‘Winter Olympics’ come to
Sisters Middle School page 4
Fire district offers free
smoke alarms page 8
Outlaws capture Sky-Em
League basketball title page 14
The Nugget
Vol. XLI No. 8
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Winter finally arrives in Sisters Country
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Old Man Winter took
his time getting here, but he
finally drew his blanket of
snow across Sisters Country
over the weekend.
Depending on where you
were in Sisters Country, you
got perhaps five inches of the
white stuff in the first real
snowstorm of an unusually
mild and snow-free winter.
The storm was led into
the region by a sharp edge of
wind. Heavy gusts brought
down trees across the area.
Along Cloverdale Road, a
falling tree took down power
lines on Saturday, knocking
out power in the area. A tree
took out a trailer and pieces
of big ponderosas fell on
Sisters streets, temporarily
creating blockages and traffic
hazards. Construction materi-
als were picked up and scat-
tered across roads and fields.
Considering the intensity
Correspondent
In a wide-ranging discus-
sion regarding possible mar-
ijuana-related businesses in
Sisters, the City Council spent
90 minutes at last week’s
workshop listening to and
questioning City legal counsel
Alan Dale in front of a packed
Council chamber.
Passage in 2014 of state
ballot Measure 91 legalized
the “recreational use of mari-
juana, based on regulation
and taxation to be determined
by the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission.” However,
Sisters business license code
currently states, “no busi-
ness license shall be issued to
engage in a business that does
Inside...
Crime is
down in
Deschutes
County
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
reminded Sisters Country
residents that it is, indeed
Deschutes County District
Attorney John Hummel made
a presentation to Sisters City
Council about Community
Safety and Reporting, on the
most recent crime statistics
for the County as well as
the first months of the new
Goldilocks program.
Juvenile crime and depen-
dency filings are projected
to decrease for 2017-18 as a
result of a different approach
to handling juveniles who
come into the system. The
aim is to conduct risk assess-
ments on the youths and
See STORM on page 25
See CRIME DOWN on page 31
PHOTO BY KIKI DOLSON
A strong wind storm knocked down trees across Sisters Country. A falling tree on Cloverdale Road took down
power lines, leaving some residents without power until 3 a.m.
of the wind, there was rela-
tively little damage. The
Sisters Fire District reported
no injuries associated with
Council investigates
marijuana regulations
By Sue Stafford
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
not comply with local, state,
or federal law.”
Marijuana is still illegal
under federal law.
If federal law were to
change, as things currently
stand, Sisters would no lon-
ger be able to deny business
licenses to marijuana busi-
nesses on the grounds of
Federal statute.
City manager Brant
Kucera set the stage for
the discussion last week
by reminding Council and
informing visitors that, for the
past two years, addressing the
matter of marijuana in Sisters
has been a Council goal and
it is the job of staff to see that
Council goals are addressed.
See MARIJUANA on page 30
the windstorm.
A decent snowfall and
overnight temperatures dip-
ping into the single digits
Seeking school safety in Sisters
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Incidents such as the
school shooting in Parkland,
Florida, last week hit edu-
cators, parents and students
hard, no matter where they
are. The sheer shock and hor-
ror that such an event can
happen at all is compounded
by the realization that it can
happen anywhere.
“We know that time and
time again, people are say-
ing ‘We never would have
thought it would happen
here,’” Sisters High School
Principal Joe Hosang told The
Nugget last week. “We know
we’re not immune to it.”
School security has
become a significant concern
across the nation in recent
years, and it is at the fore-
front of concern in Sisters.
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
A new, more secure, entryway is under construction at Sisters High
School. The project was funded through a voter approved bond issue.
Among the current construc-
tion projects funded by voter-
approved bonds is the remod-
eling of the entryways to local
schools in order to make them
more secure.
But Hosang believes that
too much emphasis on the
See SAFETY on page 24
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Announcements ............... 10 Sisters Salutes .................12 Obituaries ........................21 Classifieds ..................26-28
Meetings ........................... 3 Movies & Entertainment ....11 Sisters Naturalist ..............15 Crossword ....................... 25 Real Estate .................29-32