Letters to the Editor 01/11/2017

To the Editor:

With the unprecedented snowfall we have recently received, I would like to send out a reminder to support the merchants of our beautiful town.

The businesses of Sisters rely heavily on the Christmas/New Year holiday time to generate revenue to help make it through the slower months of January and February. This year, with the early, repetitive, heavy snowfall, the commerce in Sisters has been greatly affected. I have talked with numerous business owners who are really struggling (and we've yet to even enter the "slow" time of the year).

We are so blessed to have such a diverse offering of high quality, eclectic, original, customer-service-oriented businesses in Sisters. I think most of us agree that these merchants greatly improve the quality of our lives, and we are thankful for them.

I would like to send out a reminder that even though it's cold, the snow berms are high, and it might sound appealing to snuggle in at home .... please support our local merchants. Buy a book, a cup of coffee, recreation equipment. Take a yoga class, pick up a nice bottle of wine, a piece of art, see a movie. Venture into a store you've never visited, buy a pair of boots, sign up for a gym membership ... the options are endless.

Remember, without you and your support, the merchants of Sisters aren't able to exist.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Jennifer McCrystal

s s s

To the Editor:

Wasn't it just a year or so ago that we had a big discussion, workshops, etc. about emergency preparedness in case of a tsunami on the coast? Well, we've been in an snow tsunami situation for the past week, with another week of snow coming at us, where the heck is the Red Cross or whoever is suppose to step up?

We have no ER in Sisters. That big St. Charles clinic sits empty after 5 o'clock on Fridays. There's no list of doctors/dentists/nurses/pharmacists who volunteer to be on call. No way to get a prescription filled for non-emergency but necessary problems. Sisters Drugstore and Bi-Mart pharmacies both close from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning.

My adult daughter had a tooth abscess on Saturday morning and has been in horrendous pain since. I can't even find my car under the snow and I'm certainly not going to risk driving into Bend or Redmond in these conditions. She's not bad enough off to call 911 to take her to the hospital, and too expensive for her anyway. She's new in town so doesn't have a regular dentist, nor can she afford one.

Talking about it on Facebook brought up another person with the exact same painful dental problem and plenty of suggestions from people who had similar problems in the past, most of which would require me uncovering my car and driving to a store. We're doing all we can with what we have, but really, people, we need an emergency plan in place for just these kinds of bad weather situations when things inevitably go wrong.

Diane Goble

s s s

To the Editor:

Long icicles on too many of our homes give reason for concern.

Beyond the typical problems (spikes falling on heads, growing ice mounds underfoot, gutters slowly pried from eaves), icicles blatantly advertise heat loss through the roof via poor insulation or air leakage. Heat that's allowed to bypass the thermal enclosure then warms the underside of our cold roof deck, melting snow above just long enough to reach the eaves where air exposure invites the snowmelt to freeze again into stalactites. On a cliff they're beautiful; on a home it's a sign of waste.

You won't see icicles along unheated garages (for lack of a temperature differential), or along any of our better-built homes where the builder, insulation subcontractor, or inspector took proper care. I, too, now confront a wall of ice outside the door of our new townhouse. (Note to self: request a HERS rating before buying a home.)

Unfortunately, the story gets a bit worse. Our warm, conditioned air has greater capacity to carry humidity from showers, cooking, respiration and indoor plants. When it escapes through thermal leaks and cools at the roof deck, relative humidity rapidly spikes and hits the dew point (since the cold air's carrying capacity for vapor plummets), leaving condensation on the underside of the plywood. Water condensate in concealed building assemblies with poor chance of drying plus an abundance of organic cellulose leads to mold spores and the accelerated deterioration of our homes, which might otherwise last a century - but for these and other avoidable reasons typically don't.

On the brighter side, large icicles can motivate homeowners to call energy auditors to recommend solutions, and builders to improve their sustainability practices. Knowing how to interpret icicles helps us appreciate energy-efficient homes that have none. After all, we are in this together.

Michael Grant