10 Wednesday, February 25, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon LETTERS Continued from page 2 s s s To the Editor: I am not one to publicly express my opin- ion, however, Mr. Ken Serkownek, you evi- dently don’t know Mrs. Anttila, and have con- fused her with someone else. She has never written an editorial in The Nugget, has never said she is against trail projects, nor is she vitriolic or disrespectful. Quite the contrary, she is a woman of integ- rity, practices what she preaches, is prin- cipled, open-minded, thorough and brave. She has expressed one request since 2012, to allow Crossroads, and the Sisters community, an opportunity to comment on the proposed paved trail project. Leaders of the paved trail project described community input as “premature” in 2012, and “too late” in 2013. After recognizing process mistakes, the SHS-to-Crossroads project was dropped in June 2014. In September 2014, during the USFS paved trail “Open Objection Period” Mrs. Anttila commented; to allow everyone oppor- tunity to give input, not just one person or one group, to start the process over. She has never wavered from this same request. In October 2014, the Sisters District Ranger withdrew the Tollgate-to-BBR paved trail decision, the objection reviewing officer concurred, stating, a broader community-led process to identify desired trails would help the Forest Service proceed, with a clearer path to successful implementation of new non-motorized trails. I don’t believe that name-calling is a pro- active way to start a new trail process. Our public schools have a zero-tolerance on bul- lying and so should this community. I suggest those who continue to bully be recused from participating in the new community-led trail process. Rather than portray Mrs. Anttila as “vitri- olic,” disrespect Mr. Wertz, Mr. Fisher, and others who speak out, we should be thank- ful and acknowledge these courageous peo- ple who still defend our basic Constitutional rights, private property and due process, even when it’s not popular. While my mom enjoys hikes, is an advo- cate for a healthy forest environment and has always been fond of Smoky the Bear, she is an even greater supporter of honesty, responsibil- ity, and respect. My mom is a leader, realistic and someone to look up to. I personally believe that “if you don’t have something nice (or constructive) to say, don’t say anything at all.” Chelsea Anttila s s s To the Editor: Re: “Don’t fall for the grandparents scam,” The Nugget, February 18, page 7: Jim Cornelius’ article was spot-on for us, as we also had that experience last week ourselves. He’s right: the caller is very, very smooth and convincing. Ours too came from a grand- son surprisingly (but believably) in Mexico at “the consulate” but with jail an imminent prospect for drug possession. It went on for a few minutes, which gave us time to analyze the voice and consider what we were hearing. But before we got to the demand to wire money we both thought to ask some ques- tions. Jan asked to name his brother, for which the caller gave a name, but of course failed. It’s a very easy con, but one to also easily dismiss if you’re really aware. Frank Baldwin s s s To the Editor: Sisters City Council re: Food carts: Please provide an opportunity for the community to speak to you about this important issue. Please place it on the council agenda as a pub- lic hearing event so that the community will clearly know you WANT to hear from them. If improving public outreach is truly a goal of the council, this is one way of achieving it. By now you have had an opportunity to review the signatures on the petition pre- sented at the February 12 council meeting. You have also had an opportunity to review a legal opinion authored by Bend attorney Michael Peterkin. Even a casual reading of See LEttERS on page 13 Weather changing — but not much By Ron thorkildson Correspondent For the past two solid months a broad-scale weather pattern has been anchored over the U.S., causing nearly unprecedented warm and dry conditions in the west and extreme snow and cold in the eastern part of the country. A large bubble of warm air aloft has persisted along the west coast, pushing the jet stream far to the north into northern British Columbia and Alaska. On the backside of this ridge the jet stream then plunges southward, dragging with it bitterly cold air into the eastern third of the U.S. This weather pattern has occurred many times before, but it’s the extended duration that has captured the atten- tion of many. Drought con- ditions continue to worsen in California along with very low snowpacks, in some cases no snow, in the mountain west. Conversely, Boston, Massachusetts, has never before had this much snow in the month of February. Here in Sisters, January precipitation totals were two inches below normal, and a quarter of an inch short so far in February. December actually registered above normal precipitation lev- els, but warm temperatures caused most of it to fall as rain, even in the mountains. To date, February tem- peratures are a good seven degrees Fahrenheit above normal. The big question is how much longer will this warm, dry weather last? The hon- est answer is no one knows for sure. But early last week medium-range weather models were hinting that by March the strong ridge that’s been holding Pacific storm systems at bay might collapse and allow a more normal progression of low- pressure systems to approach from the west. Since then, however, most of the models are now suggesting that the ridge will maintain its amplitude but retrograde (shift west- ward) into the eastern Pacific Ocean. Should this hap- pen, Central Oregon would likely be subjected to minor amounts of precipitation as a weak system or two drops down from the north bringing much cooler tem- peratures and lower snow levels. By the end of the first week in March, the ridge may indeed break down, paving the way for more substantial moisture to over- spread the Pacific Northwest. The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting warm and dry conditions to persist through March. We keep you up-to-date every day! Become a fan to receive notifications of breaking news, events and more! Facebook.com/NuggetNews