News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Ten golden shovels bit into the soft dirt on the site of the future Sisters City Hall as local officials conducted the official groundbreaking for a $2.6 million construction project that is expected to be completed in November.
The city hall will join the Sisters Library and the Sisters School District Administration building in a campus on the former site of Sisters Middle School.
“We’re going to bring the city hall into the 21st century, finally,” said Mayor Dave Elliott.
He noted that the city has long outgrown its increasingly dilapidated 65-year-old, 2,500-square-foot facility on Fir Street, where leaky roofs, falling ceiling tiles and cramped, unairconditioned quarters have made working conditions less than ideal for city staff.
The new 9,000-square-foot facility will include city offices and council chambers that will be available for community meetings in addition to official city business. There will be a reception area for people paying utility bills.
All this is designed to make the facility more public-friendly.
Steele and Associates designed the building and Kirby Nagelhout Construction will build it for $1.367 million — within the city’s projected budget.
Elliott told the assembled crowd that he is pleased that the project will not require new taxes on city residents. He said the city staff worked hard with designers to put together ideas for a functional city hall.
He saluted Eric Dolson, publisher of The Nugget, for pursuing the vision of a public facilities campus involving the city, the Sisters School District and the Deschutes Public Library District.
“He worked pretty good at getting all three entities together,” Elliott said.
Speaking on behalf of the library district, Mary Beth Pearl-Gent noted that “A City hall invariably becomes one of the most enduring symbols of the community... it helps to define the community by its presence.”
Glen Lasken, a Sisters School board member, praised the spirit of cooperation in the Sisters area.
“Nowhere is that spirit of cooperation more evident than it is on the ground we are standing on,” he 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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