Sisters to vote on college board seat

The Sisters area will have a role in the May election of board members for Central Oregon Community College. Four positions on the seven-member board will be on the ballot, including the one for Zone 7, which covers Sisters.

John Overbay of Sunriver, current occupant of the Zone 7 seat, has filed for re-election. He was first elected in a contest for an open seat in 1999 and is completing that four-year term.

Overbay, 68, lives in Sunriver. He is the former owner of the Wagner Markets and still owns the land and buildings on three Wagner sites in Bend and Redmond. He sold the business to Albertsons eight years ago. He has been actively involved in fund-raising for the college and has been on the board of the college foundation for 10 years.

The COCC electoral map was recently redrawn to reflect population changes reported in the 2000 census. Redmond, which was part of Overbay's zone when he was elected, has been split off to form the core of a zone of its own. This leaves Zone 7 with the rural areas and small towns on the western side of Deschutes county, including La Pine, Sunriver and Sisters.

Last week, the college board appointed Diane Bohle to an open seat representing Crook County and some adjacent areas. Bohle is the executive director of the Prineville-Crook County Chamber of Commerce. She fills a post vacated by veteran board member Kate Van Voorhees, who was first elected in 1988 and re-elected three times. She resigned in December.

In recent months the board has been struggling to make budget cuts made necessary by the loss of about $3 million in state funds resulting from state government's revenue shortfall for 2001-2003. The board is currently considering the closure of four college centers -- in Prineville, Madras, La Pine and Sisters -- to cover about $200,000 of the loss. Under the plan, college centers would remain open in Bend, Redmond, Warm Springs and North Lake County.

The newest board member is expected to seek election to the remaining two years of Voorhees' original term.

Aside from the Bohle and Overbay seats, the May ballot will contain two positions from the zone that is centered on Bend and covers an area that includes Tumalo and Deschutes River Woods as well.

The incumbents in the two Bend seats are Connie Lee, who is expected to file for re-election, and James Carnahan, who has served for nine years and has said he will not run for another term.

Overbay has had a long association with COCC, having attended the school 50 years ago. He also attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland for two years, studying business administration. Although he did not receive a degree from either institution, he told The Nugget: "If it wasn't for COCC giving me a jump-start I doubt that I would have been able to accomplish what I have in life."

The mailed-ballot election for positions on the COCC board and many local school boards will be held May 20. The filing deadline for those interested in becoming candidates is March 20.