Letters to the Editor 2/15/2023

New gas station

To the Editor:

The new gas station proposal as explained in The Nugget (“Changes coming to Cascade Avenue,” 02/01 edition) is unjustified. Sisters does not need 16 new gas pumps and a 3,500- sq.-ft. convenience store where the present-day Space Age is located. What an eyesore this would be for the city.

Why the complete demolition of an existing gas station (six pumps) and general store/taco stand, Richard’s Farmstand, and C&C Nursery for 16 new gas pumps and a convenience store?

Present gas pumps and convenience stores in Sisters include the following:

• Pacific Pride — 16 pumps.

• Chevron — eight pumps/Sisters Mainline Station convenience store.

• Space Age Fuel — four pumps and two diesel pumps/general store/tacos.

• Sinclair — eight pumps/Dino Mart convenience store/3 Sisters Fuel Stop mini-mart

• 76/Sisters Pumphouse —13 pumps/country store.

At some point Sisters (situated along Highway 20 and Highway 242) will need to have more EV charging stations, not more gas pumps. Oregon has become the fifth state to require that all new cars sold within its borders be emissions-free by 2035, which is only 12 years away. The State’s Environmental Quality Commission voted in December 2022 to enact new standards that will ban the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by that date. Please think about the future.

There are already five convenience stores along Cascade Avenue within a few blocks of each other. In addition, Dollar General is located nearby on McKinney Butte Road. The Planning Commission should consider building something attractive that will welcome visitors and the community, not a new gas station and convenience store.

J.M. Lindquist

Some very thoughtful articles

To the Editor:

Some very thoughtful articles, commentary, and letters in the most recent issue of The Nugget regarding a number of subjects of interest.

Let me add a thought to those writing in opposition to the proposed 16-pump gas station on the west end of town. Allowing this station to be built will add an additional 12 pumps to fill cars with fossil fuels to further pollute the air with greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming.

Eugene has recently agreed to put a stop to building houses with polluting appliances. Sisters could do its part to curtail the creation of such gases by not approving the application to construct this gas station in our community.

Roger Detweiler

Chinese balloon

To the Editor:

Regarding the Jim Cornelius February 8 article, “Scientist weighs in on balloon,” I sure feel better now that Steven Peterzen has let us all know that there is nothing to see here. Whoopsie!

The massive Chinese “research” balloon got off course, honest (the CCP told us so)! So common this is! Just “a bunch of students sitting in Beijing saying, ‘Oh (expletive deleted) we just lost our jobs.’”

Those crazy kids! Right.? What a great comfort it is to have heard from this scientist expert on the CCP’s spy surveillance technology! Thankfully, he has weighed in to let us know that we can all go back to sleep or get back to our “TikTok” app.

Whew! I was concerned that even if the balloon was “off course” that it was still an incursion into our nation’s sovereign airspace by an adversary Communist nation that has expansion and invasion of Taiwan in its future plans.

Not to mention stealing U.S. technologies, buying up farmland near sensitive U.S. military sites, infiltrating universities, Fang Fang-ing a certain congressman along with compromising other elected officials (Senator Feinstein’s Chinese spy-chauffeur, etc.), producing and releasing enough fentanyl to kill every American, cracking down on Christian missionaries and “re-educating” Uyghurs in prison camps.

A dictatorial regime that mercilessly locks down its own people, even killing beloved pets during the Wuhan COVID pandemic panic that they themselves created and unleashed on the world.

I sure am glad that Mr. Peterzen knows that those innocent “students” weren’t trying to “tickle our feet,” and even if they were, it wouldn’t be “worth an international incident.”

So, sit back America and enjoy not only the loss of your border sovereignty, but our airspace as well! I think Mr. Peterzen comes off as naive, possibly listening too closely to the unserious Biden Administration and its enablers.

Cynthia Schlemlein

Growth for the sake of growth

To the Editor: