8
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
drunk driving
blamed in
wreck on
Highway 20
A head-on crash on Hwy.
20 west of Sisters blocked the
roadway for several hours on
Thursday, June 18.
Oregon State Police
Troopers and emergency per-
sonnel responded at about
6:47 p.m., to the report of a
two-vehicle, head-on crash
on Hwy. 20 near Milepost 80.
Preliminary informa-
tion indicates a 2001 Subaru
Outback was traveling west-
bound on Hwy. 20 when it
lost control and crossed the
centerline, striking a 2005
Chevy Trailblazer head-on.
The operator of the Subaru,
Cody D. Oxford, age 24, had
life-threatening injuries and
was taken by air ambulance
to St. Charles in Bend.
The operator and passen-
ger of the Chevy, Roy Wright,
age 42, and Lauren Wright,
age 40, both of Springfield
were taken by ground ambu-
lance to St. Charles Bend
with serious injuries.
It was determined through
the investigation: Oxford was
intoxicated and subsequently
cited for DUII, reckless driv-
ing, two counts of recklessly
endangering and two counts
of assault. Both directions of
Highway 20 were closed for
two hours while the investi-
gation was conducted.
FACILITy: Commission
gave nod to plan
changes
Continued from page 1
Plan, to accommodate the site
plan’s shifting of the location
of buildings by more than 25
feet from where the buildings
were originally approved to
be located.
Sounds simple enough.
But the June 18 public hearing
on the matter was anything
but routine.
A little history on the
MMV project is needed to put
the proceedings in context.
According to local builder
Curt Kallberg, one of the
three local family partners
who own the land, dreamed of
providing housing for Sisters
seniors 15 years ago when
the land lay outside the Urban
Growth Boundary. The Reed,
Kallberg, and Willitts families
sought and won a vote of the
Sisters populace to bring the
property inside the city limits.
The property was annexed
into the city in 2006 and plan-
ning began for a development
that would include a senior
living facility, a one-acre park
in the center of the devel-
opment, low-income senior
apartments, some single-fam-
ily housing, cottages designed
for independent seniors, and
a clubhouse that would serve
multiple purposes for the
residents of both the develop-
ment and the greater Sisters
community. The southwest
SISTERS
GARAGE DOORS
Sales • Service • Installation
Residential • Commercial
Broken Spring
Specialist
Dale Lester
Heads or Tails…
You Lose
CCB#151832
541-815-1523
corner of the property was
donated for the construction
of the school-based health
clinic, which now occupies
that space.
Two of the stipulations
attached to the property in
2009, when there was an
annexation agreement for the
senior living center, directed
that one in every 10 hous-
ing units would have to be
affordable housing and the
senior living center had to
be constructed and open for
occupancy before any other
construction could begin in
the development. The master
plan for the entire MMV was
approved in 2010.
Negotiations took place
with Yakima businessman
Mark Adolf of Pinnacle
Alliance Group to build the
senior living center, and in
2011 Adolf’s site plan was
approved by the City. Due
to Adolf’s inability to secure
financing for the project,
the property owners granted
repeated extensions on his
contract, being assured that
Adolf would successfully
acquire the financing. After
three years’ delay due to
lack of adequate finances,
the contract with Adolf was
terminated.
Bend resident Kevin
Cox, owner of Ageia Health
Services, who has built and
successfully operates six
senior living facilities, came
forward with a proposal to
build the MMV facility. In
the meantime, Adolf applied
to the City for permits to
Year-round
FIREWOOD
SALES
— Kindling —
—
—
SISTERS
FOREST PRODUCTS
541-410-4509
SistersForestProducts.com
Loaner Cars
Deductible Assistance
Windshield Replacement
541-549-DENT
5
4 1 5 4 9 D E N T
332 W. Barclay Dr., Sisters
Try Our Famous
Fish & Chips!
Choice of
Halibut
or Cod
Cut in-house.
Homemade
coleslaw!
Breakfast & lunch 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Full-service dining in the bar
nightly until 10 p.m. (21 & over)
171 W. Cascade Ave., Sisters | 541-549-2631
build his facility on the empty
property adjacent to the post
office, between Larch and
Locust streets.
The Planning Commission
easily and quickly approved
Adolf’s application. Despite
having the green light for
his project, Adolf has not yet
begun construction.
Adolf informed The
Nugget on June 12 that he has
secured the land on which to
build his proposed facility.
We’re ready to break
ground as soon as
we’ve got a schedule.
— Mark adolf
“Yes, we closed on the
land,” he said. “Deed is
recorded.”
Given Adolf’s inability to
secure financing when he was
working with MMV, questions
have been raised as to whether
he has the financial backing to
complete the project. In an
interview with Nugget edi-
tor Jim Cornelius last month,
Adolf identified some local
individuals as investors, but
he declined to identify his pri-
mary financial backers, saying
that they are a private group
that prefers to remain private.
“They don’t want to be
disclosed,” he said. “Money’s
in the bank and that’s the key
thing.”
He offered assurances that
the project will get off the
ground and will be built.
“We’re ready to break
ground as soon as we’ve got a
schedule,” he said last month.
In the meantime, Adolf has
been deeply involved in the
land-use process regarding the
MMV project.
At last week’s Planning
Commission meeting, this
issue came to a head when the
approvals for MMV were on
the agenda.
Darcy Reed, associate
planner for the City, made
the staff presentation to the
commissioners, reviewing
the master plan modifica-
tion request and site plan for
the new project. Changes
were made to the original
site plan to accommodate the
new building proposed by
Cox. Those changes involved
access to the property from
McKinney Butte, moving a
number of parking spaces
back behind the building, and
the location of the building on
the site.
Given the change of cir-
cumstances since the issuance
of the original approval, staff
believed it was desirable to
approve the requested modi-
fications. The building itself
will be over 46,000 square
feet, with 34 parking stalls,
eight bike spaces, with trash/
recycling enclosures.
Staff reported that after
providing a Type 2 review, the
project meets the criteria of
code, several conditions have
See facIlIty on page 14
“The only person you are destined
to become is the person you
decide to be.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dr. ponnie Malone, DC
Sisters Chiropractic Clinic • 16190 Hwy. 126, Sisters • 541-549-7141
Serving Sisters for 33 Years