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Wednesday, October 14, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
To the Editor:
Thank you for your thoughtful editorial in last week’s
Nugget, “An Acceptable Level of Mayhem?” (The Nugget,
October 7, page 2). I agree wholeheartedly that there are com-
monsense steps we can take as a country to reduce gun violence
significantly and that “we can balance rights with responsibili-
ties, liberty with security.”
You mentioned Switzerland as an example of a country with
a high level of gun ownership and not much gun violence com-
pared to the U.S. Switzerland is actually a good example for the
argument for stricter gun laws. The U.S. has approximately 88
guns per 100 residents. Switzerland has approximately half of
that with 45 guns per 100 residents (ranked 4th behind Serbia
and Yemen). Keep in mind that the 45 guns per 100 Swiss resi-
dents includes the personal weapons of the militia and these
weapons are highly regulated. Also, the ammunition for each
weapon is not kept in the home but in a military armory, except
for about 2,000 specialists who protect certain sensitive areas
such as airports. Each member of the military is required to
undergo annual mandatory training.
Interestingly, the majority of private citizen gun owners who
are not in the militia (about 25 guns per 100 households) do
not own guns for self-defense. In fact, getting a permit to own
a gun for self-defense is extremely hard to obtain. You have to
prove that your life is in immediate danger and no other defense
possibilities exit.
Terry Weygandt
Bluesman Salgado
headed to Sisters
Legendary bluesman Curtis
Salgado will play The Belfry
in Sisters on Saturday, October
17. Doors open at 7 p.m. show
starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are
available at bendticket.com
for $20 or at the door for $25.
Salgado sings and plays
with soulful authority, never
giving less than 100 percent.
He plays each and every show
like it’s the most important
gig of his career. He recalls
the time when his friend, the
great chitlin’ circuit singer
Buddy Ace, put on the show
of his life, singing his heart
out, making three costume
changes, all while playing at a
casual house party.
Salgado was floored.
“I was just there playing
with my band, hanging out
in cut-offs and a T-shirt, and
there’s Buddy treating the gig
the same as if he was perform-
ing at the Apollo,” he said.
From that moment on,
Curtis vowed that every time
he got on stage he would
deliver his very best shot.
TUP ball is back in City’s court
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
A dustup over the applica-
tion for a temporary-use per-
mit (TUP) for proposed events
on a vacant lot in Sisters is
back in the City of Sisters’
court. The Oregon Land Use
Board of Appeals (LUBA)
remanded the matter — in
part — back to the Sisters City
Council for more work.
Controversy over the mat-
ter arose when Celia Hung
and/or Richard Esterman
sought a temporary-use per-
mit to host events on a vacant
lot that Hung had leased on
the corner of Cascade Avenue
and Oak Street. The City ulti-
mately granted the TUP, but
with conditions that Hung
and Esterman did not accept.
They petitioned LUBA for a
ruling on the matter, which
was handed down earlier this
month.
There were several points
of contention and argument.
LUBA sent the matter back
to the City on the question
of whether Esterman’s TUP
would qualify his events as
“special events” under City
definitions and whether event
vendors should be eligible
for transient merchant license
(TML) fee waivers.
“If the City wishes to take
the position that Special Event
TML Fee Waiver does not
apply to petitioners’ vendors,
simply because petitioners
have now secured a TUP, it
needs to (1) more clearly take
that position in its decision,
and (2) adopt interpretive find-
ings to explain why the City
Council believes TUPs do not
SISTERS
GARAGE DOORS
qualify as ‘special-event per-
mits’…” LUBA ruled.
“On remand the City
Council must consider
whether petitioner Esterman’s
business license as an ‘event
coordinator’ qualifies as a
‘special-event permit’ so that
the TML fee waiver ... applies
to petitioners’ vendors, and
adopt findings to explain its
position on that issue.”
I would think that
they’d still have to
uphold and do the TUP...
—Richard Esterman
There was also a disagree-
ment over when the time lim-
its of a TUP should come into
effect. LUBA partially sided
with Esterman and Hung on
the matter, noting that “The
express language of (the
development code) allows
the authorized period of up
to 180 days to begin and end
any time within a 365-day
period.” However, that point
was not regarded as a basis for
a remand to the City.
The effect of the remand
is not clear, since the City of
Sisters is currently involved
in an overhaul of its code for
handling all kinds of events
and transient business activity
(see related story, page 12).
“That’s a good question,”
Community Development
Director Patrick Donovan said
when queried about the effect
of the LUBA ruling. “That’s
an interesting scenario there.
I don’t know how that’s going
to work now.”
Richard Esterman told The
Nugget that his position is
that he should still be able to
obtain the TUP he and Hung
originally applied for, regard-
less code changes that may
eliminate the TUP. After that
TUP expires, he would then be
under whatever new rules end
up being adopted.
“I would think that they’d
still have to uphold and do the
TUP, since it went through the
(LUBA) process,” Esterman
said. “That needs to be grand-
fathered in, otherwise this
whole thing doesn’t make
sense.”
There is another issue
that is yet to be resolved.
Hung paid $15,600 in tran-
sient vendor fees assessed
for Esterman’s Sisters Artists
Marketplace held on Quilt
Show weekend in 2014. That
event was not held under the
TUP. She did this rather than
add that charge to the fees
already being charged for
booth space.
The legal question of
whether those fees were prop-
erly assessed or should have or
could have been waived was
set aside pending the LUBA
decision.
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