Wednesday, January 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
13
Commentary...
Understanding Sisters Park & Recreation District
By Liam Hughes.
Executive Director of SPRD
What exactly is SPRD?
This is one of the most
common questions I get
asked. Well the first thing
I tell them is that SPRD,
stands for the Sisters Park &
Recreation District, and that
we are an Oregon Special
District.
Which usually leads to
the follow up question: Are
you part of the City? Or
are you part of the school
district? SPRD is its own
separate public entity, with
a board of directors who are
elected by the people to gov-
ern the district, just like a
school board or city council.
This can be somewhat con-
fusing because in Oregon
this is not always the case.
Parks and Rec services can
be frequently delivered as
a department of the City, a
department of the county, or
a special district.
So why have a parks and
recreation district in a town
like Sisters where the City
already provides park ser-
vices? Well, in Sisters’ case
it was initially about devel-
oping programs, specifically
after-school programs for at-
risk youth.
However, there are many
other reasons why the citi-
zens of a community may
vote to form a parks and rec-
reation district.
One of the first and fore-
most reasons is service
region. In small communi-
ties like Sisters, where a
large percentage of the popu-
lation lives out of town, you
can create a special district
that extends far beyond city
limits and gives those people
the benefit of parks and rec-
reation services, and allows
them to vote on matters of
the district, and serve on the
district’s board of directors.
Another major reason
is to permanently specify
funding to a given area. In
some cities services such as,
police, fire, parks and rec,
streets, water, and sewer
all fall under the citiy’s one
tax rate. The money is then
internally allocated to each
department. Each of these
departments can end up
competing with each other
for funding.
In areas where these ser-
vices are broken into spe-
cial districts, the taxpayers
vote on a rate of tax fund-
ing that service district gets.
Therefore you don’t get your
parks and recreation bud-
get cut in order to fund new
police cars.
Another question I am
frequently asked is if we
are a nonprofit? The simple
answer is no, we are not a
501(c)(3) nonprofit, but in a
lot of ways we function like
one. As an Oregon special
district we do receive tax
funding; however we are
somewhat of an anomaly
in that tax funds only cover
about 20 percent of the oper-
ating costs of the Sisters Park
& Recreation District. The
rest comes from program
(PG-13)
Sassparilla
Mar 1 / Wed /
7-10:30 PM
Tommy Castro
and the
Painkillers
Playing music guaranteed
to fi re up fans and leave
critics searching for new
words of praise.
Mar 9 / Thurs /
8-11 PM
Breakfast, lunch and
libations, Th ursday
through Tuesday,
from 8 a.m. to 3 p
p.m.
541.549.2699
403 E. Hood Ave.
Starts Friday
La La Land
Feb 17 / Fri / 8-11 PM
Zepparella
Zepparella explores their
own improvised magic
within the framework of
Zeppelin’s mighty songs!
PUB OPENS 1 HR PRIOR TO SHOWS
BelfryEvents.com
541-815-9122
Rent The Belfry!
Perfect venue for live music,
weddings, receptions,
meetings, or any event.
youth programs.
The City operates the fol-
lowing parks: Village Green,
Fir Street, Cliff Clemons,
Barclay, Creekside Park and
Creekside Campground.
Sisters Park & Recreation
District operates the Hyzer
Pines Disc Golf Course, the
Sisters Skatepark, one youth
baseball field, and one youth
softball field. Sisters Park &
Recreation District is also
in the process of building a
bike skills park. The Sisters
School District owns and
maintains the other sports
fields in town.
As far as youth programs
go, the school district obvi-
ously operates a large num-
ber of great classes and pro-
grams and so does SPRD.
Some programs are even a
joint venture between our
two agencies. Programs such
as middle school sports and
high school lacrosse are both
run by SPRD, but play in
leagues where they represent
the school. Therefore these
activities function under the
policies of both SPRD and
the school district, and uti-
lize shared resources.
Sisters Park & Recreation
District manages the major-
ity of sporting activities for
kids bellow ninth grade, with
the high school handling
ninth through 12th grade and
Sisters Little League manag-
ing the youth baseball and
softball.
A couple of other big
programs that SPRD oper-
ates that many people don’t
know about are the commu-
nity preschool that runs at
Sisters Elementary School
and the after-school program
which used to be at Sisters
Elementary and is now back
at the Coffield Community
Center.
We run more than 100
programs annually, and
serve thousands of people
with park and recreation ser-
vices. If you have any ques-
tions about anything related
to the district, please feel
free to give me a call, drop
me an email, or stop by and
chat.
Liam Hughes is the
executive director of SPRD.
He can be reached at 541-
549-2091 or at Liam@
sistersrecreation.com.
ENTERTAINMENT•EVENTS
Fri., Jan. 6 – Thurs., Jan. 12
They are pungent, not
subtle. Dirty bluegrass
band from Portland.
We look
forward to
serving you
in 2017
fees, fundraisers, grants and
donations.
So, to many casual
observers we may operate
like a nonprofit organiza-
tion, but the big difference
is that we are required to
function under the laws of
a government organization
— the most important one
of those being that our board
of directors is elected by the
taxpayers to represent the
will of the people.
In 2016, SPRD commis-
sioned a research company
from Portland to help us
answer some questions about
what the people of Sisters
wanted from parks and rec-
reation services. We found
that many people know of
us, but don’t really know
what we do. Lots of people
are familiar with our name,
but are largely unfamiliar
with the full variety of ser-
vices offered, and where the
lines were drawn between
services offered by the City,
Sisters Parks & Recreation
District, Sisters School
District.
Two of the main areas of
confusion are with parks and
Fri 4:30, 7:30
Sat-Sun 1:45,
4:30, 7:30
Mon-Thurs 4:30, 7;30
Fences (PG)
Fri 4:00, 7:00
Sat-Sun 1:15,
4:00, 7:00
Mon-Thurs 4:00, 7:00
Manchester by
the Sea (R)
Call for Showtimes
Sing (PG)
Call for Showtimes
Rogue One
(PG-13)
Fri 4:15, 7:15
Sat-Sun 1:30,
4:15, 7:15
Mon-Thurs 4:15, 7:15
Movie times and titles are
bsite
subject to change. Visit we
n.
atio
rm
info
st
late
or call for
WWW.SISTERS
MOVIEHOUSE.COM
541-549-8800
Wed.~Jan. 4
Sunday~Jan. 15
Sisters Saloon Texas Hold
’Em Tournament! 7 p.m.
Every Wednesday! For more
information call 541-549-7427
or go to sisterssaloon.net.
Sisters Schools Sisters
Shootout Basketball
Tournament 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For Oregon boys & girls
grades 5-8. Presented by
SPRD. 541-549-2091 or go to
sistersshootout.com.
Saturday~Jan. 7
Cork Cellars Live Music
with Megan Rose 7 to
9 p.m. Enjoy this Americana
Project alumna, no cover!
For additional information
call 541-549-7427 or go to
sisterssaloon.net.
Sisters Saloon Live Music
with Burnin’ Moonlight 8 to
11 p.m. Blues and Bluegrass,
no cover! For additional
information call 541-549-7427
or go to sisterssaloon.net.
Wed.~Jan. 11
Sisters Saloon Texas Hold
’Em Tournament! 7 p.m.
Every Wednesday! For more
information call 541-549-7427
or go to sisterssaloon.net.
Saturday~Jan. 14
Sisters Saloon Live Music
with the Bobby Lindstrom
Band 8 p.m. Blues and
Rock, no cover! For more
information call 541-549-7427
or go to sisterssaloon.net.
Sisters Schools Sisters
Shootout Basketball
Tournament 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For Oregon boys & girls
grades 5-8. Presented by
SPRD. 541-549-2091 or go to
sistersshootout.com.
Subject to change. Submit
by 5 p.m. Fridays to
teresa@nuggetnews.com
Wed.~Jan. 18
Sisters Saloon Texas Hold
’Em Tournament! 7 p.m.
Every Wednesday! For more
information call 541-549-7427
or go to sisterssaloon.net.
Saturday~Jan. 21
Sisters Saloon Live Music
with Honey Don’t 8 to
11 p.m. Americana, no cover!
For info call 541-549-7427 or
go to sisterssaloon.net.
Monday~Jan. 23
Sisters High School BINGO
& Community Dinner 5
to 6:30 p.m. for dinner, just
$2 per plate! 6:30 p.m. for
BINGO, $15 for 11 games
with great prizes! For info call
Tim Roth, 541-549-4050.
Wed.~Jan. 25
Sisters High School Sisters
Folk Festival Winter
Concert: Martin Sexton
7 p.m. Soulful singing and
brilliant guitar playing! For
more information or tickets
call 541-549-4979 or go to
sistersfolkfestival.org.
Sisters Saloon Texas Hold
’Em Tournament! 7 p.m.
Every Wednesday! For more
information call 541-549-7427
or go to sisterssaloon.net.