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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2017)
2 Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Car crazy By William Power Guest Columnist Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let- ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: We have one vacation rental that we previ- ously rented out on a month-to-month basis. This home is one way for us to fund higher eduction tuition costs for our six kids and hopefully help fund our retirement in the future. One extremely unfortunate experience with a very difficult tenant who cost more than $15,000 out of our pockets caused us to rethink our strategy with this house. The tim- ing of this event was when most people had left our area (2010/11) due to lack of jobs and the great recession. We could scarcely find anyone interested in renting this home. After the financial and emotional stress from exten- sive cleanup, repairs, replaced flooring and lost rents we had to think of other options. There are few ways that Sisters is a sound economic choice for families; especially families with children. But we love it here so much. The mountains, the outdoor experi- ences, the community. What better than to try to share what we love so much about our area. Our neighbors love this new arrangement. They are no longer subjected to the instabil- ity of possibly questionable tenants. We, or our housekeeper, are now able to inspect the property almost weekly for any needed repairs or maintenance. We have someone mow, edge and weed weekly during the busy summer months to keep up curb appeal not only for our guests but for our neighbors, too. I would ask that the City of Sisters leave the affordable housing options to the big developers and large-scale real estate owner- ship. Please consider an exemption for small- scale landlords like ourselves as is being done See LETTERS on page 11 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Chance Showers Chance Showers Chance Showers Mostly Sunny Sunny Sunny 48/27 48/32 48/29 53/26 60/31 64/37 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Remember when you got your first car? How excited you were! A long-awaited milestone was reached. You could take your girl to the movies. You could show off to all your friends, and if you survived that, you were ready to be an adult. Soon, though, you needed to impress other adults. You added a good-looking car to your self-identity. You bought ever more expen- sive vehicles — sports cars that could weave in and out of traffic, SUVs, pickups — aside from the station wag- ons that safely carried your kids and their friends to all of their many activities. Vehicle manufacturers added conveniences and safety features, but they didn’t include a button that provides for common sense. Even though you your- self continued to survive as a driver, you too often heard, saw and dreaded the sound and views of ambulances picking up the remains of vehicles and people who didn’t, due mainly to human frailties of being distracted, drunk, on drugs, sleepy, full of road rage, heavy-footed- ness, poor judgment, etc. — which are all due to making bad choices, of course. Drivers travel in a hurry to get to some place where they can waste time. Is it worth the consequences? So, we choose to kill ourselves and innocent others? It isn’t our intent. Perhaps it is a lack of planning that includes the route, distance and time for unexpected events. Recent studies tell us most of us are sleep- deprived. Accident rates increase with vehicle speeds. Everyone is tempted to use a cell phone while driving since it is glued to their ears and eyes at all other times. A recent study in Utah indi- cated that people take their eyes of the road to program the many improved fea- tures present in new cars — radios, phones, GPS, lights, heat, air conditioner, cruise control, fog lights, defrost- ers, and windshield wipers. Wi t h c o n v e n i e n c e devices comes complexity. With human aging comes a need for simplicity. How many people study their manuals and dashboards well enough to know how these things work before they take the wheel? How can they possibly ignore the call on their cell phone? Not to forget the emo- tional baggage carried. What happened just before this trip and what is the expected happening at arrival? Is the baby crying, the wife upset, the kids fighting in the back seat? How frustrating and aggravating is all that? Could we pull over and set- tle it? Many accidents happen on Highway 20 between Suttle Lake and Bend. Why? Where is there a straighter road with many places to stop? It almost has to be driver error. It is probably mostly due to excessive speed. When in a hurry, push down on the gas. Get where you are going faster and solve your time problem? Wrong! The distance between Sisters and Bend is about 20 miles. At speeds aver- aging 55 miles per hour, it takes about 22 minutes. At 60 mph, about 20 minutes. At 65 mph, it takes about 18 minutes. Isn’t it insane to want to gamble their life and the lives of others to save two to four minutes on the restful, beautiful way from Sisters to Bend? Unfortunately as more and more drivers with bad habits crowd our roads and city streets, we can’t expect fewer accidents. Bring on the robots so we can sleep, play with our toys, eat, drink and be merry, while we get safely to our destinations! Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson News Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Karen Kassy Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/CHOMBOSAN Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
