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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2021)
The Nugget Vol. XLIV No. 30 Motorcyclist killed in Highway 20 crash A 65-year-old Bend man died when he crashed his Harley Davidson motorcycle on Highway 20 Saturday, try- ing to avoid other vehicles. According to the Oregon State Police, troopers and emergency personnel responded to a single-vehicle crash on Highway 20 near milepost 88 by Suttle Lake on Saturday, July 24, at approxi- mately 9:10 a.m. Preliminary investigation revealed Richard Cissna of Bend was westbound, operat- ing a Harley Davidson motor- cycle, when he attempted to avoid traffic that had slowed, lost control and crashed. Cissna sustained fatal injuries. OSP was assisted by Black Butte Police Department, Black Butte Fire District, and Oregon Department of Transportation. P OSTAL CUSTOMER News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon PRE-SORTED STANDARD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sisters, OR Permit No. 15 www.NuggetNews.com Wednesday, July 28, 2021 Run to the Top... Black Butte Ranch home damaged in fire PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK Kelsey Swenson, a graduate of Mountain View High School in Bend and currently a junior at the University of Idaho, won the overall title in the Hoodoo Run to the Top 3.5-mile course, in a time of 33:38 on Saturday. See story, page 7. Homeowners in the Glaze Meadow area of Black Butte Ranch escaped injury when their home caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday, July 21. According to the Black Butte Ranch Fire District the owners, who are not full-time residents, heard a strange noise, realized the house was on fire, and called 911. Fire personnel responded at 3:28 a.m. First-arriving units found a medium-size two-story home on fire on the back deck, exterior walls and within the attic space of the garage. Fire crews performed a quick offensive fire attack to prevent further spread and allow them to extinguish the blaze in the attic space. See FIRE on page 18 Push on for nonpartisan Housing advocate honored for work county commission By Katy Yoder Correspondent By Sue Stafford Correspondent <Should Deschutes County Commissioners be nonpartisan and be selected in nonpartisan elections?= That is a question that could go to local voters, if proponents can get sufficient signatures to place the ques- tion on a ballot. Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang attended last week9s Sisters Kiwanis meeting to explain his support for Citizens9 Initiative 2021-01-1. According to the County Clerk9s voter statistics, the number of nonaffiliated vot- ers registered in Deschutes County (47,810) is greater than either registered Republicans (44,386) or reg- istered Democrats (47,033). Currently, Deschutes County is one of only 10 Oregon counties (out of 36) that has Inside... a partisan race for County Commissioner, shutting nonaffiliated voters out of primary elections. The County Commission- ers are the only countywide elected officials who serve with political party desig- nations and are the only countywide elected officials chosen in partisan races. This means that political parties nominate candidates, and the County Clerk places them on the general election ballot with other eligible candidates. The party affili- ation of candidates is listed next to their names on the ballot. If this measure goes on the ballot and is approved, Deschutes County Commis- sioners would serve with no notation in government records of their member- ship, or nonmembership, in See NONPARTISAN on page 14 A favorite quote by author Arundhati Roy sums up Mandee Seeley9s work advo- cating for people experienc- ing houselessness in Sisters Country: <There9s really no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliber- ately silenced, or the prefer- ably unheard.= Seeley is a woman with grit and passion, who9s been a housing advocate in Sisters since 2016. That9s the year her family of four moved to Oregon and became house- less themselves. Her family, including two young chil- dren, had to move every 14 days. She describes the expe- rience in one word: <brutal.= For seven months they lived in the forest in a tent. Not in the same tent, but sev- eral. That9s because one was chewed by an animal and the others didn9t hold up to the elements. Her family moved to PHOTO BY KATY YODER Oregon from Florida. Seeley said living in an RV, even with cold, mountain winters, was easier in Oregon than Florida. <That9s because of the extreme heat and the people who are against houseless people,= she said. <There was little kindness and no forest land to park on, but we did it.= Seeley is a proud member of the Residents Organizing for Change (ROC), a state- wide network committed to advocating for safe, stable, and affordable housing for all Oregonians. After she lost her job due to COVID in April of 2020, she committed to the cause full-time. ROC fit well with her lived experience and See SEELEY on page 23 Letters/Weather ............... 2 Obituaries .....................8-9 Entertainment ................. 11 Fun & Games ....................16 Classifieds .................. 19-21 Meetings .......................... 3 Announcements ...............10 Running Commentary ......15 Crossword .......................18 Real Estate .................21-24