Airport annexation good deal for Sisters

Choices at the ballot box are seldom so straightforward. The annexation of the Sisters Airport property into City of Sisters is a clear benefit with no discernable downside.

The airport is a community asset, providing a base for emergency services, access for visitors who fly in to the Sisters Country, and a key piece of transportation infrastructure that can be enhanced to help businesses locate in Sisters.

One such business is already housed at the airport.

ENERGYneering Solutions, Inc. (ESI) is a business with a very small footprint in Sisters and a very long reach into an international market. Principals Benny and Julie Benson chose to locate in Sisters in part because of the airport. Now the airport owners, they are positioned to supervise and maintain that airport in a manner that could help attract similar businesses to Sisters.

The Bensons have a track record of providing valuable assets and services to the community of Sisters, and that public-spiritedness is already in play with the airport, which will be the future site of the Sisters Community Garden.

Bringing the 34-acre airport property into the city allows the city to capture tax revenues, and it brings land-use control to the local jurisdiction.

Increased air traffic is not a concern; three times or more the current number of flights could go in and out of that airport and folks in Sisters would scarcely know the difference.

Annexation allows the maximum community benefit from a community asset. Vote "yes" on Measure 9-87.

Jim Cornelius, News Editor