City plans infrastructure 2025 work

The City of Sisters has an ambitious menu of projects for 2025 with a price tag of around $8 million. The largest, at $2.2 million, is known as the Westside Pump Station and Force Main Improvements Project which will take until spring of 2026 to complete.

While this project will be largely invisible to the public once finished, it will cause some traffic disruption on Pine Street and Jefferson Avenue during construction.

The majority of spending surrounds sewer and water infrastructure.

“None of this is very glamorous,” said Bill Kelly, Chair of the Public Works Advisory Committee. “It’s the nuts and bolts and stuff that everybody takes for granted — running water and flushing toilets.”

This project, like some others, is predicated on growth in Sisters.

“Some of the existing systems are approaching capacity and require upgrades,” Public Works Director, Paul Bertagna, told The Nugget.

The East Portal Mobility hub, a $920,000 project of which $880,000 is grant funded, has gone into hiatus for the winter and will resume in the spring.

The most visible project is the permanent art for the Locust Street roundabout (see story, page 8). That’s $175,000 but the surrounding landscaping is budgeted at $225,000. That work cannot come soon enough citizens routinely say.

Likewise, there has been expectation that improvements to the Barclay Drive bypass would have already been started or completed to coincide with the roundabout’s opening last October. It’s a funding issue, Bertagna says, but the first phase between Locust and Larch with its $1 million price tag should be completed by summer 2025.

There are also the ongoing projects most noticeably street maintenance. $200,000 will be spent for pavement overlays with work starting in spring after the snow and thaw.

Longer term projects, with some planning work starting in 2025, include the expansion of the reservoir and improving the Lazy Z Ranch wastewater treatment scheme. The vision calls for an eventual 16-acre wetland, a forested area with ponds and streams, a viewpoint, and two to three miles of trails. That carries a price tag of almost $5 million.

A 45-acre wetlands version is projected to cost $6.5 million.

Obtaining an accurate number of Sisters’ population is elusive. The U.S. Census Bureau states it as 2,979 as of 2023 (released May 2024). The City says the number is 3,823. Portland State University claims the number in 2022 was 3,437 and projected to grow to 7,911 by 2047.

By any account, Sisters seems destined for steady increases, and Bertagna and his team are planning on a high level of growth and corresponding improvements or expansions to infrastructure.