The Nugget
Vol. XLII No. 39
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Search and rescue unit trains in Sisters
By Cody Rheault
Correspondent
The Sisters Eagle Airport
hosted live helicopter train-
ing for Camp Sherman
Hasty Team volunteers last
Saturday. Joined by Life
Flight from the Redmond
Airport and Jefferson County
Emergency managers, SAR
team volunteers learned about
aircraft operations related to
search and rescue scenarios.
The training included
instruction on basic operat-
ing practice in and around a
helicopter. Volunteers learned
about the situations in which
a helicopter would be needed
and what that response would
entail. Life Flight9s Redmond
base manager and flight para-
medic, Victor Walco, led the
training session and answered
questions. Following a class-
room session, the team joined
an active Life Flight crew
who flew in from Redmond
for the hands-on training
portion.
The Camp Sherman Hasty
Team was founded in 1995 by
former Jefferson County dep-
uty Mark Foster, and is man-
aged under Sergeant David
Pond, Jefferson County
Correspondent
Following a vote at the
July school board meeting,
Jay Wilkins took over the
position of school board chair
for the Sisters School District
after three years of serving on
the board.
Wilkins, who moved to
Sisters seven years ago from
the Portland area with his
wife, Vanessa, and daugh-
ters, Skylar and Sydney, was
enticed here by his friend Bill
Rexford who taught at Sisters
High School at the time.
<Bill was obviously a
big fan of the school system
and really talked it up so
we moved out here for what
Sisters offered as a school
Inside...
Firefighter
recruits
graduate
in Sisters
By Kathryn Godsiff
Correspondent
out there, and that9s why our
team is primarily based from
the Camp Sherman area.=
Hasty Team members
train monthly in all aspects
of search and rescue, includ-
ing operations with helicopter
The annual Firefighter
Recruit Academy is a long-
standing tradition with the
Sisters-Camp Sherman and
Black Butte Ranch rural pro-
tection fire districts. Each
year a number of applicants
across all the Central Oregon
fire districts are screened and
chosen to begin their learning
of firefighting and emergency
service at local stations.
Sisters-Camp Sherman and
Black Butte Ranch fire dis-
tricts graduated nine recruits
with a badge-pinning cer-
emony at the Sisters Fire Hall
last Friday.
During the summer weeks
of training, the recruits live
in the stations with the career
staff. The academy began in
June, and when it concluded
See SAR TRAINING on page 22
See FIREFIGHTERS on page 31
PHOTO BY CODY RHEAULT
Jefferson County’s Camp Sherman Hasty Team members took helicopter operations training at Sisters Eagle
Airport last Saturday. The Camp Sherman Hasty Team serves the Metolius Basin and areas of the Pacific Crest Trail.
Sheriff9s Office emergency
manager. Composed of vol-
unteers, the team includes a
variety of members through-
out Sisters Country and the
Camp Sherman area. Under
the Jefferson County jurisdic-
tion, the Hasty Team responds
primarily to incidents within
Wilkins takes reins
as school board chair
By Charlie Kanzig
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
district and community.=
Immediately upon arrival,
Wilkins got involved in
the drive to pass the local
option, which had failed for
the first time in the previous
campaign.
<Fortunately it passed
with flying colors shortly
after that,= said Wilkins.
Wilkins volunteered to
help with the passage of
the bond levy for school
improvement and helped with
the next local option cam-
paign as well.
<So, I was pretty heavily
involved in the funding side
of things for the school dis-
trict right from the get-go,=
he said.
See WILKINS on page 23
the Metolius River Basin,
east slopes of the Cascades,
and areas of the Pacific Crest
Trail.
<What9s special about
that part of the Cascades
is how remote it is,= said
Pond. <We see a lot of visi-
tors and receive a lot of calls
Sisters celebrates signature trail
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
The sun shone warmly
on the 100-plus people gath-
ered at Village Green Park
last Saturday to celebrate
the community asset known
as the Peterson Ridge Trail
(PRT).
The PRT is actually an
entire trail system of over 100
miles of trails, with loops and
connectors, serving hikers,
cyclists, and equestrians.
The day9s activities, under-
written by Your Store on
Cascade Avenue and hosted
by Sisters Trails Alliance
(STA), included guided rides
and hikes on the PRT in the
morning, a free lunch catered
by Tacos el Comal, a spe-
cial Pete9s Ridge pale ale
brewed and donated by Three
Creeks Brewing available for
PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD
Peterson Ridge Trail advocate John Rahm described how the trail was
created in its current configuration.
purchase, games of Cornhole,
and a children9s scaven-
ger hunt around the park. A
celebratory cake sported a
colorful reproduction of Clay
Warburton9s art that was on
See CELEBRATION on page 19
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Announcements ................12 Kids in Print ................. 16-17 Obituaries ....................... 26 Classifieds .................. 27-29
Meetings ........................... 3 Entertainment ..................13 Sisters Salutes ................ 18 Crossword ....................... 26 Real Estate .................29-32