22
Wednesday, February 15, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
by forcing a 45-degree entry into traffic.
Thank you, again, ODOT and City of
Sisters for caring about the safety of me and
my loved ones.
Gordon Golden
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To the Editor:
Congratulations to all those folks who have
been successful in obtaining the roundabout
in Sisters.
I have traveled and lived in areas with
roundabouts. So, roundabouts have never
been a problem for me. However, this one is
bad news and will make shopping, banking,
doctor visits etc. longer to reach if you live
north of Highway 20.
Traffic lights were installed and were won-
derful, but they were removed. Now, I hope
this roundabout is not a disaster like back-in
parking. Everyone objected, but the City did it
anyway and enforced it. We, the people, paid
for it and then paid to remove it in order to
return to the usual way of parking.
I am glad of my move from Camp Polk
Road to a condo on the south side of Cascade
Avenue.
Mickey Duehren
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Let’s keep local control of our airspace. Let
the City know you support keeping local con-
trol to maintain our quiet community.
The flight school is fantastic and will not
close no matter what category the airport is in.
It’s an approved use and only in jeopardy if
the airport owners decide to end it.
Tom Hickman
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To the Editor:
I attended the ODA hearing regarding the
airport’s request to change their listing to
Appendix M, and have done research on what
this would mean for our community.
Residents need to know in plain English
how this change would impact our peace-
ful community. Currently the City of Sisters
has some control of activities at the airport
through land-use and zoning. If the airport is
added to ODA’s appendix M the City relin-
quishes ALL control over airport uses to the
state.
Loss of this control opens the hangar doors
to helicopter tours, skydiving, gliders, ultra-
lights, gyrocopters etc. All of which the air-
port owners have said they are actively pur-
suing. Just think for a minute how this might
impact you. Planning to have a barbecue in
your backyard? Hiking a peaceful trail? Fly
fishing near town? Do you really want your
daughter’s outdoor wedding disrupted by a
helicopter tour or when skydivers decide to
scream during their jump?
If you believe you will not be negatively
impacted, think again. Think of your property
values. You don’t live next to a freeway for
a reason — why would you want a freeway
overhead?
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To the Editor:
Last week the Oregon Department of
Aviation (ODA) held a hearing to upgrade the
Sisters airport to an airport of state concern.
Much was said at the hearing of what would
happen if the upgrade didn’t occur, most of it
untrue. SHS aviation students, misinformed,
thought their program would stop, pilots
talked about the airport closing, none of that
is true. Actually the ODA admitted that if the
airport upgrade was not granted, the airport
would continue to function exactly as it does
now.
So what would change? Well, the airport
owners say they will have access to even
more taxpayer money. That is in addition
to the over $1.3 million dollars of taxpayer
money they already received to upgrade their
runway and add a taxiway. Some think that
at least some of that money might have been
better used for schools, affordable housing
or to repair our bridges and roads rather than
spending public money to improve a private
airport.
But the most important change would be
the City giving up local control of aviation
activities to the State. So, when it warms up
and you are upset that the quiet town you
moved to is overrun with even more skydiving
activity, or the tow planes launching the glid-
ers or the tour helicopter flapping over your
house (all of which are planned according to
the airport) and you call the City to control it,
don’t be surprised when they say they can’t.
Why would a city voluntarily give up local
control of something as significant as a local
airport? Good question. Maybe you should
call Mayor Chuck Ryan at 203-233-1881 or
email him at cryan@ci.sisters.or.us and ask
him. But don’t wait too long, as the State plans
on making this decision in the next few weeks
and then as they say, “the fat lady has sung.”
Bob Norman
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To the Editor:
I am supporting Senate Bill 6 for humane
trapping of wildlife in Oregon.
As a veterinarian, Oregon must advance
the humane and effective improved animal
capturing techniques. Over 37 states now
See LETTERS on page 23
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By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
The National Audubon
Society, in its quest to learn
more about birds around our
homes, has asked the pub-
lic to help them understand
what’s going on in the met-
ropolitan bird populations
by taking part in the Greater
Backyard Bird Count, and
in so doing has helped thou-
sands of bird-lovers become
Citizen Scientists.
Each year, on February 17
and through Presidents Day
weekend, Audubon, Cornell,
and Project FeederWatch
get their heads together and
give backyard birds a closer
look. This activity would be
impossible without the help
of bird-lovers who report the
goings-on of the birds they
feed.
The roots of GBBC are
found in Project FeederWatch
and are meant to focus on
birds coming to backyard
habitats — bird feeders,
water features and the like.
The GBBC database is
now embedded in the larger
eBird database, and over the
GBBC weekend any and all
data will be included in the
count, whether it’s from folks
participating in GBBC or out
birding miles and miles away
from their backyard.
Several birders have now
taken to making the GBBC
weekend completely motor-
less. That means that look-
ing out your kitchen window,
sitting on your back porch
swing, or walking the neigh-
borhood sharing your neigh-
bor’s backyard feeders.
Participants are asked to
count birds for as little as 15
minutes — or as long as they
wish — on one or more days
of the four-day event and
report their sightings online
at www.birdcount.org.
Each checklist submit-
ted during the GBBC helps
researchers at Cornell Lab
of Ornithology and National
Audubon Society learn more
about how our metropolitan
birds are doing, and how to
help them by protecting the
environment we all share.
Last year, more than 160,000
participants submitted their
bird observations online,
creating the largest instanta-
neous snapshot of global bird
populations ever recorded
anywhere in the world.
To learn more, visit the
official website at www.
birdcount.org.
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Pygmy nuthatches at a backyard birdbath.