Managing the snow in Sisters

Heavy snowfall in December turned the Sisters Country into a holiday winter wonderland - but it created some headaches for local merchants and those responsible for managing snow in the city.

Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) plows Cascade Avenue (Highway 20) through town. That means the travel lanes - and only the travel lanes. In the middle of the month, that meant there were berms between the street and the sidewalk, limiting parking and access to shops. Merchants and customers alike complained.

"It was horrible, yeah," said Sisters' interim public works director Paul Bertagna.

The harsh reality is that what is parking and store access for merchants is snow storage area for ODOT and city snow plows.

The local shopkeepers and property owners are themselves responsible for clearing snow from their parking frontage and their sidewalks. That's a big - and expensive - chore.

"A lot of the problems we're seeing - especially with a big snow year - (is that) whatever budget for snow removal they had is gone... It's expensive to get these guys out there every day."

The City of Sisters plows the other streets in Sisters, including commercial streets like Hood and Main avenues. They, too, plow only the travel lanes.

Private contractors push the snow out of streetside parking areas and it piles up.

"The key is to use mid-block bulb-outs or sacrifice a couple of parking spaces in the mid-block," Bertagna said.

It's important to keep snow piles from blocking drivers' sight lines at stop signs.

City crews have actually been trucking snow out of town and dumping it on the city's municipal sewer plant site, where the city has shops and storage space. So far, there are no plans to berm snow in the middle of Cascade Avenue and truck it out of town, which is an option ODOT goes to when there are repeated heavy dumps of snow.

Shopkeepers must keep their sidewalks shoveled and ice free.

With the weather forecast offering only light snow in coming days, folks in Sisters will have a chance to get ahead of the game before the next big snowfall hits.

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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