News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 9 of 9
Western larch trees in the Metolius Basin are losing their needles - and it's not because of changing seasons. Western larch in the Sisters Ranger District are suffering from a fungus known as "larch needle cast." The only deciduous conifer native to Oregon, western larch are commonly found along stream courses in the Metolius Basin and on Green Ridge. According to Brian Tandy, silviculturist for the Sisters Ranger District, both larch needle cast and larch needle blight can affect the western larch. Although they are two dif... Full story
Sheriff Greg Brown will dip into $150,000 in unbudgeted savings to keep deputies on the road for an extra four weeks. The move will keep as many as 26 deputies in action who were scheduled to be laid off at the end of this month. The layoff was triggered by the failure of the sheriff's levy in the May primary election. A new levy vote is set for September 15. Sheriff's services will still be only 80 percent of normal, but the Sisters substation will remain open and fully staff... Full story
The Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation has formed a political action committee to campaign for a publicly funded recreation district in Sisters. Voters will decide in the November 3 election whether to fund a tax base for the Sisters recreation district. Proponents are asking for a property tax rate of 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The tax base is expected to provide about $100,000, which would fund a major portion of SOAR's budget. SOAR PAC is chaired by schools superintendent Steve Swisher. The... Full story
The Sisters School Board will decide how to cut the school sports program, and review the controversial school calendar when they meet Monday, July 27. The board has been presented with two options for slashing $22,500 out of the co-curricular budget. One option calls for "across the board" cuts, eliminating some assistant coaching positions and reducing transportation expenditures, without targeting any specific sports. The second option would eliminate the wrestling program... Full story
Sisters sheriff's deputies are seeking a warrant for a sometime resident of Sisters, on a charge of second-degree assault. According to sheriff's office reports, the woman's ex-husband dropped off their children for visitation at the place where the woman was staying near Sisters. The woman allegedly charged outside and swung at the man with a fireplace poker. The man allegedly blocked a blow with his forearm, which police reported was cut and bleeding. The woman was gone when a sheriff's deputy arrived on the... Full story
Road construction crews are grinding up Highway 20 west of town, and recycling the grindings to spruce up the McKenzie Highway. To minimize traffic snarls, the Highway 20 work is being done at night. A 14-foot grinder is taking out two inches of asphalt from the Highway 20/242 "Y" west 12 miles to Jack Lake Road and repaving the road. The ground-up asphalt is run on a conveyor belt to dump trucks and hauled away. The project is set for completion by Friday, July 24. According... Full story
The SOAR Taekwondo tournament held Saturday, July 18, drew 80 youth and adult competitors in a variety of belt classifications and raised approximately $3,000 for Taekwondo and other SOAR programs. One of the highlights of the event was a demonstration by Shawn Jewell of Bend's West Coast Martial Arts. "He did some amazing things out there that I've never seen before," said SOAR Taekwondo coordinator Tim Davis. Jewell's most amazing feat was breaking a stack of 26 bricks. It is believed that that effort is a world record,... Full story
* * * To the Editor: In response to your article of July 15 ("Sisters activist challenges sheriff's levy"): Mr. Paine apparently has nothing better to do than sit back and criticize everything and everybody that benefits or assists people other than himself and his group. I attended a forum in Bend (July 15) to listen to a debate between Sheriff Brown and Mr. Paine's colleague, Charles Patterson of the "anti-sheriff action committee." Please note that Mr. Paine was either not in attendance or kept a very low profile... Full story
Conditions were not what I expected. The trout were not up and feeding in the eddies as I had hoped they would be. Normally, on a trip down the Deschutes in early summer, you will float through clouds of emerging caddis. Today there was only a handful of bugs in the air. Earlier in the month, around the Fourth of July, there had been a small spate of caddis activity. I thought then that the hatch was starting, but it never actually materialized. It was as if the hatch had begun but then simply died off. We experimented with a... Full story
