Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

As Mayor of Sisters, I feel the need to respond to two articles that were placed in the September 18 issue of The Nugget.

The first one I would like to respond to is the one written by Jim Cornelius, "Where should Sisters park all the cars?" Some of the information included in this article is incorrect. According to The Nugget, Option 2 for new parking would create 100 new parking spaces. This is false. These 100 spaces already exist. With option 2, the parking spaces would be improved, whether it be with new curbs, sidewalks, or paving.

The second article I would like to respond to is to the editor's letter, "City Hall parking lot is a boondoggle." First of all, the City of Sisters has not made any decisions on what to do exactly. The City of Sisters wants to help all those that have businesses in town. That is why the questionnaire was sent out. The questionnaire that was sent out was made up of proposals suggested by local business persons, residents of Sisters and city staff and council.

The last thing I would like to say is that it is very unprofessional for the editor to make cheap written shots toward the City Administrator, Barbara Warren. The city administrator is directed by the city council on what to do. She must obtain approval on all large transaction, even ones dealing with real estate. The city administrator has opposed, from the beginning, not to turn the City Hall into parking.

I would like to ask that before any more articles that take cheap shots at another or present options to the city, that all facts be true.

Dave Moyer

Mayor

Editor's reply: Regarding the mayor's first point: According to the questionnaire sent to businesses by the City of Sisters: "It should cost approximately $12,000 per half block to construct improvements, and develop 10 on-street parking spaces. $118,873 should improve approximately 10 half-block sections or 100 on-street parking spaces."

To us, that sounded like the creation of 100 new parking spaces. If that is not what was meant, we regret the misinterpretation.

As to the second point: We repeatedly asked City Administrator Barbara Warren who came up with the three options presented to the city council on September 12 for review prior to being sent out in the questionnaire.

Our concern was that two out of those three options involved turning the current city hall site into a parking lot (two other potential parking lot sites were identified, but only in the first of those two options).

Warren told our reporter that she and City Planner Neil Thompson and Public Works Supervisor Gary Frazee developed the options. Warren said she wrote them up and presented them to the council. She did not mention input from businesses, residents or the council.

At their meeting on September 12, the city council would have followed along if councilman Gary Miller hadn't proposed adding at least one option that didn't spend all the parking district funds.

We believe the City of Sisters is being poorly managed and that the city council and the mayor are asleep on their watch. They have been following without adequate examination the lead of a city administrator who may be in over her head.

After years of what appear to be false budgets and hidden deficits, the city is calling a special budget committee meeting on October 8 to figure out how they are going to pay the bills for the rest of this fiscal year, which began last July, and what they are going to do in following years.

The Sisters Police are forming a union to protect their jobs and livelihood from a city manager who refused to pay officers about $6,000 in earned overtime last year, claiming there was no money and threatening them with layoffs. This replacement of trust by legal contracts will prove expensive.

At the same time, a building worth $500,000 donated to the city sits unused and empty for two years while $170,000 has been squirreled away for improvements expected to cost more than $500,000.

We agree with the Mayor that these issues are the city council's responsibility. We also believe it to be our job to alert the community if that responsibility is not being met.

ED

Thank you for your editorial comment on the "City Hall parking lot boondoggle." You have expressed my concern very clearly. I've been paying these business taxes for parking over several years with no understanding of where the money was going.

Councilor Gary Miller offers a good start for our money -- this would clean up downtown and put 54 parking spaces to good use. The other options offered are not the answer, they become part of the problem.

Sincerely,

Dave Goodwin

I am glad to see your editorials on the renovation of the bowling alley city hall and on the parking proposal for Sisters.

Bringing issues such as these to the attention of the community is a great public service. Hopefully it will start a public debate that will bring out additional ideas from thoughtful citizens.

If Sisters is going to spend half a million dollars on a new city hall it seems elementary that there should be several options.

Mr. Fought was not only a generous man he was also a practical man. It would honor his memory to use his gift in the most intelligent way to accomplish the city's well-studied and thoroughly debated top priorities.

It appears doubtful to me that either the city hall plans or the parking possibilities have had the benefit of enough well reasoned discussion. The city would do well to solicit and listen to the views of the public, including those who reside outside the city limits, before any plans are cast in concrete.

Sam Goodwin

Jim Hollon authored an article on Sisters published September 10 in The Oregonian. It was a great article, reasonably evenhanded, factual and interesting.

It had one glaring inaccuracy -- the title, which Jim probably did not contribute. It stated: "Sisters suffering growing pains." This is false. Left to its own, Sisters is comfortable with no pain. Influx for the past 20 years has neatly balanced natural attrition. Growth has been controlled, healthy and static.

The alleged "pains" are strictly Realtor/developer hype created for a purpose. That purpose is to expedite the sale of the north 60 acres of the PMR at the maximum possible financial return. This means put as many lots as possible in the project.

To be financially viable, purchasers must be actively solicited. They won't come from the Sisters vicinity as a result of normal expansion. They probably won't even come in sufficient numbers from Central Oregon. Most will come from the Willamette Valley or likely neighboring states.

Is this what Sisters really wants? Is this type of growth worth the loss of views, the added traffic congestion and the school and services extension expenses?

Of course it isn't!

Let's not let an anxious landowner and a self- serving developer stampede us over the cliff.

Sincerely,

John Groom

After three days of "a relief from stay" trial over a month period, I received judge verdict victories in bankruptcy's new value, substantial contribution, absolute priority, feasibility and active tax treatments.

Then suddenly, I crashed and was defeated on the ice patch of "reorganizational necessity." I lost. Four attorneys were too overwhelming.

After $300,000, 4,000-plus hours spent on my building, the building is gone. I'm being evicted immediately (despite my offer to pay two-fold rent).

My dreams are shattered. I'm devastated. Pray for me. It's a journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

I've heard and I believe that goodness and mercy are in the next valley.

Arthur Pratt

Thank you for your coverage of my visit to Oregon in early August, 1996. Also, thank you for your interest in the link between nutrition and cancer. America would be a healthier country if more newspapers gave more coverage to such vital topics.

Also, there was a misprint that needs correction. Your article mentioned "Dr. Quillin reported life expectancy was from six to 10 years and more." That study was conducted by Drs. Hoffer and Pauling as reported in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, vol.5, no.3, p.143, 1990; not as conducted at Cancer Treatment Centers, as the article implies.

Your local company, Metabolic Maintenance, is one of the few manufacturing firms in the world that could assemble the complex product called the Advanced Nutrition Composite, which may result in helping many cancer patients. I am sure that you are justifiably proud of them.

Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, CNS

After reading "Warning to students" in the September 11, Nugget, you people of Sisters should be very proud of your police department.

I have grandchildren who live in Sisters and attend your schools and it gives me relief to know your police department is so alert. My thanks go to the policeman (no name given); he will know who I am writing about.

Betty Gomes

With the school bond failing it is clear that the Sisters community has serious issues that are not resolved with the management and destination of tax dollars in the schools.

As the public debate continues to rage there are still immediate needs to be filled at the Sisters Elementary School. Finding creative ways to fill these needs is a project that the Sisters Parent Teacher Community Association has decided to undertake.

We have asked the school staff for a needs list and would like to make it available to this community in hopes that through private donations we can help ease the stress and difficulty of running a school in these times of financial downsizing.

Please contact the school, 549- 8981, if you have access to or can help with any of the following items:

Office computer; elementary building intercom system; Jr. Great Book grade level series; OutlawNet connection with modem, ongoing monthly charges; Internet phone line; replace losses in library- based literature series; new large institutional popcorn popper; 35 mm camera; repair video cam; piano rolling casters; railroad ties for border of front gravel zone; gravel for front snow border and rear exit; existing gardens weeded, upkeep; paint conflict wheel; bags of weed-and-feed.

These are concrete fundamental needs that our community can provide for our school through service agencies or just personal donation.

Let us show the children of this community that we care about the school and what happens to it; that although million dollar issues are not solved easily and require serious consideration and dialogue, there are still things that the community is willing to provide for the students and staff of today.

Susanne K. Redfield, Anne Geser, Ali Mayea

Hola de Costa Rica! As you read this I am in the village of Shiroles, Costa Rica as co-administrator of a medical clinic sponsored by the Rotary Club of Paradise, California and Club Rotario de Limon.

I wanted to have this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the children of Costa Rica, all those clients who have supported the Goddard Land Management Co. and thus helped to make this humanitarian effort possible. Also thanks to the Bank of the Cascades, the "small town bank" that understands that community extends beyond our own borders.

I hope this brings you a glimpse of the smiles of children who benefit from this support. See you upon my return.

Mark Goddard