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Wednesday, April 13, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Featuring student art...
CITy: Improvements
underway at
Creekside Park
Continued from page 3
photo provided
Sisters middle School students Adrienne Steffen and Brody
Duey have their art featured on the spring Voters Pamphlet for
Deschutes County. County Clerk Nancy Blankenship visited the
school last Friday to present the students in Norma Pledger’s
class with awards for their efforts.
HABITAT: Acquisition
is part of Whychus
campaign
Continued from page 1
own and manage the prop-
erty for its highest ecological
and educational benefit. This
agreement provides a clear
path forward toward that
goal. Now we just need to
raise the necessary funds via
The Campaign for Whychus
Creek to ensure we’re in
position to realize that initial
vision.”
Rimrock Ranch is an inte-
gral part of the Land Trust’s
larger conservation efforts on
Whychus Creek. The Land
Trust has protected eight
miles of Whychus Creek and
more than 2,200 acres of adja-
cent floodplains, wetlands,
and forests. The Campaign
for Whychus Creek will help
the Land Trust purchase, pro-
tect, and care for important
wildlife habitat on Whychus
Creek, including those found
at Rimrock Ranch. The Land
Trust hopes to raise the
remaining $1.9 million in pri-
vate fundraising by the end of
the Campaign in June 2017.
C
the Land Trust’s goal for
The Campaign for Whychus
Creek, launched in the fall
of 2014, is to finish protect-
ing the highest-quality wild-
life habitat along Whychus
Creek, ensure the permanent
stewardship of those lands
for generations to come, and
engage the community along
the way. In the first year-
and-a-half of the Campaign,
the Land Trust protected
two new parcels of land
along Whychus Creek. They
acquired the 480-acre addi-
tion to Whychus Canyon
Preserve in October 2014 and
the 58-acre Aspen Hollow
Preserve in April of 2015.
For more information on
Deschutes Land Trust, call
541-330-0017 or visit www.
deschuteslandtrust.org.
Living in Sisters — How to
Get Involved.
• Restrooms, like those
located at Fir Street Park,
will be installed this summer
at Clemens Park in the south-
east corner of the park.
• The City is seeking a
volunteer to fill a vacancy on
the Parks Advisory Board.
The applicant may be a high
school student who has time
to attend 4 p.m. meetings
the first Wednesday of each
month or an adult resident of
Sisters Country. Applications
are available on the City
website, www.ci.sisters.or.us,
under Living in Sisters —
How to Get Involved.
• The possibility of install-
ing shade sails at Fir Street
Park, which currently lacks
any kind of shade at all times
of the day, is being investi-
gated by the public works
department.
• Public works wants to
remind everyone that road
construction season is com-
ing up and asks citizens to
be mindful of equipment and
workers on the city streets
and roads. Please give them a
“brake.”
• Drive by Creekside
Campground and take a
look at all the improvements
made by public works to
the Locust Street side of the
campground, in response to
almost two years of meet-
ings and public hearings con-
ducted by the Parks Advisory
Board. They have enlarged
and extended the earthen
berm and planted 25 large
blue spruce trees on it to
help screen the campground
from the adjoining neighbor-
hood. The old exit has been
removed and the existing
entrance has been widened to
allow for both entering and
exiting from one location.
Several camping sites located
next to Locust have been
removed and several others
have been shortened to reduce
the size of motorhomes able
to use those sites.
• The online reserva-
tion system for Creekside
Campground is performing
well. The number of phone
calls to the City regarding
reservations has been greatly
reduced, saving staff time.
There are already 1,400
nights reserved, and reserva-
tions only started March 1.
• ODOT is moving for-
ward on the planned round-
about for the intersection at
Highway 20 and McKinney
Butte Road, by Ray’s Food
Place and the Best Western
Ponderosa Lodge. Right-
of-way work is underway
and ODOT plans to hold
focus-group meetings, start-
ing with the businesses
closest to the roundabout.
They will also be engag-
ing the community, much
as they did on the Cascade
Avenue project. Construction
is projected to begin in
2017.
• The Army Corps of
Engineers is beginning a
two-year study of the Carver
Lake moraine dam, which is
located above Sisters in the
Whychus Creek watershed.
They will be making pre-
sentations to the community
regarding the study and why
it is being undertaken.
• City Council is prepar-
ing to adopt a resolution sup-
porting the Speak Your Peace
Sisters Civility Project. They
are joining a number of other
local businesses and organi-
zations in this community-
wide effort.
• In May, a grand open-
ing will be held to celebrate
1.1 miles of accessible trail
on the Peterson Ridge Trail
near the new scenic over-
look. It is the first ADA trail
in the Sisters Ranger District
and was funded by a grant
from the National Forest
Foundation. Sisters Trails
Alliance assisted in its con-
struction and is providing
signage and benches.
• Work on an update to the
Transportation System Plan
will begin in July and the City
will be looking for citizens to
serve on the committee.
• Infrastructure improve-
ments on Hood Avenue have
been completed. The under-
ground power and irrigation
systems are all on the City
grid now. The ADA ramp
replacements are complete
and repaving should be com-
plete this week. The Sisters
Arts Association is work-
ing with Travel Oregon and
the Chamber of Commerce
to create an arts district on
Hood.
• The Deschutes County
Bike and Pedestrian Advisory
Committee has an open-
ing for a representative
from Sisters. If interested
contact Wendy Holzman,
wendomere@gmail.com.
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This ad sponsored by The Nugget Newspaper in support of Deschutes Land Trust.