Justice Court comes to town

Motorists in a hurry would do well to relax their accelerator feet when driving in the Sisters area.

At its October 12 meeting, the five-member Sisters City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement with Deschutes County that will bring a Justice of the Peace to town at least one day a month. The circuit adjudicator will decide municipal code violations, predominantly traffic related.

The judge should be busy. According to Deschutes County Sheriff's Office Patrol Sergeant Rich Shawver, the lowered speed limits prominently displayed on new signs installed several weeks ago have been roundly ignored.

"When we're (patrol deputies) parked to the side of the road and monitoring traffic flow, we can see lots of cars that have gone past the lower speed signs without slowing, but then they see us -- and you can see the front ends of their cars dip down from sudden braking," Shawver said.

According to Shawver, for some time patrol deputies couldn't write speeding tickets in Sisters because of a temporary lack of jurisdictional authority.

"The municipal court was dissolved," he explained, "and there was no court to address." However, he added, "If they (drivers) were really in excess of the limit, we'd cite them for reckless driving in county court."

But now all that has changed. Shawver said the new 20 miles-per-hour speed limit on Cascade Avenue, the main thoroughfare which divides downtown Sisters, is long overdue.

"The old limit of 30 mph didn't meet the state statute for business districts. But the new one does -- and we're enforcing it now," Shawver said.

Shawver said he and the other officers also would be paying attention to enforcing the commonplace violations of parking ordinances. Currently, according to the sergeant, the signs in certain high traffic areas which limit the height of parked vehicles to six and a half feet have not routinely been obeyed.

Drivers who are prudent with their pocketbooks and wallets will want to pay stricter attention: the fines for infractions are considerable. Moving violations are separated into four categories, extending from one to 31-plus miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

The minimum speeding fine is $77, but it can reach as high as $295 for the lead-footed. The fine for missing or ignoring the maximum allowed vehicular parking height is $77.

The Honorable Stephen Forte, Justice of the Peace, will begin hearing cases, at City Hall on November 8. at 5:30 p.m.