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Wednesday, April 21, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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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 Unpublished items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
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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
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