News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 25
Drug overdose deaths in Oregon more than doubled between 2019 and 2021, with the increase driven largely by misuse of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, an Oregon Health Authority (OHA) analysis has found. Preliminary data indicate that this trend has continued in 2022. Over the last 30 months, fentanyl has become a leading cause of overdose deaths, particularly among people who don’t have access to harm-reduction services. This trend is prompting urgent requests for supplies of naloxone, the rescue drug that rapidly rev... Full story
In response to a noticeable uptick in poor behavior among fans and athletes alike, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) has established higher expectations for everyone involved in high school athletics in Oregon. Step one in this change process requires that all coaches, athletic directors, and game officials take part in a training to stop racist and other discriminatory incidents from taking place during high school sporting events. The training program, dubbed “Interrupting and Preventing Discriminatory A... Full story
Considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon is one of the most widely recognized and beloved landscapes. It is also surrounded by threats that include uranium mining activity, helicopter traffic, and real-estate development. To explore this paradox, author Kevin Fedarko teamed up with friend, National Geographic photographer and filmmaker Pete McBride, and together the two men journeyed on foot through the heart of the most iconic national park in America. It became an odyssey of almost 800... Full story
Cascade Avenue will get a new coat of paving this month. The Oregon Department of Transportation is repaving the top layer of the state highway that runs through the center of Sisters from Locust Street to Pine Street, from Monday August 15 through Friday, August 20. The work will be conducted at night, from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. ODOT will post signage to guide night traffic around the work zone. Those with businesses on Cascade Avenue are asked to inform night delivery or work personnel of the work and to avoid the paving... Full story
In preparing a presentation about the Sisters School District and what the school board on which I serve does, I started off with our mission statement: “An education community that creates belonging prepares and inspires.” A few days later I was reminded of the words from another school. This one is private and located in Oakland, California. Their words describe their school as a place that promotes “scholarship, diversity, and citizenship.” I am also serving on the board of the High Desert Education District. Their s... Full story
Dr. Larry Price will be a special guest speaker at the Sisters Astronomy Club’s next meeting on Tuesday, August 16, beginning at 7 p.m. Dr. Price will give an update on the status of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, the world’s premier collider for discoveries in elementary particle physics. He will discuss improvements made to the collider and to the physics detectors during a multi-year shutdown, and explain the goals of the third major data-taking period (known as Run 3) since the turn-on in 2010. Larry Price is a physi... Full story
Justin Little is no stranger to Sisters. He grew up here and has fond memories of a childhood full of outdoor adventures, music, and family. He and his wife and their four young children recently relocated from Southern California to give their children the same excellent education and childhood he received in Sisters Country. Little left Sisters High School in 2002 to attend Azusa Pacific University. After graduation he spent time teaching music lessons that always seemed to... Full story
Outside, it was all fun and games. Inside the animal barns, it was all business. As record numbers of Deschutes County Fairgoers delighted in the myriad thrilling rides, some with lines requiring a 20-minute wait, members of the Cloverdale Livestock Club were at work garnering scores of ribbons. Young Conner Cyrus, for example, scored 17 ribbons over the weekend. 4-H is not complicated to its members, but is complex especially to outsiders. In sheep alone there are... Full story
• “There was a time” is my new mantra. It sounds kind of sad, but it’s not at all sad. It means I’m looking back and I’m truly glad that I can say, “There was a time.” There was a time when I could do most anything I set my mind to, including roping, packing, driving, and penning on my horse, Irish. We even drove Santa Claus in a couple of the Sisters Christmas parades. Those were the days. • I looked into lawn mowers a little while back. I even looked into a new push mower, now called a reel mower. I thought a push... Full story
Judging from the traffic through 3 Sisters Automotive Service Center last week, there is quite a bit of pent-up demand for the services Jorge Solorzano offers at the new operation. The new automotive business (unrelated to an outfit of similar name that is now closed) opened on August 1, offering a range of services like oil changes, brake work, tune-ups, changes of air and cabin filters, replacement of belts, and battery changes. “Basically in-and-out services, you k... Full story
When talking with Glenn and Jen Cole of Pole Creek Ranch, their passion for the land and the view spills out of them both. “This is a great place with a great story,” Glenn Cole began, “and we want to preserve that specialness.” Sisters Country has been special to Glenn since his days as a student and member of the track team at the University of Oregon. He would come over the mountains from Eugene to enjoy all the area has to offer. Jen Cole’s godparents, Jim and Jeanne Ho... Full story
“Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.” — Wendell Berry Turns out we can add monarch butterflies to the list of species threatened during the sixth mass-extinction event, which we are all living through. Years ago, when I lived in Reno, Nevada, and before it became a grubby extension of California’s East Bay favelas, the monarchs would come through the Washoe Valley in spring — innumerable clouds of them, like a swarm of locus... Full story
When Richard and Linda Patterson decided it was time to sell their iconic 350-acre ranch along Highway 242, they “prayed to find the best realtor and the best people to buy it” and carry on their stewardship of the land and the incredible mountain view. “We got both!” Richard Patterson said. “The Coles are first-class, sweetheart people and they love Sisters. I would do business with them with only a handshake.” Glenn and Jennifer Cole of Hermosa Beach, California,... Full story
What I enjoy most about my job are the stories. Tales of resilience, trudging through struggle, and persistence that is awe-inspiring. Tales of celebration and transformation, allowing lightness to be just as present as the heaviness. To have the privilege to bear witness to the rawness of life — the vulnerability that may have never been spoken outside the walls of my office, is an opportunity I try not to take for granted. While diplomas hang on my office wall constituting some level of due diligence for my job, my... Full story
Time is running out to buy tickets for the August raffle at Sisters Farmers Market. The winning tickets will be drawn during the market at Fir Street Park this Sunday, August 14. Purchase tickets online through Saturday at 5 p.m. or in person at the market’s Info Booth. “You do not need to be local or present to win,” said Market Manager Michelle Jiunta. The market is prepared to ship the grand prize if necessary; it has garnered much admiration from locals and out-of-town vis... Full story
On August 4, just five weeks after publishing a wildfire risk map, the state Forestry Department axed it. That move follows a chorus of complaints from Republican state lawmakers and residents in southern and eastern Oregon who said the rollout of the map was clumsily handled and led to people losing their property insurance or having premiums doubled. They said the Oregon Department of Forestry was ill-equipped to handle the impacts of the map in the middle of fire season. The latest criticism came Thursday, with a... Full story
Hardtails Bar & Grill will rock out the summer season with the two concluding shows in their annual slate of tribute bands. Lovedrive takes the stage on Saturday, August 13, with their tribute to the German hard rock band the Scorpions. Lovedrive was formed in 2012 based out of Southern California and proudly pays tribute to the sound, look, and energy of a live Scorpions concert. The band performs Scorpions songs of the late 1970s like “In Trance” to “Lovedrive,” all the ’80s... Full story
Sabrina Allen was raised in Sisters and grew up surrounded by her Sisters community. She has now returned to that community, working as a nurse at St. Charles Hospital in Bend. Allen (formerly Reifschneider) attended Corban University after graduating from Sisters High School (SHS) in 2017. Throughout her high school career, Allen immersed herself in everything she could in the medical field. “I knew I always had a call to the health care field. I just at the time didn’t kno... Full story
During an international conference of firefighting managers in Portland in 2014, Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District chief Roger Johnson got to talking with his counterpart from Hampshire, England. The professional friendship led to a one-of-a-kind annual exchange of personnel for a fortnight (14 days) every summer. Even during the COVID-19 years, the two departments remained in close consultation and comradery via Zoom. The yearly visits in person have resumed, and Sisters is... Full story
Two of the five new Little Free Libraries were dedicated last week, including the one shown here with Mayor Michael Preedin, who was present for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Erika Turnquist, age 2, and her brother Damien, 9, were the first borrowers at the one installed at the entry to Clemens Park at North Larch Street and East Black Butte Avenue. The Little Free Library at McKenzie Meadows Village park was also dedicated. Next week will see the installation at ClearPine sub-... Full story
Our shared imaginations that establish cultures require trust. Conspiracy theories erode trust. What are the variables that promote conspiracy theories? David Hundsness, a Silicon Valley educator with credentials in psychology, has uploaded several videos on the what, how, and why conspiracy theories grow. He concludes there are four reasons with the fourth being the most important. One reason is the lack of information or the ability to understand the information. The rate of technical change today makes it nearly... Full story
Roundabout To the Editor: I hope the planned roundabout on the east end of town will be designed to accommodate the obvious (to me) and long overdue solution to the through-traffic issue that seems to confound Sisters. The simple, most straight-forward, and tried ’n’ true solution is and has been to make Cascade Avenue one-way westbound and Hood Avenue one-way eastbound. True, we’d have to give up the diagonal parking on Hood in favor of parallel parking, as has worked for decades on Cascade. I don’t know what may have be... Full story
Back in January 2020, the founders of the Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival, Joe and Jenn Rambo made a road-trip blues pilgrimage to the heart of the blues — the Hill Country of Mississippi. The couple hit the road in their van to Clarksdale, Mississippi, with many stops along the beltline of the heart of the blues along the way. They stopped in Austin, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee, and scouted artists doing winter shows. They landed in Clarksdale, where they saw many... Full story
If you’ve never been to an air show, you might reconsider. The perception held by many is that they are only for aeronautic buffs and pilots, or that they feature only airplanes. That is not the case with Airshow of the Cascades scheduled for Friday and Saturday, August 26-27 at the Madras airport. “What folks need to think of is not a textbook air show but a festival,” said Joe Krenowicz, who heads the Madras Chamber of Commerce. “If planes don’t interest you, then bring the... Full story
After a two-year pandemic-related hiatus, Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival is back this weekend, Friday and Saturday, August 12 and 13. Joe and Jenn Rambo, the founders and directors of the Festival, are excited to bring a collection of 11 artists for the 2022 Festival. A few of the artists are returning from the 2019 Festival, including Eric Gales and Mr. Sipp. “This is our third year doing the Festival and we really do it as a passion project,” said Jenn Rambo. From the sta... Full story
