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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2019)
2 Wednesday, April 17, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N SPRD turns corner on “Operation Shipshape” By Jeff Tryens SPRD Board President 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: The last time I checked, Sisters has no rail line, nor an airport that can handle large quan- tities of freight. That means that all goods that we receive here in Sisters like groceries, medi- cines, fuel, hardware, lumber, etc. arrives by truck. Mostly large, long-bed trucks. Each time I drive west out of town I notice there is usually a large truck parked along Highway 20 while I9m guessing the truck driver makes his/her way, walking along the busy road, back to town for a meal or other supplies. Lately I9ve noticed quite a few trucks parked between McDonalds and the newest hotel, on Rail Way, which impinges on the traffic flow on that little side street. My guess would be that once that hotel opens for busi- ness it won9t be an option of truckers to stop there. During the bad-weather events, when the pass is closed for avalanche removal or due to an unfortunate accident, or if the trucks have mechanical problems there just isn9t any- where for them to stop. Sisters is growing. New businesses will be needing more supplies, thus more truck traffic. It might be a thing for us to start planning now, to have a location just off the highway, away from residential areas where the trucks may park for awhile when the drivers need to rest, get food or repairs. There will be many things to consider. Will the area need to be reg- ulated? How long is too long to stay? Where exactly is there room to park big trucks? I9m NOT suggesting an actual truck stop, but we might just need to start planning for the inevitable. Kara Mickaelson s s s See LETTERS on page 20 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy PM Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Mostly Cloudy 66/43 74/47 61/34 57/35 61/38 62/41 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. ©2019 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. Earlier this year, the mother of one of Sisters Park & Recreation9s after- school kids said to me, <The other day, my daughter, out of the blue, announced that she did not want to die. Before I could formulate a reassuring answer, she added, 8because I wouldn9t be able to go to SPRD any- more.9= Wow. Now that9s an endorsement! What this child did not know was her little bit of heaven on Earth was becoming more than a little frayed around the edges. She didn9t notice the sagging rain gutters or the pile of construction debris behind the building her classroom is in, or the exposed electrical wires that were part of the irriga- tion system. She was also unaware that employee turn-over was quite high or the Wi-Fi system was not secure. Over the years, the SPRD board had tried to do more and more to meet community needs with no significant influx of additional funds. That changed a year ago, when voters chose to give SPRD approximately one mil- lion additional tax dollars spread over five years to make needed infrastructure improvements and to make necessary changes to retain staff. The SPRD board also committed to make after- school and youth programs more financially acces- sible; to expand program- ming for residents across the board; and to provide more support for commu- nity events. Board and staff have been hard at work imple- menting what we9re call- ing <Operation Shipshape= to complete the first phase of SPRD9s expansion 4 getting our house in order. Under the leader- ship of Interim Executive Director Courtney Snead, we have instituted over 30 physical and admin- istrative improvements ranging from fixing those sagging gutters to install- ing a new firewall to pro- tect confidential customer information. A list of completed improvements can be found on SPRD9s w e b s i t e , w w w. s i s t e r s recreation.com. We have also taken significant steps to make programs more affordable including cut- ting the after-school fee in half. As Operation Shipshape is wrapping up, board members and staff are turn- ing their attention to broad- ening both offerings and access to SPRD program- ming. Because of the levy, SPRD can now offer pro- grams and services without having to be certain that they will pay for them- selves. We can staff-up to offer daycare for kids dur- ing school holidays. We can do the necessary legwork to launch a new co-ed soft- ball league. We can work with a group of motivated seniors to develop a plan to broaden opportunities to play pickleball in Sisters. We9re doing the first-ever 8Senior Fitness Games9 in June. We are working with a coalition in town to offer more programming for residents who have trouble getting around. Each time, we9re able to use newly hired staff to make these things happen. Over 20 years ago, S P R D 9s predeces - s o r, S O A R ( S i s t e r s Organization for Activities and Recreation), was founded on the belief that having a safe place for kids to go after school was a critically important need in town. While we now do many more things for a much broader swath of Sisters-area residents, SPRD has remained a bed- rock of support for several generations of parents in Sisters. With the resources provided by the local option, I firmly believe that the mother who told me the story about her daughter could be telling my successor, years from now, a similar story about her grandchild9s love of SPRD. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the The Nugget Newspaper.