No tax money used on SOAR facility

The SOAR facility near Sisters High School was built on grant funds and donations. No tax dollars were used. photo by Jim Cornelius

SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation) moved into a new facility this year, adjacent to the new high school.

Since the move, the organization has received many queries and some complaints based on the misconception that the facility was built with tax dollars.

Not a dime of tax money was spent on SOAR's facility, according to the organization's director Tom Coffield.

"One gentleman was extremely upset that this was just another tax-and-spend building," Coffield said. "Once I explained it to him, he was fine, he was apologetic."

Coffield said he has struggled to make the Sisters community understand that the facility was funded solely through grants and donations.

"We can show you every dollar that came into the project, either from granting agencies or donations," he said.

Coffield said the community donated about $200,000 to the $1 million project. The rest came from a variety of substantial grants.

SOAR does have a property tax base of 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Those funds are used for operation of the program.

Tax dollars add up to about 20 percent of SOAR's $640,000 budget, Coffield said, putting some $135,000 to $145,000 into the coffers.

The organization is still heavily dependent on grants, donations, user fees and fund-raisers. In fact, Coffield acknowledged, the most important benefit of the tax base is that it makes it possible to leverage grants.

"We have to be able to match funds, we have to be able to show stability," he said.

The organization's budget shows the impact, Coffield said: "We've leveraged $500,000, basically, on $130,000."

SOAR published its summer program this week (see insert in The Nugget), including a wide range of outdoor recreation and arts and enrichment programs -- for both children and adults.

Participants will enjoy such activities as scrapbooking; puppet-making; canoeing; hiking and mountain biking.

Several camps are available for arts as well as sports.