Marshall retires
after 44 years page 10
Girls tennis doubles
team earns win page 20
The Nugget
Vol. XXXIX No. 14
Sisters Country birds:
Great blue heron page 24
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Starry Nights goes back to the future
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
The Sisters Starry Nights
concert series, which has
raised over $1 million for the
Sisters Schools Foundation
over nearly 20 years, came
full circle Sunday night.
The inaugural Starry
Nights performer, Karla
Bonoff, took the stage at The
Belfry for an intimate evening
of song. Her first appearance
on the Starry Nights stage
was in 1997, the year that
Starry Nights was formed to
raise funds to preserve pro-
grams in the face of budget
cuts.
“To put it in perspective,
I wasn’t even born in 1997,”
said Sisters High School
senior Maggie Bidasolo, who
was master of ceremonies for
the event.
Bidasolo noted that
Sunday evening’s event was
the 39th Starry Nights show,
the second held at The Belfry.
Funds raised through the
concerts — in which the per-
formers donate their time and
talents to the cause — have
provided everything “from
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
Council
reviews
manager
report
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
— grateful for “community
caring and commitment.”
In her fourth Starry
Nights appearance, Bonoff
transitioned seamlessly
between acoustic guitar and
The Sisters City Council
reviewed an investiga-
tor’s report regarding work-
place issues concerning City
Manager Andrew Gorayeb in
executive session on Monday.
By statute, executive ses-
sions held for such person-
nel matters are closed. Media
may attend in an observer’s
role but are enjoined from
reporting on the session.
Mayor Chris Frye and
City Attorney Steve Bryant
told The Nugget that Gorayeb
remains on paid adminis-
trative leave while the City
Council conducts its review.
The Council received the
report late last week from an
independent investigation
into employee complaints.
See sTARRy on page 29
See GoRAyeB on page 29
photo by DIANE SILLAN ISAACS
Karla Bonoff and Nina Gerber offered up an evening of song at The Belfry.
a pitching mound to a saxo-
phone,” Bidasolo noted.
The concert series is run
by volunteers, including co-
chairs Jeri Fouts, Novella
Swisher and Susan Arends.
Schools Superintendent Curt
Scholl noted, “These kinds of
community partnerships and
events are what make Sisters
special.”
Bidasolo concurred, not-
ing that “I would not trade
growing up in Sisters for any-
thing.” And she says that her
peers all feel the same way
Sisters entering
the burning season
Winter weather defied El Niño
Beginning as early as this
week, fuels specialists on the
Sisters Ranger District intend
to ignite 500 to 1,000 acres
of prescribed burns.
Individual burn units are
scattered across four sepa-
rate project areas called
Highway 20, Sisters Area
Fuels Reduction (SAFR),
McCache (Hwy 242) and
Metolius Basin projects. All
prescribed burn units will be
scheduled to take advantage
of spring weather and forest
fuel conditions.
This is a continuation
of treatments utilizing pre-
scribed fire in a historic fire-
adapted ecosystem to reduce
Old Man Winter officially
departed the scene at 9:30
p.m. local time on Saturday,
March 19. The weather he
dished out this season, taken
as a whole, turned out to be
about normal with regard to
temperature and precipita-
tion. But, as the saying goes,
the devil is in the details.
Last fall climate scien-
tists were watching a large
mass of very warm water
that was advancing eastward
across the tropical Pacific
Ocean. They warned that
when this slug of unusually
warm water reached the east-
ern Pacific off the coast of
South America, it very likely
Inside...
and remove hazardous fuels
that contribute to high-inten-
sity fire events which may
occur during the normal fire
season. The areas on the
map are project units that are
near or adjacent to Sisters
communities.
No road closures are
anticipated with any of the
projects, although drivers
may expect traffic control on
Highway 20 and Highway
242 during periods of time
where dense smoke may limit
visibility. Smoke from the
Sisters Area Fuel Reduction
(SAFR) may impact Sage
See BuRNING on page 31
By Ron Thorkildson
Correspondent
photo by JIm ANDErSoN
Active winter weather provided the central Cascades with an average
snowpack.
would trigger a super-strong
El Niño that would domi-
nate the upcoming winter’s
weather worldwide. In fact, it
had the potential to become
the most powerful El Niño
in more than 65 years, they
said.
This pronouncement was
regarded as bad news indeed
See WeATheR on page 19
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Of A Certain Age ................11 Movies & Entertainment ....13 Sisters Salutes .................21 Classifieds ..................26-28
Meetings ........................... 3 Announcements ................12 Obituaries ................... 16-17 Crossword ....................... 23 Real Estate .................29-32