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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2019)
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 2 O P I N I O N Disappointed in planning commission By Doug Wills Correspondent Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: I would like to address some inaccuracies about the book <George= that are circulating in our community. The book was NOT a required reading assignment for any student or grade level at Sisters Middle School. It was one of 32 new titles added to our library. It was added to our collection because it was on the 2018-2019 Battle of the Books list. These titles are chosen annually by mem- bers of the Oregon Association of School Libraries. The reading program that has been referenced in many of the letters to the editor is one we have offered to students for over a decade. During our spring reading program, stu- dents are encouraged to select novels of their preference allowing them to move through the titles at their own rate and level. Multiple cop- ies of the 32 Battle of the Books titles were purchased last year so all students had many titles they could choose from. Six of the 250 books we purchased last year were titled <George.= Students had the new selections plus hundreds of other books in our classrooms and library to read. Never has a single book been identified as required reading in this program. We try to support all students as they self-select novels through dis- cussion, reflection and accompanying work. Students bring these titles home and can share what they are learning with families as well. Tiffany Tisdel 5th-grade teacher at Sisters Middle School s s s To the Editor: If you have the ability to do something See LETTERS on page 15 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Rain Rain/Snow Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Cloudy Showers 47/31 50/33 52/31 57/35 58/39 54/38 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC 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. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Vicki Curlett & Patti Jo Beal Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen 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. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. 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 Newspaper9s 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. The planning commis- sion meeting last week was very disappointing. Watching the planning commission working on the new Hayden develop- ment, McKenzie Meadows Village, was painful. I want to thank Jack Nagel for all his efforts to make the other commission- ers understand the need for the gates. Jack understood the need for the safety and the fact that our streets are too small for a main thor- oughfare. Unfortunately, his comments fell on deaf ears. The other commissioners all voted against the citi- zens of the Village at Cold Springs. They cared more about an outdated code than the safety of the children and seniors that live, play and walk on Williamson and Hill. They all believed Mr. Beeson when he was more worried about McKinney Butte and the roundabout than the safety of the 300- plus citizens of Sisters that live in the Village at Cold Springs. I also find it interesting and disturb- ing that several of them never visited the Village at Cold Springs, did any measurements of the streets to see the actual size, rather than relying on Mr. Beeson and the City staff. I also find it interesting that they were willing to change the various codes for Hayden9s benefit at this meeting, but not for the benefit of the citizens of Village at Cold Springs. In fact, the City has a history of changing the codes for Hayden. There were overwhelm- ing comments and evidence presented at the meeting on March 7 talking about safety and the fact that these are private streets owned and maintained by the homeowners in the Village at Cold Springs. Two of the members of the planning commission were not in attendance at the March 7 meeting, yet they voted against the citi- zens of Sisters. I am hard- pressed to believe they read every e-mail submission, every letter and listened to the recording of the March 7th meeting. You cannot understand the emotion of the citizens by reading something. They should have recused themselves. The City hired a <traffic engineer= from Bend who I don9t think ever visited the Village at Cold Springs. He just read off the plans and the codes given to him by City staff. He said the streets are 28 feet wide, when in fact the paved area is 24 feet wide. You can9t count the curbs because you can9t drive on them or park on them. Mr. Beeson made that comment. These streets are privately owned, main- tained and the HOA pays taxes on these streets. He said the <code says these streets need to be connected so as to relieve traffic on McKinney Butte and the roundabout.= The important aspect of this vote for the citizens of the Village at Cold Springs was the installation of the gates to minimize the traf- fic flowing through our neighborhood on our very narrow and private streets. Listening to the discus- sion, none of them under- stood what kind of a gate we were talking about. I know the oral comments were cut off, but don9t you think they could have asked us since we have all the information on how these gates would work and were all in the room to answer the questions and explain how they would work? I know the Planning Commission is a volunteer commission and I appreci- ate how difficult this can be. But they need to be more in tune with the needs of the citizens of Sisters. The citizens are who should be protected! Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.