Outlaws post win over
Crook County page 4
SMS students
‘Ping It On!’ page 7
Sisters business lands
Disney contract page 23
The Nugget
Vol. XXXIX No. 50
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Winter weather finds Sisters Country
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
After a warm and dry
November, Old Man Winter
decided to pay a visit to
Sisters Country. And it looks
like he’s planning to stay a
while.
Snow started falling on
December 6, and by Monday,
December 12, the Sisters
Ranger District was reporting
an accumulation in town of
a modest-yet-respectable 5.5
inches. Skiers who trekked
up Highway 20 to Hoodoo
reported nearly 10 times as
much on the mountain —
somewhere around 50 inches.
And, as one of them reported,
it was in the form of “awe-
some powder.”
Low visibility deterred
some skiers over the week-
end, but others were thrilled
to put down tracks in the per-
fect snow — and were happy
to see the season start well
before Christmas.
Brad Boyd, owner and
News Editor
In the wake of the hor-
rific fire in the “Ghost Ship”
warehouse/off-the-books
housing complex/party venue
in Oakland, California, the
Sisters fire department has
been fielding a greater-than-
usual number of calls from
citizens concerned about the
safety of a variety of Sisters-
area structures and activities.
“We’re going to see
increased awareness,” Fire
Chief Roger Johnson told
The Nugget last week. “It
has really shaken a lot of
people, and they’re going to
reach out to us… I think it’s
normal when something like
that happens; people get on
edge.”
Inside...
Enrollment
shows
small
increase
By Steve Kadel
Correspondent
to see the snow fall before
Thanksgiving, to be honest,”
Sisters School District is
coming closer to enrollment
projections for the school
year, although the number of
students still lags behind what
was anticipated.
“We’re climbing,”
Superintendent Curtiss Scholl
said Wednesday, December
7 during the monthly school
board meeting. “We’re get-
ting nearer to where we
expected to be.”
Enrollment has a finan-
cial impact because the State
of Oregon allocates about
$7,000 per student to each
See WEATHER on page 22
See ENROLLMENT on page 26
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
The snows of winter have arrived — and right on time.
operator of Eurosports, rents
ski equipment and snowshoes
and sells winter gear. He says
that the timing of snowfall is
After ‘Ghost Ship’:
What’s safe?
By Jim Cornelius
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
The fire department and/
or the State Fire Marshal’s
Office is obligated to investi-
gate complaints, but Johnson
and Sisters Fire Manager
Gary Marshall emphasize
that their role is education
first and enforcement last.
They are not out to “bust”
people or to shut down activ-
ities; their goal is to work
with property owners and/
or businesses or venues to
help them come into compli-
ance with codes and safety
practices.
And sometimes some-
thing that seems like a haz-
ard to the public really isn’t
— and an inspection turns up
no issue at all.
Both men want the public
See SAFETY on page 24
economically critical for all
businesses that benefit from
holiday vacation trade.
“Obviously, we’d like
Multiple deer rescued out of pond
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
Bob and Diane Storlie
have a good sized pond on
their place in Sisters, stocked
with trout and bass. Recently,
they began to have an influx
of mule deer drinking from
the pond.
Last Sunday, the Storlie’s
saw a mule deer fawn in their
fish pond. Bob and Diane
called 911 as they saw the
fawn about to go under for
the third time.
However, seeing the
water-logged deer was about
to drown, Bob didn’t wait
for emergency services to
arrive, but rigged up a lariat
and threw it out toward the
fawns’s head. He missed, and
coiled it up again and gave
another toss.
“I think God dropped the
loop on him.” Bob said.
PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Mule deer dragged from a frozen pond in Sisters Country.
He and Diane took up the
slack, watching as the fawn
went under again.
Tugging and pulling with
all they had, the Storlie’s
managed to drag the fawn
See DEER on page 31
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Sisters Naturalist ............. 10 Movies & Entertainment ....13 Bunkhouse Chronicle ........21 Classifieds ..................28-30
Meetings ........................... 3 Announcements ................12 Obituaries ...................14-15 Crossword ....................... 27 Real Estate .................30-32