News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 15 of 15
Visitors to Sisters will be greeted by a new "Welcome to Sisters" sign at the west end of town, courtesy of the Sisters Rotary Club. Jim Craig and Kevin Spencer crafted the sign on a 4.5 ton piece of granite. The letters were sandblasted into the rock and will be painted to highlight them so that the sign is readily visible from Highway 20. A frame will be constructed from logs donated by Swiss Mountain Log Homes. A crane crew hoisted the sign into place on Thursday, June 21.... Full story
Bill Mintiens is back home in Sisters recovering from severe facial injuries received in a horseback riding accident on Sunday, June 17. According to his wife, Jan, Mintiens suffered a broken jaw, a broken chin and palate and shattered sinuses when a horse he was holding bolted suddenly, dragging and kicking him. Surgeons placed eight titanium plates in Mintiens' face. "He took a real hit," Jan Mintiens said. "It's a miracle that he didn't have any brain damage." Mintiens was... Full story
Search and rescue personnel are "significantly scaling back" the search for Corwin Osborne, a 45-year-old hiker who disappeared while attempting to climb each of the Three Sisters in a day. Deschutes County and Lane County sheriff's personnel made the announcement on Monday, June 25, after consulting with Osborne's family. Osborne was reported overdue and possibly lost or injured in the Three Sisters Wilderness area on Monday, June 18. Corwin was reported missing by his father, who had dropped him off at the Devils Lake... Full story
Professional golfers turned out for the Oregon Open at the Big Meadow Course, Black Butte Ranch. Top golfers from across the Pacific Northwest are on the links at Black Butte Ranch, contending in the Oregon Open 2001 tournament, June 22-27. The tournament, founded in 1905, drew 168 golfers -- 136 professionals and 32 amateurs. The Open is run under the auspices of the Pacific Northwest section of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA). The BMW pro-am tourney launched the... Full story
Quick firefighting response saved a Black Butte Ranch home. A fire did significant damage to a Black Butte Ranch home on Wednesday, June 20. The fire at Rock Ridge 14, off Hawksbeard, broke out at about 3:45 p.m. The fire involved part of the house and spread out into the lot and was climbing into the trees when firefighters arrived. According to Black Butte Ranch Fire Department reports, crews arrived on the scene a mere four minutes after call-out and got the fire knocked down in minutes. The quick attack spared at least... Full story
Folks in Sisters have seen their health insurance costs rise swiftly this year. At least one major carrier in Central Oregon, Providence Health Plans, has announced rate increases that are as high as 33 percent over last year. Small employers and individuals are feeling the pinch as monthly insurance costs climb from $500 to $700 or more per family, according to Don Fullhart of Sisters Insurance in Sisters. John Wright of Pacific Source, a non-profit insurance company, said that insurance premiums "going up is a reflection of... Full story
He is soft-spoken and articulate. His attitude and outlook are positive. He speaks well of the community of Sisters and the treatment he's received here. His name is Christopher. He's homeless. Christopher Pastore has been here since March and finds Sisters to his liking. "I like the way this town is laid out," he said. "It is very beautiful with the mountains all around. The western look is nice, too. "It gets pretty cold at night though," he admitted. Pastore grew up on the East Coast and still has family in New Jersey. He... Full story
It is never a good day for a structure fire but for one family in the Sun Mountain area, the timing was not all bad. On Monday evening, June 18, the Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District placed two new rigs in service. Equipped with both two types of foam dispersion capability and improved pumping capacity, the department looked forward to greatly reducing initial response time while also delivering a stronger firefighting punch. It didn't take long to test these expectations. At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19, Deschutes 911... Full story
School construction manager Bob Martin thanked National Guard troops for their hard work at a ceremony on Wednesday, June 20. School board member Heather Wester looks on. The troops of the 1249th Engineering Battalion of the Oregon Army National Guard have packed up their tents and are heading back to their civilian lives. They leave behind thousands of dollars worth of work completed in the Sisters area. According to Sisters School District Construction Projects Manager Bob... Full story
Construction crews will soon begin hooking up Sisters residences to the sewer system. The Sisters City Council awarded contracts on Phase III of the sewer project --residential hook-ups -- on Thursday, June 28. Richard Bartels of Powell Butte won the "Schedule A" contract to work north of Cascade Avenue with a bid of $259,910.16. That bid was $81,598 below engineers' estimates. Scenic Builders of Myrtle Creek will work on "Schedule B" south of Cascade Avenue. Their bid of... Full story
Back in the early 1900s, cattle ranchers in the Sisters country worked hard to turn Trout Creek Swamp into good grazing land for their cattle. "They dug ditches through the swamp to channel the multiple meandering streams into a few deep, narrow ditches so that the water table would be lowered and there would be more dry areas for cattle to graze," according to a restoration project outline provided by the Sisters Ranger District. The hard work paid off. The 20-acre area 10 mi... Full story
The Sisters Schools Foundation received a donation of $4,000 from the 2001 Oregon Open. The Sisters Schools Foundation was a big winner in the 2001 Oregon Open. The tournament, held at Big Meadow Golf Course at Black Butte Ranch, donated $4,000 to the foundation and an additional $4,000 to the Kids' Center in Bend. The tournament traditionally makes a substantial donation to local charities. Ken Bensel of Lake Padden Golf Course in Bellingham, Washington, won the tournament in an exciting playoff on Wednesday, June 27. It... Full story
A couple of days of gentle, soaking rain aren't enough to snap a drought that has farmers worried about their crops and fire fighters scanning the skies for smoke. "It sure helps alleviate the demand, but it doesn't really change the drought," said Deschutes County Watermaster Kyle Gorman. The quarter-inch of rain that fell last week actually came at a bad time for hay growers, many of whom had hay down and raked or in bails. Moisture is not good for hay, quickly degrading... 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'd like to... Full story
- A man called to report that his girlfriend had left a bar with a biker and hadn't returned. The wayward lass returned from her motorcycle spin and left again -- this time with the feller what brung her -- before the deputy arrived on scene. - An elderly man was stopped on Highway 20 west of Sisters after reports of erratic driving. The man was not drunk; he was severely disoriented. A deputy contacted the man's wife and they decided to leave the man's truck at a sno-park and the deputy gave the man a ride to his home in Ter... Full story
