Letters to the Editor 01/29/2014

To the Editor:

Shame on you, Mr. Mayor and city council members and administrator. If the decisions you made in regard to the Marlow property are any indication of the decisions you will make in the future, heaven help us all.

I can't believe thinking adults would pull a stunt such as that in that you would rather dig up fresh cement and blacktop and surround the area by yellow police tape and leave it sit there unusable by anybody, rather than admit you made a mistake (or two mistakes) and do the right thing.

The right thing would have been to buy the property from the rightful owner and leave it paved and cemented. When you make two mistakes in a row and think the end results is good for the City of Sisters then you need to step down from your position and take a hard look at what you have created ... a useless piece of street on Main Avenue that you can neither park on, ride on, or walk on and it cost the taxpayers money in all instances, in court costs, labor and material and created a problem for the real property owner.

The mentality of such a decision is beyond belief.

Diana Raske Lovgren

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To the Editor:

As further support for my thoughts re: an enclosed theatre located on the U.S. Forest Service property versus the city's suggestion of an open arena (in an area which would destroy the value of current housing surrounding it), I would like to refer to my current reading: The book is entitled "The Metropolitan Revolution" by Katz and Bradley, and it describes the work done by several of America's large cities to solve their economic problems.

I quote from one such effort: "Too many metropolitan areas believe that a stadium (or convention center) by itself can be an economic engine. That is rarely the case after an initial burst of construction. More often than not actual economic benefits fall short of expectations; the stadium winds up being an economic drag on the state or local budgets."

This would definitely be the case in an open area with Sisters' weather. It is my belief that an enclosed theatre, "Sisters Cultural Center," located in an appropriate area such as the U.S. Forest Service property, properly coordinating all of the local sources - Black Butte Ranch, Crossroads, Tollgate, Indian Ford, local contractors and industry - would result in a strong support, even to the point of a small local tax. One of the companies in the book, itself supporting such effort, stated, "Expect more amazing things, because we all believe that working together achieves greatness."

Don't underestimate your area, Mr. Mayor - let's get us ALL together and see what happens!

Russell B. Williams