News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The buildings and fields at Sisters schools are showing the signs of heavy use - and the use continues all the way through summer.
The school facilities are available to the public, but community use makes scheduling maintenance difficult, according to schools superintendent Steve Swisher.
Carpets need to be cleaned, gym floors refinished and fields seeded, all tough to do when the buildings are in constant use.
School fields take particularly hard punishment over the summer when they are used by community groups and youth sports as well as casual weekend warriors.
"A lot of the grass areas get heavy use and there's no time for rest or reseeding," Swisher said. "Without adequate field space and with the community need for field space, there's not a lot of opportunity for maintenance."
Ultimately, Swisher would like to see the district acquire new fields, but that is not a realistic prospect in the near future. For now, field maintenance crews try to seed in small spots, keeping them cordoned off and depending on users to give the grass a break.
With fields heavily booked and some areas shut down for reseeding and rests, getting onto a field on a sunny weekend day this summer may not be easy.
"Don't just take for granted that if you're going to come out on a Sunday afternoon to throw the Frisbee around that there's going to be field space," Swisher cautioned.
According to the superintendent, the district can't honor all requests for building use this summer, because maintenance simply must be done before school starts again.
"We can't keep every room open all year," he said.
The need for upkeep on the school grounds does, however, provide an opportunity for local service clubs and organizations who are always looking for ways to help out.
"We've got a knapweed problem and any group that really wants to provide a service can go out there and pull some knapweed," Swisher said.
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.
Reader Comments(0)