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