News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 20 of 20
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” So begins one of the most popular Christmas hymns of all time. And joy is certainly an appropriate response to God coming to earth. The angel who announced the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds said, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The angel announced joy, so it is no wonder those celebrating the birth o... Full story
I put my bike away last week and brought out the snowshoes. It wasn’t snow or temperature that shelved the bike. I simply don’t have the right bike. Hopefully all Sisters bikers are heeding the recent posting of signs by the Sisters Trail Alliance to stay off the trails when muddy. No further explanation required. Bikes and horses, even pedestrians, can do a fair amount of harm to the trail bed. As I was tromping along a few days ago around Melvin Butte, after an overnight dro... Full story
It’s been a tough year. Tough for individuals, tough for families, tough for communities, and tough for the greater world. Layers of “tough,” so to speak. As 2020 comes to a close, I think most of us have been up close and personal with the “tough.” Many of us have taken inventory of the hardships, which weigh heavier for some more than others. What may be more elusive, yet some days the only force that keeps us going, is hope. Hope is personal. It is subjective. My concept of hope and how I go about seeking it is likely to... Full story
Sisters Rodeo is looking to make a comeback in June 2021. Tickets are now on sale for “The Biggest Little Show in the World.” Rodeo officials caution that ticket purchasers should only get their tickets through the official outlet at https://tickets.sistersrodeo.com/p/tickets. Scam sites have been advertising Rodeo ticket sales and purchasers should avoid them. “We’re going to add a couple of things [including] breakaway roping for women, which will be a cool event,” Sisters Rodeo Association Board Member Rodger Dwight to... Full story
Fred Roniger of Sisters, passed away on Friday, December 11, peacefully at home, from an aggressive form of brain cancer. Fred was born in Highland, Illinois, on January 1, 1948, to Raymond and Marjorie (Landolt) Roniger. He grew up on a small farm outside of Highland, where he graduated from high school in 1966. He graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 1970. It was at SIUE where he met and married Donna Nischwitz in 1969. Their son Tad was born in 1973 a... Full story
Doggie looks can be deceiving. More and more people are turning to DNA tests to learn more about the breed, behavior, and health of their dogs and cats. If your furry friend’s parentage is perplexing, a dog DNA test could reveal its ancestry. DNA testing or profiling came to fame in the 1980s when it was first used to help solve crimes. While DNA testing as we know it was refined between the 1950s and 1980s, there were forms of genetic testing done as early as 1886. As recentl... Full story
A fire broke out in the wee hours of Sunday, December 20. Firefighters with the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District (RFPD) responded to a structure fire early Sunday morning in Sisters. The fire was reported at 2:14 a.m. at 925 E. Ranch Ave. The home is owned and occupied by Janet Pray of Sisters. According to the Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD, Pray told firefighters that she was awakened by her dog and found a fire burning on the exterior of her home near the garb... Full story
Large numbers of local volunteers will help guide Sisters into the future. A record number of volunteers turned out in November to fill positions on City boards and commissions, with terms beginning on January 1, 2021. The interested residents all filled out City applications and participated in Zoom interviews with several City councilors and City staff before the final selections were made. Council President Nancy Connolly told The Nugget, “I believe the people we s... Full story
In a gesture to help families and to promote participation, the Sisters School District has announced that the pay-to-play fees for middle school and high school sports is being waived for the school year. Superintendent Curt Scholl and high school athletic director Gary Thorson made the announcement last week. Any families who have already paid for upcoming sports seasons will be reimbursed, according to Thorson. “Our ‘Season One’ that took place with limited activity was n... Full story
The recession accompanying the current COVID-19 pandemic here in Central Oregon is unusual in a number of ways, according to Damon Runberg, regional economist for the Oregon Employment Department. Runberg offered a presentation entitled “Into Bizarro World” at the December 9 City Council workshop. Runberg’s comparison of the 2008-09 Great Recession and the 2020 recession, which he calls the Great Lockdown, highlighted two totally different patterns, with the Great Reces... Full story
Grant Tandy, formerly of Sisters and now living in Bend, is the manager at the Worthy Brewing Company “Hopservatory” in Bend. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hopservatory has not been able to run as usual, so Tandy has been honing his astrophotography and nature photography skills. Tandy is one of many local photographers featured in a new coffee table book, titled “Ineffable.” Ineffable is a community photo book for 2020 – ineffable meaning “not expressib... Full story
On New Year’s Eve the world will bid goodbye (and good riddance) to a very difficult year that saw a pandemic sicken and kill millions of people across the globe. And here in this country, extreme civil and political unrest made things even worse. But we will also ring in a brand-new year, one in which we all hope events will unfold that will bring COVID under control, restoring a greater sense of normalcy to our lives. To symbolize this earnest optimism, the featured c... Full story
Since July 2019, the Vision Implementation Team (VIT) has been meeting regularly to guide progress on the Sisters Country Vision. The VIT is thrilled to welcome three new community members to the team: Hattie Tehan, Dennis Schimidling, and Bob Bryant. Each brings a different background, skill set, and passion to the Vision project. The VIT is also excited to announce the funding of their first Community Partner Grant, awarded to AFSC (Age Friendly Sisters Country) to support volunteer capacity for their Tollgate Village and... Full story
The Sisters Middle and High School Choirs wish Sisters a happy holiday season — and they want to be a part of it. This year due to COVID-19, the choirs aren’t able to get together and perform the Holiday Showcase or Holiday Singing Grams for the community. “We are really going to miss performing in-person for you, but as everyone else has done during this troublesome year, we are going to adapt,” said Choir Director Rick Johnson. In place of the holiday performances this season, the choirs offer a three-song Virtual Hol... Full story
Sisters Elementary School will be allowed to remain open for “hybrid” learning under the state’s “Safe Harbor” clause, which was extended following an announcement late December 16 from the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority. The “Safe Harbor” status had been set to expire January 4, 2021. ODE expects to publish updated information in the “Safe Schools, Ready Learners” program, including regarding “Safe Harbor” in the next two weeks. However, superintendent Curt Scholl emphasized that stude... Full story
Michaela Tucker (formerly Miller) graduated from Sisters High School in 2016. Since then, she has completed her Bachelor of Health Science’s Degree at California Baptist University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in the spring of 2020, not only with a health science degree, but also an Outstanding Student Award recognition. California Baptist University awards this outstanding student based on GPA, as well as involvement in the university and community and, as a Christian u... Full story
Like everyone else, early in the pandemic I was terrified of the “novel corona virus” as it hopscotched across the U.S. leaving bodies in its wake. The fact that so little was known at that time about how the virus was spread helped to fuel my panic. Someone emailed me what was reported to be the minutes of a Stanford University board of directors meeting in which facts and recommendations about the novel coronavirus were shared. I learned from these minutes that by simply holding my breath for 10 seconds and observing any... Full story
Editor’s note: There will be no letters to the Editor in the forthcoming December 30 “Year in Review” edition. Letters to the Editor will resume in the January 6 edition. Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief To the Editor: I have had the pleasure of living next to the Peterson Trail for 15 years, and walk those trails with my dogs many times a week. However, I have seen it transition into a haven for homeless camps in the last five years or so. Currently within a one-mile range of Sisters, there are at least four camps, and two c... Full story
The arrival of COVID-19 vaccine in Central Oregon marks a historic moment in a public health crisis that has roiled the world, killing more than 317,000 Americans and disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions more. The swift development of a vaccine that is considered to be extraordinarily effective against the notoriously elusive coronavirus is a triumph of science — but it doesn’t get us out of the woods just yet. It’s going to take a while for vaccines to get... Full story
A new podcast is exploring frontier history across three centuries and several continents. Jim Cornelius, editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans,” recently launched The Frontier Partisans Podcast. “Podcasting is a medium I have come to love and I consume history shows like a trapper guzzling busthead whiskey at rendezvous,” Cornelius said. “It is, in many ways, the ideal medium for delivering historica... Full story
