News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 18 of 18
More than 40 years ago, The Nugget Newspaper started putting a newspaper in every mail box in Sisters Country — for free — creating a universal community connection that everyone in Sisters had easy access to. A common source of celebrations, grieving, and being “in the know” of what’s happening in Sisters. The newspaper’s revenue came solely from advertising — a business model that has been successful over a couple of generations. But things are changing. For one, there ar... Full story
Well, now we know — at least in general — the nature of Deschutes County Sheriff’s candidate Kent Vander Kamp’s transgressions in La Mesa, California, nearly three decades ago. On Friday, Vander Kamp announced that he had obtained confidential personnel documents from La Mesa that he’d never seen before. Vander Kamp served as an unpaid reserve cadet in a program that grew out of a Boy Scouts Explorer program. “After high school, the explorer program pointed me toward coll... Full story
Last Thursday, I got a message from a man who had submitted a letter to the editor a couple of weeks ago. He was disappointed that we ran a letter in response to his that — in a negatively personal way — dismissed his substantive argument essentially as “drinking the Koolaide,” referring to the 1979 mass suicide of the Jonestown cult in Guyana. That kind of hyperbole has become so common that we get desensitized to it. It’s over the top — and not much of a contribution to an a... Full story
The Nugget’s story on the proposal by two companies to provide shuttle services to and from several trailheads on the Sisters Ranger District appeared in the July 17 edition, two days before the end of the official Forest Service comment period on July 19. That timeframe is not optimal for informing our readers about a project of interest in our National Forest. Unfortunately, The Nugget was made aware of the scoping letter for the project — by a citizen — only on July 15. We... Full story
If you work for a paycheck in Sisters, it’s hard to find a place to live. Really hard. Home prices have soared out of reach for most working folks, and there aren’t a whole lot of rental options — and they’re often not all that affordable when you find one. That means hard-working people, often established for years in the community, are facing hard choices, wondering if they can stay in the community they call home. Business owners have a hard time finding staff, because... Full story
It’s no secret that community newspapers are having a tough time in a changing media landscape, where costs of printing and delivery continue to rise and advertising revenue can’t keep up. Many communities have seen their local newspapers diminish and disappear. The Nugget is healthy — and that’s thanks to you, our loyal advertisers and committed readers. Our Supporting Subscriber program has become a vital and effective way for readers to directly support The Nugget as we d... Full story
We’ve officially entered the stormy season — and we’re not talking about snow and ice and busted pipes. The season of storms that got underway in Iowa last week and New Hampshire this week will last through winter, spring, summer and fall. Many folks are looking forward to the 2024 election season with something approaching dread — not just at potential outcomes, but at having to endure months of nastiness as increasingly polarized Americans claw at each other on TV, on social... Full story
One of the most gratifying aspects of newspaper work is the connections you make. We writerly folk are often introverts by temperament — most comfortable wandering our own mental landscape or absorbed in a book. Those of us get pushed or pulled into journalism are pushed out into a wider world, compelled by the demands of the work to enter other people’s spheres, engage with them and tell their stories. We’re lucky. I feel especially fortunate doing this work in a small town,... Full story
The Sisters City Council’s decision to hold a public hearing on the proposed emergency homeless shelter at 192 W. Barclay Dr. is the right call. Click here to see related story.. A decision of this magnitude, with the degree of public interest and concern that has been generated, deserves a public process — and the final decision should be made by elected officials who represent the community. That’s not what the governor and state legislature of Oregon wanted — the legislatio... Full story
There was a heated meeting at the Sisters Fire Hall Community Room on Tuesday, August 1, concerning plans to establish an emergency homeless shelter on Barclay Drive in Sisters. The State of Oregon is responsible for a lot of the heat in that room. The shelter is poised to be established under legislation designed to get around local land use planning and public input. HB2006, passed in May of 2021, requires local governments to allow siting of qualifying emergency shelters... Full story
The Vietnam War shaped all of our lives. I have friends who fought in that war and friends who demonstrated against it. The war, in large measure, set the course of their lives. But even people only tangentially affected by the fighting and the protests — and people unborn when Saigon fell in 1975 — live in an America whose contours were mapped by the conflict in Southeast Asia 50 and more years ago. In Vietnam was born the distrust of institutions that is the hallmark of our... Full story
It was, as the Duke of Wellington described the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, “the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.” The series of events that went down 40 years ago, in 1983, carried much bigger potential consequences than any single battle ever did. The stakes were the continued existence of humanity. Had a couple of decisions gone another way, had individual men not kept a cool head under pressure, it might well have been lights out for the human race. Most fol... Full story
The first of Jeff Guin’s books that I discovered was “The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the OK Corral and How It Changed the American West.” It’s an outstanding read; Guinn takes a story you think you know and digs in past the crust of myth to find the pure ore. In recent years, Guinn has turned to crime. He brought a sharp journalist’s eye to the biography of Charles Manson. I would not have thought any time spent in the company of that sordid little co... Full story
A friend told me the other day that he gets downright sentimental about a small-town parade. Heart-bursting, tear-welling sentimental. That’s a wonderful thing. It signals a connection to something truly valuable — a genuine, homegrown sense of community that doesn’t exist everywhere. Sisters has long punched well above its weight when it comes to creating events that are 100-proof, world-class — and yet celebrate a hometown vibe. Nothing exemplifies that more than the Sis... Full story
Sisters has a lot to be proud of in the agencies that work to protect our community. The Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District, supported by Cloverdale and Black Butte Ranch fire districts, responded quickly and effectively to a raging inferno that consumed two RVs in the woods just outside Sisters Saturday night. Jason Barber, a fire manager with the U.S. Forest Service, told me that “the fire department crushed that — it was great.” And it was. Local firefighters attac... Full story
Nobody enjoys paying taxes. However, if we have to pay taxes — and we know that that is one of two inevitabilities in life — local taxes paid directly to institutions that have immediate local value are the best kind to pay. With both measures 9-160 and 9-161 on the May 16 ballot, Sisters has the opportunity to renew local option levies that make a big difference in the quality of life for many of our citizens. You can see the impact of each of your tax dollars on the gro... Full story
A few months before we moved to Sisters in 1993, my wife Marilyn and I — along with the rest of the nation — were transfixed by the news that came out of Waco, Texas. On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided the compound of a religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, seeking to serve a search warrant for a massive cache of illegal firearms, and an arrest warrant for Vernon Wayne Howell, who called himself David Koresh. The Branch Dav... Full story
My 95-year-old dad never saw a construction project he didn’t like. A child of the Great Depression and World War II, development to him has always signaled growing prosperity, more people accessing an American Dream he fervently believed in. And why wouldn’t he? The 10th of 11 children of a Swedish father and an Irish mother who came West to Washington and then California in the 1920s seeking opportunity, he found his trade as a printer when he was 12 years old, and rode tha... Full story
