News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Cheryl Pellerin got interested in participating in city government when Sisters faced a controversy over the citing of a shelter in town last year.
"I was pretty interested in how the City was going to handle this," she recalled.
Cheryl Pellerin is involved in her community - including volunteering with Sisters Habitat for Humanity. She is running for Sisters City Council in the November 5 election.
She started learning about the processes of local government - and found herself hooked. Soon, she was serving on the City of Sisters Budget Committee, and the Urban Forestry Board. She participated in the City's inaugural Civic Leadership Academy, which aimed at developing citizens understanding of local government and civic leadership. She said she greatly enjoyed the camaraderie of the academy.
Now, Pellerin is among the five citizens running for one of the three available seats on the Sisters City Council.
"I'm very committed to my community, and I have the time and the skills and I care about the people here," she said.
Pellerin worked as an IT developer before moving into project management, which developed a skillset she believes is directly applicable in local government: planning, risk analysis, budgeting, and collaboration.
"I'm not a risk taker," she said with a smile. "I don't like risk. Anything I can do to mitigate it, I'll take it."
Pellerin sees a key role for city government in mitigating fire risk.
"It's a huge risk for our town," she said.
The City is working on updating codes to "harden" the most at-risk areas of the community against wildfire. And Pellerin wants to make sure that citizens know what to do in the event of a wildfire intruding into the community. She wants to see the City Council form a committee solely devoted to mitigating wildfire risk and impact.
Pellerin said she has been doing a lot of listening to community members and prospective voters.
"Our citizens have great ideas. They don't want to lose the small town feel," she said. "And that's where you get into growth."
The City is currently in the midst of a state-mandated process to expand its urban growth boundary. Pellerin sees growth as inevitable - and not necessarily contrary to small town values. Planning is essential to keeping growth aligned with the community's sense of itself.
"That's just a commitment on our part," she said "To retain that neighborly relationship. You don't have to lose it with growth."
Pellerin believes that city government is catching up to the need to address the problem of housing affordability in Sisters. She wants to look beyond simply creating housing and getting people into it.
"I want to be a little more forward-looking on affordable housing," she said. "I want to work on affordable living."
By that she means promoting sustainability, including the means to maintain a home.
"It costs a lot to live in a house," she said. "Getting into it is one thing. Then you have to maintain it."
Pellerin and her husband moved to Sisters six years ago.
"I kept reading articles about Central Oregon when I looked up best places to retire," she said.
Sisters stood out as the kind of community where she wants to be.
Pellerin operates the non-profit Romeo's Joy, which provides Sisters-area residents who are at risk of social isolation with interactive animatronic dogs, cats, or birds for companionship.
She enjoys pickleball, poker, and yoga.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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