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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2017)
24 Wednesday, May 17, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon CANDIDATES: Candidate meet-and- greet set at FivePine Continued from page 1 The Nugget was able to con- duct telephone interviews with each of the candidates. Bruce St. Dennis Bruce St. Dennis, former town manager of Longboat Key, Florida, for 11 years, is familiar with the issues inherent in a small tourist town. Longboat has a full- time population of about 7,000 but swells to 22,000- 25,000 during their high season of January to Easter. There is one road at either end of town that served three times the number of cars dur- ing high season. St. Dennis predicted that as Sisters grows, parking and traffic will be issues to be addressed. He believes in looking to the future and making provisions for pos- sible problems rather than waiting until they develop. Currently St. Dennis is working in the private sec- tor for an organization that provides municipal-type ser- vices for financing construc- tion and long-term mainte- nance of the infrastructure of residential and commercial communities. Music is a big part of St. Dennis’s life. He plays the banjo, guitar, and mandolin, Great hair doesn’t happen by chance. It happens by appointment. Tim & Ronnica Westcott Jenny Duey 541-588-6611 220 W. Cascade Ave. Come in, Relax, Enjoy! sings and does a little song- writing. He is a past member of a blues band. When he was in Sisters for the semi-final interviews, he stopped by Preston Thompson’s shop to see his guitars. St. Dennis remarked that Sisters was even better than he had expected. He loves small towns where it is easy to know the people and the issues. A native of upstate New York, St. Dennis earned a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Architecture from the University of Buffalo, where the winter saw 14 feet of snow. He later earned his masters in management from the University of South Florida. He mentioned that after 35 years in Florida, he and his family would “be delighted to leave the heat, the palm trees, and the hurricanes” for the dry air of the Central Oregon high desert. He believes that “the climate and people of Sisters would be a good match” for his family. When asked what he is most proud of in his work history, St. Dennis talked about his relationships with the town boards, the staff, and the public. That is the part of the job he enjoys the most — the people. St. Dennis described his style of management as one of support and encour- agement. He likes to rely on department heads to be experts in their fields. He believes the city manager is there to direct and offer resources to his staff. “I am genuinely inter- ested in my employees and the Council … I like a col- legial atmosphere. I like to find opportunities for people to help,” he said. “I don’t get excited when something goes wrong,” he added. “I like to fix the problem, with the per- son still coming out whole.” He sees the job of the Council to be working on policy, designing for the future and the ambiance of the town, and says that is hard work. Martha Meeker Local resident Martha Meeker is a relative new- comer to Sisters. When Meeker retired from the U.S. Air Force as a brigadier general, she and her spouse wanted to find a high desert location in the West to call home. After exploring a num- ber of locations, almost set- tling in Spokane, they found Sisters, where they purchased 99 acres to call their own. “This is what we were going for,” said Meeker about Sisters. “It’s the perfect place.” After a distinguished career in the military, Meeker said she is returning to her rural roots. She grew up driv- ing a tractor in Illinois farm country on 3,000 acres of soybeans and corn. Her small town had a population of 100 and the entire county had one high school. Meeker graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a double degree in math and computational science with plans to be a high school math teacher. A summer internship at NASA Langley changed the course of her life. When she walked on the base and saw the wind tunnel and the parts being manufac- tured for the space station, this Star Trek fan was cap- tivated. Realizing it would take her six more years to earn her Ph.D. to work in the aerospace field, she opted instead to join the Air Force. Meeker’s last assignment, before retiring, was serv- ing as the vice commander of the USAF Expeditionary Center where, for a year, she was the second in charge of a 14,000-person organization supporting air forces around the world. Another yearlong position was as the senior special assistant to the com- mander of NATO and the European Command. Her first job after retiring from the military was almost two years as city manager in McMinnville, a position from which she resigned in October 2016. She described the Sisters city manager posi- tion as her “dream job.” Meeker said, “Because Sisters is an incredibly attrac- tive place, growth is unavoid- able. You can’t stop it.” She compared growth and See CANDIDATES on page 31
