City considers public facilities

The current middle school site could be used for a variety of public facilities. Photo by Jim Cornelius

Sisters City Councilors will kick around the possibility of helping create a public facilities campus in Sisters at a workshop on Thursday, March 27 at 6 p.m.

According to City Administrator Eileen Stein, the idea has been floated in recent weeks that City Hall, school district administrative offices and a new library could all be located at the site of the current Sisters Middle School -- if the Deschutes Public Library District decides to site its new library there.

That's a big if; the library district has not announced its preferred site for a new Sisters Library to be in operation in 2004.

According to Stein, the workshop is simply an effort to brief councilors and "see if there's any interest in seriously considering this as a possibility."

The city has considered relocating city hall to several locations over the years, including to the Multnomah Publishers offices when that company builds its own campus.

The public facilities campus would allow the city to design a purposely built city hall to serve in the coming decades, but costs would likely be higher than a remodel, according to Stein.

The school district plans to sell the middle school property when students move into the existing high school next fall. The middle school site is currently zoned for Public Facility use, which limits the school district's sale options.

Stein said the site is likely to remain zoned PF.

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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