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Wednesday, April 17, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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
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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.