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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2019)
2 Wednesday, December 4, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O Happy Holidays from The Nugget! As we enter the holiday season, please be mindful of our deadlines and special closings that allow our staff time with family (while still delivering The Nugget to each of you every week). Thursday, December 12 ... Closing at 3 p.m. Tuesday, December 24 ... Closing Early Thursday, December 26 ... Closed Tuesday, December 31 ... Closing Early Due to adjusted press times in December, we are unable to accept advertising or content past deadline. Display Advertising, Announcements, Events, Meeting Calendar ... 5 p.m. on Friday Classifieds, Letters to the Editor ... 12 noon on Monday Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and phone number. Letters 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 am an avid reader of letters to the editor in this paper, as well as other towns I visit. This section of the paper yields meaningful insight as to the character of the community as well as their wants and needs. The information gleaned from a few paragraphs and the follow-up responses paint a picture of the community9s feelings on a variety of subjects. The shortcomings that I find in almost all these letters are they address problems but lack solutions to those problems. Obviously, here in Sisters there is no scar- city of problems or opinions. Within the last four months there have been several editorials and letters to the editor regarding the proposed construction of the Dollar General Store and its adjoining development of multi-housing and more unneeded shops and restaurants. When my wife and I moved to Sisters about six months ago the population was estimated at 2,500. A wild guess on my part is the 2020 census will show it closer to 4,500; this is not what we moved here for. So I9ll cut to the chase with a suggestion that could lead to a possible solu- tion to our current problem. The City buys the subject land from its current owner at fair market value. That land is then re-zoned to agricultural or whatever zoning is required to grow Christmas trees (see page 32, last week9s Nugget article <Tree supply is tight=). The procured land could be leased to a tree grower or the City itself takes on the task of <how hard could it be to grow Christmas trees?= OK, it9s out-of-the-box thinking, but that9s what it takes to win over Big Business. Stop wasting your time blaming current City management, their hands are somewhat tied due to existing zoning having been approved years ago. Each and every person that is against this <urban sprawl= needs to get involved in preventing it from going any further or at least help slow it down. Don9t wait to see what happens, be what happens. Terry Coultas Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Showers Showers Partly Cloudy Mostly Sunny 41/28 41/32 43/33 43/30 44/25 43/26 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 & Lisa May Community Marketing Partners: Vicki Curlett & Patti Jo Beal Classifieds & Circulation: Kema Clark 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. N A failure of civic duty By John Chase Guest Columnist The evening of January 18 of this year my daughter and her friend were struck by a moving vehicle making a left turn onto North Oak Street from East Cascade Avenue. The two teen girls were walking inside the crosswalk when the vehicle struck my daughter from behind directly on the out- side of her right leg, which threw both girls onto the paved surface. Stunned, in shock and wounded, the girls got up to find the driver asking if they were OK and that she could not call for help because she had no phone. The injured teens in shock stated they would be OK. The driver proceeded to drive her vehicle away from the scene. Simultaneously the girls moved down the road toward safety and entered Sisters Saloon where they were received by a helpful staff and patrons. Thank you, Sisters Saloon! They were cared for immediately and I was con- tacted about the incident. I arrived shortly afterwards to find both girls visibly shaking and wounded with abrasions from being struck and hitting the pavement. The local ambulance had been contacted. The girls were evaluated in short time and interviewed by a Deschutes County Sheriff9s Office deputy. While the girls were being interviewed I set out on foot to possibly find the vehicle. It was a Friday night and I had a hunch the vehi- cle might be found nearby. After the girls settled down and exited the ambulance, I drove my daughter by the vehicle I found that fit the description. She confirmed it immediately and I sent the info through dispatch to the deputies. Many months passed, the girls9 injuries mostly healed and, despite lost opportunities with sports, things are relatively back to normal. Although the emo- tional and physical injuries were not life-threatening they were significant and remain in a recovering sta- tus. The bruises incurred where the vehicle struck my daughter are shocking. I pushed the sheriff 9s office to follow up and issue a citation. Shortly after the accident I spoke with the officer and he indi- cated that the D.A. would review the case. About four months later we found that the District Attorney was not seeking hit-and-run, and this was not a criminal offense. Personally, I agree with the D.A.9s decision declin- ing a criminal charge. However I am unsettled that the driver was not cited for failing to yield to a pedes- trian in a crosswalk. The driver carries on with no consequences nor record of an accident that was fright- eningly close to severely injuring not one but two people in downtown Sisters that night. Our community citi- zens suffered injury that night, for how will the laws be upheld if they are not enforced? Especially when the law was clearly violated and 4 admittedly so 4 by the driver. The officer lost my support by not follow- ing through with his duty. A driving infraction in this circumstance was neces- sary to uphold the law for all of the people who walk the streets of Sisters. I fol- lowed up with the deputy and other deputies from Deschutes County many times, demanding the driver be cited. The citation was never given and the six- month limitation has long passed. I personally called the non-emergency line and left messages to the deputy three times this summer. He never took the courtesy to call me back nor did I receive a message from him. As a community I ask you to question whether you are being served appro- priately by those who are sworn to protect and serve. I ask you to be intuitive and engage with what is right legally and civically. I have personally pro- vided information to police that upholds law, order, and good civic duty. My daughter is doing the same, recently helping police find a runaway. I am grateful to those who serve our com- munity. Whether you serve as a firefighter, police offi- cer, EMT, teacher, volunteer citizens, etc., we can9t have a good community without your service. It takes all of us doing the right thing to maintain the high-quality community Sisters is known for. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.