18 Wednesday, September 30, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon SPRD: Restrictions have challenged recreation staff Continued from page 3 community to know how grateful she is that the local option levy was approved by the voters, helping to sustain SPRD through this difficult time. Better Together in Bend helped secure some emer- gency funding for youth ser- vice providers in the area, including SPRD. Holland added they were also able to get some COVID-19-related funding for things like clean- ing supplies and some staff support. At one point, Holland and the new business manager, Sarah Hiatt, were the only staff left in the building. In late May, they were able to hire back Jason Huber, rec- reation coordinator. Because of program cancellations, the revenue just isn9t there to bring all of the staff back right now. However, they are currently hiring for a num- ber of contract and part-time positions which are listed on the SPRD website. The eventual staff makeup will be designed for the size and needs of the community. Over the summer, the staff that remained wore many hats, with the preschool staff running the day camps they could offer. Youth service agencies are highly regulated when it comes to COVID-19 restric- tions and guidelines because of the range of ages served and the variety of programs and classes offered. Because SPRD has to follow eight dif- ferent sector guidelines, they have to default to the strictest guidelines, which limits what they are able to offer. < We 9 v e b e e n t r u l y impacted by the number of programs canceled due to COVID-19 guidelines,= Holland explained.