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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2019)
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 9 BOND: District got a lot of bang for taxpayers bucks in projects Continued from page 1 expected. <Originally, the bond was just going to touch one and two,= Hudson told The Nugget. <We were able to incorporate a lot of student outcomes.= <We9re very proud of the project team and how they delivered,= said school board member Jay Wilkins, who headed up a citizens9 bond oversight committee. The District ended up with considerably more funds than those voters signed off on. They caught a <tailwind= in selling the bonds, earning additional money to the tune of nearly $1 million from favorable market timing. In addition to that, Sisters was unexpectedly in a position to be awarded $4 million in state grants. <We were able to go in and refurbish a whole sci- ence lab (at Sisters Middle School),= Hudson offered as an example. The Leadership/Language Arts classroom was doubled in size to offer more func- tional space, and a new SMS student union has proved to be a popular and welcoming space for students. <The kids rush to get there for lunch,= said Superintendent Curt Scholl. A list of bond-related projects may be found with the online version of this story at www.nuggetnews. com. <A lot of the things we did were safety upgrades,= Scholl noted. We were able to go in and refurbish a whole science lab (at Sisters Middle School). — Brett Hudson That included redesign- ing and remodeling building entrances to improve secu- rity and sight lines. Paint and sealer and projects to catch up to deferred maintenance will enhance building lon- gevity, Hudson noted, and upgrades to lighting will pro- vide operational savings. For example, new high- efficiency LED field lights at Reed Stadium are so efficient that the entire system runs on what one of the original six light poles used. School noted that, <One very noticeable improve- ment while visiting the schools during our after- hours events is the District- wide upgrade to LED light- ing. Several IT projects and systems upgrades were also made throughout the District to facilitate the educational models for the schools.= Wilkins noted that the bond oversight committee was fortunate in that they knew in advance that there would be more money to work with, which enabled the project team to make strate- gic choices about projects. The District <reached out to each school and the opera- tions department to identify additional needs for the facil- ities,= Scholl reported. Wilkins acknowledged that there was =a lot of pres- sure to deliver= for a skepti- cal electorate that had earlier rejected a bond. The bond oversight committee was cre- ated to ensure that the public got its money9s worth 4 and knew it. Once tangible results became apparent, Wilkins said, <that9s when I felt the momentum really turned.= Delivering on time and on or under budget wasn9t easy. A booming construc- tion market meant that it was sometimes <tough finding the trades to complete the job,= Hudson said. And since the 2008 Great Recession, <suppliers don9t have things on their shelves,= Hudson observed. <Everything you need is special-order.= I think what’s really exciting is how it’s set up for the future. — Jay Wilkins That made for long lead times trying to hit a narrow window of summertime con- struction, especially for the middle school, which was heavily torn up last summer. It was a close call, but the SMS work was completed in time for students to be in their classrooms on time in September. Wilkins noted that the District has established reserves for maintenance so that the newly refurbished buildings stay in good shape and functional for years to come. <I think what9s really exciting,= he said, <is how it9s set up for the future.= Cougar deemed threat and killed in Bend Saturday BEND (AP) 4 Authorities say they9ve killed a cougar that had been seen around homes in Bend. Agents with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Bend police tracked the animal into the Deschutes River Woods on Saturday morning. They say they believe that based on the territorial nature of male cougars and the size of its paws, it was the same animal that had been seen in back- yards in southwest Bend and that it did pose a threat to people. It weighed 135 pounds. Officials say the river canyon offers excellent habi- tat for mountain lions, and people should be aware that they might encounter one in the area.