Many hiking options in
Canyon Creek Meadows page 11
Sisters Country
birds page 18
The Nugget
Vol. XXXVIII No. 31
Library art show
is a ‘zoo’ page 21
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Signing
on for a
tough job
in Sisters
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Competing for fitness championship...
New
councilor
takes seat
at City Hall
By Jim Cornelius
By sue stafford
News Editor
Correspondent
With three Sisters city
councilors stepping down
over the space of four months
and high turnover on the
Sisters Planning Commission,
City officials are considering
what it takes to attract and
retain qualified people to step
into these volunteer positions
in a challenging environment
— and stay through thick and
thin.
“The biggest thing is we
have to be up-front with
people that apply for the
position(s) — that it’s a tough
job,” said Mayor Chris Frye.
“It’s not a lot of pats on the
back.”
Meetings can be long and
contentious, and councilors
and planning commission-
ers sometimes have to wade
Amy Burgstahler, the new-
est member of the Sisters City
Council, is also relatively
new to Sisters. She, her hus-
band, Darin, and their 8-year-
old son, Quinn, chose to live
in Sisters when they relocated
from Tulsa, Oklahoma, a little
over a year ago.
Burgstahler was selected
by the Council to fill the seat
left vacant with the resigna-
tion of Bill Hall.
Burgstahler, a graduate of
the University of Oklahoma
at Norman with a major
in journalism and profes-
sional writing, is a native of
Oklahoma, who has also lived
and worked in California and
Ohio as well as her home
state.
She brings to her position
photo by emily Green
logan schutte cleaned and jerked 275 pounds at the level 5 summer games (see story, page 4).
See tough JoB on page 24
See CouNCIlor on page 20
Taking the community
pulse on a roundabout
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
Gary Farnsworth, area
manager for Region 4 of
the Oregon Department of
Transportation, has been talk-
ing to a lot of people in Sisters
Country in recent weeks.
From sitting down with citi-
zens and business owners to
speaking to service clubs,
Farnsworth has been talking
about a proposed roundabout
at the intersection of Barclay
Drive and Highway 20.
But more than talking,
Farnsworth has been doing a
Inside...
lot of listening.
“I have to be willing to
listen and absorb and learn
things,” he told The Nugget
last week.
What he’s learned is that
there’s considerable support
for a roundabout, some oppo-
sition — and a lot of folks
who have concerns and ques-
tions. He’s done his best to
address those concerns and
questions in an outreach effort
that is unusual for a major
state agency.
“ODOT’s done, to my
See rouNdABout on page 14
Project is transforming creek
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
Sometimes it takes a lot of
human intervention to make
things natural.
That’s what work crews
are up to over about 176
acres of woods along Forest
Service Road 16 south of
Sisters. Now that Whychus
Creek runs unfettered by irri-
gation dams, work crews are
spending the summer helping
Mother Nature create new,
more natural stream channels
and creating in-stream habitat
with logs and gravel to make
miles of stream more hospi-
table to fish.
They’ll also be replacing
photo by Jim Cornelius
An excavator sets a log in an in-stream structure that creates natural flow
and fish habitat in Whychus Creek.
the pedestrian bridge over
Whychus Creek at the old
Brooks-Scanlon Road.
The whole area is closed,
with access roads gated and
blocked off to prevent private
See WhyChus on page 7
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Obituaries ......................... 9 Announcements ................12 At Your Service............. 15-17 Classifieds ..................26-28
Meetings ........................... 3 Hike ..................................11 Movies & Entertainment ....13 Crossword ....................... 25 Real Estate .................28-32