Sisters to get a Subway

It's not easy for a new eatery to move into Sisters, but the town will soon host a Subway sandwich shop at the intersection of Hood Avenue and Locust Street.

Tom McMeekin, owner of the adjacent Sisters Pumphouse, will operate the franchise in partnership with deve

loper Richard Carpenter.

The city's approval of a new sandwich shop, given by the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission February 19, surprised some Sisters residents, who believed there was a moratorium on new restaurants due to sewer restrictions.

According to City Planner Neil Thompson, there is no moratorium on restaurants, although drainfield restrictions do pose practical barriers to restaurant development.

Thompson said the City of Sisters requires septic system approval either from the county or from the state Department of Environmental Quality. While the county would not approve the site under its existing guidelines, Thompson said, developer Carpenter was able to get DEQ approval for the sandwich shop.

Subway does no bread processing on site, therefore has fewer septic requirements than most restaurants, Thompson said.

He noted that other franchises have inquired about moving into the Sisters market, but could not economically justify meeting local drainfield requirements.

City Councilor Tim Clasen raised questions at the April 24 city council meeting about the removal of several elm trees on the site. Thompson told the council that the trees were rotted, which Carpenter confirmed.

"I really hated to take those trees down, but they were 80 or 90 percent rotted," Carpenter told The Nugget.

Siting a franchise sandwich shop in Sisters has raised a few eyebrows, but Thompson said they are entirely legal.

"Franchises are allowed in the city," he said. "They just have to conform to the requirements of the city."

And, Thompson said, plans indicate that the shop will do so, with signs rendered in wood and an appropriately western-themed building scheme borrowed from a Utah mining town.

"It looks to be a pretty attractive building," Thompson said.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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