Letters to the Editor 02/20/2013

To the Editor:

Five winters ago my wife and I, along with our three school-aged children, left our resident home in Alaska and embarked on a five-and-half-month, 12,000-mile RV journey throughout the western United States. The primary purpose of this adventure was to locate a desirable community to spend our winters, and eventually live full-time. We left without a set itinerary, only a desire to explore, and seek out that perfect place that would satisfy the diverse needs of our family. The community would have to be vibrant, blessed with natural beauty, quality people and amenities, and with top-flight schools at each level of education.

Upon arrival in Sisters, we knew that many of these needs could be met. At a time when much of the country's support for the educational system was beginning to dwindle, here was a community renewing a local option that provided essential funding for what we considered to be an exceptional infrastructure. Even with its continued renewal, the Sisters School District, due to state budget cuts, struggles to preserve what originally drew us here. As we settle into our fourth year of living in Sisters, we have come to realize that renewal of this option is vital to maintaining an optimal level of educational services, and consequently, a healthy community.

The renewal of the local option maintains an existing level of support from the community for the schools, and helps makes Sisters a place where residents will continue to want to live and raise their families.

Yours in support of the local option,

Gary and Tari Eagan

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To the Editor:

My name is Autumn Saunders and I am a junior at Sisters High School. As with most, the beginning of my freshman year was nerve-wracking. Overcoming those anxieties was made easier by the people supporting me. My first encounter with support was in Mr. Price's Honors English class. I was struggling with achieving an A for most of the trimester. Mr. Price noticed that I was stressed about it and asked me to come see him at lunch. I went the next day, an essay in hand, and Mr. Price helped me. From then on I went in with every essay and they got better every time. Mr. Price taught me to trust and seek support along with how to write an effective essay.

My next experience with a teacher that cares about their students was Leadership with Mrs. Rawls. Because of Mrs. Rawls I enjoyed that class and learned that I wanted to contribute more both in school and in the community.

Since then, I have taken Leadership three times, planning events like Veterans' Day Celebration and Mr. SHS. I was also on the sophomore Class Council and Associated Student Government my junior year. If it weren't for those teachers, I would have never had the values, courage or skills to become so involved.

The arts program at Sisters is incredible. I have taken four art classes and learned so much. From chalk-drawing to jewelry-making and silk-screening. Recently, I attended the Regional Scholastic Awards Show for Visual Arts where a number of Sisters High School student received awards and scholarships including some art pieces that are being judged at the National Scholastic Art Competition. Thanks to Mrs. Gunnarson, we had this opportunity.

Through these experiences I have learned valuable lessons. This was my experience, others find their calling building Habitat for Humanity houses in Woods, exploring the outdoors in IEE, or running a kitchen through Culinary Arts. So many have been changed at Sisters High School because of the great people and the care they invest in every student.

By passing local option, we can keep these amazing teachers and staff who continue to impact the lives of students.

Autumn Saunders

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To the Editor:

I am a local, longtime resident with a business here in Sisters. I support the local option for our public schools.

I have two children that went through the Sisters school system, and they both had great experiences and obtained a great education. I want the same for current and future students here in our town.

We live in an incredible place; we have great teachers, volunteers, and parents, that create a school system that is unique, with programs such as IEE, and Americana where students are able to experience school in a different way. We have great sports programs, drama, music, and the arts, that bring our townspeople together, to feel a greater sense of community.

Though there is no direct benefit to me or my family I feel like I have a fundamental obligation to my community and the Sisters students to continue to support our schools. There are definitely indirect benefits for all of us for keeping our schools strong: economic viability; more people moving to Sisters because of our schools; healthy, vibrant community.

Join me in supporting local option. It is the right thing to do! There is no down side. There are only benefits.

Jeff Wester

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To the Editor:

Seven years ago, when my son was going into middle school, we were not happy with our choice of schools in Bend, so we choose to move our family to Sisters for a chance to attend smaller schools. Coming from a magnet school we were looking for the same sense of community that provided a nurturing, caring atmosphere where teachers and administrators knew what was special in each student.

I can honestly say we found this in the Sisters Middle School. Both of my children excelled there. Class sizes were small and they had the opportunity to take high-school-level classes and move along in their studies as needed. Teachers didn't need to teach "to the middle" which is one of the big issues with large class sizes and standardized testing. They knew their students' strengths and weaknesses.

We were truly impressed with the local option levy providing the extra money to maintain class size and provide students with excellent learning opportunities. I urge you all to keep the local option intact with a YES vote. Remember it is not a new tax; it just keeps the seriously needed revenue in place for the Sisters School District. With the last three rounds of cuts the district has weathered it is crucial we keep this funding in place. Remember we are providing a great education to students who will be our future leaders. Please join me and my family with a yes vote.

Sue & Dan, Eli & Maddi Boettner

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To the Editor:

For literally years, ever since the possibility of the Forest Service moving out of the Pine Street installation appeared, I have pictured the greatest opportunity Sisters could ever have of being economically sound on a 12-month basis, as well as being the cultural center of Central Oregon.

It would occur if that area became the home of a year-round, enclosed theater for cultural events such as symphony, choral concerts and stage performances. The area is ideally situated for traffic access, east and west, and area access via Barclay Road. There are six houses which could be easily converted into dormitories to accommodate visiting artists (as well as other community purposes).

In my 24 years in the Sisters area, I have watched businesses come and go - many people who would have become the backbone of the Sisters business community but who could not survive on a six-month-or-less, tourist-supported economy. I observe the still-empty stores at the Ray's Market complex, empty store units at Pine Meadow, the empty lot where the gasoline station once stood; all waiting for the spurt in economy which won't come - or last - in a six-month economy!

Cliff Clemens, an icon of community support, and I used to discuss Sisters' need for year-round business. His thoughts, like mine, considered the loss of the young people for lack of a future or jobs. Cliff's thoughts centered on education; mine, on culture as well as community planning. There are talented persons in this area, people like Irene Liden, who conducts the Sisters Chorale, people with the ability to plan a full year's cultural activity, which in turn would stimulate Sisters' economy on a permanent trend.

Anything less than an all-season structure would leave us like the Les Schwab amphitheater in Bend: empty (even possibly snow-covered) six months of the year! Picture sweeping off snow-covered planks for a 75-voice St. Olaf choir! That area, properly utilized, could be the future of Sisters. Don't blow it on halfway measures!

Russell B. Williams

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To the Editor:

As an Oregon native and Portlander of both rural and city life, I'm having the time of my life discovering the splendors in Sisters Country. Totally unprepared for how deeply an environment can tap into one's psyche and change root elements of awareness, I've found magic here in the air and everywhere, enveloping senses in the dynamic power of civilized, but still very raw nature.

Leaving behind the hurried masses, urgently beeping horns, deafening sounds of traffic, and pinched smiles of politeness behind stressed faces (including mine), to enjoy the soulful quiet and natural wealth in Sisters is a refreshment from the inside out.

Slowly, with the natural sounds of quail making frequent calls to the wild, skimming the ground as they race through the fields, the gentle bellowing of cows early in the morning sun as steam rises above frosty pastures, the howling of coyote at night above the melodic background of a 50-frog chorus singing their alluring songs of romance to prospective mates, one reawakens to that inner sanctum of soulful connections and oneness.

The bold mountainous beauty of day is equally matched by the magic of night, when it's "lights out" for the "big show" of glittering wilderness overhead. Catch your breath at sights of the Milky Way or Big Dipper while pondering mythological constellations set deep in space that have entranced ancient civilizations as well as those of the present.

Reality shifts to dreams from the stillness within when under the big sky and dominance of nature in Central Oregon, where the easy and relaxed lifestyle of the Sisters area is an icon for "the good life."

Lorna Hewitt, Portland and Sisters

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To the Editor:

Apparently our Constitutional right to freedom of speech doesn't apply in Sisters.

During Thursday night's Sisters City Council meeting when most of our community was busy celebrating with their loved ones on Valentine's Day, I gave a presentation to the newly seated council asking for permission to allow at minimum that the Wild Mountain stand be allowed to remain on site during the next two months prior to the start of my 2013 six-month temporary use permit.

Our city planning director has advised me I have to move the buildings off property for the two-month period between now and May 3, when my new permit begins. To move the buildings would cost at minimum $5,000. I was warned I would be "fined and probably not issued my new operating permits" if I do not move the buildings.

During my calm and civil presentation to council, Mayor Boyd on two occasions interrupted me when he felt I was about to "name city officials" who made off-color statements about my business in official meetings last year where my code amendment proposals were being considered.

After my presentation, when a few of my support group members were about to take their turn to speak to council, members who included former Councilor Sharlene Weed, Mayor Boyd "warned me that he would not tolerate unruly speech"...

neither myself nor any of my supporters have ever been unruly or made the slightest off-color statement in any presentation to council during the history of this issue; there was simply no merit to Mayor Boyd's concern.

I was there to plead my case to council that the cost of having to move the buildings for the two months between permit terms would likely cause Wild Mountain to fail. That the order essentially left me with the choice of complying with the order to move the buildings or keep my bills paid. If Wild Mountain fails, it takes with it two seasonal full-time jobs in the summer.

Both myself and several other people present in the room were shocked by our new mayor's attitude. Is this conduct by our new mayor representative of what we as citizens of Sisters can expect of him for the next two years? Where as citizens we are allowed to speak as long as Mayor Boyd approves of what we want to say during civil discourse? In a word, this is called "censoring."

Ky Karnecki