News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 16 of 16
The Sisters Folk Festival rolls into town this weekend, Friday through Sunday, September 5-7, carrying with it the traditions of American roots music. Despite some jitters about the B&B Complex fires, music fans have been snapping up the few remaining tickets. All-events badges and Saturday passes are already sold out, according to festival organizers. However, according to Executive Director Scott Pillar, tickets are still available to see many of the headline acts perform on Sunday afternoon. The Friday night show also has... Full story
The Sisters School Board decided at its August 18 meeting to sell 29.5 acres of surplus property -- the former Lundgren Mill site -- for $100,000 an acre. That decision may have seemed quick, but it culminates a history that goes back two decades. In the early 1980s, the school board decided that it wanted to get back into the high school business. A four-year high school program that had served local students since 1923 had been closed in 1967 for lack of funding. Sisters students attended Redmond High School after that.... Full story
The City of Sisters may need more land to accommodate its rapidly growing population. City officials met in a workshop on Thursday, August 28, to discuss which 110 acres of land outside the city limits might best be acquired for expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary. Meanwhile, residents are holding to the city's existing 1,124 acres of roomy terrain with clenched fists. The Urban Growth Boundary is currently the same as the city limits. With population growth predicted to quadruple to 4,167 in 2020 from its current 1,080,... Full story
Sisters community members can get a good look at their new $21-million high school on Thursday, September 11. The school district will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony and guided tours of the new high school, with festivities beginning at 5 p.m. The ribbon-cutting takes place at 5:30 p.m. and guided tours begin at 5:50 p.m. There will be a free community concert by Gator Beat, sponsored by the Sisters Jazz Festival, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the new high school commons. Prior to the high school events, Sisters Middle School will... Full story
SISTERS, Ore. (AP) -- The last days of summer in Sisters usually bring carloads of tourists, who throng the narrow streets lined with specialty shops and restaurants. This year though, it might as well be a ghost town, thanks to two fires burning nearby, the Booth and Bear Butte Fires, which have together burned about 49,000 acres so far. Since the two fires forced the closure of Highway 20 last week, the owner of The Sno-Cap Drive In watched the line of customers that once overflowed outside the door shrink to just a few... Full story
A tanker moves in for a drop on the Booth Fire. photo by Lynn Woodward Air tankers have provided vital support to firefighters battling the Booth and Bear Butte Fires, hitting hot spots and laying protective retardant strikes in the vicinity of threatened structures. Within a matter of a few minutes from when the telephone order comes, the air tanker-bombers stationed in Redmond can be loaded and flying. "Even our Smoke Jumpers can be in the air from phone call to taxiing within a matter of minutes," said Scott Fisher,... Full story
The Booth Fire has left its mark on the Sisters country in a way no other fire has. The Cache Mountain Fire and the Eyerly Fire last year were severe, traumatic events. After all, those fires took homes and the Booth Fire has not. Yet last year's fires were, for the general public, short, punctuated events -- a week or so of fire suppression and the major effects were over. The Booth Fire is different. The fire is much larger than previous blazes and it will burn for a long,... Full story
Nobody lost their home to the raging Booth Fire, thanks to some lucky breaks in the weather and stout firefighting efforts by structural protection units bolstered by air support. Homeowners can increase the likelihood of their home surviving a wildfire if they create a defensible space around the home. Fire officials advocate a 30-foot perimeter kept well-cleaned of pine needles and other yard debris. Limb trees up from the ground and keep trees from overhanging your roof. Move log piles away from the house and clean pine... Full story
Boeing Chinook, top, takes off with a water bucket to fight the B & B Complex fires. Photo by Jim Anderson Over the many years the Forest Service and other government agencies have been fighting fires, they have used every tool they could get their hands on to get the job done -- from the venerable shovel to B-17 bombers. After World War II, surplus fixed wing aircraft -- such as fighter-bombers -- were plentiful. They were snapped up by enterprising aerial entrepreneurs and modified to carry hundreds of gallons of water,... Full story
Sandy Marlow and one of her happy evacuees. photo by Kathryn Godsiff When the Booth Fire forced the evacuation of several campgrounds, youth camps, and Camp Sherman, many evacuees had to deal with more than their immediate belongings and the family valuables. These folk had large animals to get to safety. Moving livestock usually involves a team effort. There are trailers to hook up, gear to collect, hay to include, and often more than one trip to make. Arranging a safe place ahead of time cuts down on the stress. Most large... Full story
Four regional jazz groups and two Sisters school bands will bring music to the city's streets and eateries during meal breaks on Friday and Saturday, September 12-13 at the Sisters Jazz Festival. The Festival's four main venues will be shut down at the dinner hour Friday and Saturday and lunch on Saturday to encourage jazz patrons to circulate in the community, a pattern initiated at the 2002 Jazz Festival. All performances at the Jazz Festival's "mini-venues" are free to the public. Appearing at El Rancho Grande during the f... Full story
A variety of local preschools give families choices when registering their children for the next school year. The Little Cloverdale Preschool offers a cooperative-learning environmentof interest to moms who have considered home schooling. The small classroom settings, which limit the four-year-old class to 12 kids and the 3-year-old class to 10, and the on-site parent helpers produce a learning environment with a personal and interactive edge, said Ann Kauzlarich. Kauzlarich celebrated her fifth year as the teacher at Little... Full story
First it was the Link Fire in early July that closed them down for two weeks and now the Booth Fire has closed Camp Tamarack for the balance of the summer season. Marc Prigohzy, executive director of camp operations and vice president of the holding company that owns the land and facilities, said that the 70-year-old camping operation has canceled all plans for the balance of the summer and is on hold as to what they will do this fall. "We got the word from Search and Rescue late the afternoon the Booth Fire broke out... 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: Local merchants... Full story
- City Council Meeting 7 p.m., 2nd and 4th Thursday each month, Sisters City Hall. 549-6022. - School Board Meeting 7 p.m., 2nd Monday each month, middle school lecture/drama room. 549-8521. - Black Butte School District Board of Directors meets 2nd Tuesday of each month, 7 p.m., Black Butte School. 595-6203. - Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 8 to 9 a.m. at Sisters Fire Hall, 549-0251. - Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD meets for drill every Monday, 7 p.m. Sisters Fire Hall, 301 S. Elm St.... Full story
Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony surveys damage near the head of Jack Creek. Stream banks here were not severely burned. photo by Jim Cornelius The forests to the west of Sisters are being vastly changed by the B&B Complex fires. Some of the region's most popular recreational attractions for hikers, fishermen, hunters and sightseers have been devastated. Other areas that did not burn too intensely may actually be helped by the blaze -- the fire acting as a natural regenera... Full story
