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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2021)
2 Wednesday, April 21, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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 10 a.m. Monday. Vaccine priority To the Editor: For the record, we have found no one in Sisters nor in our wide circles of friends in five major cities in Oregon who object to teachers given vaccine priority over seniors! It is sad to know a few loud voices have lumped the rest of us into a genre of crotchety old people who think only of themselves. We want kids back in school, which means teach- ers have no choice, so we want them and their families to be safe. The truth is that we seniors have the option of staying safely at home with no obligation to go anywhere. We can wait a few weeks for the sake of kids and all educators, and think Governor Brown is doing the best anyone could with all the unknowns, changes and demands of this pandemic. Mike and Wendie Vermillion s s s Support Sisters School District Bond To the Editor: I have two boys: ages 6 and 4. My 6-year-old is in his first year of kindergarten and is having a blast. He loves his teacher and seeing his friends. I want him to con- tinue to love school and thrive. Sisters is a See LETTERS on page 24 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunny Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Cloudy 68/41 65/33 68/40 55/36 Sunday Monday Tuesday Showers Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy 54/33 54/32 58/35 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: 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 Creative Director: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partner: Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May 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, $55; six months (or less), $30. First-class postage: one year, $95; six months, $65. Published Weekly. ©2021 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. 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 unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s 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. Celebrating the classics... N Housing and jobs are in crisis in Oregon By Craig Wessel Guest Columnist I would like to convey a response to Bill Bartlett9s article in last week9s issue of The Nugget, regard- ing the affordable-housing crisis in Sisters, Central Oregon, and arguably the U.S. (and world) as a whole. I have read his arti- cle and I fully agree with his statements. And there are certainly plenty of well- paying jobs in Sisters, and around Central Oregon as a whole. However, we cannot deny that, at least in Central Oregon, people in very skilled professions, like a teacher or a doctor, will take a significant pay cut to come work for Sisters School District, or St. Charles Health System, compared to what they could make if they were to work for a school district or medical group in the Portland Metro Area, or Salem or Eugene. Couple this with the fact that our housing costs are out of control, and the rea- son we have a shortage of workers in all industries, including skilled profes- sions, becomes clear. To add to this, I would also like to point out that, due to the ongoing coro- navirus pandemic, a lot of people would rather sit on their duff and collect unem- ployment, because it pays more than most jobs here currently will. Yes, I know there are people who are having a significantly hard time finding a job, even something as simple as a cashier at McDonald9s or Bi-Mart. But a lot of people are just collecting unem- ployment because it pays more than any job currently will. Returning to the housing subject. As someone who works retail at $13.15 per hour, I should qualify for the low-income housing units at Ponderosa Heights or Tamarack Village. However, I do not. A single person will only qualify for those apart- ments if their income is less than $26,000 per year. My current income is over that. Which means I don9t qual- ify. And that is wrong, as I am quite clearly in poverty. Maybe not federally, but for sure in Oregon. I sadly believe it is likely I will have to be living with my parents for the foresee- able future, as I just cannot afford to live in this town otherwise. Regrettably, I am also looking at moving to other areas in the northwest, in hopes of pursuing more gainful employment in my trade, the tech industry, as we do not have enough tech opportunities in Central Oregon. We have the Facebook and Apple data centers in Prineville, but they don9t hire technicians very often, and that is quite likely because the people who are working there as tech- nicians, are holding onto those jobs with a death grip, as they are probably some of the best paying, best benefits jobs in Central Oregon as a whole. Outside of Facebook and Prineville, there is Ibex in Bend and also BendBroadband and Century Link. But that is about all I can think of for most of this area. Housing and jobs in this town, Central Oregon, the U.S., and quite possi- bly the world as a whole is a real problem, especially among the younger gen- erations. Millennials and Zoomers simply do not have the advantages the Baby Boomers and Generation X did with housing and jobs. A lot of Millennials and older Zoomers have crippling college debt that they can never hope to pay off, and have not found a job with their degree, which further hinders their ability to find a place of their own to live. There needs to be some- thing we can do. I am not sure what it is we can do, but it has to be something. We cannot continue on with a terrible job market and out-of-control costs of liv- ing. People my age really are getting the short end of the stick. While there are people my age who are defi- nitely lazy, most are not, and just want a share of the pie that their parents and grand- parents got. I would also like to iterate that I say these things as a moderate-ish lib- ertarian, and not a conserva- tive or a liberal. We are in a housing and job crisis, and it is going to continue to get worse, and something must be done. Views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper. Car enthusiasts heralded the arrival of spring, turning out for a causal cruise-in at Eurosports. The informal gathering of classic cars takes place each Friday evening from 4 to 7 p.m. PHOTO PROVIDED Find more articles on Outlaw Sports at NuggetNews.com
