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Wednesday, November 8, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Country birds
By Douglas Beall
Correspondent
Visiting the Cascade for-
ests in late fall and winter,
the fluted notes of the var-
ied thrush (lzoreus naevius)
can often be heard echoing
through the canyons.The
elegant orange of the varied
thrush can be seen through-
out winter.
Closely related to the
robin, they also can be seen
on lawns and roadsides for-
aging for seeds, berries and
grubs. The varied thrush
breeds mostly in Canada
and Alaska, males arriving
first to sing and claim their
territories. Then building
their nests with spruce, fir
and hemlock twigs, which
are lined with moss, fine
grasses and dead leaves.
The nest is normally located
in a conifer about 10 feet
high, and contain 1-6 blue
with brown speckled eggs.
Hatching in 10-14 days, the
young are fed worms and
insects until they leave the
nest in 13-15 days.
When varied thrushes
gather they are referred to
as a “mutation” or a “her-
mitage” of thrushes. To
view more images of this
thrush, visit http://abirdsings
becauseithasasong.com.
PHOTO BY DOUGLAS BEALL
Varied thrush.
Bus barn to be built at high school
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
The new school district
transportation facility is
closer to becoming a reality.
The City is currently review-
ing the district’s site plan
application, which was filed
last week.
Once the site plan is
approved, the district can
submit its request for a build-
ing permit and construction
can begin once the building
permit is issued. The pro-
posed bus barn and shop is
slated to be built in the cur-
rent high school student
parking lot that also serves as
access to the Coffield Center,
the Sisters Park & Recreation
District building.
In May 2016, Sisters vot-
ers approved a $10.7 mil-
lion school bond measure.
In addition, the district unex-
pectedly received a portion
of a $4 million state match-
ing grant. The grant pool was
based on need, which meant
Sisters was at the bottom
of the list based on demo-
graphics. Those districts like
Sisters, who didn’t qualify
based on need, entered a lot-
tery for funds.
Several districts ahead of
Sisters in the lottery didn’t
pass their bonds, knocking
them out of the running for
matching funds and moving
Sisters up the list. According
to district Superintendent
Curt Scholl, all of the schools
that passed their bonds
received a percentage of the
grant money.
The Sisters School Board
gave its approval to use some
of the supplementary grant
funds to fund construction of
a new transportation facility
and shop near the high school.
The existing bus barn,
which sits on a small piece of
land adjacent to the elemen-
tary school on North Cascade
Avenue, has outlived its use-
fulness, and the tiny shop in
which bus repairs are made is
inadequate.
By placing the new facil-
ity at the high school, the
district will be able to incor-
porate space and equipment
to support career technical
education classes like auto
shop and metal shop. The
new facility will also provide
for greatly upgraded mainte-
nance facilities for the district
busses.
One question that has
arisen in the mind of the pub-
lic is whether the planned
placement of the structure
and its attendant traffic pat-
tern is the most viable site for
the footprint.
Traffic coming off of
McKinney Butte and travel-
ing to SPRD will be forced
to jog across the parking lot
closer to the high school and
possibly come into conflict
with cars and students in the
parking lot, creating safety
concerns.
The current footprint for
the new facility sits on the
southwest edge of the stu-
dent parking lot, adjacent to
the disc golf course and will
block traffic that historically
has accessed SPRD along
that section of the parking lot.
SPRD Executive Director
Liam Hughes said he had
only had a casual conversa-
tion with the school district
regarding plans for placement
of the new transportation
facility and had never been
shown the formal drawings
prior to the site plan applica-
tion to the City.
According to City Senior
Planner BreAnne McConkie,
a suggestion was made to the
architect for the school dis-
trict that there might be issues
with the location of the new
bus barn and/or traffic flow
around it. As of press time no
changes were forthcoming.
Because the land-use
application is a Type 2 deci-
sion made by City staff, no
public hearing on the matter
is mandatory. Public com-
ment can be made to the City,
however, by email or letter.
The School Board
was scheduled to meet on
Monday, November 6 at 1
p.m. and discussion of the
new bus barn was on the
agenda.
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