News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A toilet-plugging prank caused $6,500 damage to a Sisters business last week, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.
According to sheriff's office reports, someone plugged the toilet in an upstairs restroom at The Town Square on the night of September 29-30, and flushed the toilet repeatedly, causing it to overflow.
The resulting flood seeped into the downstairs business, the Thorntree Gallery, damaging fixtures and inventory, according to the reports.
According to a sheriff's deputy, because the water came from a toilet, health regulations would likely insist that any merchandise that came into contact with it, even if the merchandise wasn't severely damaged, could not be sold. The deputy also said that estimates do not include damage to the building itself.
The deputy reported that the door to the restroom is usually locked at night. The door may not have been pulled all the way closed, the deputy said, leaving access for the vandals.
Sheriff's deputies said there are no suspects in the vandalism.
Sisters High School Principal Dennis Dempsey confirmed that landlord Bill Reed has asked that the school district's Flex School find another site.
The Flex School, an alternative school for students not succeeding in the regular school environment, is located in the space upstairs at the Town Square.
Dempsey said that tenants have complained about the behavior of some of the students, but the move wasn't necessarily connected directly to the vandalism.
"We had been donating the space to the school district," Reed said. "And I guess it's one thing to donate space to the school district for the Flex School and another to introduce a situation where there's repeated problems. I just don't think it's compatible having the school in a retail complex."
Dempsey said the school is looking for a new location outside of Sisters.
Marcie Lynne McGregor, an aide at the Flex School, noted that many kids who are not part of the school hang out at Town Square after school hours. She said that people shouldn't automatically conclude that Flex School students are to blame for the vandalism.
An investigation continues.
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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