sisters Folk Festival are in the beginning stages of planning to offer some small-scale music events during the summer. Due to the constraints of COVID-19 regulations, Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) cannot move forward with the 2020 festival. The staff and board of directors of Sisters Folk Festival announced at the end of May the difficult decision to postpone the 24th annual festival — originally scheduled to take place September 11-13 — to September 10-12,... Full story
In the early morning hours of May 23, Danielle Rudinsky and Shelby Lowman set out to climb the southwest aspect of Mt. Hood. Rudinsky and Lowman started up a route unpopulated by other climbers and what awaited them at the top was every climber’s worst fear. Mt. Hood had long been on Rudinsky and Lowman’s list of desired accomplishments. Growing up in Sisters provided Rudinsky a unique opportunity to experience the natural outdoor world through a Sisters High School pro... Full story
Law enforcement accountability and reform are at the forefront of a tense and anguished national conversation in recent weeks. For Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson, these are issues that have drawn his office’s attention — and action — for several years. The sheriff’s office is in the midst of a selection process for three deputies and a lieutenant to serve consistently in Sisters under a new, enhanced $725,000 per year contract with the City of Sisters. Accor... Full story
