City snapshot — body cams, paths

• Deschutes County Sheriff’s Lt. Chad Davis reported to the Sisters City Council that summer bike patrols will resume in town as the weather improves and tourist season kicks off. In the next two weeks, local officers will receive training on the wearing and use of body cameras and they should be in use in the community within three weeks. The Sisters substation is slated to take delivery of two new Dodge Durango SUVs, which will be equipped with in-car video cameras.

• In honor of the City of Sisters 75th Anniversary of incorporation, as well as Arbor Day — and acknowledging the City’s status of Tree City USA for 14 consecutive years — the City, in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, has donated 75 Ponderosa seedlings to Sisters Middle School to be planted by students around Sisters Country.

• The City was awarded $100,000 in grant funds from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Small City Allotment (SCA) program to construct a multi-use path along the west side of North Pine Street from West Main Avenue north to the city limits.

The project includes construction of an eight-foot-wide concrete sidewalk from Main Avenue to Adams Avenue, which will be consistent with sidewalks in the downtown core.

From Adams north to the city limits, an eight-foot asphalt multi-use path will be constructed, including ADA-compliant curb ramps, crosswalks, striping, and signage.

Due to the lack of street lighting on North Pine Street, bollard lighting will be added to the path.

$175,000 was budgeted in FY 2021-22 for the project, of which $100,000 will be reimbursed through the ODOT SCA grant program.

• To ensure that any unforeseen problems with the Locust Street sewer line relocation project will be appropriately handled by a crew familiar with all the permits required and the many conditions that must be met, the City has approved a contract change order to Hickman, Williams and Associates, Inc. in the amount not to exceed $14,950 for technical support services associated with the project.

The company is creating the design for the project which will lower the water in Whychus Creek, collect fish in the creek, and install the new pipeline under the creek bed, before restoring the flow of the creek. This project is a long-range solution to an ongoing concern regarding possible damage to the exposed sewer line on the upstream side of the Locust Street bridge.

• The camp hosts at Creekside Campground are now in place for the summer through the middle of October.

• Public Works Director Paul Bertagna announced that the biosolids removal project at the City’s sewage-treatment plant is now complete. The biosolids were trucked to the City-owned portion of the Lazy Z Ranch, where they were spread over the ground. A contracted farmer will come in and till the biosolids into the soil, roll it, and seed it. Bertagna also said that the construction of the pump house at Well #4, located in the east end of the Creekside Campground, is well underway, with parts scheduled to arrive by the end of May.