News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Not everyone is cheering the $25,000 grant that will help launch the Outlaw Café (see related story).
The grant came from the Central Oregon Community Investment Board (COCIB), which awards grants in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties for economic and community development projects.
The city applied for and failed to receive grants to study the feasibility of a Sisters conference center and for development of the Harold Barclay Memorial Park.
In a workshop with the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners (who participate with COCIB) on Thursday, July 18, city councilors expressed their frustration with the grant process.
"We're real disappointed as a council," said Councilor Lon Kellstrom.
He noted that the park and conference center had appeared on a short list from Deschutes County, leading the council to believe they were in a good position for a grant.
"How (the park) got dropped off, I don't know," Kellstrom said. "We've been on that (project) forever. The Outlaw Café pops up and it's funded."
The City of Sisters actually provided a letter of support to the Community Action Team of Sisters (CATS), which sought the Outlaw Café grant. Mayor Steve Wilson told The Nugget that that letter came from then-city administrator Barbara Warren, not from the council.
He said he and other councilors do not remember discussing the café project and would not have supported it.
"I can honestly say, based on the knowledge I have at this time, it would not have been a priority on our radar screen," Wilson said.
He noted that the grant provides public funds for an enterprise that will compete with local businesses.
"I philosophically don't support using taxpayer money for that kind of venture," Wilson said.
Susan Mayea, county financial officer and COCIB vice president, said the café "fit the criteria better" than the city proposals.
When queried by The Nugget about the criteria, Mayea said she couldn't define them on the spot, but that the project benefited from involving youth and being entrepreneurial.
CATS won the grant for the Outlaw Café. According to comments from Mayea and county commissioner Tom DeWolf, who sits on COCIB, CATS wrote a good application and lobbied for the grant.
"That's going to focus me, naturally, in a given direction," DeWolf said. "I never heard from a member of this council during that entire time."
Kellstrom and Mayor Wilson were not satisfied with that argument. They countered that the commissioners were well aware that the park and conference center were top city priorities.
They also questioned why CATS should have such influence when, as Kellstrom noted, the group is unelected and does not officially represent anybody.
Referring to CATS, Wilson told the commissioners that, "that feeling that we have a runaway horse that we're trying to rein in continues to prevail."
COCIB distributed $1.062 million in its most recent grant cycle. The $25,000 grant to for the Outlaw Café was the only grant awarded in Sisters.
Lorri Craig, CATS director, thinks the paucity of grants to Sisters is the issue, not which group in Sisters got the grant. Craig argues that Sisters needs to find a way to get representation on COCIB.
COCIB is a 15-member committee appointed by the Crook County Court, the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners, and the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners. There are five members from each county. Board members are volunteers who serve two year terms.
Councilor Deb Kollodge defended CATS and echoed Craig's belief that Sisters should have more voice on COCIB. She believes that the conference center study is a perfect project for a board that grants economic and community development funds.
"A conference center is a poster child for economic development in a community," she 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.
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