Letters, letters, letters

Last updated Feb 03, 2004 12:0pm0

The Nugget welcomes contributions from its

readers, which must include the writer's name, address and phone number.

Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains

unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget

reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters

submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished

items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is

noon Monday.

To the Editor:

To paraphrase the words of Paul Revere, The Couplet is coming, the couplet is coming.

Well, in three to five years it is coming. When it does arrive it will only be a short term solution to the seasonal traffic congestion that plagues Sisters. The couplet, hopefully, will spread the traffic over three streets instead of just one as it is now.

The couplet project, when combined with the Urban Renewal District, will >provide the city with two funding sources to make significant public works improvements to three streets and associated side walks. These improvements will increase the livability of Sisters and enhance its attraction to visitors. provide the city with two funding sources to make significant public works improvements to three streets and associated side walks. These improvements will increase the livability of Sisters and enhance its attraction to visitors.

However, the flow of traffic through town will still be controlled by pedestrians crossing the streets using the designated cross walks. It is estimated that 65 percent of the traffic on the highway is through traffic that does not stop at Sisters.

Only a small portion of the heavy truck and trailer traffic even stops in Sisters.

The city of Sisters needs to put a line item in the TSP (Transportation System Plan) for a bypass around Sisters.

This proposed bypass would have intersection/interchanges on the three

major roads leading into and out of Sisters.

These interchanges should be at least one mile outside the city's current UGB (Urban Growth Boundary) on the easterly side of town and perhaps two miles on the northerly side of town.

Environmental issues can be mitigated and some residential housing may be relocated and or replaced.

A bypass would not cause Sisters to dry up and blow away.

The community of Sisters is a strong and diverse group that would continue to thrive and grow.

In fact moving the through traffic to a bypass might cause the city to have increased growth.

I encourage you to make your wishes known to the city.

I want to encourage the city to put the by-pass in the TSP as a high priority item. This will not be a cheap item but the process must be started now.

Dave Marlow

* * *

To the Editor:

I hope the citizens of Sisters will discover before it is too late what

will be happening to their town, under the proposed Comprehensive Plan.

The character of the town will be substantially changed through expansion

of the urban growth boundary, and the city will be stretched north and

far west to the high school.

Farm and forest land will be converted in preparation for small decentralized

shopping centers.

And a number of land owners will receive an upzoning windfall in property

values as a result.