Ballot features local issues, candidates

The ballots for the November 6 mid-term election, which will soon be showing up in Sisters mailboxes, feature several local matters.

Voters inside the city limits of Sisters will decide whether they want to allow recreational marijuana-related businesses in town. Residents of the city of Sisters will have the opportunity to vote on two related questions: Whether or not marijuana-related businesses should be allowed in Sisters; and whether or not the City shall impose a three percent tax on marijuana sales, if the businesses are allowed.

Planners and Sisters City Councilors have already worked up rules to govern such commerce, should the referendum pass.

In preparation for the general election results in November, the City Council and Planning Commission over the past year have both conducted public hearings and numerous work sessions on the TPM issues for marijuana sales, production, and processing.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the draft time, place and manner (TPM) text amendments to the Development Code for marijuana-related businesses on October 18, 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Three seats on the Sisters City Council will be filled in this election. Michael Preedin and incumbents Richard Esterman and Nancy Connolly are each running, and since there are three candidates for three seats, each is effectively unopposed. The only question to be decided in the election is which candidate will receive the most votes, which will give him or her a four-year term, while the other two posts will carry a two-year term. (See related stories page 13 and page 11.)

Two Deschutes County Commission seats are contested. Democrat Amy Lowes is running to unseat incumbent Republican Tony DeBone for Position 1 on the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners, while Democrat James Cook and Republican Patti Adair are vying for Position 3. Adair, a Sisters resident, defeated incumbent Tammy Baney in the Republican primary last spring. (See related stories, page 19 and page 6.)

Ballots may be returned to the Deschutes County Clerk via mail or turned in at a secure ballot drop location at Sisters City Hall.