18
Wednesday, October 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
involved but in the end — far less traffic and
safer on Highways 126, 97 or 20 between our
cities.
2. We pass legislation to assure our aquifer
is not and will never be privatized in whole or
part. No loss of our water to a bottled water
company or for profit firm.
3. We build a large park in our midst (the
property between the post office and town
along Locust would be perfect — check out
the view to the Sisters mountains from the
northeast corner) that could be designed to
have benches, tables, latrines, grassy areas,
large pond with trail around it, trees (but none
to block the view), a rollerblade park, and
covered venue with barbecue — the latter to
be rented from the City for large events: wed-
dings, celebrations of life, graduation parties,
etc. This option assures that as we grow, our
park can accommodate more of our residents.
The Village Green and other parks are great
but not large. All great cities preserve large
green areas for enjoying.
4. We should assure we have a municipal
broadband network, create municipal wind-
farms, and build or improve water treatment
centers to feed recycled water to agricultural
areas.
Let’s plan ahead for the population growth
due to national migration out of water-starved
areas.
Susan Cobb
s
s
s
To the Editor:
After spending three weeks in Central
Oregon managing the Horse Creek Complex
and Rebel Fire, the Alaska Incident
Management Team would like to extend our
thanks to the residents in the McKenzie River,
Sisters, Bend and surrounding communities
who were impacted by the recent wildfires
and our presence while fighting them.
The understanding and cooperation dis-
played by Oregonians in the face of nearly
50 days of smoke, angst and uncertainly gen-
erated by the fires was not only helpful, but
inspiring. As a team, we are extremely grate-
ful for the help and support provided by local
residents, the U.S. Forest Service and the state
of Oregon as a whole. The hospitality and
gratitude expressed by residents in the com-
munities we worked in and traveled through
was humbling.
Hailing from Alaska, we tend to believe the
Last Frontier is the most wild and beautiful
place on Earth. And while we still do believe
that is true, we learned that Central Oregon is
a very special place, too. We tried our best to
keep it that way.
On a side note, we Alaskans found it ironic
that the weather in Oregon was harsher than
what we are accustomed to in Alaska. From
a weather viewpoint, our stay at the Incident
Command Post at the Hoodoo Ski Resort
was an interesting one, to say the least, with
blizzard-like conditions and several inches
of snow over the course of five days. Had we
known what Mother Nature had in mind, we
would have packed our skis along with our
pulaskis.
Tom Kurth
Incident Commander, Alaska Incident
Management Team
s
s
s
To the Editor:
The City of Sisters licensed three vacation
rentals in 2006 and 2011 under our name.
Two of the three are in a commercial zone
and one is a cottage in Pine Meadows.
The Nugget Newspaper made mention
regarding the City of Cannon Beach that
approached vacation rentals a number of years
ago. One of the end results of their planning
regarding future vacation rentals was to adopt
a “grandfather” clause for current owners of
vacation rentals. My understanding is those
grandfathered owners can sell their homes as
vacation rentals and they are able to continue
being licensed as vacation rentals. New rules
were established by the City of Cannon Beach
that did not financially hurt current owners.
The vacation rentals currently licensed by
the City of Sisters should be able to continue
their licensing status in the future as long as
they have fulfilled the requirements of licens-
ing that made their original decision to invest
in a Sisters vacation rental. Homes purchased
for the use as vacation rentals should not be
impugned as a result of the city not addressing
this issue years ago.
To my knowledge, having been in the
industry for almost 10 years, I have not heard
of vacation rentals being anything other than
an asset to the community in terms of dollars
spent and events visited and have not seen any
See LETTERS on page 22
FINEFURNITURE
Adam
Bronstein
Cra sman
By Commission
541-410-1309
SpringCreekWoodworking.com
Continued from page 3
Outlaws. “I learned more
about the game and have a
new appreciation for those
you play. My favorite part,
however, was interacting
with the young men who
were trying to ‘coach’ the
moms during our scrimmage.
I think we were their enter-
tainment for the event!”
Jillian Frankl, who is the
mother of an eighth-grade
footballer said, “The agenda
was filled with fun activi-
ties and informative speak-
ers, including great infor-
mation on concussions from
Doctor Bob and wonderful
demonstrations from the
Bend Rugby Team and the
high school football players
themselves. The event gave
moms the opportunity to
learn more while becoming
a closer-knit community of
football fans for their Outlaw
players.”
Oregon’s public pension
deficit reaches $25.3
PORTLAND (AP) — A
new valuation by the actuary
for Oregon’s public pension
determined that the system’s
deficit has ballooned to $25.3
billion, meaning higher costs
will be coming.
The growing deficit will
cost schools and local and
state government an addi-
tional $1.4 billion, accord-
ing to the valuation by the
Milliman Inc. actuarial and
consulting firm.
The increase was likely
caused in part by the Public
Employees Retirement
System Board’s decision to
lower its assumption of how
much it will get from invest-
ments from 7.5 percent to
7.2 percent, taking the deficit
from $21.8 billion to $25.3
billion by the end of 2016,
the Oregonian/Oregon Live
reported.
The board has allowed
employers to underfund the
system by billions of dollars.
“We’re not paying any-
where close to what we
should be paying, and if
we did it would absolutely
decimate schools,” said Jim
Green, executive director of
the Oregon School Boards
Association.
The additional $530 mil-
lion school districts will have
to pay because of the rising
deficit is equivalent to the
cost of 2,650 teachers or 11
instructional days.
Local and state govern-
ments will be drawing 40 per-
cent of the additional money
they will need from state’s
general fund, which is spec-
ulated to result in a budget
deficit in 2019.
attention
Health
practitioners
H O L I S T I C P S Y C H I AT RY & W E L L N E S S
FOR WOMEN & GIRLS
CO
TAB FFE
LES E
FOOTBALL: Clinic
offered moms
insight into game
OPENING IN SISTERS IN OCTOBER 2017!
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Van Houweling
PMHNP-BC
Specializing in functional medicine, we believe in a
comprehensive approach to restoring emotional wellness.
Now scheduling new clients, 541-595-8337
www.shesoarspsych.com • 102 E. Main Ave., Ste. 300A
Trainers, Yoga Teachers, Reiki Masters
and more: Consider the Nugget’s
Classes & Training classifi eds to
let readers know about your sessions.
Just $2 per line the fi rst week ,
$1.50 per line on repeat weeks.
And it goes online at no extra charge!
DON’T
MISS OUT
on this week’s inserts in the Nugget:
Hair &
Nails
Natural &
Artifi cial
541-549-6566
484 W. Washington Ave., Ste. B
Ray’s Food Place: It’s a 72-hour Meat
Sale! Check out great savings on ribs,
chicken, ground beef, London broil,
bacon & more, FRI., SAT. & SUN. only!
Bi-Mart: Halloween approaches! Take
advantage of over 37% savings on the
3.5-pound bag of Child’s Play Candy,
now $4.99 with instant manufacturer’s
coupon! (Bi-Mart’s everday low price is $7.99.)
Placement deadline is Monday before noon
at 541-549-9941 or nuggetnews.com.
