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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2015)
Sisters explores bike park concept page 7 Local artists to light a fire in Winterfest competition page 20 The Nugget Vol. XXXVIII No. 5 Council sets goals; outreach at top of list page 21 P OSTAL CUSTOMER News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon www.NuggetNews.com Wednesday, February 4, 2015 Demo work... Senior living facility to break ground Ageia Health Services, a local Central Oregon com- pany, is set to break ground on a new senior living center at The McKenzie Meadows Village in Sisters this spring. The planned facility is located along McKinney Butte Road in the vicinity of Sisters Middle School. It is not related to the recently approved 82-room assisted- living facility to be built on 7.2 acres of the “Carpenter property” just south of the post office, between Locust and Larch streets. Sisters hiker found dead photo by Jim Cornelius darryl tewalt’s crew dismantled and cleared a house on adams avenue that dated to the 1940s. See FaCIlIty on page 24 Correspondent Seven students ages 6 to 18 and seven adults, includ- ing Sisters teachers Heather Johnson, Gail Greaney, and Casey Pallister, will travel to the Good Samaritan School in Masaka, Uganda, on March 20 to deliver assistance to their “sister school.” Osborn Muyanja, direc- tor and founder of the Good Samaritan School in Masaka, Uganda, visited the Sisters High School (SHS) health classroom last February to share the story of his upbring- ing and how he started a school for 17 orphans under a tree. There are now 1,300 stu- dents at the Masaka School. He also shared the cul- tural, socioeconomic, and health differences of his Inside... A Sisters man died Sat- urday, January 31, due to an apparent medical problem while hiking about 10 miles south of town in the Three Creeks Road Area. According to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, depu- ties responded at about 8:36 p.m. to a report of an overdue hiker from Sisters. The hiker, James Holcomb, age 70, was reported by his family to be hiking in the area of the U.S. Forest Service 1514 Road, near the 980 Spur Road. Holcomb went hiking by himself and was prepared for the weather with the proper clothing, a charged cell phone, and supplies to be hiking in winter conditions. Holcomb See HIKER on page 8 Project Uganda team to promote health By Jodi Schneider McNamee PRE-SORTED STANDARD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sisters, OR Permit No. 15 students compared to the stu- dents in the U.S. His visit had a profound effect on health teacher Heather Johnson and her students. The high school health students began to come up with creative ideas to pro- vide aid for their “sister” school. Sisters High School students knew that $1 a day could provide education, one meal, and medicine to their “sister” student. Their “Walk to Water” fundraising event brought $7,000 for medical and nutritional relief to the 1,300 Ugandan students. “This was a soul-shifting experience for many students in the Sisters School Dis- trict,” Johnson said. “Acts of service beyond our dreams, and still their ideas and See UgaNda on page 25 Father and son take Baja race trophy By Jim Cornelius News Editor Roaring engines. Cheering spectators crowding the race route shrouded in clouds of Baja California dust. A father seeing his son cross the fin- ish line a champion. It was an exhilarating moment in time for Greg Willitts and his son Gabe, as they rode across the rugged Baja terrain to victory in the Sportsman’s Motorcycle Class in the SCORE International San Felipe 250 on January 24. Eighteen-year-old Gabe Willitts joined his dad and teammates Marc Jenkins and Matt Ladendorf in the demanding event, which tests mental and physical resilience and the ability to improvise mechanic work in the field just as much as it does the ability to handle a motorcycle. “One bike starts and stops,” Greg Willitts said. photo provided greg and gabe Willitts, with two teammates, won the San Felipe 250 motorcycle race in Baja California. “That’s kind of the complex- ity of the race. If you have a (mechanical) problem, you all have to repair it before you go on. You have to trust each rider to have the same knowledge … and not ride it hard enough that you break it permanently.” A veteran racer, Greg pulled off a clever bit of field-expedient mechanical repair in this 250-mile race. A vent hose broke, spraying Willitts with fuel and threaten- ing to run his bike dry before he got to a pit stop. He found a lonely piece of brush and broke off a stick and jammed it in the hole, stopping the See BaJa RaCE on page 30 Editorial/Weather .............. 2 Letters to the Editor ........... 6 Announcements ................12 Valentine’s Day ............ 15-17 Classifieds .................. 27-29 Meetings ........................... 3 Sisters Salutes .................. 8 Movies & Entertainment ....13 Crossword ....................... 26 Real Estate .................29-32