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