News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sheriff Les Stiles doesn't plan any major changes in the way his office serves the Sisters area.
Stiles told the Sisters City Council on Thursday, February 1, that he has no plans to change the city's contract for police services or to shut down the Sisters sheriff's substation.
"We have every intention of maintaining that (substation) unless or until you (the council) come up with another building and have a better offer," Stiles said.
Sisters Mayor Steve Wilson noted that the city does plan to move its city hall at some point and would like to consolidate as many public service agencies as possible in one building.
Corporal Wayne Morgan will likely run the Sisters substation after the March 15 retirement of Sergeant Rich Shawver. Stiles earlier told The Nugget that there would be a competitive process to determine Shawver's permanent successor, but he won't initiate that process until voters decide in March on a three-year operating levy.
"It would not be very prudent for me to offer someone a position until we know what the outcome will be," Stiles said.
The March levy is a continuation of the current sheriff's operating levy at the same cost (see related story, page 32).
Addressing rumors that Sisters patrol would be operated out of Redmond, Stiles said that won't happen.
"It doesn't make sense to have someone trying to take care of Redmond and Terrebonne and take care of Sisters," Stiles said. "You can't do that."
He also noted that response times to get from Redmond to Highway 20 between Sisters and Bend are unacceptable.
Stiles indicated a willingness to work with the city to ensure higher levels of staffing when demand is greatest. Mayor Wilson asked if the city could "buy more time" to add to its 120 patrol hours per month contract.
Wilson hopes for a "blitz" of enforcement of the new 20 miles per hour zone in town, particularly on trucks.
Stiles said that was feasible and suggested the city seek a memorandum of understanding to implement any change.
The sheriff cautioned, however, that the sheriff's traffic enforcement team has been "put on hold" due to short staffing. A series of early retirements in recent years has left the sheriff's office with open positions and buyout liabilities that tighten the budget, Stiles said.
"We have stripped every program we can to get people out on the street (available for calls) because that's their first priority," Stiles said.
The sheriff noted, however, that every deputy is also required to do traffic enforcement work.
The sheriff vowed to keep school resource deputies in place and build the positions permanently into the sheriff's office budget. Such positions, like that of Deputy Scott Shelton, are currently funded through grants.
Stiles opposes using grants to fund personnel positions because the position might have to be picked up in the budget or eliminated when grants expire. But he believes the school deputies are too important to lose.
"The school resource deputy program is the best program I've seen in my career," Stiles said.
The former Bend Police lieutenant noted that calls to that agency from Mountain View High School dropped 70 percent after a school resource deputy was assigned.
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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