Teeds’ sciedce project
eards scholarship page 6
Sisters Bakery
chadges hadds page 10
College studedts build
for Habitat page 26
The Nugget
Vol. XXXX No. 12
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Firefighters battle major blaze
A major fire at a large
home east of Sisters tested
firefighters from across the
region last weekend.
On Sunday afternoon,
March 19, at about 3:30
p.m., Cloverdale Rural Fire
Protection District units
were dispatched to a struc-
ture fire at 17655 Varco Rd.
Upon arrival, firefighters
found “heavy fire condi-
tions” in the center portion of
the 17,000-plus-square-foot,
three-story home.
While responding from
an earlier medical call,
Cloverdale Fire Chief Thad
Olsen began calling for addi-
tional resources as a column
of smoke rose skyward from
the residence.
Due to the remote location
of the residence, resources
included a strike team of
water tenders from Deschutes
and Jefferson counties. Fire
units from Sisters-Camp
Sherman, Black Butte Ranch,
Bend, Redmond, Crooked
River Ranch, Jefferson
News Editor
After voting unanimously
on March 7 to add Sisters
Eagle Airport to Oregon’s list
of airports of state concern,
the Oregon Department of
Aviation decided to unwind
that action last week after
written testimony was left
out of the record.
“We got a whole bunch of
emails and somehow we left
about 31 of them out of the
packet and the staff report
that the board voted on (on
March 7),” ODA direc-
tor Mitch Swecker told The
Nugget. “We’re adding them
(the emails) to make it fair to
everybody.”
The board will revisit the
issue again at its April 20
Idside...
Kiwadis
Food Badk
supports
those id
deed
By Erin Borla
Correspondent
Office, and Black Butte
Ranch Police Departments
Some 167 families utilized
the Sisters Kiwanis Food
Bank throughout the month of
January.
Oftentimes donations
can slow during the months
after the Thanksgiving and
Christmas holiday season. The
need for food donations is still
there.
The community of Sisters
always steps up to help and
donate food as well as volun-
teer hours.
For the second year in
a row Sisters Elementary
See FIRE on page 15
See FOOD BANK on page 30
PHOTO BY GARY MILLER
Firefighters had their hands full battling a structure fire in a 17,000-plus square-foot home.
County #1, Sunriver, and
Warm Springs Fire districts,
along with personnel from
Central Electric Cooperative,
Aviatiod board to
revisit airport listidg
By Jim Cornelius
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
meeting in McMinnville. The
omitted emails and the ODA
staff report are available for
review on the ODA website.
The procedural glitch is
the latest development in
what has become a tangled
knot of issues surround-
ing the operations of Sisters
Eagle Airport. The airport
under the ownership of
Julie and Benny Benson
has made significant grant-
funded improvements to its
runway, added a fuel depot
and has hosted increased
aviation activity, including a
highly regarded student avia-
tion program affiliated with
Sisters High School, and
a controversial skydiving
operation.
See AIRPORT on page 35
Deschutes County Roads
Department, Deschutes
County Building Department,
Deschutes County Sheriff’s
Fair edcourages futuristic thidkidg
By Jodi Schneider McNamee
Correspondent
The Sisters High School
commons transformed into a
giant science laboratory buzz-
ing with activity last Saturday,
as students from all three
Sisters schools demonstrated
their projects. From fishing
for magnetic fish to trying to
ride a backward bike, folks
of all ages got a charge as
they made their way around
the maze of educational
experiments.
Sisters Science Club
President Bob Collins was
having a great time watch-
ing students engage hundreds
of spectators in learning the
science behind each unique
project.
“We have loads of new
projects this year includ-
ing the new greenhouse that
looks like an outer space
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Young students were fascinated by the Lego robotics interactive display.
station!” Collins said. “Each
year we get a little busier, but
we feel we have a little more
room inside the commons
this year so it has a good flow
and everyone can work freely
with their own projects and
experiments.”
Some exhibits were
located down the school
See SCIENCE FAIR on page 36
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Addoudcemedts ................12 Home & Garded ........... 16-26 Crossword ........................31 Real Estate ................ 34-40
Meetidgs ........................... 3 Movies & Edtertaidmedt ....13 Budkhouse Chrodicle ....... 24 Classifieds .................. 27-29 Obituaries ....................... 35