Council candidates meet-and-greet

The four candidates running for the three open city council seats in the November election were on hand at the Village Green Friday evening. The attendance was light but the conversation was lively on the first evening in days that felt smoke-free.

Each candidate made a brief statement and mingled with the crowd to answer questions and explain their positions on a variety of city government topics: economic development, the Cascade Avenue renovation, airport annexation and the schools all got discussion.

Of the five seats on the council, three are up for election this November. The seats coming open currently belong to Lon Kellstrom, Pat Thompson and Sharlene Weed. Thompson and Weed are not running for reelection.

Councilors Wendy Holzman and David Asson are not up for reelection in this cycle.

The four declared candidates for the three open seats are current mayor Lon Kellstrom, ex-mayor Brad Boyd and newcomers Catherine Childress and McKibben Womack.

"Thank you for taking the time to come out," said Boyd. "It is when people get involved and they are paying attention and they want to learn about things, that is what really helps this community. If you have any questions or concerns, I would like to listen to what your concerns are. This isn't about top-down management; this is about being a representative of the citizens of Sisters."

Catherine Childress said, "From my voice you know that I am not a native Oregonian, I'm from Atlanta Georgia. We've made Sisters our home for the last seven years. I am a retired telecommunications executive.

"I've always been working always towards the goal of customer satisfaction," continued Childress. "I think that is a management skill that I have that I hope would be helpful in my being able to work with citizens of Sisters, business owners, prospective business owners, other members of the city in a teamwork environment to build towards consensus so that we can get things done.

"We can work together - good, hard, practical work - to bring family-wage jobs to Sisters to bring more business into our downtown corridor. I'm a big proponent of our being able to bring our youth back to Sisters."

Mayor Lon Kellstrom said, "I've been the mayor for the last four years and I am running to continue what we have been doing for the last four years. That is, to practice the fiscal discipline to protect our public resources; creeks, water and sewer systems, parks, building and financial assets, and most importantly to pursue economic growth and jobs wherever we can find them. The brewery, the assisted living center ... the Cascade Avenue improvements ... it will be great for Sisters."

Kellstrom continued, "We hope that you will all support the Sisters Airport annexation on the ballot; that would be another great thing for Sisters."

McKibben Womack spoke last and briefly in the introductions, which went in alphabetical order.

Womack is a Sisters High School graduate and now operates a landscape maintenance business in Sisters. He focused on the need for his generation of Sisters residents to be involved in the policies that will shape the community's future.

"I believe we all need to be involved in our communities and our local government," said Womack. "We don't really have a lot of young people involved. I would like to see some younger people get involved. So I got involved in the budget committee a couple of years ago with the intent of learning how the city runs and how things work. Then the opportunity came to run for city council."

There has been discussion of a second candidates' forum, but no details are available at this time.