Wednesday, January 11, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Housing Works awarded funds
Housing Works has
announced the fund-
ing of Village Meadows
Apartments in Sisters
through the Oregon Housing
and Community Service
(OHCS) Local Innovation
and Fast Track (LIFT)
Housing Program. Funding
is also secured for a project
in La Pine.
A total of 90 affordable
units are planned between the
two projects.
“Both La Pine and Sisters
desperately need more
affordable housing,” said
Tom Kemper, executive
director of Housing Works.
“We are hopeful to have
these new affordable devel-
opments completed by 2018
for low-income households
in those communities.”
The plan for Village
Meadows Apartments in
Sisters includes 48 afford-
able apartments with a mix
of one-, two-, and three-
bedroom apartments. The
development site is located
on two lots totaling 2.12
acres behind Ray’s Food
Place, making it conve-
niently located near much of
Sisters’ commercial district
and schools.
With vacancy rates below
1 percent throughout Central
Oregon and the majority of
renter households in both
communities burdened by
housing costs, these new
communities could provide
up to 90 low-income house-
holds (at or below 60 percent
of area median income) with
an affordable place to live.
As affordable properties, the
La Pine and Sisters develop-
ments would have rents well
below market rates.
Oregon Housing and
Community Services has
allocated over $3.6 million in
state funding for the develop-
ments under their new LIFT
program. The projects will
also rely on 4 percent low-
income housing tax credits
from OHCS for funding the
projects. Housing Works
hopes to begin construction
on both communities by the
summer of 2017. Build time
is expected to be 12 months.
Preleasing for Village
Meadows Apartments will
begin approximately three
months prior to comple-
tion through EPIC Property
Management.
Ore. enacts tougher fall protections for builders
EUGENE (AP) — A state
regulation that took effect
Jan. 1 requires Oregon con-
struction contractors to make
sure workers are protected
from falls if work is done
six or more feet above a
surface.
The Oregon Occupational
Safety and Health Division
said the new rule will pri-
marily affect home builders
because many commercial
contractors already require
the protections, reported The
Register-Guard. The previ-
ous state OSHA regulation
required the protections for
work at 10 or more feet off
a general surface but at six
or more feet off established
floors, mezzanines, balconies
and walkways with unpro-
tected sides.
OSHA said Oregon con-
struction firms were cited
most frequently last year
for violating rules about fall
protection.
“We’ve come a long way
in Oregon in reducing inju-
ries and deaths from falls,
particularly in construction,
but we still have a ways to
go,” said Oregon OSHA
Administrator Michael Wood
in a written statement.
Walter Custom Homes
owner Tom Walter argued,
however, that the new rule
is a “regulation looking for
a problem.” He said his firm
has constructed 118 homes
since 2003 and no work-
ers have been injured in
a fall.
Ed McMahon, execu-
tive director of the Home
Builders Association of Lane
County, said the group’s
members will need to fig-
ure out how to comply with
the rule for some tasks, like
when workers install roof
trusses.
“It would appear that we
Home is
where the
dog is
would need to go around
the top of the walls and
build a safety barrier, then
put the trusses up, and then
tear the barrier down,” said
McMahon. “On commercial
buildings, you see contrac-
tors build a little hand rail at
the roof. And now we may
have to do that for single-
family homes.”
He said the extra time
and expense of creating such
structures will increase the
cost of new homes.
Jeff Jones
Principal Broker
541-480-7201
jeffjoneslcl@
gmail.com
Ali Mayea
541-588-6007
401 E. Main Ave.
SistersHometownRealty.com
Sisters Hometown Realty
Continued from page 22
continue to feed them with
artificial feeds and tempt
them with salt blocks are not
being kind to them.
Those deer should be
among their kind in the deer
winter-range habitat, most
of which is east of Central
Oregon. That’s where old-
growth Western junipers
come into the picture as big-
game animal shelters. It is
not uncommon to see thou-
sands of mule deer and even
elk sheltering among the
old-growth juniper, eating
grasses, sagebrush and bitter-
brush, without which many
animals of the high desert
would have a tough time of
it in winter.
No one likes to see mule
deer die in winter, so in
some parts of the West they
are being fed hay and other
foods. However, in the long
run, that doesn’t work to help
deer survive. In spring, car-
casses of thousands of deer
have been found with stom-
achs full of hay and other
food they couldn’t digest, or
they died because of diseases
that spread rapidly in feeding
yards.
The soils under old-
growth sagebrush, juniper
and grasslands are ideal for
our native Great Basin spade-
foot toads to burrow deep
down below the frost line,
where they can live for years
on the fat reserves, breath-
ing air and absorbing water
though their skin. The heart-
beat of hibernating amphib-
ians and reptiles is almost
undetectable.
And foes often become
friends in winter, shar-
ing space to hibernate.
Rattlesnakes and gopher
snakes are normally not
compatible in summer, but
in winter they frequently
share the same hibernacu-
lum, along with other reptile
species.
Another interesting part-
nership for finding food in
winter is that of the mag-
pie, raven and eagle. Dead
animals are sometimes dif-
ficult to spot, so in winter,
eagles often perch on a high
spot and watch for magpie
or raven activity. This often
leads to a meal.
Survival of the fittest is
the rule for winter; all ani-
mals have a do-or-die plan.
Use Your Home to Stay at Home
WITH A REVERSE MORTGAGE
Call Shelley Nelson, ,
Reverse Mortgage Specialist t
541.385.6112 Ext. 2302
2
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Shelley.Nelson@
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This is not a commitment to lend.
Consumer Loan License NMLS-3240, CL-3240
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED PROPERTY
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Doug Roberts
Principal Broker
541-280-6199
dougrobertsMPS
@gmail.com
Lana Labuda
Principal Broker
541-408-4144
lana@sisters
properties.com
Ross Kennedy
Principal Broker
541-408-1343
ross@myrk
solutions.com
Thinking of moving
to town? We’ve got
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WILDLIFE: Deer
should be in their
winter range
31
1 16190
6 1 9 0 F
Foothills
th
hi l l Loop
L
South,
S th
h Sisters
S i t ~ $ $949,900
9 4 9 9 0 0
Beautiful custom home in Starr Ranch! 5 bedrooms and 5.5 baths total in main
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Stop by or call to learn more about
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Suzanne Carvlin
Broker
We have what you’re looking for! Scan to visit our website!
541-595-8707
Suzanne@Home
Metolius Property Sales
InSisters.com
Linda Brooksby
Broker
541-977-4488
lindabrooksbylcl
@gmail.com
Kimberly Gorayeb
Principal Broker
541-639-5551
kiminsisters
@gmail.com
290 E. Cascade Ave.
541-588-6614
metoliuspropertysales.com
Ellen Wood
Broker
541-588-0033
woode51@
msn.com
Katie Cam
Broker
971-409-0177
katiercam@
gmail.com
Dechen Dawkins
Broker
541-241-6619
soldonsisters
@gmail.com