Wednesday, September 16, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
SIST ER S C O UN T R Y
V ISI ON
State of the City
The Sisters Country Vision consists
of 20 major goals (in four focus areas)
to encourage a more: 1. Connected,
2. Prosperous, 3. Livable and
4. Resilient Sisters Country.
By Mayor Chuck Ryan
Our great City of Sisters is entering its
75th anniversary in 2021. We are well-posi-
tioned financially and infrastructure-wise
due to the thorough planning by your City
staff, elected Council, and our volunteer
advisory boards. We recently completed
our FY 2020/21 budget, and despite the
challenging headwinds created by the
pandemic, Sisters is in a very healthy posi-
tion to withstand these unique pressures
and maintain our quality of service and life
that is so special for this community. The
detailed budget is available on the City’s
website. A few highlights of our budget — it
is an $18M plan, but keep in mind that 70%
of that total is for capital improvements and
reserves for future infrastructure expendi-
tures; City staffing is level at 17.5 positions,
and no new debt is planned at this time.
Maintaining and improving our infrastruc-
ture (water/wastewater/streets) and hav-
ing the appropriate reserve funding is so
important considering that our population
has tripled since 2000.
There is so much to be proud of in
regard to accomplishments over the last
few years, and you can see many of them
on these pages with the Council Goals
and selected accomplishments and the
Sisters Country Vision and selected prog-
ress. I am especially proud of the vision-
ing process, which is entering its third
year and making tremendous progress on
the 20 key strategies that you, our Sisters
CONNE C T ED SIST ER S
Key project: Create a Multi-purpose Community Center
A wide range of potential user groups came together to explore the feasibility of
locations, services, and funding options. Sisters School District is researching
costs of conversion of the elementary school, and Sisters Parks & Recreation
District (SPRD) boosted their operations capacity with a new strategic plan,
executive director, and the reactivation of the Sisters Organization for Activities
and Recreation (SOAR) Foundation.
PR OSPER OUS SIS T ER S
Key Project: Develop the Forest Service Property
City of Sisters and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) successfully helped facilitate
the sale of the north parcel in 2019. USFS decided to build their new District
Ranger Station on the south parcel, and the City is beginning work with Oregon
Department of Transportation to transform the “east portal” into a community
space and transportation amenity.
KEY PARTIES
MEETING
NEW FOREST SERVICE
RANGER STATION
EAST PORTAL
COMMUNITY SPACE
LIVABLE SIST ER S
Key Project: Expand and Improve the Recreational
Trail System in Sisters Country
Successful partnerships have led to new methods of outreach, new funding
opportunities, and a new regional, multi-use-trail-system plan. Local trail
improvements include a bridge replacement over Indian Ford Creek on the
Sisters Tie Trail and a new gateway trailhead to the Peterson Ridge Trail System.
RE SILIENT SIST ER S
EXPANDED
PROGRAMMING
FIRE FREE
P
affordable housing grant to Habitat for Humanity to
help with System Development Charges on three
homes; the ClearPine development and Habitat
are partnering on six new homes; and First Story,
in partnership with Hayden Homes, has recently
completed three houses in the McKenzie Meadows
Village subdivision.
an
pl
im
ac
w
re
m
master plan for the future development and
preservation of the City-owned south portion of
the Lazy Z Ranch. The purpose of this project is to
provide long-term planning for the enhancement of
the existing wastewater effluent system and future
view corridor and open space on the property.
Deschutes County’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee presented
recommendations to the Oregon State Legislature on hazard mapping updates,
new state building standards, and new land-use protocols. The Fire Free
Program more than doubled their impact with a second free brush disposal
event, and Deschutes County was awarded a grant to engage more community
members in next steps.
NEW FUNDING
ACTIVE FOREST
MANAGEMENT
AFFORDABLE HOUSING The City awarded an
LAZY Z The City will be working on a
Key Project: Improve Wildfire Preparedness
NEW TEAM
WILDFIRE MITIGATION
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Country residents, created
endorsed. We could not
been successful withou
Vision Implementation Te
dedicated support that incl
key organizational part
across all disciplines in our
We planned to do a comm
celebration summer event
it had to be postponed du
same with this State of th
this format.
As I said, there are ma
ments your City staff and
have made, but there are
most proud of. First is public s
new five-year contract wit
County Sheriff’s Office, w
dedicated lieutenant (de fac
and three dedicated deput
kind of community policin
sought more of for quite a
we have made great strid
affordable housing and at
of at least 10% of housing b
Lastly, we have, with the
made significant progre
ing our local economy, wh
important for economic su
maintaining the strength
enrollment.
We understand that ma
businesses have suffered
during the pandemic, an
to commend them in the
resiliency to maintain viab
out to many of our busine
UPDATED CODES
STATE REGULATORY
FRAMEWORK
SEE MO R E V ISI O N PR O G R E S S:
WWW. SIST E R SV ISION .OR G
PHOTOS BY JERRY BALDOCK
16
LEARN MORE AT WWW.