News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The building that was to have been Sisters' new city hall is on the market.
The Sisters City Council voted in their August 14 meeting to sell the old Memory Lanes Bowling Alley building on Adams Street, appraised at $530,000.
The building was donated to the city by industrialist Joe Fought in April of 1994. The city had planned to remodel it for a new city hall, but ultimately decided - after three years and $12,228 in planning costs - that Sisters couldn't afford the $498,762 bid on the project.
The council has discussed using the money in the budget's city hall fund and proceeds from the sale to remodel the current city hall on Fir Street.
Sisters area resident Colin Adams testified against the sale.
"I can't fathom ending up with anything useful by remodeling this (current) location," Adams said.
He also argued that remodeling the current city hall would be a tremendous disruption for the city staff.
"I think the money would be better spent remodeling that (Adams Street) location," Adams said.
But Mayor Steve Wilson said the city simply cannot afford to remodel that location, even if they reduced the scale of the project by half.
"Our thought processes become somewhat colored by our budgetary constraints," Wilson said.
Wilson believes that adding on to the rear of the existing city hall would provide 10 to 15 more years of use for the facility.
Councilor Petrie recommended that the city simply attach a 60-foot construction trailer to the rear of the city hall to gain extra office space until a more permanent solution is found.
"It would be reasonably cheap, it wouldn't be intended as a permanent fix," Petrie said.
In other business, the council decided to hold a series of three public hearings to discuss a proposed merger of city police services with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department. Those hearings should begin in September, with a decision possible in October.
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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