School annexation passes by wide margin

Sisters residents voted overwhelmingly March 12 to annex approximately 100 acres of land west of town as the site of the new Sisters High School.

The 200-120 vote (67.30 percent to 37.38 percent) allows the Sisters School District to move forward with construction of a new high school, expected to open in 2004.

The annexation will also allow SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation) to carry forward its master plan for developing ball fields and recreational facilities on 15 acres of the site.

Opponents of the new high school mounted an aggressive anti-annexation campaign in an effort to derail the project. Mel Bryan said that he was not surprised by the vote, since the school board had announced its determination to build a high school regardless of annexation.

"I'm disappointed, but I expected it," Bryan said. "The annexation of the land is great for the city. Building a high school on the land is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer resources. But the voters have decided in the way they wanted it, I guess."

Board member Glen Lasken, who spearheaded the pro-annexation campaign, was not surprised by the outcome, either. "The feedback we got from our door-to-door campaign was that people were willing to vote on annexation, not on any perceived hard feelings," he said. "When you boiled it down to the issue at hand, they were in favor of annexation."

Sisters voters have yet to turn down a bid to annex land to the city. The Sisters City Council will act on the annexation at their Thursday, March 14, meeting. The passage of annexation and the apparent resolution of questions about auditorium size and other features of the high school appear to have smoothed the way toward construction of the school.

Bryan was unsure whether he would continue to be involved in the issue. He said he had not talked yet to other members of his campaign.

"But," he said. "I know when to quit banging my head against a wall."

The 321 voters who turned in ballots represent a 50 percent turnout in the mail-in election. Only city residents were eligible to vote.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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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