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Wednesday, April 24, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O P I N I O N
Hayden will provide
workforce housing
EXPECT DELAYS…
By Paul Hodge
CEO Laird Superfood
The Highway 20
logging project gets underway
Monday, April 29. Delays of up to
20 minutes are possible on the
highway west of Sisters.
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer¾s 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:
We would like to thank City Manager Cory
Misley and City Councilor Andrea Blum for
educating our group on April 11 about how our
City government operates, who is responsible
for what, and how citizens can get involved in
making Sisters a better place. We are so grate-
ful for all the volunteer work Andrea puts into
her work as a councilor, and for the passion
and dedication Cory showed us for making
sure Sisters thrives.
They taught us that the City operates on a
$15,836,348 budget for FY 2018-19 to admin-
ister water and sewer, city streets, parks and
land-use planning, public safety, and the
economic development of Sisters. The City
Manager, who is hired by the council, makes
sure that the City9s policies and contracts are
administered, oversees staff, and makes rec-
ommendations to the council on many issues.
There are five city councilors that are
elected for four- or two-year terms; three are
open positions every two years. The top two
vote-getters get four-year terms, and the last
gets a two-year term. The Mayor is chosen
from within the council, by the council. The
mayor runs council meetings and officially
represents the City in public. Three councilor
positions will be open in the 2020 November
election, including Mayor Ryan9s, Councilor
Blum9s and Councilor Esterman9s seats.
Qualifications for running are simply that can-
didates must be a qualified elector and live
within the Sisters City limits for at least 12
months immediately preceding the election,
and agree to volunteer their time to make deci-
sions on behalf of the citizens. Other helpful,
but unrequired, qualifications are: a passion
See LETTERS on page 27
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Last year, when Laird
Superfood made the deci-
sion to open a major facil-
ity in Sisters, we worked
out our facility location,
transportation routes and
how to train an ever-
increasing workforce to
deliver sustainable prod-
ucts that fuel people across
the globe to perform at
their peak. But there9s
one critical element of our
work over which we have
little control: housing for
our employees.
Once at full capacity,
we will be ramping up
our employee hiring for
our new modern facility
in Sisters, likely making
us the largest employer in
town. Already available
housing is in short supply
in Sisters, and according
to a new housing needs
analysis in Sisters, more
than 1,000 new homes
will be needed in the
next 20 years. How will
these homes get built and
where will our employees
live?
We chose this com-
munity because Sisters is
different. The lifestyle,
the pristine environment,
the welcoming people. It
all lines up with our ethos
of providing clean, nutri-
tious products that add to
the health and wellness
of our customers9 lives.
But when we look at our
own employees9 ability to
thrive given the lack of
housing options in Sisters,
we see a problem in need
of new solutions.
We need the City of
Sisters to partner with
us to provide a housing
supply that9s capable of
sustaining not just our
growth, but the growth of
every business in Sisters.
We need leadership that
keeps housing affordable
and accessible to everyone
in our adopted town.
And so, to say we are
incredibly supportive of
the close to 200 homes
to be built in the new
Hayden Homes McKenzie
Meadows neighborhood
is an understatement.
Not only will homes in
McKenzie Meadows be
financially within reach
for our team, an additional
20 affordable homes will
be available for families
making 80 percent or less
of area median income
through the nonprofit First
Story and additional rental
units. These homes will
increase the housing sup-
ply in Sisters — a huge
impact.
Yes, our employees
could commute 30 minutes
each way from Redmond
or Bend every morning,
and, of course, some will
choose to do that, but if
a commute like that is a
requirement to be a part
of our team, we will likely
always battle recruitment
and retention challenges.
More importantly to the
greater community, the
ripple effect of our eco-
nomic value to Sisters will
be dampened dramatically
if our employees aren9t
able to support local busi-
nesses by becoming full-
fledged locals. We want
to use the power of the
economic development we
provide to make Sisters
an even better place to
live and work, but we are
limited without the strong
underpinnings of a stable
housing supply.
We c h o s e S i s t e r s
because it is a truly special
place on this Earth and we
want to help retain what9s
special here and grow
opportunity at the same
time. By pulling together
in the same direction, we
can make it happen. To the
Sisters City Council, we
ask you to please pull with
us at Laird Superfood by
approving the McKenzie
Meadows neighborhood
and others like it as Sisters
grows.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.